Alumni Achievements

Khalid Mohamed Almannai, a CPP graduate from the Class of 2024, is currently serving as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a major organization, where he leads strategic projects aimed at driving economic and social development across the region. His role leverages the academic foundation and leadership skills he gained at HBKU to deliver innovative solutions and long-term impact.

Passionate about entrepreneurship, Khalid recently launched a café and bakery called Relic, a venture inspired by his transformative experience at HBKU. Beyond his professional endeavors, Khalid is a member of the Board of Directors for the Doha Sports Federation, where he actively supports the advancement of sports initiatives in the region, a passion that took root during his time at HBKU. He also maintains strong ties to the HBKU community, collaborating with former classmates to organize student council events and participating in academic gatherings such as the Arab Scientists Workshop and the Islamic Finance Conference. Through these engagements, he continues to contribute to student life and foster a spirit of unity and collaboration.

A proud graduate of HBKU with a double major in Psychology and Media and Communication, and a minor in Political Science and International Relations, Heba Al Heraki has remained actively engaged in university initiatives by mentoring workshops at the Future Summit and attending various public lectures.

Her most notable impact lies in co-founding Bevol, a platform that has received numerous international awards, including the Eid Award worth half a million Qatari Riyal, first place at Expo Dubai, and the International Business Award (Stevie). Bevol was also recognized in the Forbes MENA 30, represented by her brother and co-founder, Hasan Al Heraki. The platform continues to thrive with member organizations such as UNV, ESCWA, ICYF, and other global entities.

In a recent milestone, Heba and her team launched the Global Volunteering Index at the ARNOVA Conference in Washington, collaborating with leading scholars like Dr. Samer Abu Rumman from Princeton University. The event featured speakers from the Qatari Embassy in the US, UN Volunteers, and other notable institutions, further affirming her role as a changemaker committed to social impact and global engagement.

Maria Smatti, a CHLS graduate from the Class of 2023, has been recognized among the Global Top 2% of highly cited researchers in 2024, as listed by Elsevier and Stanford University based on Scopus data. This prestigious recognition highlights the significant impact of her research within the scientific community.

Her work, much of which stems from her doctoral research conducted at HBKU between 2018 and 2023, has contributed valuable insights to the field of biomedical sciences. Maria’s dedication to research excellence and scientific advancement continues to position her as a leading voice in her area of expertise.

Sajath Ponpuram Sathar, a CSE graduate from the Class of 2023, is actively engaged in the field of industrial cybersecurity and continues to contribute to the HBKU Alumni community. Drawing from the strong foundation built during his time at HBKU, he has led the design and implementation of secure system architectures for critical industrial environments. His work on a recent project included a multi-layered security model with defense-in-depth strategies and deep packet inspection to enhance cybersecurity across all operational zones.

Sajath’s academic journey extended into research, resulting in a conference paper on Operational Technology (OT) security. The paper was accepted and presented at the IEEE International Symposium on Networks, Computers and Communications (ISNCC) in 2023, marking a key milestone in his contribution to the cybersecurity knowledge base.

Committed to professional development, he has obtained two advanced certifications in industrial cybersecurity: the IEC 62443 Expert certification issued by the International Society of Automation (ISA) and the Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional (GICSP) certification issued by GIAC. These credentials reinforce his expertise and position him at the forefront of cybersecurity in the industrial sector.

Hesham Ahmed Hussein Zaky, a CSE graduate from the Class of 2024, is currently working as an AI Engineer, where he designs and develops intelligent solutions such as chatbots and cognitive search applications. He has maintained an active connection with HBKU by participating in research discussions, contributing to publications, and engaging in networking events hosted by the university to share his academic and professional journey.

One of his most notable achievements includes his contribution to a pioneering research project focused on the early detection of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM), a collaboration between HBKU and Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC). The project enabled him to work closely with leading doctors and researchers, culminating in a paper that is set to be published. He also presented the findings at the Eighth Qatar Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Conference, highlighting the role of artificial intelligence in transforming healthcare.

During his graduate studies at HBKU, Hesham developed a deep learning model for retinal fundus image segmentation and co-authored three research papers, including one centered on using AI to detect retinal detachment. These research endeavors laid the foundation for his current role and reflect his commitment to advancing AI applications in healthcare and beyond.

Sara Shareef, a CSE graduate from the Class of 2022, has remained closely connected to HBKU by actively participating in alumni events and sharing her experiences to promote the university’s mission and academic excellence. She is committed to presenting a positive image of HBKU by encouraging prospective students and peers to explore the opportunities offered by the institution.

As part of her professional development, Sara completed the prestigious “Rising Leaders” program organized by Qatar Leadership Center, an initiative aimed at empowering emerging talent in Qatar. She also contributed to academic research, having published two research papers that reflect her ongoing dedication to impactful scholarship. Sara continues to represent HBKU’s values through her active engagement, academic contributions, and commitment to leadership.

Hamad Hadeed, a CSE graduate from the Class of 2021, is the founder of Cytomate - the first cybersecurity company in Qatar to develop its proprietary deep cybersecurity technology using AI. Under his leadership, Cytomate has emerged as a key player in the country’s cybersecurity landscape, with client references spanning healthcare, finance, oil and gas, government, and other critical sectors.

His company has been recognized with several prestigious honors, including the Qatar Digital Award for Best Cybersecurity Solution 2024, and it holds major international certifications such as ISO 27001, the Common Criteria Certification (recognized in 32 countries), and the Penetration Testing Certificate from NCSA Qatar. Cytomate has also secured funding from QRDI, QSTP, and QDB.

Beyond his professional success, Hamad remains engaged with the HBKU community through participation in QF alumni events and university gatherings, where he shares his academic and professional journey with prospective students and fellow graduates.

Omnia Ahmed, a CPP graduate from the Class of 2017, has dedicated her career to advancing both academic and practical knowledge in the fields of talent development and higher education. After graduating from HBKU, she began her journey in the training sector, where she successfully trained over 700 individuals, focusing on talent and people management. She enhanced her expertise by obtaining both APTD and CIPD certifications.

Omnia later transitioned into academia, joining the University of Doha for Science and Technology as a Technical Instructor in the Banking and Fintech department. Over four years, her commitment to teaching excellence and leadership led to her promotion to Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer. She was honored with the Junior Academic Member award for two consecutive years and has taught 17 undergraduate courses to more than 1,600 students.

Omnia is pursuing her Ph.D. as a Doctoral Researcher at Brunel University London, where she has published three academic papers and has two more in progress. She remains an active member of the HBKU community by attending and volunteering at events. She is always eager to offer training sessions and mentorship to support the next generation of leaders.

Samar Elkhalifa, a CSE graduate from the Class of 2022, is currently working as a "brand ambassador" with VISA company for the duration of her internship that finishes on the last day of the FIFA World Cup 2022, and also works as an Academic Research Assistant.

After her graduation, she visited 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum with fellow students and graduates representing HBKU, and volunteered in the UNESCO launch event conducted by the College of Law, HBKU. She worked with a diverse group of people who made the event a success, and was responsible for hosting and welcoming ambassadors, ministers, deans and other audience members. During her tenure as a PhD student at HBKU, her paper "Food waste to biochars through pyrolysis a review" achieved two awards: the most downloaded and the most cited article in the journal resource, conservation and recycling for paper published since 2018.

Yousef Mohammed Yousef Al-Jaber, a CSE graduate from the Class of 2016, is currently the VP of Innovation and Change Management and Director of TotalEnergies Research Center at Qatar (TRCQ). He represented HBKU as an alumnus during the first Qatar Foundation graduate reunion and managed many research activities and projects in alliance with QEERI (HBKU). He restructured Total Research Center Qatar (TRCQ) and launched two programs: Sustainable Development Program (2017) and the Solar Energy Program at TRCQ (2018). For the Solar Energy program, he challenged the team to localize the research with QEERI and today, they have all of their current projects done in alliance with QEERI, with an estimate of millions of Qatari Riyals spent on an annual basis in Qatar on Solar Energy technologies. Ever since he took on the leadership of TRCQ in November 2016, he feels proud to have had the opportunity to localize and expand TRCQ’s research, with many successful projects deployed in Qatar.

Priyanka Dodia, a CSE graduate from the Class of 2018, is currently a Research Associate with Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI). Since graduation, Priyanka has achieved major milestones by conducting cutting edge research which has led to advancing cybersecurity and the R&D efforts in Qatar. She conducted a threat hunting study on Ministry of Interior (MOI) network data under the supervision of Dr Mashael AlSabah at the National Cybersecurity Research Lab (NCSRL). The study resulted in exposing critical ransomware activities in two ministry networks. She is also the first author of a paper: “Exposing the Rat in the Tunnel: Using Traffic Analysis for Tor-based Malware Detection", which was inspired by her findings from the MOI study. She presented her work at the SIGSAC ACM CCS in Los Angeles (USA, November 2022), a top tier cybersecurity conference venue with a highly competitive acceptance rate. Priyanka has further secured a US patent for the idea she worked on during her master’s at HBKU. Besides research, she is giving back to the community by volunteering at HBKU events with a goal to empower women in STEM. She helped organize 'Women in Data Science’ (November 2021) which featured talks by women leaders from around the world, including Google, Facebook and Spotify. She assisted in hosting the interns at the annual QCRI internship program and encouraged them to pursue cybersecurity research by sharing her valuable insights and lessons learned over the years.

Aisha Hamad Al-Rumaihi, a CSE graduate from the Class of 2018, is currently a Sustainability expert with QatarEnergy. She has taught graduate students at HBKU the sustainability fundamentals and tools course, and conducted and participated in research papers; with a recent paper having gotten accepted in ESCAPE 32 conference as a poster, and has since been published. She also received the ‘Best Student Oral Presentation’ award in QEERI’s ICSEWEN19 conference, and was presented a certificate of appreciation at the environmental sustainability workshop at QatarEnergy, where she went on to design and launch QatarEnergy Sustainability Data Management System.

Aisha graduated from the Qatar leadership program of rising leaders (2020), and is a winner of QNRF (Graduate student research award GSRA) and Qgrant prize scholarship at Qatar Foundation under HBKU. She had also gotten accepted to do her PhD in Sustainable and Energy program at HBKU in 2020, and went on to publish over four scientific papers in the field of sustainability and energy. She was also presented with the Doha Women Forum award for most impactful women in the state of Qatar in the field of Science and Technology (2022), and is a graduate of the Qatar Youth Ambassador program (2022).

Mohammad Alherbawi is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Hamad Bin Khalifa University, where he is currently conducting his research work. He has recently completed his PhD in Sustainable Energy, with a CGPA grade of 4.0/4.0. In his research, he has developed novel systems to produce aviation fuel from renewable resources available in Qatar, which are to be patented. Throughout his PhD program, he has published around 25 articles in high impact journals and represented HBKU in premium conferences held in Qatar, France, Italy, Czech Republic, Turkey and Japan.

Btool Hashim A S Mohamed, a CSE graduate from the Class of 2021, is currently a senior manager and a network engineer at Vodafone Qatar. Btool was invited to join the advisory committee for the Third Qatar National development strategy. She served as a judge in the researcher competition - Qatar Scientific Club and the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, and participated in the Engineering Camp of the College of Engineering - Qatar University. Btool was also awarded at the Leadership Coaching Program for future leaders. She conducted an interview about the knowledge economy, "area of my studies" and the need for qualifications, which was published in Al Sharq newspaper. The success story of her professional and academic HBKU journey was documented in the Leading & Development and Talent Newsletter.

Amal Elfatih Elgenid Abdelmageed, a CHLS graduate from the Class of 2021, is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, where she is working in collaboration with the Qatar Genome Program to identify family members at risk for genetic disorders. She was awarded the early career award from the European Society of Human Genetics (2021) after presenting an oral presentation related to her PhD work, and has been selected to chair a session in the European Society of Human Genetics Conference (2022). She published three articles in prestigious journals related to her PhD work, and one of the published papers in the Human Genetics journal was selected as the Editor's choice paper.

Nouf Almalki, a CPP graduate from the Class of 2018, is now the owner and CEO of Eroe Sports Center, her own sports academy for children where she had to implement public policy methods to build and enhance her work.

Shaimaa Al Essai, a CHSS graduate from the Class of 2020, is a Researcher at Tactical Tech, a German company, where she is working on a project about digital privacy and security in the SWANA region. She was the only one selected from GCC, and one of 25 selected applicants (out of 1200) to participate in the MENA digital school, on the topic of digital transformation in the MENA region in Germany. She was also selected to be a member in organizing the biggest festival in the world called Mozfest on the topic of "the humane digital world" – USA, and she recently attended the Bread & Net conference in Lebanon. Shaimaa has publications on topics: media and journalism, digital privacy and safety, and digital activism.