Dr. Tasnim Mohiuddin is a Scientist in the Arabic Language Technologies group at Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), where he works on pioneering initiatives in the development and enhancement of Large Language Models (LLMs). He is a core contributor to the creation of Fanar, QCRI's flagship LLM. His current research focuses on domain-specific LLM innovations, including specialized areas such as Code LLMs and Multimodal LLMs.

Before joining QCRI, Dr. Tasnim was a researcher at Huawei Research Center in Singapore, where he concentrated on multimodal representation learning, bridging both linguistic and visual modalities. His research contributions have been consistently recognized through publications in leading academic conferences.

Tasnim completed his doctoral studies at the School of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, receiving his PhD in June 2022 under the mentorship of Professor Shafiq Joty. His doctoral dissertation was honored with the prestigious Outstanding PhD Thesis Award, reflecting the originality and impact of his research. During his doctoral studies, he also gained valuable experience as a research intern at Meta AI Research, working under the guidance of Professor Philipp Koehn.

Mohamed Elfeky is a Principal Software Engineer at Qatar Computing Research Institute. Before joining QCRI, he was a Senior Software/Research Engineer at Google, USA. He joined Google in 2005 after receiving his PhD in Computer Science from Purdue University.

At Google, Mohamed worked on many products, including Translate, AdSpam, Transliteration, and Search Query Understanding. More recently, Mohamed joined the Google Speech Recognition team in New York where he launched the Arabic Speech Recognition Model, and later helped the team grow the number of recognized languages to over 100. Mohamed has received two Founders’ awards at Google and he also has two patents under his name.

Basel Mousi is a Research Assistant at the Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), specializing in natural language processing. His research interests include the interpretability of deep language models and machine translation for low-resource languages. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering with distinction from the American University of Beirut. Additionally, he has published papers in leading NLP conferences, such as EMNLP, ACL, and COLING.

Dr. Ma’moun Al-Rawashdeh is an Associate Professor in the College of Science and Engineering at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He received his MSc (CumLaude) and PhD degrees in chemical engineering from the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands in 2013. With 7 years of industrial experience working at Jordan's Refinery, IMM Institute in Germany, and Albemarle Catalyst Company in the Netherlands. He helped commercialize three hydro-processing catalysts and led many R&D projects related to different types of reactor designs, heterogenous catalyst manufacturing, and testing.

He joined Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) as an Assistant Professor in 2019. At TAMUQ, he established key industry partnerships, secured external research funding from industry and QNRF, built key experimental infrastructure in Qatar, published 23 peer-reviewed journal articles (37 in total), invented 3 US provisional patents, 45 scientific contributions, and has invited talks at national and international levels.

His research focuses on developing novel reactors and process technologies related to making sustainable and circular fuels and chemicals. Dr. Al-Rawashdeh is chairing and co-chairing graduate doctoral and master students, and teaches courses in chemical reaction, reactor engineering, and applied catalysis. He serves as guest editor and peer reviewer for leading journals, chairing and co-organizing AICHE international sessions, and organizes various conferences and workshops involving industry-academic-government.

Dr. Sara Hillman is an associate professor of Applied Linguistics and English at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. She holds a PhD in Second Language Studies from Michigan State University, where her research centered on identity formation and community building in an Arabic heritage language classroom. Before joining HBKU, Dr. Hillman taught for nine years at Texas A&M University in Qatar and served as the foundation English program coordinator. At TAMUQ, Dr. Hillman was recognized for her teaching excellence with the Dean’s Faculty Teaching Excellence Award in 2023 and the Liberal Arts Faculty of the Year Award from the Department of Student Affairs in 2022.

Dr. Hillman’s research examines the intersections of language, identity, and communication in educational and multilingual contexts, with a focus on Qatar. Her work has been published in top-tier academic journals, including TESOL Quarterly, System, Linguistics and Education, International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, Language Learning Journal, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, and many others. She has also contributed numerous chapters to edited volumes focused on language, identity, and higher education in the Gulf and Arab world.

Malek Anabtawi is a research associate at the Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI). He is responsible for developing real-world applications for the Institute's projects, currently SIHA project. Prior to joining QCRI, Malek worked as a research assistant at Hamad Medical Corporation, where he studied the application of robotics and mixed-reality in minimally invasive surgeries. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University, earned in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Dr. Asmaa Al Fadala, an Assistant Professor at the College of Public Policy at HBKU, holds a rich 25-year career spanning K-12 education, higher education, and policy development. Her multi-faceted journey includes roles as a governmental policy writer, professor, author of leadership reform publications, and board member of educational organizations. Dr. Al Fadala's research expertise covers leadership for learning, education transformation, entrepreneurship education, teacher professional development, educational reform, innovation in education, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

An esteemed academic, she holds a Ph.D. and M.Phil from the University of Cambridge in Educational Leadership and Policy and has made significant contributions to the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute. In addition to her scholarly achievements, Dr. Al Fadala advises global entities like Karanga and the Hughes Hall Development Strategy Group, while also serving on advisory committees for organizations like Greater Share. Notably, she is a jury member for the Riyada Award in Oman and sits on the board of the University of Doha for Science and Technology. Furthermore, Dr. Al Fadala is an active member of the Comparative International Education Society and International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement, highlighting her commitment to advancing educational discourse globally.

Kehinde Olaoye joined Hamad Bin Khalifa University College of Law as an assistant professor of commercial law in 2023. At Hamad Bin Khalifa University, she teaches commercial law and business association law. Before joining HBKU, she was a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the School of Law, City University of Hong Kong. Kehinde obtained degrees in law from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, King’s College London, and the University of Ibadan. She is qualified to practice law in Nigeria and has worked as an international arbitration and dispute resolution trainee in the Hong Kong office of an international law firm and as a commercial lawyer in Lagos, Nigeria.

Kehinde’s research has been published in leading international law journals including the American Journal of International Law, the European Journal of International Law, the World Trade Review, and the Journal of International Economic Law. She has served as the Managing Editor of the Asia Pacific Law Review and currently serves as a Book Review Editor for the Journal of World Investment and Trade.

Dr. Fatima Ahdash’s research interests lie in national security, family law, child rights and human rights and their various interactions. She holds a PhD from the London School of Economics (LSE) where she was awarded the prestigious Modern Law Review prize for her cutting-edge research. She has published in highly rated peer-reviewed journals and is currently writing a book (published by Routledge) on family regulation and counter-terrorism. She has acted as an expert consultant for the Council of Europe, the UN Special Rapporteur on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights, UNICEF and various international organizations. Dr. Ahdash has worked with national and international NGOs including Rights and Security International and Reprieve in the area of national security and accountability. She has an LLM in Human Rights Law and an LLB from the LSE.

Ala Al-Fuqaha received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering and Networking from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO, USA. He is currently a professor at the Information and Computing Technology division, College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU). His research interests include the use of machine learning in general and deep learning in particular, this is in support of the data-driven and self-driven management of large-scale deployments of IoT and smart city infrastructure and services, ethical aspects of AI deployments, Wireless Vehicular Networks (VANETs), cooperation and spectrum access etiquette in cognitive radio networks, management, and planning of software-defined networks (SDN), and engineering education.

Prof. Al-Fuqaha played a key role in the design and development of the intelligent network management system for Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexed (DWDM) optical networks that was deployed at 6 sites (NRL, NSA, NASA, DIA, DISA, DARPA) in the Washington DC metropolitan area as part of the first all-optical network in the world (MONET project).

He is a senior member of the IEEE, a senior member of the ACM, and an ABET Program Evaluator (PEV) and commissioner. He serves on editorial boards of multiple journals, including IEEE Communications Letters, IEEE Network Magazine, and Springer AJSE. He also served as chair, co-chair, and technical program committee member of multiple international conferences, including IEEE VTC, IEEE Globecom, IEEE ICC, and IWCMC.