primary

Aldana Al-Sulaiti

PhD Student Quantum Computing

Aldana Al-Sulaiti

PhD Student Quantum Computing

Educational Qualifications

M.S. in Cybersecurity

B.S. in Information Systems

Biography

Aldana Al-Sulaiti is a PhD student in Computer Science and Engineering at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU). She earned her Bachelor's degree in Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon University in 2019 and her Master's degree in Cybersecurity from HBKU in 2025. Her research interest is in investigating quantum-enhanced approaches to machine learning.

M.S. in Cybersecurity

2025

Hamad Bin Khalifa University

B.S. in Information Systems

Carnegie Mellon University

2019

  • Quantum machine learning
Dr. Sami El-Borgi

Dr. Sami El-Borgi

Professor

Office location

234S

Dr. Sami El-Borgi

Professor

Educational Qualifications

PhD in Applied Mechanics and Structural Engineering

MS in Applied Mechanics and Structural Engineering

Entity

College of Science and Engineering

Biography

Dr. Sami El-Borgi is a Professor of mechanical engineering at the College of Science and Engineering at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. His field of research spans areas of structural health monitoring, continuum mechanics, fracture and contact mechanics, nonlinear vibration, finite element analysis, metamaterials, and smart manufacturing. He has published around 120 papers in high-impact journals in addition to one US patent. Over the last two decades, he has collaborated with well-known and reputable scholars in the fields of nonlinear vibration, fracture mechanics, contact mechanics, and finite element analysis.

Professor El-Borgi has been awarded numerous research grants with funding provided by the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education, the Qatar National Research Fund, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. State Department, and the European Commission. In collaboration with Virginia Tech in 2003, he introduced a Master’s program in Computational Mechanics and a PhD program in Applied Mechanics at Tunisia Polytechnic School, University of Carthage, Tunisia. Prof. El-Borgi also serves as a reviewer for more than 60 international journals and is a member of the editorial board of a few engineering journals. In recognition of his services to the higher education sector, the Republic of Tunisia awarded him the Presidential Order of Merit of Education in 2008.

PhD in Applied Mechanics and Structural Engineering

Cornell University, United States

1992

MS in Applied Mechanics and Structural Engineering

Northwestern University, United States

1987

BS in Civil Engineering

Ohio State University, United States

1985

  • Nonlinear vibration and structural health monitoring
  • Fracture and contact mechanics
  • Finite element analysis
  • Metamaterials and additive manufacturing

Professor

College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University

2024 - Present

Professor

Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University at Qatar

2012 - 2024

Chairman and co-founder of the Applied Mechanics and Systems Research Laboratory

Tunisia Polytechnic School, University of Carthage, Tunisia

2009 - 2012

Professor

Department of Mechanics, University of Carthage, Tunisia

2004 - 2012

Founder and Chairman of the Applied Mechanics Doctoral Program

Tunisia Polytechnic School, University of Carthage, Tunisia

2004 - 2012

Founder and Chairman of the Computational Mechanics Master's Program

Tunisia Polytechnic School, University of Carthage, Tunisia

2002 - 2012

Chairman of the Mechanics Department

Tunisia Polytechnic School, University of Carthage, Tunisia

2002 - 2007

Associate Professor

Department of Mechanics, University of Carthage, Tunisia

1999 - 2004

Assistant Professor

Department of Mechanics, University of Carthage, Tunisia

1994 - 1999

Chairman of the Mechanics Department

Tunisia Polytechnic School, University of Carthage, Tunisia

1994 - 1999

Consulting Engineer

Structural Affiliates International, Inc., United States

1993 - 1994

Post-Doctorate Research Associate

School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, United States

1992 - 1993

Graduate Research Assistant and Teaching Assistant

School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, United States

1987 - 1992

  • Presidential Order of Merit of Education, Republic of Tunisia, 2008
  • Tau Beta Pi: American National Engineering Honor Society, 1984 to present
  • Chi Epsilon: American National Civil Engineering Honor Society, 1984 to present
Dr. Mohammed Shaker

Dr. Mohammed Shaker

Scientist

Dr. Mohammed Shaker

Scientist

Educational Qualifications

PhD in Philosophy

Master of Medical Science (MMedSc)

Entity

Qatar Biomedical Research Institute

Division

Neurological Disorders Research Center

Biography

Dr. Mohammed R. Shaker is a Scientist at the Neurological Disorders Research Center, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He earned his PhD in Neuroscience from Korea University, Seoul, in 2017, and was subsequently awarded the prestigious Brain Korea 21 Plus Fellowship. He then joined the Australian Institute for Bioengineering & Nanotechnology (AIBN) at The University of Queensland, where he advanced organoid models for the study of human brain and spinal cord development.

Dr. Shaker’s research integrates patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) with organoid platforms, focusing on neurological disorders, e.g. white matter diseases and neural tube defects. His work has garnered multiple national and international accolades, such as fellowships from the Children’s Hospital Foundation and the European Leukodystrophy Association. Dr. Shaker continues to explore innovative 3D culture systems and computational approaches to accelerate breakthroughs in neuroregeneration and disease modeling. His pioneering research remains at the forefront of precision medicine and translational neuroscience.

PhD in Philosophy

Korea University, South Korea

2017

Master of Medical Science (MMedSc)

University of Malaya, Malaysia

2013

BSc in Biomedical Science

University of Malaya, Malaysia

2011

  • Organoid-based modeling of human brain and spinal cord development to investigate white matter diseases and neural tube defects
  • Patient-derived iPSC approaches for studying neurodegeneration and identifying therapeutic targets
  • Developing innovative 3D culture systems and computational frameworks to accelerate disease modeling
  • Translational applications of stem cell biology to advance regenerative therapies and precision neuroscience

Scientist

Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, Hamad Bin Khalifa University

2024 – Present

Senior Research Fellow

Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Australia

2022 – 2024

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Australia

2018 – 2021

Research Professor

College of Medicine, Korea University, South Korea

2017 – 2018

  • 2024; Travel Award to South Korea – Awarded by the KSBNS-APSN International Conference Committee.
  • 2023; Spatial Pioneers Fellowship – Awarded by Millennium Science Australia.
  • 2020; Travel Award to Singapore – Awarded by the APSN Organizing Committee.
  • 2019; Travel Award to France – Awarded by the ISN-ASN International Conference Committee.
  • 2015; Korea University Achievement Award – Awarded by Korea University.
Dr. Jasni Viralippurath Ashraf

Dr. Jasni Viralippurath Ashraf

Postdoctoral Researcher

Office location

B2-1324-01

Dr. Jasni Viralippurath Ashraf

Postdoctoral Researcher

Educational Qualifications

PhD in Genomics and Precision Medicine

MSc in General Biotechnology

Entity

Qatar Biomedical Research Institute

Division

Translational Oncology Research Center

Biography

Dr. Jasni earned her BSc and MSc in General Biotechnology from the University of Calicut, India. She completed her PhD in Genomics and Precision Medicine from Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar, under the supervision of Dr. Ayman Al Haj Zen. During her PhD, she characterized the functions of coronary artery disease GWAS gene candidates in the human aortic smooth muscle cell phenotype switching model of atherosclerosis.

In 2024, she joined Dr. Julie Decock’s team at QBRI as a Postdoctoral researcher. Her current research focuses on cancer-testis antigens and their role as biomarkers and therapeutic targets in Pediatric Solid Tumors.

PhD in Genomics and Precision Medicine

Hamad Bin Khalifa University

2024

MSc in General Biotechnology

University of Calicut, India

2017

Diploma In Bioinformatics

University of Calicut, India

2014

BSc in General Biotechnology

University of Calicut, India

2013

  • Cell and Molecular Biology
  • Aseptic cell and tissue culture
  • Imaging and microscopy
  • Bioinformatics and computational biology

Postdoctoral Researcher

Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, Hamad Bin Khalifa University

2024 - Present

Clinical Biochemist

Laboratory, Aspel Hospital, India

2014 - 2015

Fayed, H. S., Bakleh, M. Z., Howarth, A., Ebner, D., & Al Haj Zen, A. (2023). Selective ROCK Inhibitor Enhances Blood Flow Recovery after Hindlimb Ischemia. International journal of molecular sciences, 24(19), 14410.

Al Haj Zen, A. (2021). Role of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Phenotype Switching in Arteriogenesis. International journal of molecular sciences, 22(19), 10585.

Sasidharan Nair, V., Saleh, R., & Elkord, E. (2021). Role of circular RNAs in colorectal tumor microenvironment. Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy, 137, 111351.

  • 2024: Paul Dudley White International Scholar for an abstract submitted to the Vascular Discovery: From Genes to Medicine Scientific Sessions 2024.
  • 2024: HBKU Conference Travel grant
  • 2019-2024: HBKU scholarship for PhD graduate studies in Genomics and Precision Medicine, Hamad Bin Khalifa University
  • 2017: INSPIRE fellowship from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India.

Mahima Aggarwal

Research Assistant

Mahima Aggarwal

Research Assistant

Educational Qualifications

B.Tech in Electronics and Communications Engineering

Entity

Qatar Computing Research Institute

Division

Qatar Center for Artificial Intelligence

Biography

Mahima Aggarwal is a Research Assistant at Qatar Computing Research Institute where she focuses on anticipatory humanitarian actions using AI, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs). Her work involves creating authentic datasets about natural disasters, training models, and generating scenarios for effective anticipatory actions. She is a key contributor to QarSUMO, a parallel, congestion-optimized traffic simulator built on SUMO. Her contributions include improving accuracy, dynamic rerouting, load balancing, and integrating reinforcement learning for dynamic traffic prediction and network repartitioning. Additionally, she contributed to adding features to an end-to-end browser-based simulation/visualization system for local stakeholders.

With a strong foundation in embedded systems and software engineering, Mahima brings over 15 years of expertise in research, development, and system design. Before her current role, Mahima worked as a research assistant at Qatar University’s KINDI Center for Computing Research, focusing on cybersecurity for next-generation healthcare systems. Her career also includes roles as a testing & commissioning engineer at Sony Professional Solutions, as well as software engineering positions at NXP (Freescale Semiconductor) and KritiKal Solutions.

B.Tech in Electronics and Communications Engineering

Kurukshetra University, India

2004

  • Anticipatory humanitarian actions using AI
  • Traffic simulation and optimization
  • Embedded systems and multicore development

Research Assistant

Qatar Computing Research Institute, Hamad Bin Khalifa University

2021 - Present

Research Assistant

KINDI Center for Computing Research, Qatar University

2020 - 2021

Testing and Commissioning Engineer

Sony Professional Solutions Europe, United Kingdom

2014 - 2019

Research Assistant

Qatar University

2013 - 2014

FSL Software Engineer II

Multicore, NXP (Freescale Semiconductor), India

2008 - 2012

FSL Software Engineer I

Boot Firmware, NXP (Freescale Semiconductor), India

2006 - 2008

Development Engineer

Embedded group, KritiKal Solutions, India

2006

Intern

Embedded group, KritiKal Solutions, India

2005

Dr. Ahmed Lekssays

Postdoctoral Researcher

Dr. Ahmed Lekssays

Postdoctoral Researcher

Educational Qualifications

PhD in Computer Science

MSc in Software Engineering

Entity

Qatar Computing Research Institute

Division

Cybersecurity

Biography

Dr. Ahmed Lekssays is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Qatar Computing Research Institute. He obtained his PhD from the University of Insubria in Varese, Italy in 2022 funded by EU's Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco. His research interests include malware analysis, software security, and distributed systems.

PhD in Computer Science

Università degli studi dell'Insubria, Italy

2022

MSc in Software Engineering

Al Akhawayn University, Morocco

2019

BSc in Computer Science

Al Akhawayn University, Morocco

2018

  • Malware analysis
  • Software security
  • Distributed systems
  • Decentralized learning

Postdoctoral Researcher

Qatar Computing Research Institute, Hamad Bin Khalifa University

2024 - Present

Kumarasinghe, U., Lekssays, A., Sencar, H. T., Boughorbel, S., Elvitigala, C., & Nakov, P. (2024, July). Semantic ranking for automated adversarial technique annotation in security text. In Proceedings of the 19th ACM Asia Conference on Computer and Communications Security (pp. 49-62).

Lekssays, A., Carminati, B., & Ferrari, E. (2023). MalCon: A blockchain-based malware containment framework for Internet of Things. Computer Networks, 233, 109853.

Lekssays, A., Sirigu, G., Carminati, B., & Ferrari, E. (2022, August). MalRec: A blockchain-based malware recovery framework for Internet of Things. In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (pp. 1-8).

Giaretta, L., Lekssays, A., Carminati, B., Ferrari, E., & Girdzijauskas, Š. (2021, September). LiMNet: Early-stage detection of IoT botnets with lightweight memory networks. In European Symposium on Research in Computer Security (pp. 605-625). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Lekssays, A., Landa, L., Carminati, B., & Ferrari, E. (2021). PAutoBotCatcher: A blockchain-based privacy-preserving botnet detector for Internet of Things. Computer Networks, 200, 108512.

Complete Publication Listing(s): Google Scholar

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Fellowship

Dr. Tasnim Mohiuddin

Dr. Tasnim Mohiuddin

Scientist

Dr. Tasnim Mohiuddin

Scientist

Educational Qualifications

PhD in Computer Science

BS in Computer Science

Entity

Qatar Computing Research Institute

Division

Arabic Language Technologies

Biography

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.

PhD in Computer Science

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

2022

BS in Computer Science

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh

2014

  • Agents
  • tools
  • and planning
  • Pre-training and post-training strategies for LLMs
  • Multimodal language models
  • Code language models

Scientist

Qatar Computing Research Institute, Hamad Bin Khalifa University

2024 - Present

Scientist

Poisson Lab, Huawei Research, Singapore

2022 - 2023

Research Intern

NLLB, Meta AI Research, United States

2021

Lecturer

Computer Science, United International University, Bangladesh

2015 - 2017

Software Engineer

SSD-Tech, Bangladesh

2014 - 2015

Mohiuddin, T., Koehn, P., Chaudhary, V., Cross, J., Bhosale, S., & Joty, S. (2022). Data selection curriculum for neural machine translation. Findings of the 2022 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP 2022), Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Bari, M. S., Mohiuddin, T., & Joty, S. (2021). UXLA: A robust unsupervised data augmentation framework for cross-lingual NLP. Proceedings of the Joint Conference of the 59th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics and the 11th International Joint Conference on Natural Language Processing (ACL-IJCNLP 2021), Bangkok, Thailand.

Mohiuddin, T., Bari, M. S., & Joty, S. (2021). AugVic: Exploiting BiText vicinity for low-resource NMT. Findings of the Joint Conference of the 59th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics and the 11th International Joint Conference on Natural Language Processing (ACL-IJCNLP 2021), Bangkok, Thailand.

Mohiuddin, T., Bari, M. S., & Joty, S. (2020). LNMap: Departures from isomorphic assumption in bilingual lexicon induction through non-linear mapping in latent space. Proceedings of the Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP 2020).

Mohiuddin, T., Joty, S., & Nguyen, D. (2018). Coherence modeling of asynchronous conversations: A neural entity grid approach. Proceedings of the 56th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL 2018), Melbourne, Australia.

  • Outstanding Ph.D. Thesis Award (2022), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore: Recognized for exemplary doctoral research demonstrating outstanding scholarly contribution to the field.
  • National Graduate Scholarship (2018–2022), Government of Singapore: Prestigious full scholarship awarded in recognition of academic merit and research potential for doctoral studies.
  • Dean’s List Award for Academic Performance (2010–2013), Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology: Consistently recognized for superior academic performance among top-performing students.
  • Best Undergraduate Thesis Poster Award (2014), Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology: Awarded for outstanding research presentation and innovative research work.
  • Top National Academic Performer (2008), Chittagong Education Board, Bangladesh: Ranked first among approximately 100,000 students in comprehensive Higher Secondary School Certificate examinations (12th grade), demonstrating exceptional academic prowess.

Dr. Mohamed Elfeky

Principal Software Engineer

Dr. Mohamed Elfeky

Principal Software Engineer

Educational Qualifications

PhD in Computer Science

MSc in Computer Science

Entity

Qatar Computing Research Institute

Division

Arabic Language Technologies

Biography

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.

PhD in Computer Science

Purdue University, United States

2005

MSc in Computer Science

Alexandria University, Egypt

1999

BSc in Computer Science

Alexandria University, Egypt

1996

Principal Software Engineer

Qatar Computing Research Institute, Hamad Bin Khalifa University

2024 - Present

Software Engineering Manager

Applied Innovation Center, Egypt

2023 – 2024

Senior Software Engineer

Google, United States

2005 – 2023

Complete Publication Listing(s): Google Scholar

Basel Mousi

Research Assistant

Basel Mousi

Research Assistant

Educational Qualifications

BE in Electrical and Computer Engineering

Entity

Qatar Computing Research Institute

Division

Arabic Language Technologies

Biography

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

Dr. Ma’moun Al-Rawashdeh

Associate Professor

Dr. Ma’moun Al-Rawashdeh

Associate Professor

Educational Qualifications

PhD in Chemical Engineering

MSc in Chemical Engineering

Entity

College of Science and Engineering

Biography

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.

PhD in Chemical Engineering

Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands

2013

MSc in Chemical Engineering

Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands

2008

BSc Chemical Engineering

Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan

2004

  • Novel reactors - Piston reactors
  • micro and structured reactors
  • forced periodic operation
  • Process development – Concurrent reactor and process design
  • Catalysts testing - Data-driven catalyst and reaction testing
  • Applications - Low Carbon Methane and gas conversion
  • CO2 capture and utilization
  • chemical recycling of plastic waste

Associate Professor

College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University

2025 - Present

Assistant Professor

College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University

2024 - 2025

Research Assistant Professor

Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University at Qatar

2022 - 2024

Assistant Professor

Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University at Qatar

2019 - 2022

Senior Research and Technology Engineer

Process Development and Technology, Albemarle Catalyst Company, Netherlands

2013 - 2018

Postdoc Researcher

Chemical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands

2012 - 2013

Chemical Engineer

Refinery, Jordan Petroleum Refinery Ltd, Jordan

2005 - 2006