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.

Dr. Markus Wenk is the Dean College of Health and Life Sciences. He fills other key roles at the moment; he is a Visiting Toh Chin Chye Professor and the National University of Singapore, an Editor-in-Chief, Encyclopaedia in Lipidomics (Springer), and a privatdozent in the faculty of science in the University of Basel.

Wenk has been interested in the structure and function of membranes since his time as a student at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel in 1994. During his time at Yale, he introduced new techniques to study how cells metabolize phospholipids. He's been a leader in using advanced methods to study lipids (lipidomics), earning recognition such as the European Lipid Science Award in 2018. Markus founded the Singapore Lipidomics Incubator (SLING) and the international Singapore Lipid Symposium (iSLS) at the National University of Singapore (NUS), focusing on innovation, education, and collaboration in lipid research. Lately, he's been working on incorporating precise molecular analysis into medical research for personalized health. 

Prior to his assumption of the role  in HBKU, Markus led the Department of Biochemistry at NUS from 2015 to 2022 and also directed the NUS Precision Medicine Translational Research Programme from 2020 to 2023.

I am a Gates Scholar with a PhD in Computer Sciences from the University of Cambridge in Automatic Affect Inference in Learning Environments. In my current research engineering role at QCRI, I collaborate with the research and software engineering teams to help execute technology transfer, drive product innovation, and explore commercialisation pathways.

This involves evaluating the research assets and capabilities in terms of their technical and commercial feasibility by analyzing their innovative merit, value proposition, market readiness, and usability. Prior to this, I have worked as a Research Scientist at IBM Research with experience in applied machine learning, data analysis, user experience research, experiment design and usability testing. I mainly worked in the areas of Data Quality and Readiness for ML, Automated Decision Optimization, Conversational Tutoring, and Emotion Detection with notable projects being the Data Readiness Report, Data Quality Toolkit, the Medical School Tutor (MST) for LKC School School of Medicine, NTU, Singapore and the Watson Tutor for Pearson Education, USA. 

Keivin Isufaj is a Research Assistant at QCRI, focusing on Machine Learning, Traffic Data Analytics, and Bioinformatics. He holds a Computer Science degree with a Minor in Mathematical Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University. Keivin's experience includes managing and developing frameworks and systems in diverse projects. He has contributed to areas such as traffic trajectory imputation, data visualization, and oral lesion detection. Additionally, Keivin has applied Machine Learning and AI to metabolomic and genomic data to model and predict Coronary Heart Disease and Type 2 Diabetes in Middle Eastern cohorts.

Safa’s research is centered around safe AI, generative models (energy-based models) and reinforcement learning and motivated by applications in computer vision and health intelligence. Safa obtained her PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign working with Prof. Alexander Schwing. She graduated with Bachelor and Master degrees in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology from the Technical University of Munich. She obtained a Master degree in Computer Engineering from Virginia Tech advised by Prof. Sandeep Shukla. She was a visiting scholar at UC-Berkeley, where she worked on her Master thesis under the supervision of Prof. Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli and Prof. Andreas Herkersdorf.