“My extensive network within international tech companies and community groups enables me to foster collaboration and advocate for change in the broader engineering community.”
My primary mission as Provost’s Visiting Professor in the Department of Computing is to fully immerse myself in the academic community and contribute significantly to the research and teaching efforts of Imperial. I firmly believe that this role will provide me with the resources, support, and collaborative environment I need to take my research to the next level and make a meaningful impact. I am committed to sharing my extensive connections with end-user organisations and industry by mentoring PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers, helping them bridge the gap between academia and the professional world for real-world impact and knowledge exchange.
My journey has taken me from the bustling streets of Aleppo to the prestigious halls of academia in the UK. I completed a five-year computer engineering degree at the University of Aleppo in Syria, where over 50% of the cohort were female students. This experience ignited my passion for empowering women in engineering and inspired me to pave a path for change.
During my PhD at the ICCAVE International Games Centre in Dundee I developed a revolutionary computer vision-based system for computer game interaction. This groundbreaking work pushed the boundaries of gaming and showcased the potential for computer vision technology in diverse fields. At the University of Nottingham, I pioneered the use of mobile phones for research purposes which contributed to the evolution of smartphones into essential sensors for various applications. At the University of Cambridge, I collaborated with a multidisciplinary team to create the first-ever Mobile Environmental Monitoring Mapping system and noise monitoring “NoiseSpy”. This innovative approach allowed us to address pollution in cities with unprecedented granularity, thanks to citizen science and crowd-sourcing methods.
My permanent positio n is Professor of Pervasive Sensing and the Head of both the Smart Sensing Lab and IoT Lab at Nottingham Trent University. In these roles, I lead a dynamic and diverse team of researchers who collaboratively pioneer the development of cutting-edge pervasive, Tiny Machine-Learning (TinyML) and wireless sensing technologies. Pervasive sensing utilises sensors to capture data and provide insights into the inner workings of various systems. This empowers us to proactively address issues before they manifest and enhance the overall process of designing and optimising systems.
As a woman from an ethnic minority background, I bring a unique perspective and a deep sense of commitment to diversity and inclusion in the tech field. My extensive network within international tech companies and community groups enables me to foster collaboration and advocate for change in the broader engineering community. I am dedicated to ensuring that underrepresented voices are not only heard but also amplified.