Current Teaching

I have been the convenor for two PG modules (taught to a mixed cohort from 3 different MSc programmes) and one UG module, all for which I have consistently received positive feedback. I have also re-designed a new PG module.

• SCC311 (2016-2020)
• SCC411 (2018-2020)
• SCC460 (2015-2018)

My Role

• PhD Admissions Tutor (2019 - 2021) I redesigned the process to improve aspects of transparency and fairness, and also to reduce application turnaround delays.
• PGT Assessment Officer (2015 - 2019) Next to working to maintain academic standards and quality through formal processes, I have redesigned the project marking forms in all our 5 MSc programmes, introduced a lightweight moderation process to ensure fair marking across all projects and to challenge boundary marks, and also designed an online system for submitting and tracking MSc dissertation marking forms.
• Athena SWAN Lead (2017 - 2019) I lead the writing and submitted the application for which SCC was awarded the Athena SWAN Bronze Award in Sept 2017 on first submission. I now lead the self-assessment team who implements an ambitious action plan that is changing many aspects of SCC, not least of which is its culture.

Professional Role

Member of the Steering Committee of the CrossCloud Workshop Series, having founded the event in 2014.

Lead Guest Editor of the Journal of Internet Services and Applications thematic series on Cross-Cloud Computing (2015 - present).

Memeber of the TPC of several ACM and IEEE conferences such as CoNEXT, CNSM, DAIS, ICN, IM, and SAC.

Career Details

Academic qualifications:

• PhD (2011) in Network Measurement & Grid Computing, Lancaster University, UK.
• MSc with Distinction (2006) in Networking and Internet Systems, Lancaster University, UK.
• BSc (2002) in Computer & Systems Engineering, Alexandria University, Egypt.

Employment:

Aug 2019 – present

Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor), SCC, Lancaster University.

Oct 2015 – Jul 2019

Lecturer (Assistant Professor), SCC, Lancaster University.

Jan 2018 – present

Visiting Professor, École de Technologie Supérieure Montreal.

Nov 2010 – Sept 2015

Senior Research Associate, SCC, Lancaster University.

Worked on EVOp (NERC) and FIC2 (FP7) projects.

Feb 2014 – Feb 2015

Technical Consultant on the EVOKES project (NERC/BIS).

Nov 2006 – Jan 2010

Research Assistant, Computing Dept, Lancaster University.

Worked on EC-GIN (FP6) project.

Sep 2005 – Sep 2006

Network Surveillance Agent, Orange Business Services.

Research Overview

I am a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the School of Computing and Communications of Lancaster University, UK, where I lead the Distributed Systems group. I also co-lead the Data Acquisition & Infrastructure Theme at the Centre of Excellence in Environmental Data Science (CEEDS). I am also a visiting professor at Ecole de Technologie Superieure, Montreal. My work aims to enable distributed applications to traverse infrastructural boundaries. In the context of cloud computing, this entails looking into interoperability and migration challenges, as well as related decision support issues. I am the creator and chair of the international Cross-Cloud workshop series. Beyond the cloud, I work on border-free network architectures in intent-driven systems, systems of systems, and information centric networks. I also works on advocating network-awareness which involves measuring networked systems, evaluating network protocols, and proposing new network management strategies.

PhD Supervision Interests

I am interested in supervising students in any of the following topics: - Cloud brokerage and adaptive decision support - Intent Driven Networking - Fog computing services of different types, and managing their hosting on micro-clouds - Decentralised Internet infrastructures, especially for disaster recovery - Opportunistic networking, and opportunistic composition of distributed systems - Measuring online systems, such as social networks and web infrastructures - Augmented machine learning