Welcome to my website. I am the Director of the School of Computing at the University of North Florida (UNF), Jacksonville, Florida. I received my Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering from Speed School of Engineering of University of Louisville (UofL), Louisville, Kentucky, in 2000 and 1998, respectively. In 1993 I received my B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering (Telecommunication and Electronics) and a post-graduate software deveopment skills diploma from Egypt. My research interests include HPC, Data Mining, Bio/Medical Informatics, and Computational Intelligence.

I am broadly interested in high performance computing. Over the past several years, I had the opportunity to work in heterogeneous environments of networked computing resources. The problem of inefficient utilization of allocated computing resources to carry out HPC applications is very noticeable and poses serious ramifications. Next generation software architectures have been one of my research focuses. I designed a novel agent-based architecture that autonomously monitors, analyzes, and adaptively improves the performance of HPC applications on real-time bases.

The unprecedented explosion of data collection by most institutions and enterprises has lured researchers to develop efficient algorithms to mine these data repositories and discover hidden knowledge in the form of associations and patterns. Big data mining problems are directly related to high performance computing and efficiency issues. Applying AI algorithms to develop classification and prediction models for mining big datasets in various disciplines has been anohter focus of my research.

My collaboration with the faculty of University of Florida's College of Medicine resulted in receiving funding to acquire a large dataset from the United States Renal Data System (USRDS). The dataset contains Medicaid claims submitted by more than 1.2 million patients between 2004 and 2006. The objective of the research was to discover hidden relationship between co-morbidities, such as Hepatitis C, Liver Cirrhosis, HIV, and Bacteremia, in hemodialysis patients.

I have recently started a new project with faculty from University of Florida's Department of Radiology aiming at developing new algorithms to discover patterns in medical images using computational intelligence. We have developed a new algorithm for edge detection in magnetic resonance images of the heart using Ant Colony Optimization.

1. E. Ibrahim, S. Birchell, and S. Elfayoumy, "Artificial Intelligence Technique for Measuring Heart Volume from MRI Images Using Iterative Salient Isolated Threshold Optimization Ant Algorithm," Abstract, the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (accepted).
2. E. Ibrahim, S. Birchell, and S. Elfayoumy, "Automatic Segmentation of Myocardial Tissue from Cine Magnetic Resonance Images of the Heart," Abstract, the Society of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL 2012. (accepted).
3. D. Mahmoud, R. Siam, S. Elfayoumy, M. Said, A. Hasanin, P. Demian, and B. House, "A Single Amino Acid Variation is Responsible for the Acquisition of an Exclusive Eighth Glycosylation Site in all Victoria-Like Influenza Type B Viruses Isolated From Egypt," Abstract presented at the 4^th International Influenza Conference, Oxford, UK, Sep 2011. Will also be published in the Journal of Molecular and Genetic Medicine.

Teaching is an integral part of my professional life, and I believe research and teaching work together to foster intellectual curiosity and investigation. From my perspective, a teacher in computing sciences is best seen as a "guide". The objective is to ascertain the desired destinations of the intrepid students and to chart a safe and expedient path. Acting as a guide involves revealing the well-worn tracks of previously explored territories, calling attention to risks and pitfalls, and providing a strong supportive hand when the terrain gets rough. The distance must be covered by the students under their own power, however, and in pursuit of their own goals.

I have been very active in participating in university governance activities at all levels. I have also played leadership roles and have held offices for the IEEE Computer Society which is one of the largest and most prestigious computing societies for professionals and academicians. I received two plaques from the IEEE Computer Society in recognition of my service to the society and profession. Additionally, I have participated in several professional activities at the international level.

1. Member, UNF's Research Committee, 2011-2012
2. Member, United Faculty of Florida's Sabbatical Selection Committee, 2010-2012.
3. Chair, UNF's Outstanding Faculty Scholarship Selection Committee, 2010-2011.
4. Consultant, United Nations Development Program-UNDP, Egypt, 2010.
5. Member, board of experts for innovation, the Information Technology Institute (ITI), Cairo, Egypt, 2010.

1. Inductee, Leadership Jacksonville, 2010.
2. Recipient, recognition plaque for organizing the 6^th Code Camp, 2010.
3. Recipient, IEEE recognition plaques for services to the IEEE Computer Society, 2005 and 2009.
4. Recipient, IEEE recognition plaque for election to the rank of Senior Member, 2003.
5. Recipient, first "CSE Doctoral Award," University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, 2001. The award is given to a doctoral graduate voted by the CSE faculty.
6. Awardee, "System, Method, and Computer Program Product for Concept Based Searching and Analysis," US Patent and Trademark Office, US Patent# 7,788,251. Aug 2010.
7. Awardee, "A Method and Computer Program Product for Converting Ontologies into Concept Semantic Networks," US Patent and Trademark Office, US Patent# 7,676,485. Mar 2010.
8. Awardee, "System, Method, and Computer Program Product for Concept Based Searching and Analysis," World Intellectual Property Organization, WO Patent# 2007/047252 (also awarded by the respective agencies in Canada, Australia, Japan, China, and the European Union).