it newsletter web - .net framework

Dubai Knowledge Village, Blocks 4, 16, 17 & 19t. 800 MDX e. [email protected] www.mdx.ac Mdx.Stream

issue 1 | 2015Department of Computer Engineering and Informatics

Department of Computer Engineering and Informatics | Newsletter issue 1 | 2015

1 www.mdx.ac

ContentsMessage from the Director 3

Message from the Department Head 5

Meet the DCEI Team 6

Events from Academic Year [2013-2014] 8GITEX 2014 8Participation at GITEX Conference 2014 8RTA and Middlesex University Dubai Collaboration for Smart Government Mobile Services Project 9Third Annual Student Research Symposium 10Middlesex students visit 3M Innovation Centre 13Middlesex University Dubai represents the Academia at the I-UP 2014 13Middlesex students become a part of Inaugural BITCOIN in Dubai 14Quantum computing: An introduction by Professor Rajagopal Nagarajan 14Guest Lecture on Internet of Things (IoT)- Mr. Salil Pillai, IBM 15RTA Visit to Middlesex University Dubai to Launch the Smart Government Students Contest, 2015 15Middlesex Organises Entrepreneurship Day partnered by Google and Droidcon 16Participation at Droidcon 2015 18Middlesex University Dubai hosts the First EMC Academic Alliance UAE Meeting 18Middlesex University Dubai successfully hosts the SAP training for faculties 20RTA Competition 20

Student Success 22

Undergraduate/Postgraduate Research Spotlight 24

Testimonials 24

Facilities upgrade at the university 25

Academic Alliance news 26EMC CISCO SAP IBM

Student club - activity & news 27

Articles of Interest 28The startup opportunities in Dubai in the year of Innovation. 28Learning through app development and competition. 30

Academic Calendar 32

Library Additions 34

Editor:

Santhosh [email protected]

Co-Editor:

Pallavi Ranjan [email protected]

issue 1 | 2015

I am delighted to write this welcome message for the

Department of Computer Engineering and Informatics’ first

newsletter. The Department is led by Dr. Fehmida Hussain

who has been the inspiration behind the starting of our

first Computer Engineering degree programmes and many

industry initiatives and partnerships.

Middlesex University Dubai in the past decade in Dubai

has become the University of Choice and attracts students

and faculty of a very high caliber. This newsletter will

give you a good overview of the activities of our students

and also the research capabilities of our faculty.

Students and Industry partners, I urge you to actively

participate in the events and activities organised by the

Department of Computer Engineering and Informatics.

I congratulate the Editors of the newsletter Mr. Santhosh

Menon and Ms. Pallavi Ranjan on producing this Newslet-

ter and look forward to many more editions.

Dr. Cedwyn Fernandes

Director (Acting)

Middlesex University Dubai

Message from the Director3

I am delighted to write this welcome message for the

Department of Computer Engineering and Informatics’ first

newsletter. The Department is led by Dr. Fehmida Hussain

who has been the inspiration behind the starting of our

first Computer Engineering degree programmes and many

industry initiatives and partnerships.

Middlesex University Dubai in the past decade in Dubai

has become the University of Choice and attracts students

and faculty of a very high caliber. This newsletter will

give you a good overview of the activities of our students

and also the research capabilities of our faculty.

Students and Industry partners, I urge you to actively

participate in the events and activities organised by the

Department of Computer Engineering and Informatics.

I congratulate the Editors of the newsletter Mr. Santhosh

Menon and Ms. Pallavi Ranjan on producing this Newslet-

ter and look forward to many more editions.

Dr. Cedwyn Fernandes

Director (Acting)

Middlesex University Dubai

issue 1 | 2015

I am delighted to welcome you to the first-ever newsletter for the

Department of the Computer Engineering and Informatics (DCEI), Mid-

dlesex University Dubai.

The launch of this e newsletter marks an exciting milestone for the

University, the year where we launch three new Engineering programmes

– BEng Computer Systems Engineering, BEng Computer Communications and

Networks and MSc Engineering Management. This year is also very

special as we look forward to inaugurating our state-of-the-art, Physical

Computing and Engineering Lab.

We at Middlesex University Dubai are constantly engaged in activities which will help enhance the

student experience and provide them with an edge over other graduates. Our department’s mission is to

prepare highly qualified Information technology professional and computer engineers to fulfill the gap

not only in the UAE market, but all over the world. Our students come from various countries and it is

such a delight to see international students going back to their home countries with the knowledge

acquired here, with zeal to make a difference in their home countries.

We have an exciting year ahead whereby we have an interesting events’ calendar already planned out

for students which will be released soon. To provide maximum industry exposure to our students we

regularly organize guest speakers and field trips for students, in addition to a plethora of other events

which keep the students informed and intrigued. Our academic alliances with EMC, CISCO, SAP and IBM

help us offer courses about emerging technologies and/or certifications like Cloud computing, Big Data,

CCNA, ERP and many more.

I am also pleased to announce that this year we are also planning to launch our Computing club which

will provide students to an opportunity to organize and attend various technology related activities.

I hope that this newsletter will serve as a powerful communication tool for fostering ties between the

prospective students, existing students, the Alumni, and the University. We welcome your comments and

suggestions and please feel free to contact me should you have any queries.

I sincerely thank the Editors of the newsletter, Mr. Santhosh Menon and Ms. Pallavi Ranjan and the

Marketing department for successfully launching the first issue of the newsletter.

Dr.Fehmida Hussain

Campus programme coordinator

Department of Computer Engineering and InformaticsMessage from the Department Head

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Meet the TeamThe Department of Computer Engineering & Informatics (DCEI) has six full-time and two adjunct faculty members.

Dr. Fehmida HussainSenior Lecturer, Campus Program Coordinator (CPC)

Qualifications:

DPhil – Informatics University of Sussex, UK

BS Computer Science – University of Houston, USA

Research Interests:

Computational Modelling

Health Informatics

Digital Forensics

Cloud Computing

E-Learning

Contact:

Email: [email protected]

Room: 305, Block 16

Phone: +971 44461248

Engie Bashir Lecturer

Qualifications:

Master of Computer Science, American University of Beirut

Bachelor of Computer Science, American University of Beirut

Research Interests:

E-Learning

Human Computer Interaction

Information retrieval &

filtering

Contact:


Room: Block 16, Room 305

Phone: +971 4 3616248

Jaspreet Singh SethiLecturer

Qualifications:

Bachelor of Computer Science (Software Develop-

ment), UOW

Master of International Business, UOW

Research Interests

Information retrieval &

filtering

E-Learning

Computer Security

Contact:


Room: 106, Block 16

Phone: +971 4 4330488

Dr.Krishnadas NanathSenior Lecturer

Qualifications:

PhD Information Systems & Technology (MIS), Indian

Institute of Management (IIM K)

B.Tech Computer Science Engineering (CSE), Amrita

School of Engineering

Research Interests

Green IT

Cloud Computing Analytics

and Business impact

Big Data Analytics

Utilizing Data Visualizations

for business

e-governance

Social entrepreneurship

Social Media Analytics

Contact:


Room: 304, Block 16

Phone: +971 43693965

Pallavi RanjanLecturer

Qualifications:

M.Tech (Computer Science and Engineering)

B.Tech (Computer Science and Engineering)

Research Interests

Artificial Intelligence

Simulation & Modeling

Design and Analysis of

Algorithms

Statistical Models of

Computer Science

Compiler Design

Contact:


Room: 305, Block 16

Santhosh MenonLecturer

Qualifications:

MS (Mechanical Engineering), SIUE, Illinois, US

BTech (Mechanical Engineering), MACE, Kerala, India

Research Interests

Network Technologies

Data warehouse technolo-

gies

Simulation

BioInformatics

Contact:


Room: 106, Block 16

Phone: +971 4 3754908

Madhumita DasAdjunct Faculty

Qualifications:

M.Tech ( Operations Research In Industry And

Business Management),

National Institute Of Technology , West Bengal, India

BE (Information Technology), University Of Burdwan,

West Bengal, India

Research Interests

Cloud Computing

Networking and Performance

Evaluation

Cyber Security

Architecture And Operating

Systems

Contact:


Room: 306, Block 16

Phone: +971 4 341 9780

Marc KarschiesAdjunct Faculty

Qualifications:

MBA (London Business School - Brand Management)

BA (Frankfurt School of Finance and Management -

Finance & Banking)

Certified Quality Manager (ASQ CMQ/OE )

Certified Six Sigma Black Belt (ASQ CSSBB)

Certified Quality Process Analyst (ASQ CQPA)

Prince 2 - Foundation & Practitioner (OGC)

Certified Talent Manager (GTMI)

Research Interests

Customer Experience

Management

Integrated Service and

Quality KPI and MIS systems

Customer Service Channel

Optimization

Innovation Management

Contact:


Room: 306, Block 16

Phone:

(m) +971 55 89 46399

(b) +971 4 341 9780

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GITEX 2014October, 2014

Forty students from the School of Science and Technology, Middlesex University Dubai, attended the GITEX Exhibition, held at the Dubai Interna-tional Convention and Exhibition Centre from September 27 to October 4, 2014. GITEX is an annual consumer computer and electronics trade show, exhibition and conference and one of the largest IT exhibitions held annually in the Gulf region.

During the tour, students got the chance to examine different technologies such as mobility, cloud, in-memory computing and big data. They also had an opportunity to explore the smart services and initiatives that are proposed by the Ministry of Information Technology, UAE. The students were accompanied by IT faculty mem-bers Ms Engie Bashir, Dr Krishnadas Nanath and Mrs Pallavi Ranjan.

Participation at GITEX Conference 2014October, 2014

Senior Lecturer Dr Krishnadas Nanath was invited as a guest speaker at GITEX Confer-ence 2014. In his presentation which was entitled ‘Cloud Computing Rising Above the Cloud!’ Dr.Krishnadas talked about the best practices in Cloud Computing for UAE Govern-ment to adopt. The theme of the conference was ‘Empowering GCC Smart Government Technologies’ and the session was attended by senior UAE Government officials who were keen to learn smart methods for live imple-mentation in areas like Cloud Computing, Social Media and Big Data Analytics. His session provided an insight into smart-decision making (ROI, NPV calculations for cloud) and efficient designs for cloud imple-mentation.

RTA and Middlesex University Dubai Collaboration for Smart Government Mobile Services Project October, 2014

RTA’s Smart Government is a pioneering initiative to provide government online services and leverage the use of mobile phones across Dubai. The project, based on five Waves, aims to engage youth in the emirate to brainstorm innovative ideas on transforming its services to mobile channels, obtain their feedback as RTA service users on look, feel, navigation and functionality on mobile phones and participate in performing service testing prior to launch.

Key areas of student involvement in the project were Service design, Prototype, and User acceptance testing. Three sessions were held, two at Middlesex University Dubai campus and one at the RTA headquarters. During these sessions, students got the opportunity to work closely with the project management teams from RTA and IBM. To appreciate the students’ participation in the project, the RTA held an award ceremony at Middlesex University Dubai on September 16, 2014 attended by senior executives from RTA and IBM along with members of staff and students from Middlesex University Dubai.Participants of the sessions were - Mustafa Golwala, Hira Mariam, Fatima Abdulla Kazi, Naveen Kumar, Adil Humayun Dalvi, Ngbor Dornubari King, Hitesh Babani, Johar Abbas Rangwala, Kejal Jhaveri, Sana Sadiya Sadiq and Yoshita Vijay Bhatia.

Events from previous Academic Year 2013-2014

Wave 1 Session at RTA headquarters

Wave 1 Session at Middlesex University Dubai

RTA Award Ceremony at Middlesex University Dubai

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Third Annual Student Research SymposiumNovember 2nd, 2014

The Third Annual Middlesex University Dubai Student Research Symposium was held to promote student research by providing a platform to students to present their research work carried out as part of their coursework/final dissertation.

There were 24 submissions from both undergraduate and postgraduate students belonging to various disciplines including Information Technology, Social Science, Psychology, Media, Marketing, Finance and Education. Participants were nominated by their supervisors for outstanding and exemplary research work.

The event gave out three Best Paper awards (one PG and two UG) based on feedback from an expert panel.

The undergraduate award was jointly shared by Diksha Narendra Laungani supervised by Dr Anita Kashi on the topic ‘A qualitative exploration of meaning in life among the middle-aged’ and Ammna Nasser, super-vised by Dr Cody Paris, Dr Tenia Kyriazi and Ms Mahine Rizvi on the topic ‘Impact of identity politics on education in Pakistan: A comparison between Balochistan and Punjab.’

The Postgraduate award was given to Magdalena Mosanya, supervised by Dr Eleni Petkari on the topic of ‘Physical self-efficacy as mediator in the relationship between physical activity and mood: An exploratory study with women in the United Arab Emirates.’

The symposium was organised by the Student Research Sub-committee and supported by the Research Committee, Marketing Department, Library staff as well as faculty members.The full list of participants is listed below:

Postgraduate Research Work Accepted for Presentation at the Symposium

Paper No

1

2

3

Name(s)

Sheldon D’souza

Umar Bukar Ali

Youssef Shabaan Ibrahim

Supervisor/Tutor

Krishnadas Nanath

Jaspreet Sethi

Fehmida Hussain

Paper Title

BYOD in non-profits: Opportunities and challenges

Factors influencing the adoption of NFC-enabled mobile payment

Impacts of phishing attacks on online financial institution in the UAE

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Middlesex students visit 3M Innovation CentreDecember 8, 2014

More than 40 students from the School of Science and Technology, Middlesex University Dubai, attended a day trip to the 3M Innova-tion Centre in Dubai Internet City as part of Strategic Management & Information Systems course headed by Dr Krishnadas Nanath.Students experimented with the latest inno-vations from 3M and attended several work-shops and seminars. They were also briefed on 3M’s innovation business strategy.

Middlesex University Dubai represents the Academia at the I-UP 2014December 10, 2014

Dr Fehmida Hussain along with Dr John Sutton represented Middlesex University Dubai at The Industry and University Partnerships ‘I-UP’ Forum.

The forum was designed to bring together professionals from universities, industry and government to discuss potential collaborations, partnerships and research and business develop-ment opportunities.

The workshop on Hospitality & Tourism had by Mr Mukesh Vandasani, Vice President, Learning and Development, Atlantis Kerzner Group; Mr Ron Hilvert, Managing Director, The Emirates Acad-emy of Hospitality Management and Mr Sunjeh Raja, Director and CEO, International Centre for Culinary Arts (ICCA) Dubai.

Dr Fehmida was one of the panellists on the ICT track along with Mr Hemal Shah, Director – Insight and Customer Strategy, Oracle; Dr Naguib Attia Chief Technology Officer & Vice President, IBM Middle East & Africa and Dr Anand Kumar, Associate Dean of Academic and Resource Plan-ning, Bits Pilani Dubai.

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Middlesex students become a part of Inaugural BITCOIN in Dubai December 12 & 13, 2014

BITCOIN, an innovative payment network and claimed to be the future of virtual currency, was launched in Dubai at the Dubai International Financial Centre and attended by big names in the open source and finance industry. Students from Middlesex University Dubai were given a chance to be a part of this conference as interns. Zubair Wahhid, Mark Samuel and Arrash Afshon (BSc IT students from School of Science and technology) participated at the conference under the mentorship of Dr Krishnadas Nanath.

Quantum computing: An introduction by Professor Rajagopal Nagarajan February 04, 2015

Professor Rajagopal Naga-rajan, Professor of Founda-tions of Computing in the Department of Computer Science at Middlesex University London, visited the Dubai campus.

He gave a talk on the topic of Quantum Comput-ing and information processing. The event was attended by undergraduate and post graduate students of Information Technology.

Professor Raja gave the students an introduction about how Quantum computing works, how it is different from traditional computing, as well as its benefits and challenges. The session was engaging and helped provide a useful introduc-tion to one of the futuristic research areas.

As well as this, Professor Raja’s active research interest areas include Foundations of Program-ming Languages, Formal Methods, Security and Cryptography and Financial Computing.

Guest Lecture on Internet of Things (IoT)- Mr. Salil Pillai, IBMFebruary 10, 2015,

M. Salil Pillai, Senior Managing Consultant at IBM, gave a talk on the topic of Internet of Things (IoT). The event was attended by MSc Computer Network Management students as part of the course ‘Web Based Information Systems’. Mr Pillai is an expert in the field of Supply Chain Management and currently explores the role of recent technologies like IoT in SCM at IBM. IoT is the network of physi-cal objects or “things” embedded with elec-tronics, software, sensors and connectivity to enable it to achieve greater value and service by exchanging data with the manufacturer, operator and/or other connected devices. Owing to the nature of this topic, there was active participation from MSc students leading to a fruitful discussion. The talk was facilitated by Dr Fehmida Hussain and it also set up the chances of future collaboration between Middlesex University Dubai and IBM.

RTA Visit to Middlesex University Dubai to Launch the Smart Government Students Contest, 2015 March 01, 2015

Ms Hiba Hurani, Senior Business Analyst, eGov – Information Technology Department, RTA Dubai, was on campus to launch the RTA Smart Government competition which was held from May to June, 2015. Groups of UAE university students / teams were invited to develop a functioning smart App through Open APIs published by the RTA using any technology across one or more platforms (IOS, Android, BB and Windows). Mr Jaspreet Singh, coordinator for IT contests, mentored the students. The session was facilitated by Dr Fehmida Hussain and Ms Muneeza Shoaib.

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Middlesex Organises Entrepreneurship Day partnered by Google and DroidconApril 06, 2015

Middlesex University Dubai organised an Entrepreneurship Day, partnered by Google and Droidcon. School of Science and Technology hosted this event that had three major components - A Business Plan Competition, Google Education Demonstration and Google Design Sprint Workshop.

Over 100 students participated and teams from three universities presented their business ideas including Middlesex University, Ajman University and BITS Pilani (Dubai Campus). Students were trained by Mr Saad Kayyali (Google Developer Group, Dubai) to convert their business ideas into working prototypes. This training was part of the Google Design Sprint workshop which turned out to be one of the key highlights of this event. Selected teams were given an oppor-tunity to present their ideas in the final round of extended presentations. Winners of the business plan event were announced based on their overall performance in all stages. First place was bagged by Middlesex University Dubai, with Ajman University and BITS Pilani as runner-ups.

The winners were given free passes to Droidcon which was held from April 14-16, 2015. Droidcon is world’s largest Android development conference which will be hosted in United Arab Emirates for the first time.

Students and faculty were given a demonstration of Google Education Platform by esteemed guests from Google and Brams (Google’s partner in UAE). This session was led by Mr Abdel Wahed Bendaoua, head of MEA from Google. Mr Mohamed Al Baroudi and Mr Mohammed Ramdane presented Google Education platform in detail.

This event was inaugurated by Dr Cedwyn Fernandes, acting Director of Middlesex University Dubai who welcomed all students and encouraged them to pursue entrepreneurship. Dr Fehmida Hussain, CPC-DCEI, Middlesex University Dubai introduced students to various IT programmes and how students are encouraged to lead their ideas in the university.

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Changing IT landscape: An industry perspectiveApril 5th 2015

Mr.Santosh Shetty, the GM IT Infrastructure at al Futtaim group gave a talk to the UG and PG IT students of the University. In the almost 1 hour talk, he covered the vari-ous areas of IT needed for the businesses in the region. The objective of the talk was to provide an industry perspective to the education that they are receiving and the changing requirements in the industry. Students were given a first-hand account of and changes during the growth of al Futtaim IT group. An important aspect of the talk was how the structure of the IT department was recast to keep up with the changes that are happening in the computing field. These details of the organization and their importance in fulfilling the functions of the company would definitely be helpful for the students. Many queries from the students regarding the present market condition and the IT requirements in the region were answered very patiently by Mr.Shetty. The lecture was arrange by DCEI faculty Santhosh Menon.

MSc


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Participation at Droidcon 2015April 14, 2015

Dr Krishnadas Nanath, Senior Lecturer in the DCEI inaugural day of the exhibition where students pitched their business ideas to the developer groups. List of speakers can be viewed using this link: http://www.droidcon.ae/?page_id=195

Middlesex University Dubai hosts the First EMC Academic Alliance UAE MeetingMay 20, 2015

For the first time EMC and distinguished university partners met to share collective experiences and aspirations on the EMC academic alliance partnership programme. The meeting held on May 20, 2015 at the premises of Middlesex University Dubai gathered delegates from EMC, American University in Emirates, Khalifa University, Zayed University, Ajman University, Abu Dhabi University, University of Wollongong, Rochester Institute of Technology along with Middlesex University students and alumni. The welcoming note was delivered by Middlesex University Dubai’s Acting Director, Dr Cedwyn Fernandes followed by Dr Fehmida Hussain, CPC-DCEI, elaborated on the three year successful partnership journey with EMC stressing on participation and completion rates of the EMC courses by MDX students. Dr Hussam Ramdan, EMC educational consultant and Professor and Former Dean of College of Computer and Information Sciences at King Saud University, talked on industry-university partnerships and how such programmes allow students to apply their learning in the practical world beyond the classroom.

A panel discussion was held which brought a lot of positive initiatives as EMC panellists, other universities panel members and the audience exchanged ideas and shared best practices in adopting EAA courses for an enhanced delivery of academic courses in Cloud and Big Data areas. Eng. Hussam Al Mohandess from EMC spoke on embracing the hybrid cloud that allows IT to move at the speed of business. Mrs Marwa Zaghawi, Senior Programme Manager and University Relations at EMC announced the EMC Cloud project competition for students to be held at the end of 2015. Students shared their experiences and received their participation certificates for the Information Storage Management Course and Cloud Infrastructure course.

The event was organised by Ms. Engie Bashir, who is also the EMC Academic Alliance Coordinator for Middlesex University Dubai and was held under the DCEI, led by Dr Fehmida Hussain.

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Department of Computer Engineering and Informatics | Newsletter

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This event was organised by the DCEI led by Dr Fehmida Hussain and SAP Academic Alliance is coordinated by Dr Krishnadas Nanath.

RTA CompetitionAugust 2015

A team of three BSc IT students of Middlesex University Dubai, Lizandra Almeida and Sonia Selopal Omkar (3rd year BSc IT) and Leanne D’Souza (1st Year BSc IT) participated in the “Innovate your App” contest open to UAE university students. The contest was part of an initiative by RTA (Roads and Transport Authority Dubai) to encourage the develop-ment of functioning smart apps under the Open APIs concept. The contest started in May and participants had 3 weeks to develop a mobile app that had to fall under the theme of Public Transportation. The group from Middlesex developed an app about the NOL card that allows commuters to inquire about the balance of their NOL card and also provides all possible information that a com-muter would like to have about the NOL card (the types, the cost, validity etc.). The sub-mission was shortlisted for technical inter-views to be conducted by RTA. The team was mentored by DCEI faculty Jaspreet Singh Sethi. We look forward to the final results of the contest and wish all the very best to the Middlesex team.

Middlesex University Dubai successfully hosts the SAP training for facultiesMay 31 – June 4, 2015

The University hosted a five-day intensive training organised by SAP for faculties in the MENA region. The workshop was titled ‘ERP Train the trainer workshop’ and it involved hands-on experience on SAP ERP and other systems. The training was conducted by Mr Stefan Weidner, Executive Director for The University and Academic Competence Centres at the University of Magdeburg, Germany.

It was attended by delegates from Middlesex University Dubai, College of North Atlantic Qatar, University of Dubai, Khalifa University, Manipal University, Herriot Watt, German International Cooperation, IMT and American University of Dubai. During the workshop Dr Weidner gave an SAP product overview and the SAP UA EMEA Portal while the SAP Educa-tion team: Jaco Van Zyl, Frank Naude and Shadi Zaytoon provided some insights on the SAP Education and learning Hub provided by. The workshops were supplemented by talks on Big Data (SAP Hana), Learning Manage-ment Systems, ERP for education and many others.


Internships: 8

Student Success

Company name

Ramsa Institute

Sales Mena

Mumzworld

Landmark Group

Oberthur Technologies

Sysnet

flydubai

Mumworld.com

Name

Yoshita Bhatia

Alice Nasekwa

Abimbola Muritala

Yoshita Vijay Bhatia

Mark Estanislao

Deena Faheem

Sidra Muhammad

Quratulain Mehdi

Programme

BSc IT

BSc Business Information

Systems & Management

MSc Computer Network

Management

BSc IT

BSc IT & Business

Information Systems

MSc Computer Network

Management


Systems

BSc IT

Position

Freelance Graphic Designer

Marketing Coordinator

Data Entry

Content Management

Assistant

Service Internship

IT Internship

Web Content

Administrator

Graphic Designer Intern

Company name

Etihad Airways

Name

Malik Zubair

Mark Hilary

Mohammed Adnan

Programme


Systems & Management

BSc IT & BIS


Systems and Management

Position

Ground Service Agent

Guest Service Agent

Data Entry

Name(s)

Leanne D’Souza

Leanne D’Souza

Programme

BSc IT

BSc IT

Competition

2015 Annual NYUAD International Hackathon for Social Good in the Arab World, April 10th to 12th2015, New York University, Abu Dhabi

Women in STEM Hackathon, 14th & 15th of January 2015, Canadian University, Dubai

Award

Audience Choice Award for their solution to the challenge- ‘To make immigrant workers living in the UAE aware of their legal rights’.

First place for app called ‘The Unique Hand’

Jobs: 3

Competition Success

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The Cisco NetAcademy has been upgraded this year with the addition of six sets of networking devices enabling more student participation at any given time, as well as helping them in receiving hands-on experience on routers and switches. Upgraded computers for connecting to routers / switches and new sets of cables have also been added.

Undergraduate/Postgraduate Research Spotlight

November 15th, 2015

Fourth Annual Student Research Symposium at Middlesex University Dubai November 24th 2015

Third International Conference on Emerging Research Paradigms in Business and Social Sciences

Venue: Park Hyatt Dubai, Dubai Creekhttp://www.mdx.ac/conference-2/

Testimonials

“ I am very happy about the quality of education I have received at Middlesex University.

Middlesex University gave me opportunity to explore my interests and taught me areas of computer network management which I can now very well relate to my job. Teachers are the greatest asset of this university and are highly approachable and understanding.”

Juno Srivastava M.Sc - Computer Network Management

As a Chief Operating Of�cer for one of the largest construction �rms in the UAE, I have chosen Middlesex for its well-known reputation and for the one of a kind programme that it offers, Msc Engineering/project management. During the course, I have found that the theoretical information taught gave me vast ideas that I have applied in the company and as a matter of fact there was a huge difference in the way I man-aged the company. The quality of teaching and the ambient atmos-phere in the campus was far no less than perfection. As a student, I do recommend you to take this course at Middlesex.

Bishoy AdamMSc Project Management

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Facilities upgrade at the universityThe Physical Computing and Engineering lab has been added to the University. The lab is equipped with state-of-the-art static electricity safe table-tops for work with digital electronic components. There are 7 tables with associated monitors and computers, plus testing and measurement equip-ments like oscilloscope. The equipment are from the top providers Texas Instruments (TI) and National Instruments (NI). The LabView software from NI would also be available in the lab.

Entry to the lab is restricted to the engineering students and associated faculty. Static electricity protection suit needs to be worn while in the lab.


26 www.mdx.ac

Academic Alliance newsThe University currently boasts four academic alliances with leading names in the global IT industry.

EMCThe first academic alliance at the Dubai campus for the DCEI, the EMC AA offers UG & PG students free courses on Cloud Computing and has been highly appreciated by the students. The course enables the student to get in-depth knowledge about Cloud infrastructure and services and helps towards getting certified in this area from EMC. Middlesex also hosted the First EMC Academic Alliance UAE Meeting this year.

EMC also has a senior student paper competition where Master’s students can submit their final year thesis as entries. The program is being run by Ms.Engie Bashir and those interested can contact her for details on this year’s courses and the timings.

CISCOThis is the third academic year of Middlesex University Dubai’s academic alliance with Cisco. The alliance has helped provide an introduction to networking hardware to PG and UG students at the University. This year, six new sets of equip-ment will be added to the University facilities to ensure that students have access to quality hardware.

Cisco certifications are among the most recog-nized and valuable in the area of Networking.

Cisco Network Academy provides training to enable students to gain the theoretical and practical knowledge needed to obtain the certifi-cation. The Academy facility includes access to online portal for registered student where they can get all the reading material, exams and also access to Cisco’s world renowned software, PacketTracer which is a Virtual networking Lab, enabling the students to do most of the lab activities upto the level of CCNA on their home computers.

The Academy offers training on CCNA’s four modules, with course completion certificates for each module and the exciting news this year is that there is for first time, new certification exams from cisco for sub-modules of CCNA. There are discounts available for the certification exams to students who successfully complete the academy training.

The Cisco Network Academy courses are run by the department faculty Mr Santhosh Menon and Mr Jaspreet Singh Sethi. For any information regarding the courses, either of them can be contacted.

SAPMiddlesex University Dubai joins SAP University Alliance Network

On Monday March 02, 2015 School of Science and Technology at Middlesex University Dubai signed a partnership agreement with German multinational software corporation, SAP. Mid-dlesex University Dubai is now officially a part of SAP University Alliance network. As part of this association, students will gain access to SAP Solutions/Materials which will enable them to put classroom theory into practice through dem-onstrations, problem solving exercises, case studies, and research programs. This alliance also provides a platform for members of staff to be trained for SAP certification, enabling them to

teach related modules in the university. This alliance would serve a start for a long term relationship with SAP, enhancing industry inter-face for the university. To initiate the partnership, Middlesex Dubai hosted the five-day intensive ‘ERP Train the trainer workshop’.

IBMMiddlesex University Dubai IT faculty now has access to IBM software, hardware, technology and tools as part of the IBM Academic Initiative, a no-charge programme for faculty at institutions worldwide. This allows faculty at Middlesex University to access various tools and teaching assets from IBM and use them within the class-room to enhance student learning. This also allows students to access these cutting edge tools for academic work such as projects and coursework. As part of the initiative IBM also allows extended trial access to its cloud platform Bluemix, allowing students to gain experience of building apps in the cloud.

Student clubactivity & newsThe new Computing Club is getting active this year. We encourage interested students to sign up and take this opportunity to learn programming as well as support each other in order to improve their skills in general. This Club is envisaged to become a self-sustaining community of students keen on learning programming and taking part in inter-university competitions. Mr. Jaspreet Singh Sethi would be mentoring the club and those interested can email him at [email protected]. The club would have a regular meetings and would be taking a lead in representing the university at various competitions.

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28 www.mdx.ac

Articles of InterestThe startup opportunities in Dubai in the year of Innovation.

The UAE cabinet had declared the year 2015 as the year of innovation.

And if you are thinking of innovating and setting up your own enterprise in Dubai, there are a range of options available to you today. Dubai offers you a splendid concoction of accelerators and incubators. Incubators are oriented towards graduating a business after setting certain bench-marks while accelerators take an equity stake in exchange of their specialized services. Like what one of the largest technology start-up centre says in their brochure, ‘all you need is an idea’. The rest of it, the infrastructure and other support are available for you to ask and use. Of course there are fees and also there are angel funding avail-able if your idea gets their interest.

Some of the key players in the ecosystem are

1. Dubai Technology entrepreneur Center (dtec.ae)

2. In5 (infive.ae )

3. i360accelerator (i360accelerator.com)

4. Astrolabs (www.astrolabs.com)

5. Seedstartup (www.seedstartup.com)

6. Startup Wings (startupwings.me).

7. Afkar (afkar.me)

8. Turn8 (turn8.co)

Dubai Silicon Oasis is one of the free zone areas that encourages technology-based start-ups; it can provide funding of up to $80,000 in exchange for equity along with mentorship and legal support.

Couple these incubators and accelerators with the other advantages of Dubai - a stable political and investment climate, the city’s status as a regional travel and trading hub, free trade zones and the growing economy plus the low/zero taxes and you have one of the best startup locations in the region if not the world.

A typical startup location like Dtec would be offering an entrepreneur a few options. At Dtec for example, there are currently three options for space – flexi-desk (a first-come-first-use non dedicated space), dedicated workstations and dedicated office rooms – depending on the requirements of the organization. There are business license and 3 year work visas offered for each of these options along with some discounts for qualifying entities. Shared spaces like meeting room, game room, hardware lab and cafés are available. The annual charge for the cheapest option 11000 dirhams plus visa fees. The regis-tration process needs a bunch of documentation starting with the technology business plan but the entire registration process takes only about a week of time which is an amazing turnaround time.

At Middlesex Dubai, we are very keen to support the innovative efforts of our students. All students in the DCEI are expected to complete a final year project and this can be something new and innovative. There are various app develop-ment competitions that students participate in and these would be good opportunities to further refine their ideas. Last year, we had the RTA competition, the Google entrepreneurship Day and the Droidcon event plus various conference opportunities for our student.

Students are encouraged to participate in Hacka-thon events where they code/develop overnight with support from eminent mentors. These hackathons are attended by investors and students stand out a chance to convert their ideas into real business models. Students at Middlesex have participated in the business pitch events like Droidcon and received good response. The university also hosted Google Design Sprint workshop conducted by Google Developer group in Dubai that helped students to convert their ideas into working prototype. Hence, university ensures a strong eco-system for students inter-ested to make their ideas big! There will be more opportunities this year, so keep looking.

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30 www.mdx.ac

Learning through app development and competition.

The arrival of smart phones and with it the ecosystem of app market place has opened another arena where students can demonstrate their creativity and skill. Participation in groups helps develop their ability to work as a team, a vital skill valued in the jobs market.

One success for Middlesex London campus has been a videogame made as a second year degree project by Middlesex University BSc Computer Science graduate Saif Hossenbaccus. The game, Generic Space Shooter, is set for big things, after more than 3,000 gamers down-loaded it from the Xbox Live platform. Android, iPhone and PC launches of the arcade-style space shooter are also in the pipeline. The game takes the traditional format of a top-down 2D shooter, challenging users to survive for as long as they can in the face of an ever-growing onslaught of alien spaceships.

"The game is quite tough," said 21-year-old Saif. "You only have three lives before you die and the enemies get harder all the time, but the longer you play the more points you get as the game rewards you for staying alive.

"I called it Generic Space Shooter because that's what it was. As I developed it further it got a bit more complicated and it's not really a generic space shooter anymore, but I decided to keep the name for comedic purposes."

For his undergraduate dissertation, Saif investi-gated high-resolution gaming. Supervised by Middlesex researcher Dr Chris Rooney, Saif created a version of Generic Space Shooter that would play on the Computer Science depart-ment's custom-built Powerwall – a 66 million pixel, wall-sized display.

Here at Middlesex Dubai, a team of three talented students, Leanne D’Souza, Lizandra Almeida, and Sonia Selopal Omkar, are in the final round of the RTA sponsored “Innovate your App” Contest. The scope of the competition was to develop a functioning smart app through open APIs (application Programming Interface) using any technology across one or more platforms (IOS, Android, BB, and Windows). The participat-ing teams (up to 3 students) compete over the course of 3 to 4 weeks in order to develop and submit an app.

Describing their app and its development, Sonia said “The development struck off with a brain-storming session that required the members to schedule regular meetings and share both ideas and prototype sketches based on the chosen topic – ‘NOL card Balance Inquiry Method’. The core features allows every user to check the remaining balance in their NOL card(s), retrieve information on the available NOL cards and the

connected transportation mediums, and to submit any complaints or suggestions to the RTA.”

The team had planned an outline which helped it to move ahead and undergo the design and development phases. Each member was allotted different areas to work on which were then combined into one system on the intended software. The app has a minimalist design so as to provide an easy to use interface and to provide accessibility to all users. The usability guidelines were kept in mind. As the requirement involved using the RTA’s API connectivity within the mobile app, the team faced minor problems regarding the coding of the connectivity but were fortunately able to overcome the issues and achieve the desired results.

“The final outcome included a mobile application on the Android interface which was tested on the Samsung S5 but is designed for all small and medium screen devices. It displayed satisfying results and functioned smoothly. We wished to add more features to the design but due to insufficient time it was not possible.“

The team has currently been shortlisted for the technical interviews as they fulfilled the needed criteria of innovation, user-friendly experience in terms of navigation and design, customer needs and relevance, and high-quality code. The RTA has yet to declare the final results for the contest.

The competition has given them greater confi-dence in their skill and programming ability.

The experience of these two groups are indica-tive of the creative spirit of the Middlesex students. And their success will inspire more students in the coming years.

Figure 1BSc Computer Science graduate Saif Hossenbaccus

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32 www.mdx.ac

Academic CalendarDescription

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Term Break

Week 13

Week 14

Week 15

Week 16

Week 17

Week 18

Week 19

Independent study week

Week 20

Week 21

Date27 Sept 2015

04 Oct 2015

11 Oct 2015

18 Oct 2015

25 Oct 2015

1 Nov 2015

08 Nov 2015

15 Nov 2015

22 Nov 2015

29 Nov 2015

6 Dec 2015

13 Dec 2015

24 Jan 2016

31 Jan 2016

7 Feb 2016

14 Feb 2016

21 Feb 2016

28 Feb 2016

6 Mar 2016

13 Mar 2016

20 Mar 2016

27 Mar 2016

Week 22

Week 23

Week 24

Final Examination period

University Coursework deadline (no submissions after this date)

Module results released to students on UniHub

Progression decisions published on UniHub for continuing students

Degree classification decisions published on UniHub for graduating students (finalists)

Deferred/re-sit exams (IT students only)

Deferred/re-sit coursework deadline (all re-sit students)

Module re-sit results released to students on UniHub

Progression decisions published on UniHub for continuing students with re-sits

Degree classification decisions published on UniHub for graduating students with re-sits

Third International Conference ERPBSSThird International Conference on Emerging Research Paradigms in

Business and Social Sciences

03 Apr 2016

10 Apr 2016

17 Apr 2016

24 Apr to 19 May

04 May

20 Jun

30 Jun

01 Jul

17 to 21 Jul

26 Aug

13 Sept

19 Sept

23 Sept

24 to 26 Nov

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34 www.mdx.ac

Library AdditionsBusiness information systems (2nd Edition)

An interesting and original approach to information systems that combines business relevance with a sound theoretical foundation.

Covers a wide range of essential topics and helps students understand the relationship between information systems and business performance. Each chapter has a clear pedagogical layout to help students conceptualize and apply theory

Learning outcomes, case reviews and projects are extremely good; the Case Study Matrix is excellent.

Paul Beynon-Davies.Introduction to Computational Mathematics (2nd Edition)

The book provides a comprehensive introduction to computational mathematics, which forms an essential part of modern numerical algorithms and scientific computing. It uses a theorem-free approach with just the right balance between mathematics and numerical algorithms. Recommended for undergraduates and graduates to acquire rapidly the basic knowledge in computational mathematics.

Yang, Xin-She

Software Engineering (10th Edition)

The book presents a broad perspective on the field, concentrating on widely used techniques for developing large-scale systems. Updated with latest developments in the field with quality, trusted coverage and practical case studies.

This text is structured into 4 parts: Introduction to Software Engineering; Dependability and Security; Advanced Software Engineering; Software Engineering Management.

Ian Sommerville

Reverse logistics Rommert Dekker ... [et al.].

Decision analysis for management judgment (5th Edition)

In an increasingly complex world, decision analysis has a major role to play in helping decision-makers to gain insights into the problems they face. The book is unique in its breadth of coverage of decision analysis methods. It covers both the psychological problems that are associated with unaided managerial decision making and the decision analysis methods designed to overcome them. It is presented and explained in a clear, straightforward manner without using mathematical notation.

Paul Goodwin

Business intelligence and analytics (10th Edition)Ramesh Sharda, Dursun Delen, Efraim Turban ; with contributions by J. E. Aronson, Ting-Peng Liang, D

Introduction to Discrete Event Simulation and Agent-Based Modeling

“The unique feature of this book is its use of a consistent case study (i.e., voting system) in all chapters, an approach that should help students learn how to conduct a full simulation modelling project. It is suitable for anybody who is seeking a concise introduction to computer simulation.” (Stephan Onggo, 2012)

Allen, Theodore T.

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Naveed HashmiLiaison Librarian for DCEI

For any DCEI library resource requirements and recommendations,

please get in touch with Mr. Naveed

[email protected]


36 www.mdx.ac

Computer organization and design (4th Edition)

"...the fundamental computer organization book, both as an introduction for readers with no experience in computer

architecture topics, and as an up-to-date reference for computer architects."--Computing Reviews, July 22 2014

David A. Patterson, John L. Hennessy.Handbook of global supply chain management editors, John T. Mentzer, Matthew B. Myers, Theodore P. Stank.

Database principles (2nd Edition)Coronel, Carlos et al.

Introduction to Java Programming, Plus MyProgramming Lab (9th Edition)Liang, Y. Daniel

Intro to Java Programming Liang, Y. Daniel

Simulating wireless communication systems (1st Edition)

In an increasingly complex world, decision analysis has a major role to play in helping decision-makers to gain insights into the problems they face. The book is unique in its breadth of coverage of decision analysis methods. It covers both the psychological problems that are associated with unaided managerial decision making and the decision analysis methods designed to overcome them. It is presented and explained in a clear, straightforward manner without using mathematical notation.

C. Britton Rorabaugh.

Distributed systems (5th Edition)George Coulouris ... [et al.].

http://www.amazon.com/Distributed-Systems-Concepts-Design-5th/dp/0132143011/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1439966915&sr=8-2&keywords=Distributed+systems

Greening the supply chain Purba Halady Rao.

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38 www.mdx.ac

Magazine linksCisco CCNA Routing and Switching 200-120 Official Cert Guide Library (1st Edition)Odom, Wendell

IEEE Spectrum

Computer

IEEE Communications

IEEE Wireless Communications

Cisco CCNA Routing and Switching 200-120 Foundation Learn-ing Guide Library (1st Edition)Anthony Sequeira and John Tiso

Data and computer communications (10th Edition)William Stallings.

Information architecture for the World Wide Web (4th Edition)Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld

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If you would like to contribute to the next edition of MDX.Stream please email Santhosh Menon: [email protected] or Pallavi Ranjan: [email protected]

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