As a lifelong learner, I am currently an Associate Professor in Cyber Security at the Information Systems (IS) group, School of Business, University of Southern Queensland, Australia. Prior to this, I was a senior lecture in this school. Before that, I held a Lecturer position in Information Technology at the School of Computing and Information Technology, University of Wollongong. Preceding this, I was a post-doctoral researcher at Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Having worked in the software industry prior to taking up an academic position, I have 8 x years of first-hand experience, as an analyst programmer and consultant, in implementing core back-end of software systems for different industry sectors such as publishing, government, and insurance. I hold a PhD degree in Information Systems at the Business School, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia and received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. both in Software Engineering from Azad University Mashhad & Tehran, Iran with First Class Honors.
My research aims to help IT-based organisations in the effective analysis, design, and adoption of emerging technologies which ultimately create value as well as improve the life quality of citizens. Much of my work in this area focuses on designing new development methods, frameworks, and strategies to help organisations in their digital evolution endeavours. For example, my past research has addressed a number of different topics that help organisations in the analysis of requirements, design, and implementation of systems relying on ABCD technologies (i.e., modern Internet-based computing technologies of Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain smart contracts, Cloud computing, and big Data) to augment their operations.
I have secured or extensively contributed to several commercial external research funding of interdisciplinary projects including Australian Research Council (ARC) grants and visiting research fellowship grants in Finland and Sweden. As the lead author, my research outcomes have appeared in selective top-tier international A/A* and Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) ranked venues in IS and Software Engineering (SE) such as European Journal of Information System (EJIS), Decision Support Systems (DSS), IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), Information Sciences, Information Systems, IEEE Transactions on Service Computing (TSC), Journal of Systems and Software (JSS), Information and Software Technology (IST), Pacific Asia Conference Information Systems (PACIS), and European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), among others.
I am an associate editor of the ACM Computing Journal (CSUR), an area editor of Australian Journal of Information Systems (AJIS), and a reviewer for a large number of journals IS/SE venues such as ISJ, CAIS, JAIS, ICIS, HICSS, IEEE TSE, and TOSEM and competitive research grant programs including the ARC program.
Throughout my teaching career, I have taught a range of courses including cyber security courses, business information systems, programming courses, data structures and algorithms, business analytics, database management systems. I also take the lead in various programs aimed at mentoring the next generation of students in the field of information technology. These includes major course development, assistance in designing assessments, and contributing to curriculum and course development at an international level.
My current projects focus on adopting Generative AI (or Large Language Models) technologies in data-intensive business organisations, information system development endeavours, and future scientific discoveries. Some examples of my recent research outputs in this area are human-bot collaboration during system development using ChatGPT and AI ethics.
Feel free to contact me if you are interested in collaborations with me or have any questions. Also, I am happy to recruit master and PhD program applicants.
Career timeline
My academic positions, in chronological order
● Associate Professor in Cyber Security, University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ), October 2024 - ?
● Senior Lecturer in Cyber Security, University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ), July 2021 - October 2024
● Lecturer in Information Technology, University of Wollongong (UOW), March 2019 - July 2021
● Research Assistant, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), May 2020 - August 2020
● Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), September 2017 - December 2018
● PhD Student, University of New South Wales (UNSW), August 2012 - August 2017
● Prior to August 2012, I was working as analyst programmer in software industry (see somewhere else in this site for more details)
International research visits
● Visiting Researcher, University of Cork, Ireland, AUS $12.5K grant funded, November 2024
● Visiting Research Fellowship, University of Boras, Sweden, AUS $17K grant funded, November 2023
● Visiting Research Fellowship, University of Jyväskylä, Finland, AUS $7.5K grant funded, November 2021
Research
My research publications are at the intersection of Information Systems and Software Engineering disciplines.
Please note the following list of papers is presented to ensure the timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by the authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder. Final published versions of most papers can be found via ACM Digital Library, IEEE Digital Library or Scopus. An updated list of my publications can be found on my Google Scholar page.
Note: J: Journals, C: Conference, W: Workshop, R: Research report
2025
[C18] Davoud Mougouei, Ahmad Azarnik, Mahdi Fahmideh, A First Look at AI Trends in Value-Aligned Software Engineering Publications: Human-LLM Insights, 47th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), ERA CORE A*
2024
[J24] Mahdi Fahmideh, Babak Abedin, Jun Shen, Toward an integrated framework of developing blockchain systems, Decision support system, ERA CORE A*, ABDC A*, SJR Q1
[C17] Tommi Mikkonen Muhammad Waseem, Teerath Das, Aakash Ahmad, Mahdi Fahmideh, Peng Liang, Using ChatGPT throughout the Software Development Life Cycle by Novice Developers, The 19th International Conference on Evaluation of Novel Approaches to Software Engineering (ENASE), 2024, author's pre-print
2023
[J23] Arif Ali Khan, Javed Ali Khan, Muhammad Azeem Akbar, Peng Zhou, Mahdi Fahmideh, Insights into software development approaches: mining Q &A repositories, Empirical Software Engineering, DOI, ERA CORE A, SJR Q1
[J22] Danial Javaheri, Mahdi Fahmideh, Hassan Chizari, Pooia Lalbakhsh, Junbeom Hur, Cybersecurity threats in FinTech: A systematic review, Expert Systems with Applications, DOI, ERA CORE B, SJR Q1
[J21] Abdul Razzaq, Aakash Ahmad, Asad Waqar Malik, Mahdi Fahmideh, Rabie A. Ramadan, Software engineering for internet of underwater things to analyze oceanic data, Internet of Things, 24, 2023, DOI, SJR Q1
[J20] Naghmeh Khajehali, Jun Yan, YW Chow, Mahdi Fahmideh, A Comprehensive Overview of IoT-Based Federated Learning: Focusing on Client Selection Methods, Sensors, 2023, DOI
[C16] Arif Ali Khan, Azeem Akbar Muhammad, Aakash Ahmad, Mahdi Fahmideh, Mohammad Shameem, Valtteri Lahtinen, Muhammad, Waseem, Tommi Mikkonen, Agile Practices for Quantum Software Development: Practitioners’ Perspectives, IEEE International Conference on Quantum Software (QSW), 2023
[C15] Aakash Ahmad, Muhammad Waseem, Peng Liang, Mahdi Fahmideh, Mst Shamima Aktar and Tommi Mikkonen, Towards Human-Bot Collaborative Software Architecting with ChatGPT, International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE) conference 2023, ERA CORE A
[J19] Arif Ali Khan, Aakash Ahmad, Muhammad Waseem, Peng Liang, Mahdi Fahmideh, Tommi Mikkonen, Pekka Abrahamsson, Software architecture for quantum computing systems - a systematic review, Journal of Systems and Software (JSS), 2023, DOI, ERA CORE A, SJR Q1
[J18] Arif Ali Khan, Muhammad Azeem Akbar, Mahdi Fahmideh, Peng Liang, Muhammad Waseem, Aakash Ahmad, Mahmood Niazi, Pekka Abrahamsson, AI Ethics: An Empirical Study on the Views of Practitioners and Lawmakers, IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems (TCSS), 2023, DOI, SJR Q1
2022
[J17] Lu, D., Zhai, Y., Shen, J., Mahdi Fahmideh, M., Wu, J., Tchaye-Kondi, J. and Zhu, L., TreeNet Based Fast Task Decomposition for Resource-Constrained Edge Intelligence. IEEE Transactions on Services Computing, 2022, DOI, ERA CORE A*, SJR Q1
[J16] Mahdi Fahmideh; Grundy, John; Ahmad, Aakash; Shen, Jun; Yan, Jun; Davoud, Mougouei; Wang, Peng; Ghose, Aditya; Gunawardana, Anuradha; Aickelin, Uwe; Engineering for Blockchain Based Software Systems: Foundations, Survey, and Future Directions, ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), 2022, DOI, ERA CORE A*, SJR Q1
[J15] Wu, Qiang; Wu, Jianqing; Shen, Jun; Du, Bo; Telikani, Akbar; Mahdi Fahmideh; Liang, Chao; Distributed agent-based deep reinforcement learning for large scale traffic signal control, Knowledge-Based Systems,2022, DOI, SJR Q1
[C14] Ahmad, Aakash; Khan, Arif Ali; Waseem, Muhammad; Mahdi Fahmideh; Mikkonen, Tommi; Towards Process Centered Architecting for Quantum Software Systems, IEEE International Conference on Quantum Software (QSW), DOI, 2022
[C13] Mahdi Fahmideh; Ghassan, Beydoun; Bandara, Madhushi; Ahmad, Aakash; Shrestha, Anup; Khan, Arif; Role of ontologies in beach safety management analytics systems, Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), DOI, 2022, ERA CORE A
[J14] Ahmad, Aakash; Mahdi Fahmideh; Alkhalil, Adel; Almuraziq, Tareq; Abdulrahman, Alreshidi; Alanazi, Adwan; Altamimi, Ahmed; Modernising Legacy Software as Internet of Things-Based Application, IEEE Computer Society, Author's pre-print, 2022
[C13] Blockchain Meets Secured Microservice Architecture: A Trustworthy Consensus Algorithm, International Conference on Wireless Information Networks and Systems (WINSYS), Author's pre-print, 2022
[C12] Khan, Arif Ali; Badshah, Sher; Liang, Peng; Waseem, Muhammad; Khan, Bilal; Ahmad, Aakash; Mahdi Fahmideh; Niazi, Mahmood; Akbar, Muhammad Azeem; Ethics of AI: A systematic literature review of principles and challenges, The International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE), 383-392, 2022, DOI, ERA CORE A
[W3] Khan, Arif Ali; Mahdi Fahmideh; Ahmad, Aakash; Waseem, Muhammad; Niazi, Mahmood; Lahtinen, Valtteri; Mikkonen, Tommi; Embracing Iterations in Quantum Software: A Vision, 1st International Workshop on Quantum Programming for Software Engineering, QP4SE'22, 2022, DOI
2021
[J13] Mahdi Fahmideh; Aakash, Ahmad; Behnaz, Ali; Grundy, John; Susilo, Willy; Software Engineering for Internet of Things: The Practitioners' Perspective, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), 2022, DOI, ERA CORE A*, SJR Q1
[J12] Ahmad, Aakash; Mahdi Fahmideh; Altamimi, Ahmed B; Katib, Iyad; Albeshri, Aiiad; Alreshidi, Abdulrahman; Alanazi, Adwan; Mehmood, Rashid; Software Engineering for IoT-Driven Data Analytics Applications, IEEE Access,2022, DOI, SJR Q1
[J11] Mahdi Fahmideh; Yan, Jun; Shen, Jun; Mougouei, Davoud; Zhai, Yanlong; Ahmad, Aakash; A Comprehensive Framework for Analyzing IoT Platforms: A Smart City Industrial Experience Smart Cities Intelligent Edge Computing, 588-622,2022, DOI
[J10] Mahdi Fahmideh; Grundy, John; Beydoun, Ghassan; Susilo, Willy; Mougouei, Davoud; A Model-Driven Approach to Reengineering Processes in Cloud Computing, Information and Software Technology (IST), 2022, DOI, ERA CORE A, SJR Q1
[C11] Mougouei, Davoud; Ghose, Aditya; Dam, Hoa; Mahdi Fahmideh; Powers, David; A Fuzzy-Based Requirement Selection Method for Considering Value Dependencies in Software Release Planning, IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems (FUZZ-IEEE),2022, DOI
[W2] Ahmad, Aakash; Bandara, Madhushi; Mahdi Fahmideh; Proper, Henderik A; Guizzardi, Giancarlo; Soar, Jeffrey; An Overview of Ontologies and Tool Support for COVID-19 Analytics, 21th International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference (EDOC) 2021, Workshop of AI for Health, 2022, DOI
[C10] Mahdi Fahmideh; Gunawardana, Anuradha; Chen, Shiping; Shen, Jun; Yecies, Brian; Blockchain Developments and Innovations - An Analytical Evaluation of Software Engineering Approaches, International Conference on Internet of Things (ICIOT), Springer, 2021, DOI
2020
[J9] Mahdi Fahmideh; Zowghi, Didar; An exploration of IoT platform development, Information Systems, 2021, DOI, ERA CORE A*, SJR Q1 (the most cited articles published in the past 3 years - since 2020. Source: Scopus, this ranking might be outdated as the journal window moves to new most cited publications over time)
2019
[J8] Mahdi Fahmideh; Daneshgar, Farhad; Rabhi, Fethi; Beydoun, Ghassan; A generic cloud migration process model, European Journal of Information Systems (EJIS), 283, 233-255, DOI, 2019, ERA CORE A*, SJR Q1
[J7] Mahdi Fahmideh; Ghassan Beydoun, Graham Low; Experiential probabilistic assessment in adopting cloud services, Information Sciences, 2021, DOI, ERA CORE A, SJR Q1
2018
[J6] Mahdi Fahmideh; Beydoun, Ghassan; Reusing empirical knowledge during cloud computing adoption, Journal of Systems and Software (JSS), 2018, DOI, ERA CORE A, SJR Q1
[J5] Mahdi Fahmideh; Beydoun, Ghassan; Big data analytics architecture design—an application in manufacturing systems, Computers and Industrial Engineering, 2018, DOI, SJR Q1
[C9] Mahdi Fahmideh; Zowghi, Didar; IoT Smart City Architectures: an Analytical Evaluation (best paper award), The 9th IEEE Annual Information Technology, Electronics and Mobile Communication Conference, 2018, DOI
[C8] Mahdi Fahmideh; Lammers, Thorsten; A study of influential factors in designing self-reconfigurable robots for green manufacturing, Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), Author's pre-print, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, 2018
2017
[J4] Mahdi Fahmideh; Daneshgar, Farhad; Beydoun, Ghassan; Rabhi, Fethi; Challenges in migrating legacy software systems to the cloud—an empirical study, Information Systems, 100-113, 2017,DOI, ERA CORE A*, SJR Q1
[R1] Mahdi Fahmideh; A Methodological Approach to Support Cloud Computing Migration, PhD Thesis, UNSW, Australia, 2017
2016
[J3] Mahdi Fahmideh; Daneshgar, Farhad; Low, Graham; Beydoun, Ghassan; Cloud migration process: A survey, evaluation framework, and open challenges, Journal of Systems and Software (JSS), 31-69, 2016, DOI, ERA CORE A, SJR Q1
[W1] Mahdi Fahmideh; Daneshgar, Farhad; Rabhi, Fethi; Cloud migration methodologies: preliminary findings, European Conference on Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing–CloudWays Workshop, 2016, DOI
[C7] Mahdi Fahmideh; Daneshgar, Farhad; Fethi, Rabhi; Cloud Computing Adoption: An Effective Tailoring Approach, Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), Wollongong, Australia, 2016, DOI
2014
[J2] Mahdi Fahmideh; Sharifi, Mohsen; Jamshidi, Pooyan; Enhancing OPEN Process Framework with service-oriented method fragments, Software & Systems Modeling, 361-390, 2014, DOI
[J1] Khoshkbarforoushha, Alireza; Jamshidi, Pooyan; Mahdi Fahmideh; Wang, Lizhe; Ranjan, Rajiv; Metrics for BPEL process reusability analysis in a workflow system, IEEE Systems Journal, 36-45, 2016, DOI
2011
[C6] Mahdi Fahmideh; Shams, Fereidoon; Jamshidi, Pooyan; Toward a methodological knowledge for service-oriented development based on open meta-model, International Conference on Software Engineering and Computer Systems, 631-643, 2011, DOI
[C5] Mahdi Fahmideh; Sharifi, Mohsen; Jamshidi, Pooyan; Shams, Fereidoon; Haghighi, Hassan; Process patterns for service-oriented software development, Fifth International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science (RCIS), 2011, DOI
2010
[C4] Mahdi Fahmideh; Process patterns for developing decision making support systems, DOI, (in Persian) 2010
[C3] Mahdi Fahmideh; Jamshidi, Pooyan; Shams, Fereidoon; A procedure for extracting software development process patterns, Fourth UKSim European Symposium on Computer Modeling and Simulation, 75-83, 2010, DOI
[C2] Mahdi Fahmideh; Habibi, Jafar; Shams, Fereidoon; Khoshnevis, Sedigheh; Criteria-Based evaluation framework for service-oriented methodologies, 12th International Conference on Computer Modelling and Simulation, 122-130, 2010, DOI
[C1] Mahdi Fahmideh; Ramsin, Raman; Strategies for improving MDA-based development processes, International Conference on Intelligent Systems, Modelling and Simulation, 152-157, 2010, DOI
[C0] Mahdi Fahmideh, Evaluating model driven methodologies using capability maturity models, (in Persian)
[C] Mahdi Fahmideh, Process patterns for developing decision making support systems (in Persian), link
● Detailed assessor of Australian Research Council (ARC), link
● Journal Editorial Board
Discover Internet of Things – Springer, link
● Guest Editor
Guest Editor, Special issue in the European Journal of Information Systems (EJIS), 2025, link
Guest Editor, Special issue in the journal of Information and Software Technology (IST), 2022, link
Guest Editor, Special issue in the journal of Pervasive and Mobile Computing – Elsevier, 2022, link
● Associate Editor
ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), 2023, link
Applied Computing and Intelligence, 2023, link
Section Editor
Australasian Journal of Information System (AJIS)
● Organising Committee Member
Third workshop on engineering processes and practices for quantum software system, (PPQS’24)
Second workshop on engineering processes and practices for quantum software system, (PPQS’23)
First workshop on engineering processes and practices for quantum software (PPQS'22), Co-located with PROFES, November 2022, slide pack for keynote speaker, link
● Co-Track Chair and Program Committee (PC) Member
Co-track chair 2025, 20th International Conference on Design Science Research in Information Systems and Technology (DESRIST2025)
Co-track chair 2024, Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS)
Co-track chair 2023, Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS)
Co-track chair 2023, Second Workshop on Engineering Processes and Practices for Quantum Software (PPQS’23)
PC, 32nd ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conf. and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Eng. (ESEC/FSE), Research Track, 2023, link
Co-track chair 2021, Exploring Modelling Methods in Systems Analysis and Design (EMMSAD), link
PC member 2023, Design Science Research in Information Systems and Technology (DESRIST), link
PC member 2022, Design Science Research in Information Systems and Technology (DESRIST), link
PC member 2022, Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), link
A recognition for serving as a reviewer here
PC member 2021, Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), link
PC member 2021, International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA), link
PC member 2021, DevOps Quality Management (Göteborg, Sweden, 13-15 June 2022), link
PC member 2018, Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference (APSEC), link
● Invited Review Services
Annually, I provide review services for different venues
Book review: Henderson-Sellers, Pär J. Ågerfalk, Matti Rossi, Situational method engineering (pp. 1-274), Heidelberg: Springer. Chicago, link
Some examples of journals that I provide review service:
Information Systems Journal (ISJ), review certificate
Communications of the Association for Information Systems (CAIS)
Journal of the Association for Information Systems (JAIS)
International Journal of Information Management (IJIM)
Australasian Journal of Information System (AJIS)
The Data Base for Advances in Information Systems
Information Systems Frontiers (ISF)
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE)
ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM)
IEEE Transactions on Service Computing (TSC)
Automated Software Engineering (ASE)
Journal of Software and Systems Modelling (SoSyM), review certificate
Computer Standards & Interfaces
Business Process Management Journal
Complex and Intelligent Systems
International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management
● I am regularly reviewing for international conferences such as:
International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS)
Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS)
Australian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS)
International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA)
International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution
International Conference on Software Architecture
European Conference on Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing (ECSOCC)
Australasian Software Engineering Conference (ASWEC)
● Examiner
I am regularly serving as an examiner of PhD thesis and master by research for different universities such as Adelaide university, Macquarie university, and others.
My commercial research has had a chance to acquire funds from different organizations and agencies. A summary of many of the key grants, either external or internal, funded projects that I played a key role as a member of team and some key research outputs are listed below. On other hand, I also list some of key unsuccessful research grants demonstrating how hardworking I am to acquire funds. Note that Chief Investigator (CI) in Australia is also known as Principle Investigator (PI) in Europe/US.
●2024-2026, ARC Linkage, Robust Defences against Adversarial Machine Learning for UAV Systems, AUS $445K, University of Wollongong
●2023-2024, Visiting Research Fellow Grant, University of Borås, Sweden, AUS $17K, representative output: here
●2023-2024, Capacity Building Grants, Trustworthy AI for design science research, AUS $12K, University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ)
●2023-2025, ARC Linkage, Empowering Australia’s Visual Arts via Creative Blockchain Opportunities, AUS $570K, University of Wollongong
●2021, Deanship of Scientific Research, Modernising Legacy Software as Mobile Systems, AUS $6K, University of Ha’il, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
●2021, Visiting Research Fellow Grant, Development methods for implementing blockchain based systems, AUS $7.5K, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
●2019-2022, Early Career Researcher Grant, AUS $98K three-year scholarship to recruit PhD, University of Wollongong, suspended due to COVID-19 impact
●2019 Start-up grant, Exploring software engineering for developing Internet of Things (IoT) based systems, AUS $10K, University of Wollongong
●2016 PhD Placement Scholarship for Research Excellence, Awarded scholarship $3000K, Business School, University of New South Wales (UNSW)
● Research excellence award (levels A, B, and C), Business School, University of Southern Queensland, October 2024, $150
● Learning and teaching excellence award, Business School, University of Southern Queensland, October 2024, $150
● Publication award, School of Computing and Information Technology (SCIT), the University of Wollongong (UOW), April 2019, $1K
● Best paper award, paper: IoT Smart City Architectures: an Analytical Evaluation, 9th IEEE Annual Information Technology, Electronics and Mobile Communication Conference, 2018, link
● PhD placement scholarship for research excellence, $3K, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Business School, 2016
Some talks I've given that may or may not be of interest...
● 7th Conference on Advances in Enterprise Architecture, developing systems relying on blockchain smart contract technologies, Shahid Beheshti University, Iran, May 2023, .pdf
● Petra Christian University, Indonesia, adopting development methods for the successful development of IoT-based systems, May 2023, .ppt
● Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), July 2022, development of ontological models for analytics models, .ppt , paper
●Winter School of Software Engineering, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia, August 2019.ppt
● My presentation 9th IEEE Annual Information Technology, Electronics and Mobile Communication Conference, November 2018, .ppt
● 27th Australian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), December 2016, Github (Microsoft C# and .Net framework updates might be needed to run the application), .ppt
● Business School, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia, November 2015, .ppt
My teaching philosophy. I have a self-made quote to inspire my teaching success: I strive to make my students an improved copy of myself. A commendable student, in my view, is the one whom I can acquire valuable knowledge and insights. Coming from a middle-class background and being the first in my family to pursue higher education, I grew up in remote region of Esfahan in Iran, where educational resources such as library and science lab were not accessible. Despite these limitations, many of my peers achieved remarkable success in their careers, challenging the notion that traditional classrooms are solely reliant on such resources. Reflecting on my own academic journey, I have learned how life-changing potential of education is a compassionate educator who respects students and provides a foundation to cultivate elite and upper-class citizens. This transformative experience has shaped my teaching philosophy to build meaningful connections with my students. I like research and teaching and I believe it is one of the best things about being an academic.
My teaching approach aims at motivating and challenging students to become lifelong learners, critical-thinker, and sceptical who positively contribute to people’s lives, communities, and workplace. My teaching approach constitutes three components of (i) industry driven teaching and learning, (ii) navigating emerging technologies through core research fundamentals, and (iii) cyclical learning development.
Industry-driven teaching and learning. The first component of my teaching approach, grounded in Borrell-Damian’s framework, is to promote practical skills development and prepare students for real-world challenges in future careers. Drawing from my 8 years of software industry experience, I share my real-world scenarios to enhance student learning, engagement, and help them see the relevance of the concepts to practice. This allows students to connect theory with real-life situations and inspire them to apply their knowledge and develop innovative ideas.
Navigating emerging technologies through core research fundamentals. The second component of my teaching approach, inspired by Webster’s theory, highlights the importance of understanding the fundamental principles that underpin advancements in information technologies field and how this knowledge enables students to navigate and adapt to emerging technologies. The component roots in the belief that although information technologies are continuously evolving, the underlying technical foundation remains relatively constant. Through providing students with a deep understanding of key foundations of information technologies operating on the binary logic of 0 & 1 digits, they can effectively comprehend and apply emerging technologies. I often employ the analogy that knowledge of the English alphabets is akin to understanding the fundamental concepts of IT. As one can construct words, sentences, and a book with letters, students who equipped with a solid foundation of information technologies can navigate new technologies with ease. I strive to instil in my students the ability to connect the dots between different fundamental concepts, enabling them to effectively analyse and apply their knowledge to real-world scenarios. In this spirit, I often leverage my research data to equip my students with the necessary skills to thrive in an ever-evolving technological landscape and to continually expand their expertise throughout their professional careers.
Cyclical learning development. My third component of my teaching approach, based on Arjomandi’s framework, emphasizes actively support student progression at all stages of their program. I believe it is essential for educators to employ repeated practice aiding in their learning development improving skill acquisition through regular engagement and practice. I operationalise this by providing both formative and summative assignments and feedback. These assure my students get better understanding about course material.
Through these three components my students have inspired to continue their study program by taking additional courses or pursuing a HDR program under my supervision. This reflects the quality of my teaching and its impact on improving students' enthusiasm and commitment to further their knowledge and expertise.
I have been fortunate enough to be a lecturer in several undergrad and post-grad subjects at University of Southern Queensland (USQ), University of Wollongong (UOW), University of New South Wales (UNSW), University of Technology Sydney (UTS), and Western Sydney University, among others, each with an invaluable insight into different teaching styles and assessment strategies. Following the guidelines and principles in VELS (Victorian Essential Learning Standards) framework, I use innovative teaching methods such as online delivery of course materials, flipped classroom, problem-based learning, and constructivism approach to course delivery, which enabled me to teach students with mixed abilities.
Master of Information Systems Professional (MISP)
CIS5205-Management of Information Security
CIS5206-Data Mining for Business Analytics and Cyber Security (Rapidminer as software tool)
Master of Cyber Security (MCYS)
CIS8707-Cyber Incident Management and Response
CIS8712-Information Assurance and Risk Management
CIS8708-Digital Forensics (Splunk as software tool)
CIS8720-Cyber Security Project (Final project)
CSC8411-Project
● University of Wollongong (April 2019 -July 2021)
As lecturer in information technology, I tough:
Software Development Methodologies (Postgraduate)
System development methodologies (Undergraduate)
Back-end Web Programming (Undergraduate)
Algorithms and Data Structures (Undergraduate)
Data Management and Security (Undergraduate)
Principles of e-Business (Undergraduate)
Professional Practice and Research Project (Postgraduate)
● University of Technology Sydney (March 2017 -November 2018)
As a tutor, I tough:
Agile software development (Undergraduate)
Database management (Undergraduate)
Introduction to Information Systems (Undergraduate)
Design and Innovation Fundamentals (Undergraduate)
● University of Western Sydney (March - June 2018)
As a lecturer, I tough (one semester):
Systems Analysis and Design (Undergraduate)
● University of New South Wales (July - October 2016)
As a tutor, I tough:
Enterprise database management (Undergraduate)
● Asia Pacific International College (APIC), Sydney (March-July 2017)
As a lecturer, I tough (two semesters):
Enterprise database management (Undergraduate)
Introduction to Information Systems (Undergraduate)
System development methodologies (Undergraduate)
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Recognition of Learning and Teaching, January 2021
Still, there are lots to learn and improve my teachin
● Ranked 5th among 600 PhD applicants in the national wide entrance exam of Azad Universities, Iran, February 2010
● Recipient of M.Sc. degree in software engineering with A+ honor, Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran, January 2010
● Ranked 3rd in the nation wide high school diploma computer science competition, Mashhad, Iran, January 2001
I have 8 years of real world experience in implementing core back-end of software systems for industry sectors of accounting, insurance, and defence and to integrate legacy software systems with new Internet-based platforms. I have deep experience in software engineering practices, object oriented analysis and design, software development methodologies such as Agile Scrum, and Rational Unified Process (RUP), information modeling techniques such as Unified Modeling Language (UML), software patterns, software architecture design, and programming languages such as C++, C#, Object Pascal, and Assembly. An excerpt of experience in information technology (IT), which has been accredited as an analyst programmer (ANZSCO 261311) by Australian Computer Society and consultant, is listed in the following.
● IoT Alliance Australia 2018 (part-time/post-doc), role: IoT & Data Analytics solution architect & Researcher
● Nashr IT of the institution representing the leadership in universities, Tehran, Iran March 2012–Aug 2012 (full-time), role: analyst programmer
● IK Relief Foundation, Tehran, Iran September 2009 – August 2011 (full-time), role: analyst programmer
● Soraya, Mashhad, Iran April 2007 – February 2008 (part-time), role: analyst programmer
●Compulsory Military service to government, Mashhad, Iran, role: providing a wide range of services to the police department including statistical analysis, preparing letters and journals, and cleaning service :), October 2006 – February 2008 (full-time), I completed the rest of my military service in May 2010 after my master program study.
● Doctor Sheikh Hospital, Mashhad, Iran March 2006 – October 2006 (full-time), role: analyst programmer
● Between June 2003 and September 2005, as a student, I was working as a programmer based on casual contracts for different clients.
● Ghods daily agency, As a student, I was working as a programmer based on casual contracts, Mashhad, Iran, December 2001 and February 2003
● Association of Information Systems (AIS)
● Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
● Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
● Australian Information Security Association (AISA)
● Australian Computer Society (ACS)
● Ph.D., Information Systems, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, PhD thesis, August 2012 - August 2017
● M.Sc., Software Eng., Azad Uni. Science and Research, Tehran, Iran, A+ honours, master thesis (in Persian), and here, here, and here, Feb. 2006 - May 2009
● B.Sc., Software Engineering (Azad University, Mashhad, Iran), A+ honours, project report (in Persian), February 2003 - February 2006
● Associate of Computer-Software (Montazeri Technical College, Mashhad, Iran), September 1999 - July 2002
● Diploma in Computer-Software Programming, (Technical High School, Mashhad, Iran), September 1997 - July 1999
Office address: Room 25, Building A27, School of Business, University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ), Springfield Education City, 37 Sinnathamby Blvd, Springfield Central QLD 4300, Australia
Office phone: +61 73470 4349
E-mail: Mahdi dot Fahmideh at unisq dot edu dot au
