Timeline of career developments
I have been in academia since 2017 and previously did my PhD program in Information Systems and Technology Management at Business School, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia between 2012 and 2017. Before that, I worked in the software industry for 8 years as an analyst programmer with deep experience in software engineering practices and development processes as listed here. My academic positions, in chronological order, have included:
Visiting Research Fellow, University of Boras, November 2023
During my visit at the School of Business and IT, University of Boras, Sweden, I had the opportunity to present my research findings on legacy system migration to modern computing platforms, in particular cloud computing. I also proposed course development, contributing to the academic community. This experience not only enriched my academic journey but also allowed me to extend my research network in the Information Systems field. The support of a AUS $17K grant funded my visit, enabling fruitful collaboration and knowledge exchange with a focus on system (de)migration to cloud computing platforms. It was a valuable and transformative experience that furthered my expertise and provided a platform for sharing insights and knowledge with peers in the field. My time at the University of Boras was instrumental in advancing my research and academic pursuits.
Senior Lecturer in Cyber Security, University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ), July 2021- present
In my role as a continuing full-time senior lecturer in cyber security at the Information Systems group, Business School, University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ), Australia, I was doing research and teaching undergraduate (Bachelors degree) and postgraduate students in information systems cyber security. Given the teaching-focused nature of UniSQ, I have extensively worked on new course development and major course redevelopment. These included, for example, courses Data Mining for Business Analytics and Cyber Security (CIS5206), Digital Assets and Responsible Data Management (CIS2103), Business Intelligence (CIS6008), Information Assurance and Risk Management (CIS6712), Digital Forensics (CIS8708), Cyber Governance and Leadership (CIS6709), and Human Factors in Cyber Security (CIS2104). I was actively involved with designing new course material, e.g., lectures and references, non-exams, and final exam assessments/assignments. Augmenting and extending the existing courses with a focus on up-to-date and modern technologies was my mission during course design towards getting students ready for the job market (for example see sample lecturers of CIS8708 Digital Forensics available here and here). I have extensively used the top information systems and software engineering research papers published in quality venues as the main input for the course design. I have also received a My Star recognition from the Associate Head of Learning, Teaching and Student Success for providing an exceptional level of teaching to students in the business school, semester 1- 2023 as evident in my mid-semester student satisfaction score exceeding 4.5.
During my appointment, my research extended to design solutions to contribute towards securing cyberspace. I developed my research network with my UniSQ colleagues in particular Professor Jianming Yong and Professor Jeffrey Soar. I have been a member of the Group of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Business at the Information Systems group. I was among a few information systems staff who received an additional research workload of 40% based on my research performance between 2019 to 2021. My achievement in research and publications was acknowledged by Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) in 2022.
Senior Research Fellow, Macquarie University, Jun 2022- December 2022
At the Macquarie Business School, Macquarie University, Australia I and my colleague Dr. Babak Abedin conducting a research project on blockchain development methodologies. The project explores how the information system development methodologies (a.k.a. software engineering methodologies) can be defined to build the next generation of systems leveraging blockchain technologies as a class of digital transformation problem.
Visiting Research Fellowship, University of Jyväskylä, November 2021 - December 2021
I have been awarded the Visiting Fellowship grant at the Value Creation for Cyber-Physical Systems research group, University of Jyväskylä, Finland to collaborate with Prof Tuure Tuunanen and Prof Pekka Abrahamsson. The visit allowed me to get more familiar with the higher education system in Finland including running PhD programs and extending my international research network.
Lecturer in Information Technology, University of Wollongong (UOW), March 2019 - July 2021
I served as a full-time lecturer in Information Technology at the School of Computing and Information Technology (SCIT), the University of Wollongong (UOW), Australia. During my appointment at SCIT, I collaborated with my colleagues Senior Distinguished Professor Willy Susilo (ARC College of Experts, ARC Future Fellow), Dr. Jun Shen, and Dr. Jun Yan on a number of research projects including two ARC projects (one failed and one successful). I have also been working with domestic scholar Professor John Grundy (ARC College of Experts and Australian Laureate Fellow) from the Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University. The outcomes of these successful collaborations appeared here. I thought a wide range of courses at the level of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees such as CSCI203-CSCI803 Algorithms and Data Structures, CSIT314-Software Development Methodologies, ISIT204-Principles of eBusiness, ISIT307-Backend Web Programming, ISIT950-Systems Development Methodologies, and ISIT990 Project. I also served as a co-supervisor for 2 PhD students at SCIT during my appointment. I was also a member of Bachelor of IT-Working party for a major course (re)development. For example, I led the design of a new course that I called Disruptive technologies and the Organization where the course aimed at developing student learning on information systems development techniques suitable for emerging modern computing technologies such as cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT), data analytics, and blockchain. During my appointment, I received Deputy Vice-Chancellor Recognition of Learning and Teaching in 2020.
Research Assistant, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), May 2020 - August 2020
I was invited to join the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) as a research assistant. I was a team member in the project of Smart Beach Analytics Safety Management, Lake Macquarie, NSW, Australia, I worked with colleagues Prof Ghassan Beydoun and Frank Zeichner (CEO) to help with the development of a draft for the consistent representation and integration of data analytics models using ontologies catering to predict beach hazards and rescues actions in the critical domain of beach safety management. The project was funded by the Australian Government, between 2019 and 2020, for a total value of $1,999,660, where its description is available at https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/territories-regions-cities/cities/smart-cities/collaboration-platform/thesmart-beaches-project. An example outcome of this project appeared at Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS) 2022 DOI and .ppt.
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), September 2017 - December 2018
I was appointed as a post-doctoral researcher at the School of Information, Systems and Modelling, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia. I was working with colleagues Prof Didar Zowghi and Prof Ghassan Beydoun and led conducting three research projects on developing innovative techniques for integrating legacy systems with new internet-based computing platforms. I invented new techniques focusing on (i) reengineering manufacturing systems to big data analytics platforms, (ii) exploring the information systems development methods of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) based systems, and (iii) reengineering robotic systems to become environmentally friendly and green-aware enabled. For example, I designed and tested a mixed technique for goal-obstacle reasoning to select suitable solution architectures to integrate manufacturing legacy systems with big data analytics platforms such as Apache Hadoop, Google’s Dremel. The technique was aimed at satisfying system quality goals (e.g., performance, interoperability), constraints of stakeholders, and uncertainties of architecture design decision outcomes. A key outcome of this research project, for example, was published at Computers & Industrial Engineering. At UTS, I was actively working with IoT Alliance Australia (IoTAA), the peak industry body representing the Internet of Things (IoT) in Australia, to design an evaluation framework as a cornerstone to develop IoT-based systems in line with the (non)-functional requirements of enterprises. During my appointment, I actively provided teaching service to the school where I served as a tutor for the undergraduate courses such as Database, Design and Innovation Fundamentals, Information System Development Methodologies, and Introduction to Information Systems.
PhD Student, University of New South Wales (UNSW), August 2012 - August 2017
I was a PhD student at the Business School, University of New South Wales (UNSW). For one year of my fully-funded PhD program, I completed all the compulsory courses of COMM8000-Intellectual Foundation, COMM8001-Introduction to research methods, COMM8002-Quantitative Research Methods, COMM8003-Qualitative Research Methods, and INFS5987-Theoretical Foundations of IS. I attained the High Distinction (HD) for both quantitative and qualitative research method courses. In the 2.5 years until thesis submission in Sept 2016, I was in a full-time research role (100%). Advised by Prof Fethi Rabhi, Emeritus Prof Graham Low, Dr. Farhad Daneshgar, Prof Ghassan Beydoun, and Prof Kieran Conboy, I worked on designing a model-driven framework supported with a toolset to reengineer enterprise legacy software systems to cloud platforms. The key findings of each chapter of my PhD thesis, excluding the Introduction and Conclusion chapters, were individually published in quality international venues. That is, Chapter 2 proposing an exhaustive framework to assess reengineering processes to the cloud was published in the Journal of Systems and Software (JSS)-Elsevier, a leading CORE A journal in Software Engineering. Chapters 3 and 4 were, respectively, published in the Journals of Information Systems and European Journal of Information Systems (EJIS) both CORE A*. Chapter 5 and 6 were, respectively, accepted in European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), and published at Australian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), both a CORE A leading conference in Information Systems discipline.
In the last year of my PhD program at UNSW, I realized that the body of knowledge for legacy system reengineering to cloud platforms is dispersed and fragmented over the academic and multivocal literature. Acknowledged by 11 interviewed cloud solution architects noting that it is hard for busy practitioners to digest, synthesize, and harness this large body of knowledge into practice when reengineering legacy systems with cloud services, I addressed this challenge by creating an innovative synergy between the techniques Evidence-Based Software Engineering (EBSE) and Goal-Oriented Requirements Modeling (GORE). I developed and tested my requirements reasoning technique supported by the evidence-based repository datasets of architectural obstacles and resolution tactics related to migrating legacy system components to cloud platforms. I demonstrated the efficacy of my technique and the repository datasets in 2 real-world cloud migration scenarios. For example, at Deloitte Australia, providing transformation strategies in migrating legacy systems to Software as a Service (SaaS), my toolset was benchmarked by the software architects to identify in-house reengineering process flaws at Deloitte Australia. The key findings of my independent research were published in the Journal of Software and Systems and Information Sciences journals both ERA CORE A. As a token of appreciation, UNSW awarded AUS$ 3,000 for my research excellence.
Analyst Programmer in Software Industry, Prior to August 2012
I worked in the software industry as an an analyst programmer as elaborated here.