Wassim El Hajj
Associate Dean
Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS)
American University of Beirut (AUB)
Dr. Wassim’s research interests have been primarily in the areas of wireless communication, network security, and machine learning with special focus on sentiment analysis in Arabic and emotion recognition. Recently he developed interest in the field of data mining, especially opinion mining and emotion mining.
His research objective are:
- To enhance the Quality of Service (QoS) in Wireless Network Protocols by:
- developing scalable and energy efficient routing protocols
- developing optimal network layout for better QoS
- developing efficient and fair scheduling algorithms
- To prevent cyber-attackers from acquiring or damaging personal or private data by:
- using Software Defined Networking (SDN) as a robust Firewall
- enhancing privacy on Mobile phones
- developing framework for securing information flow in web applications
- developing techniques for preventing network pre-attacks
- To improve the techniques used for sentiment analysis in Arabic and emotion recognition by:
- developing the Arabic resources needed for sentiment analysis
- improving the accuracy and robustness of sentiment analysis systems in Arabic
- developing accurate emotion recognition algorithms and devices in natural settings
Here is a list of MS students who graduated under my supervision or are in the process of graduation.
Student | Thesis/Project Title | Graduation Date |
---|---|---|
Ralph Adaimy | Mitigating Information Leaks in Web Applications at the Deployment Level | October 2012 |
Maha Akkari | MOLSR: Mobile-Agent-Based Optimized Link State Routing Protocol | October 2012 |
Mustafa Al-Tamimi | Framework for Creating Realistic Port Scanning Benchmarks | May 2013 |
Farah Eido | Data Collection from the Web and Social Media Sites | May 2013 |
Shadi Shaheen | Emotion Recognition from Textual Data | May 2014 |
Cynthia El-Hayek | Semantic Activity Recognition Using Mobile Phone Sensors | May 2015 |
Reem Balouli | Opinion Credibility on Social Media Sites | December 2015 |
Ayman Al Zaatari | Opinion Credibility on the Web | December 2016 |
Fatima Makki | Protecting the Privacy of Location Data using the openPDS/SafeAnswers Framework | December 2017 |
Ali Zeineddine | Stateful Distributed Framework for SDN Security | May 2018 |
Mohamad Omar Kayali | Hybrid Blockchain for Data Sharing Privacy | May 2018 |
Ahmad Ghandour | Congestion Avoidance in LTE Networks | Ongoing |
Mariam Mokalled | Stock MArket Prediction using Rule-Based and Deep Learning Algorithms | Ongoing |
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Optimized and Secured Demand Response Using Smart Meters and Blockchain for the Qatari Grid (PI):
grant offered by Qatar Foundation to enhance Smart Grid infrastructure and aims to develop an
optimized demand side and demand response strategy while
incorporating smart meter data and transformer loading condition. The project also aims to develop a secured 2-way
communication between smart meters and utilities using Blockchain technology and optimized outlier
detection algorithms. Amount: $600,000. Accepted in December 2018 till 2021. -
Automated Emotion Recognition for Better Mental and Medical States of
Being (PI): grant offered by Farouk Jabre Interfaculty Grants at
the American University of Beirut to build a large collection of resources
for research and applications on emotion recognition, and to develop
automated deep learning neural network models for emotion recognition.
Amount: $25,000; Duration: 2018-19. -
ILO software/toolkit on Labour Force Surveys sampling designs (PI):
grant offered by the International Labour Organization (ILO) to create a
new state-of-the-art software/toolkit for Labour statistician for the
objective of maximizing their productivity and reducing the labour survey
errors. The software will include appropriate UI and UX on the front end
and algorithms’ optimization on the backend. Amount: $15,000; Duration: 2018-19. -
Mining for Credible Opinions in Arabic Blog Posts (PI): grant offered by
the American University of Beirut Research Board (URB) to build a tool that
automatically rates the credibility of Arabic blog posts in real-time. Amount: $8,500; Duration 2016-17. -
White Space Management in Plants Industry 2D Piping Drawing (PI): grant
offered by Computers & Communication Technology SAL – Offshore (CCT), to build a
tool for Oil/Gas Plants Industry that accepts as input, a 2D piping isometrics
(extracted from 3D model representation) and produces a new cleanly annotated
drawing with all annotations occupying the available white space without having
any intersection. Amount: $20,000; Duration: 2015-16. - Efficient Detection of Information Leaks in Web Applications (PI): grant offered by the American University of Beirut Research Board to propose a framework that enforces security-by-construction in web applications, where any violation in the data’s confidentiality or integrity policies is reported at its source. Amount: $6,000; Duration: 2014-2015.
- Opinion Mining for Arabic with Models of Semantics and Credibility (PI): A 1 million dollars
grant offered by Qatar Foundation to develop resources and tools, and study new problems relating
to the extraction of opinions from primarily Arabic text. Amount: $1,050,000; Duration: 2013-2016. - Optimizing OLSR using Mobile Agents (PI): grant offered by the American University of Beirut Research Board to
propose an approach that uses mobile agents (MA) to maintain MANET topology information. Amount: $6,000; Duration: 2013-2014. - Slow-Distributed Port Scanning Detection (PI): grant offered by the American University of
Beirut Research Board to provide a mechanism to detect and consequently prevent port scans that
are both, slow and distributed. Amount: $5,200; Duration: 2012-2013. - Google CS4HS 2012 (PI): grant offered by Google to promote Computer Science and Computational
Thinking in high school and middle school curriculum (CS Blossoms). Amount: $8,000; Duration: 2012-2013. - Google’s 2011 EMEA AndroidEDU grant (PI): grant offered by Google in the form of Samsung
Galaxy S Plus phones to be used by Computer Science students and faculty for research and development. - Arabic Semantic Analysis as a novel way to predict protein interaction (co-PI): grant funded
by Emirates Foundation to develop a novel method to predict protein-protein interaction based on
Arabic semantic analysis model. Amount: $55,000; Duration: 2010-2012. - Protecting Communication Networks from Dangerous Subliminal Channels (PI): grant funded by
Emirates Foundation to design and implement a system (Hardware and Software) that detects covert
channels that carry secret messages within network traffic. Amount: $55,000; Duration: 2009-2011. - Protecting UAE University Network from Port Scanning (PI): grant funded by UAE University
to detect port scanning attacks on university servers. Amount: $6,000; Duration: 2008-2009. - Securing Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) through Usage Control Model (co-PI): grant
funded by UAE University to introduce new architecture that implements a new type of
access control, called Usage Access control (U-Con), to control the access to the SNMP-based environment. Amount: $5,500; Duration: 2008-2009. - An Efficient Hierarchical Scheme for MANETs that can Potentially Cover the whole UAE (co-PI):
grant funded by UAE University to design an efficient large scale network, composed of
cell phones, laptops, sensors, and other wireless devices, spanning a country like UAE. Amount: $8,000; Duration: 2007-2008 - Using Fuzzy-Logic to Detect and Prevent Data Link Layer Attacks on UAEU Networks (PI): grant funded by
UAE University to propose a solution to the ARP poisoning problem based on extending the ARP protocol. Amount: $8,000; Duration: 2007-2008 - Biometrics Fingerprint Time Attendance Recorders for UAEU Students (co-PI): grant funded by UAE University
to design and implement a friendly GUI tool, an AntiSniffer, for detecting malicious sniffing hosts in the UAE
University Wireless networks. Amount: $5,500; Duration: 2007-2008