InterestsFundingSupervised Theses
Research Interests
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Human-Computer Interaction: My primary research interests are in the intersection of human-computer interaction (HCI) and education, particularly IT education. HCI, an interdisciplinary field drawing from computer science, psychology, and ergonomics, concentrates on technology design and, specifically, the interaction between humans and computers. In my research, I focus on designing, analyzing, implementing, and evaluating user interfaces that bring new possibilities for users. Throughout my research career, I developed an interest in several HCI-related topics. For instance, I designed a tool to be used by end-user developers to create visualizations with an emphasis on the usability of the tool.
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Conversational Agents (Chatbots): The focus of my research centers on chatbots, with a two-fold objective: designing them to be both usable and effective, and investigating the impact of design configurations on user behavior. I aim to create chatbot interfaces that are intuitive and user-friendly, ensuring a seamless and satisfying interaction for users. Simultaneously, I delve into the influence of various design factors, such as personality traits and communication modalities, on user behavior. Through comprehensive studies, I examine how these design configurations affect user trust, perceived authenticity, and engagement with chatbots. My research seeks to uncover valuable insights that can inform the development of highly effective and user-centric chatbot systems by understanding the interplay between design elements and user responses.
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IT Education: Concerning IT education, I utilize my expertise in design to create interactive illustrations to be used in IT education. For instance, I experimented with combining interactive educational content visualizing complex algorithms and existing pedagogical strategies on students’ learning and engagement. I’m also interested in the design and efficient operation of IT labs.
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End-User Development (a Visualization Tool for End-user Developers): Uvis is a visualization system that targets savvy designers. With Uvis, designers drag and drop visual objects, set the visual object properties with formulas, and see the result immediately. The formulas are declarative and similar to spreadsheet formulas. The formulas compute the property values and can refer to fields, visual properties, functions, etc. This research hypothesizes that it is possible to express custom visualizations with spreadsheet-like formulas, and savvy designers can learn to refine the visualizations. The research presents four contributions: The first is the expressive power of formulas, substantiated with a collection of custom visualizations. The second contribution is iteratively refining Uvis based on feedback from savvy designers. Uvis provides novel cognitive aids that assist the designers in creating and refining custom visualizations. The third contribution is a usability evaluation of Uvis with savvy designers. The fourth contribution is a usability analysis of several visualization tools including Uvis. The analysis highlights the differences between approaches and argues why Uvis is more suited for custom visualizations.
Funded Projects
- Research Incentive Fund (RIF) Grant (PI): 255,708 AED, Zayed University, UAE, 2022. Exploring the Design Space of Polyadic Chatbots, and its Effect on User Behavior (PI: Kuhail, M. A., Co-PIs: Al Imamy, S., Taj, I., Abu Shawar, B., Berengueres, J.)
- Research Incentive Fund (RIF) Grant (Co-PI): 300,000 AED, Zayed University, UAE, 2022. Using Social Media Analytics and AI to Assess Brands’ Perception & Reputation in Real-time (PI: Mathew, S. S., Co-PIs: El Barachi, M., Kuhail, M. A.)
- UAEU-ZU Grant (Co-PI): 360,500 AED, UAE University & Zayed University Joint Research Grant, UAE, 2022. Astro Haptic Footwear: Human Augmentation for Mars Exploration (PI: Berengueres, J., Co-PIs: Kuhail, M. A., Taher, F.)
- Research Incentive Fund (RIF) Grant (PI): 300,000 AED, Zayed University, UAE, 2020. ZUAdviser: Developing the next-generation AI-driven virtual academic adviser (PI: Kuhail, M. A., Co-PIs: Negreiros, J., Al Katheeri, H., Alfandi, O.)
- NSF/IEEE-TCPP Curriculum Initiative on Parallel and Distributed Computing (PI): $2,500, NSF, USA, 2015. Integrating Parallelism into the Computer Science Curriculum (PI: Kuhail, M. A., Co-PIs: Rao, P., De Liefvoort, V., Hare, B.)
Supervised Theses and Projects
- Master's Theses
- Weaving ODRL Into RBAC: Concepts and Demonstration. Studdent: Aisha Alshamsi (Co-supervised with Prof. Zakaria Maamar), Zayed University, UAE 2022
- A Model for Estimating Bike Lane Demand. Studdent: Aadarsh Vadakattu, University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), USA 2019
- Parking Availability Forecasting Model. Studdent: Manohar Boorlu, University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), USA 2019
- TaskDo: A Daily Task Recommender System. Studdent: Nikhil Gurram, University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), USA 2019
- Smart Travel Recommender System. Studdent: Bilal Ahmad, University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), USA 2018
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Honors Thesis (Bachelor's Thesis)
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Senior Projects (Bachelor's Degree)
- Home Securing System, Zayed University, UAE 2022
- Face Recognition Entry System, Zayed University, UAE 2022
- 3D Learning Hub, Zayed University, UAE 2021
- Find My Pet, Zayed University, UAE 2021
- Major Match, Zayed University, UAE 2020
- Products Comparison, Zayed University, UAE 2020
- ShareURCar, Zayed University, UAE 2020
- Unibud, Zayed University, UAE 2020
- Teachy, Zayed University, UAE 2020
- Mobility as a Service, Zayed University, UAE 2020
- Communi, Zayed University, UAE 2020
- Beverage Master, Zayed University, UAE 2020
- Two sides of virtual assistant, Zayed University, UAE 2019
- Employee Satisfaction, Zayed University, UAE 2019