Issam Damaj

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Senior Lecturer and Programme Director for Computer Science at Cardiff Metropolitan University

With the richness of present-day hardware architectures, tightening the synergy between hardware and software has attracted a great attention. The interest in unified approaches paved the way for newborn frameworks that target hardware and software co-design. This paper confirms that a unified statistical framework can successfully classify algorit...

Morphological analysis in Arabic language is computationally intensive, has numerous forms and rules, and intrinsically parallel. The investigation presented in this paper confirms that the effective development of parallel algorithms and the derivation of corresponding processors in hardware enable implementations with appealing performance charac...

The term sustainability means using methods, systems and materials to meet the needs of the present without compromising the future. Even with the prevalence of the term and its wide use across disciplines, there has been little effort to formulate a quality measurement framework in tertiary education based on the values and characteristics of sust...

More than ever, the automotive industry is shifting towards electric vehicles since environmental and sustainability concerns are becoming important to potential customers. Nowadays, automakers are also integrating connectedness and autonomous components in their produced vehicles to reduce time of travel and increase the safety of the drivers, pas...

Today, communication technologies enable smart cities to become more effective in terms of satisfactory provision of services. Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) can be considered key elements for today's Intelligent Transportation Systems. A small number of research investigations is found to aim at exploiting the resources of CAVs for servi...

Modern higher education has seen a significant expansion of multicampus operations through satellite and branch campuses globally and geographically distant setups. Such operations pose major challenges for effective quality assurance, including internal program reviews and programmatic and institutional accreditation. Key challenges include ensuri...

Information-centric networking (ICN) allows data to be cached at each node in the network. It is vital in vehicular networks (VNs) to improve caching performance and reduce content delay in high-traffic scenarios. In cooperative VNs, the requested content can be cached in the base station or nearby nodes without fetching the requested content from...

Since the turn of the 21st century, higher education in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region has witnessed significant progress, with the establishment of numerous universities aimed at delivering quality education. Dhofar University (DU) in Oman stands as a prime example of these efforts. This paper extends a reflective article published in 2...

The transport sector is experiencing a notable transition towards sustainability, propelled by technological progress, innovative materials, and a dedication to environmental preservation. This study explicitly examines the incorporation of electric vehicles (EVs) into the power grid, with a particular emphasis on passenger automobiles. Our analysi...

Developing chaotic systems-on-a-chip is gaining much attention due to its great potential in securing communication, encrypting data, generating random numbers, and more. The digital implementation of chaotic systems strives to achieve high performance in terms of time, speed, complexity, and precision. In this paper, the focus is on developing hig...

Over the last few decades, researchers have become increasingly interested in machine learning. The field has progressed from classical techniques to neural networks (NNs) and fuzzy neural networks. A novel approach that employs an algebraic model has recently emerged, which enables data conceptualization through generalization and formalization. T...

Algebraic machine learning is a novel parameter-free model that has demonstrated impressive accuracy in challenging tasks such as the MNIST dataset and N-Queens completion. However, its utilization of two semi-lattices can lead to significant computational demands. To tackle this issue, a solution has been proposed that employs a single semi-lattic...

Modern Recommender Systems (RSs) compete to maintain rich user profiles that can accurately reflect user behavior, interests, and service contexts. While benefiting from an online service supported by an RS, user preferences and interests may rapidly change over time. To keep up with the changes from the user perspective, an RS should maintain the...

The increased need for data, combined with the emergence of powerful Internet of Things (IoT) devices, has resulted in major security concerns. The decision-making related to choosing an adequate cryptographic algorithm to use is, indeed, an example concern that affects the performance of an implementation. Lightweight or tiny ciphers are considere...

A Recommender System (RS) is an integral part of present-day leading web services, such as YouTube, Amazon, Netflix, and many others. Modern RSs are challenged to go beyond their traditional role of predicting user preferences to efficiently provide reliable, carefully personalized, and highly accurate recommendations. This paper thoroughly explore...

With significant advancements in information and communication technologies, connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) can provide improved transportation services. At present, a variety of technologies, such as vehicular networks, communication interfaces, and modern hardware devices enable CAVs to support reliable, safe, and quality transportation...

The increasing complexity of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), that comprise a wide variety of applications and services, has imposed a necessity for high-performance Modern Hardware Devices (MHDs). The performance challenge has become more noticeable with the integration of Machine Learning (ML) techniques deployed in large-scale settings....

The increasing complexity of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), that comprise a wide variety of applications and services, has imposed a necessity for high-performance Modern Hardware Devices (MHDs). The performance challenge has become more noticeable with the integration of Machine Learning (ML) techniques deployed in large-scale settings....

With the emergence of handy rapid prototyping tools and versatile hardware development kits, health informatics is ready, more than ever, to improve human well being. At present, a variety of available, easy-to-maintain, and affordable enabling technologies support quality patient care. Supporting technologies can accelerate diagnoses, reduce error...

Effective governance is a key enabler of successful and quality operation of academic institutions. Typically, good governance supports accountability, credibility, transparency, responsiveness, effectiveness and efficiency, inclusiveness, and integrity. Undoubtedly, sustaining the effectiveness of academic institutions challenges the national byla...

Senior design and capstone courses are an integral part of any engineering curriculum around the world. These courses perhaps provide the only opportunity for students to apply the theoretical knowledge and technical skills they have acquired throughout the engineering degree. Moreover, they are often the (sole) environment in which students get so...

The advancements in Internet of things (IoT) technology is quickly transforming the world into a smart network of interoperable devices. Traditional devices are becoming ubiquitous, pervasive, connected, and wearable IoT gadgets. The purpose of this investigation is to develop a smart Child Pocket Monitoring and Protection System (ChildPOPS). Child...

With the rapid advancement in the Internet of things, protocols are challenged to perform routing with low power over lossy networks (RPLs). Performance analysis of RPL attracted many researchers in the field. However, to the best of our knowledge, limited or no studies have been made to develop heterogeneous analytical models that aim at the class...

Brain Storm Optimization (BSO) is a metaheuristic algorithm that has been gaining attention in solving engineering problems. The algorithm emulates the human brainstorming procedure by initializing a population and optimizing it over several generations. The algorithm enjoys intrinsic parallelism that enables the development of high-speed hardware...

Security in embedded systems has become a main requirement in modern electronic devices. The demand for low-cost and highly secure cryptographic algorithms is increasingly growing in fields such as mobile telecommunications, handheld devices, etc. In this paper, we analyze and evaluate the development of cheap and relatively fast hardware implement...

Accurate and simple assessment frameworks are of essential need in technical higher education. Although accurate results in most cases demand complicated setups, good compromises can lead to the desired assessment with simplicity. In this paper, we propose a unified framework for the assessment of student outcomes based on senior design experiences...

In higher education, academic departments are always challenged by the need to succeed in operation while maintaining quality practices and outputs. It is common that departments need to adhere to multiple accreditation initiatives and standards at both the institutional and programmatic levels. In this paper, we benefit from the intersection betwe...

A capstone design project is an extensive piece of work that requires creative activity and thinking. It provides a unique opportunity for students to demonstrate their abilities, skills, and experiences that are attained throughout a bachelor of engineering program. The learning outcomes of capstone projects mostly map to all student outcomes at t...

This paper investigates incorporating jigsaw cooperative learning and its impact on students' performance in a junior-level engineering course on Signals and Systems. This course is rich in mathematical formulation and analysis of complex processes. To make the material more approachable to students, instructors usually incorporate several problem-...

A capstone project is a culminating experience that entails creativity, critical thinking, and advanced problem-solving skills. To that end, capstone projects enable students to prove their abilities, demonstrate their attained skills, and carry out a significant project in their field. In Computer Science Bachelor programs, there is a strong mappi...

Security in embedded systems has become a main requirement in modern electronic devices. The demand for low-cost and highly secure cryptographic algorithms is increasingly growing in fields such as mobile telecommunications, handheld devices, etc. In this paper, we analyze and evaluate the development of cheap and relatively fast hardware implement...

The Internet-of-Things (IoT) is a revolutionary technology that is rapidly changing the world. IoT systems strive to provide automated solutions for almost every life aspect; traditional devices are becoming connected, ubiquitous, pervasive, wireless, context-aware, smart, controlled through mobile solutions, to name but a few. IoT devices can now...

The Internet of things (IoT) is a revolutionary technology that is rapidly changing our world. IoT systems are becoming essential in modern life; traditional devices are becoming ubiquitous, connected, wireless, and smart. The aim of this investigation is to develop an IoT context-aware system that creates an Ambient Intelligence environment; in an...

At the present time, 15% of the growing world population is estimated to have disabilities and special needs. Disabilities can seriously limit participation in regular life activities, such as controlling home facilities, using transportation services, joining social events, accessing educational contents, to name but a few. With the advancement in...

Engineering optimization techniques are computationally intensive and can challenge implementations on tightly-constrained embedded systems. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is a well-known bio-inspired algorithm that is adopted in various applications, such as, transportation, robotics, energy, etc. In this paper, a high-speed PSO hardware proces...

Fuzzy logic controllers are readily customizable in natural language terms and can effectively deal with nonlinearities and uncertainties in control systems. This paper presents an intelligent and automated fuzzy control procedure for the refrigerant charging of refrigerators. The elements that affect the experimental charging and the optimization...

The growing demand for data along with the emergence of new communication standards have reshaped wireless networks through a denser base station deployment, an increasing traffic heterogeneity, and an additional complexity in quality of service (QoS) assurance. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) is considered as one technique to...

Smart gadgets are being embedded almost in every aspect of our lives. From smart cities to smart watches, modern industries are increasingly supporting the Internet-of-Things (IoT). SysMART aims at making supermarkets smart, productive, and with a touch of modern lifestyle. While similar implementations to improve the shopping experience exists, th...

Functional programming languages, such as Haskell, enable simple, concise, and correct-by-construction hardware development. HTCC compiles a subset of Haskell to Handel-C language with hardware output. Moreover, HTCC generates VHDL, Verilog, EDIF, and SystemC programs. The design of HTCC compiler includes lexical, syntax and semantic analyzers. HTC...

Smart cities are today's modern trend. Many high-tech industrial firms are exploring different approaches to implement smart cities. Various projects aim at internet-of-things and smart solutions. Current implementations are mostly localized to a specific building or area; however, the growth is crossing space and geographic location limits. Shoppi...

Smart gadgets are being embedded almost in every aspect of our lives. From smart cities to smart watches, modern industries are increasingly supporting the Internet of Things (IoT). SysMART aims at making supermarkets smart, productive, and with a touch of modern lifestyle. While similar implementations to improve the shopping experience exists, th...

In the modern world of technology Internet-of-things (IoT) systems strives to provide an extensive interconnected and automated solutions for almost every life aspect. This paper proposes an IoT context-aware system to present an Ambient Intelligence (AmI) environment; such as an apartment, house, or a building; to assist blind, visually-impaired,...

Embedded Systems are everywhere from the smartphones we hold in our hands to the satellites that hover around the earth. These embedded systems are being increasingly integrated into our personal and commercial infrastructures. More than 98% of all processors are implanted and used in embedded systems rather than traditional computers. As a result,...

In the modern world of technology, Internet-of-things (IoT) systems strives to provide an extensive interconnected and automated solutions for almost every life aspect. This paper proposes an IoT context-aware system to present an Ambient Intelligence (AmI) environment; such as an apartment, house, or a building; to assist blind, visually-impaired,...

In this chapter, we study the feasibility of implementing SOR in reconfigurable hardware. We use Handel-C, a higher level design tool, to code our design, which is analyzed, synthesized, and placed and routed using the FPGAs proprietary software (DK Design Suite, Xilinx ISE 8.1i, and Quartus II 5.1). We target Virtex II Pro, Altera Stratix, and Spa...

Programmable logic arrays (PLAs) are traditional digital electronic devices. A PLA is a simple programmable logic device (SPLD) used to implement combinational logic circuits. A PLA has a set of programmable AND gates, which link to a set of programmable OR gates to produce an output. The AND-OR layout of a PLA allows for implementing logic functio...

Hardware synthesis is a general term used to refer to the processes involved in automatically generating a hardware design from its specification. High-level synthesis (HLS) could be defined as the translation from a behavioral description of the intended hardware circuit into a structural description similar to the compilation of programming langu...

This paper presents new mappings of 2D and 3D geometrical transformation on the MorphoSys (M1) reconfigurable computing (RC) prototype [2]. This improves the system performance as a graphics accelerator [1-5]. Three algorithms are mapped including two for calculating 2D transformations, and one for 3D transformations. The results presented indicate...

This paper introduces a new mapping of geometrical transformation on the MorphoSys (M1) reconfigurable computing (RC) system. New mapping techniques for some linear algebraic functions are recalled. A new mapping for geometrical transformation operations is introduced and their performance on the M1 system is evaluated. The translation and scaling...

The rapid progress and advancement in electronic chips technology provide a variety of new implementation options for system engineers. The choice varies between the flexible programs running on a general-purpose processor (GPP) and the fixed hardware implementation using an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Many other implementation...

This paper introduces reconfigurable computing (RC) and specifically chooses one of the prototypes in this field, MorphoSys (M1) [1 - 5]. The paper addresses the results obtained when using RC in mapping algorithms pertaining to digital coding in relation to previous research [6 - 10]. The chosen algorithms relate to cyclic coding techniques, namel...

Morphological analysis in the Arabic language is computationally intensive, has numerous forms and rules, and is intrinsically parallel. The investigation presented in this paper confirms that the effective development of parallel algorithms and the derivation of corresponding processors in hardware enable implementations with appealing performance...

Modern powerful reconfigurable systems are suited in the implementation of various data-stream, data-parallel, and other applications. An application that needs real-time, fast, and reliable data processing is the global positioning system (GPS)-based vehicle tracking system (VTS). In this paper, we build on a recently produced VTS (The Aram Locato...

This paper proposes an optimized mapping of the FIR filter algorithm that enhances the rate of a reconfigurable computer over a basic mapping previously proposed [1]. It also presents a new interconnection scheme in the reconfigurable part of MorphoSys, a reconfigurable computing system [2]. Reconfigurable computing (RC) is introduced, followed by...

Reconfigurable devices, such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), have been witnessing a considerable increase in density. State-of-the-art FPGAs are complex hybrid devices that contain up to several millions of gates. Recently, research effort has been going into higher-level parallelization and hardware synthesis methodologies that can expl...

Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs) continue to grow in size and currently contain several millions of gates. At the same time, research effort is going into higher-level hardware synthesis methodologies for reconfigurable computing that can exploit PLD technology. In this paper, we explore the effectiveness and extend one such formal methodology in...

The problem of finding the solution of Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) plays a central role in modeling real world problems. Over the past years, Multigrid solvers have showed their robustness over other techniques, due to its high convergence rate which is independent of the problem size. For this reason, many attempts for exploiting the inh...

With the richness of present-day hardware architectures, tightening the synergy between hardware and software has attracted a great attention. The interest in unified approaches paved the way for newborn frameworks that target hardware and software co-design. This paper confirms that a unified statistical framework can successfully classify algorit...

The Internet-of-Things (IoT) is a revolutionary technology that is rapidly changing the world. IoT systems strive to provide automated solutions for almost every life aspect; traditional devices are becoming connected, ubiquitous, pervasive, wireless, context-aware, smart, and controlled through mobile solutions, to name but a few. IoT devices can...

Effective frameworks for the assessment of student outcomes are vital to the success of a technical higher-education program. While ensuring the accuracy of the student outcomes assessment usually translates to employing complicated setups, thoughtful abstraction can lead to the desired reliability of assessment with great simplicity. In this paper...

Embedded Systems are everywhere from the smartphones we hold in our hands to the satellites that hover around the earth. These embedded systems are being increasingly integrated into our personal and commercial infrastructures. More than 98% of all processors are implanted and used in embedded systems rather than traditional computers. As a result,...

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is gaining wide attention. STEM education assimilates rigorous disciplines and requires diverse skills. Effort to promote and integrate STEM education in schools has been significant during the recent years. This paper investigates promoting students interest in STEM beyond the K-12...

In higher education, academic departments are always challenged by the need to succeed in operation while maintaining quality practices and outputs. It is common that departments need to adhere to multiple accreditation initiatives and standards at both the institutional and programmatic levels. In this paper, we benefit from the intersection betwe...

Fuzzy logic controllers are readily customizable in natural language terms and can effectively deal with nonlinearities and uncertainties in control systems. This paper presents an intelligent and automated fuzzy control procedure for the refrigerant charging of refrigerators. The elements that affect the experimental charging and the optimization...

The development of reliable and easy-to-deploy assessment plans are a worldwide interest of academic programs. The cultivation of a culture of assessment or engaging in an accreditation effort is dependent on the development of effective assessment frameworks. Examining overly large variety of sources and using different tools challenge the applica...

Smart cities are today's modern trend. Many high-tech industrial firms are exploring different approaches to implement smart cities. Various projects aim at internet-of-things and smart solutions. Current implementations are mostly localized to a specific building or area, however the growth is crossing space and geographic location limits. Shoppin...

The term sustainability means using methods, systems and materials to meet the needs of the present without compromising the future. Even with the prevalence of the term and its wide use across disciplines, there has been little effort to formulate a quality measurement framework in tertiary education based on the values and characteristics of sust...

Modern computing systems are hybrid in nature and employ various processing technologies that range from specific-to general-purpose processors. In co-design environments, specific-purpose processors, also known as hardware, work to support software implementations under general-purpose systems to create high-performance computers. Algorithms and c...

Abstract

The term sustainability aims to describe the capacity of meeting the needs of the present without compromising the future. Sustainability is a key characteristic of continuous improvement, a criterion required by numerous outcomes-based quality assurance and accrediting bodies, such as ABET. It is well known that "closing the loop" of assessment an...

A technology that is able to integrate the multitude of accounts into one safe, convenient, and wearable pass is an attractive modern setup. The idea provides the user with the ability to customize, secure, and use wearable technologies by adding the information of all of their accounts. Since all of a user’s accounts are stored in a single device,...

Abstract

A capstone design project is an extensive piece of work that requires creative activity and thinking. It provides a unique opportunity for students to demonstrate their abilities, skills, and experiences that are attained throughout a bachelor of engineering program. The learning outcomes of capstone projects mostly map to all student outcomes at t...

Since the turn of the 21st century, various institutions of higher education have been established in the Gulf Cooperation Council region, several of which are branches of universities from North America, Europe, Australia, and other regions. Quality education is currently a required component in the models of collaboration between Universities; ye...

The HOBOT project is an automation system that allows for control over the equipment in a house, such as, ventilation, lighting, power system, security system, etc. HOBOT is made to be highly flexible and customizable by the user. A surveillance robot and numerous indoor and outdoor options support HOBOT. HOBOT is ubiquitous; users can use smart ph...

Poster

The term Sustainability aims to describe the capacity of meeting the needs of the present without compromising the future. Despite the predominance of the term and its use in practice in fields ranging from architecture to economic development, there hasn’t been a serious effort to formulate quality technical education leadership and governance bas...

Security in embedded systems has become a main requirement in modern electronic devices. The demand for low-cost and highly secure cryptographic algorithms is increasingly growing in fields such as mobile telecommunications, handheld devices, etc. In this paper, we analyze and evaluate the development of cheap and relatively fast hardware implement...

In this paper, we aim at increasing the usage of iterative methods in all possible fields by accelerating such solvers using Reconfigurable Hardware. To demonstrate the acceleration of these solvers, we implement the Jacobi solver on different classes of FPGAs, such as Virtex II Pro, Altera Stratix and Spartan3L. The design presented is implemented...

Poster

State-of-the-art Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have inspired the innovation of hardware/software co-design methodologies that provide a high level of abstraction in the design process. In this paper, we explore the effectiveness of a formal methodology in the co-design of parallel versions of the Rijndael cryptographic algorithm. The inves...

State-of-the-art Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have inspired the innovation of hardware/software co-design methodologies that provide a high-level of abstraction in the design process. In this paper, we explore the effectiveness of a formal methodology in the co-design of parallel versions of the Rijndael cryptographic algorithm. The inves...

The use of cryptographic algorithms within critical applications, such as banking and military, requires efficient hardware implementations. With the emergence of reconfigurable computing architectures, such modern and capable systems became the target of many applications including cryptography. This paper presents parallel reconfigurable hardware...

The use of cryptographic algorithms within critical applications, such as banking and military, requires efficient hardware implementations. With the emergence of reconfigurable computing architectures, such modern and capable systems became the target of many applications including cryptography. This paper presents parallel reconfigurable hardware...

System-optimized circuits are a major concern in the design process. System upgradeability leads to re-engineering in most of the designs; even minor changes to the system would require a big compensation. However, the introduction of a new paradigm in hardware design called Reconfigurable Computing offers to solve any problem by changing the hardw...

At the turn of the 21 st century, many universities have been established in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, many of which are branches of universities from the USA, Europe, Australia, and other regions. In 2004, Dhofar University (DU), in collaboration and partnership with the American University of Beirut (AUB), opened its doors in Oma...