Work and Research Experience

Student Name: Hadil Abukwaik, Student ID: neversaynoway@hotmail.com

I conducted my undergraduate study at Al-Azhar University in Gaza where I received my Bachelor

of Engineering in Computer Systems Engineering and was awarded the honor degree and ranked the
first among my colleagues for my academic performance. Therefore I got the opportunity to work in the
Engineering and Information Technology department as a lecturer for Java and Computer Science
courses. During this job I got invaluable experience in preparing the lecture material after searching and
reading multiple sources to ensure having sufficient information for the students. I also got the
opportunity to participate in the supervision of Applied Project course for the seniors of the Computer
Systems Engineering program with Professor Abdullah Ryhan. This Applied Project course aimed at
giving the seniors a practical experience that takes them through the whole phases of the Software
Development Life Cycle by developing a reliable software application for the Financial Management
Department of Al-Azhar University. The senior students were divided into teams competing on
developing the best solution. I spent hours with Professor Abdullah Ryhan and the senior teams in the
computer lab along that semester. We had several meetings brain storming and discussing the project
requirements, refining the requirements, analyzing the system, designing the solution, reviewing teams’
progress in the implementation and testing the developed system. It was a marvelous chance to work
with Professor Ryhan with his expertise in Software Engineering field and an exciting challenge to be
prepared and answer seniors’ questions and share the knowledge I have with them. I learned the behind
the scenes aspects of teaching, and as I witnessed my students progress class after class, I was proud and
I decided to be involved in this world with strong and unique knowledge.

After the teaching experience I received the prestigious scholarship “Fulbright” that opened the door
for achieving my dreams in pursuing my graduate studies. Currently I’m earning my master’s degree in
Software Engineering from California State University – Sacramento and I will be done with this
program by Spring 2010. In this program I have been introduced to many critical issues related to
software development by qualified professors with great expertise and knowledge that I admire.

Under the supervision of Dr. Cui Zhang and through her software engineering classes, I studied many
papers independently and researched their topics sufficiently to present it in front of my colleagues. One
of these researches that I enjoyed was about Aspect Oriented Programming Quality Metrics. In this
topic, I surfed the web and the digital libraries to find all what had been done in this area. I was
surprised with the large amount of work that still need to be done. The current research so far in Aspect-
Oriented Software Development (AOSD) is focused on problem analysis, software design, and
implementation techniques. However, efficient evaluations of this new design technique in a rigorous
and quantitative fashion is still ignored during the current stage of the technical development. For
example, it has been frequently claimed that applying an AOSD method will eventually lead to quality
software (especially maintainability and reusability), but unfortunately, there is little data to support
such a claim. This fact solidified my interest in Software Engineering and exposed me to the enormous
potential achievements that can be done in this developing field.

Moreover, I’m preparing a research about Software Security Assurance based on papers provided by
CMU. As the depth of studying increases, it helps me to widen my background strongly. I also decided
to dedicate my master’s project for the Security Quality Requirements (SQUARE) Methodology which
has proven effective in helping organizations understand their security posture and produce products
with verifiable security requirements. Actually I pay a special attention to software quality subject and I
would like to deal with in active researches and in my professional life.
 My second chance in the academic career took place in my life in this semester (Fall 2009) as I
started working as an instructional student assistant. As I did a great job in Programming Languages
Principals class in Spring 2009 my professor gave me the honor to have this job and assist her for this
class. This class presents the notations for the specification of programming language syntax and
semantics; Application of programming language syntax and semantics; Use meta languages to generate
executable language definitions for language implementation, program transformation, program
property analysis, and rapid software prototyping; Principles of logic, functional, and object-oriented
programming languages. In fact, this opportunity has served to sharpen my inclination to engage in the
academic environment that I feel I belong to.

Another remarkable practical experience I got was through Dr. Ahmed Salem’s Software System
Engineering class where I worked in a team on a real project for Iguana Vision which is a company
providing hardware and software solutions. The Team was required to specify, design and build the
Merchant Web Server component of the Automated Per-use Billing System. The Merchant Web Server
component is one sub-system that must interface with other sub-systems that are not within the Teams’
control. After several meetings with Mr. John Schimandle and Mr. Chris Cacciatore, the clients, we
started preparing the SRS file which was a complete description of the behavior of the system including
a set of use cases that describe all the interactions the users will have with the software. It also included
the non-functional requirements specified by our clients. Using the SRS we carried on the rest of the
SDLC phases until we finished implementing and testing the system and presented to our clients and got
their feedback. This project has given me a profound understanding of the Software Development Life
Cycle phases and how it can be effectively applied in the software industry.

In addition, I’m gaining practical knowledge through my current job as a Software Developer in
iScan Services which is an outstanding company for digital documents. I’m responsible for the
Localization project that aims at expanding the market of the company’s products to the middle east
world. I started with an extensive research about localizing software products and all the requirements
we need to take into account to accomplish our goal effectively and on time. I also made a research on
the available commercial tools that can ease the localization processes and compare their cons and pros.
I enjoy applying the approaches that I learned in the Software Project Management class, which I took
with Professor Bob Buckley in my master’s program, in planning, scheduling and tracking the progress
of the project’s tasks. Beside, I got the responsibility to design and create the database tables needed for
the localized software. Moreover, I’m responsible for adding the changes the source code to satisfy the
Localization project requirements and I test these changes as I evolve. My job helped me develop a
thorough insight into project handling and further growth in the technical experience for developing
cross-cutting products.

Since software engineering in my home country, Gaza, is still in its early stages, soon after receiving
my PhD I plan to lead my own work team at a research center focusing on formulating plans, promoting
the development of international software applications, reducing the defects and increasing the quality
by giving the test phase its complete rights. Gathering enough experiences and skills, I plan to launch a
consulting company of my own beside the research center, sharing my knowledge and experience with
those interested in software engineering.