About me

I am an Egyptian national born and raised in Abu Dhabi, choices completely dependent on my parents and of whom I am proud. My main interest is in the Artificial Intelligence branch of Computer Science, with a focus on Machine Learning, Reinforcement Learning, Statistics, Game Theory, and Econometrics.

Fascinated by the use of AI in Algorithmic Trading, I decided to devote my undergraduate honours project to Trading Agents, which lead to my participation in the research-focused 2014 Trading Agent Competition. Throughout the competition, I was competing with acclaimed researchers (including PhD students) in Machine Learning and Electronic Markets.

Education

The first school I went to was Rosary School, a trilingual school run by nuns and by far my favourite educational experience. Sadly, for boys, it was only an elementary school and hence I had to leave after graduating from fifth grade.

My next stop was Dawn School, an English school whose only purpose was to improve my English language skills (especially when it comes to sciences) and to finish off whatever French I happened to know back then. The experience was average but it helped pave way for a better educational experience when in 2005 I joined the International Community School, a British English school. At ICS, I successfully completed my IGCSEs and A-levels, finally graduating in 2010.

With my A-levels completed, my next stop was the University of Edinburgh, where I pursued a degree in Artificial Intelligence at the School of Informatics. The UoE was ranked 17th in the world and 5th in the UK by QS 2013 Rankings, but 12th in the world and 3rd in the UK for Computer Science specifically.

During my time at Edinburgh, I gained expertise in a variety of subjects in addition to the aforementioned Machine Learning subjects, these include Computer Vision and Robotics (Think Drones!), Natural Language Processing, and several programming paradigms (Object-Oriented, Functional, and Logic).

Why computers?

Ever since I was young, I was fascinated by all things digital, be it computers or mobiles. From the day I received my first computer (Thank you father!), I was attached to those machines, spending most of my free time experimenting and learning about them.

Of course, the decision to devote my career to computers wasn't a difficult one, apart from the fact that in the Middle East there is a common misconception that the only worthy careers are those of Doctors and Engineers.