Short Biography & CV

Prof Helal is a Computer and Information Science and Engineering Professor at the University of Florida, USA, and Director of its Mobile and Pervasive Computing Laboratory. He co-founded and directs the Gator Tech Smart House, a real-world deployment project that aims at identifying key barriers and opportunities to make the Smart Home concept a common place (creating the “Smart Home in a Box” concept). His active areas of research focus on architectural and programmability aspects of smart spaces and the Internet of Things, and on pervasive/ubiquitous systems and their human-centric applications with special focus on proactive health/wellness, patient empowerment and e-coaching, and assistive technology in support of personal health, aging, disabilities, and independence. Professor

From 2017 to 2020, and while on leave from Florida, he was professor and Chair in Digital Health at Lancaster University, UK, where he led interdisciplinary research initiatives in digital health in both the School of Computing and Communications (Faculty of Science and Technology) and the Division of Health Research (Faculty of Health and Medicine). As Director of Lancaster University’s Center on Digital Health and Quality of Life Technologies, he led several projects on Connected Health Cities, Healthy New Towns design and implementation, suicide prevention using cybernetics and analytics, Airport Accessibility for the hearing impaired, and intelligent primary care GP-Patient interactions.

Prof Helal served as the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Computer (2015-2018), the Computer Society’s flagship and premier publication. He also served as member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Computer Society, and Chair of its Magazine Operational Committee. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, Fellow of the IET, Fellow of the AAAS, and since July 2020, a member of Academia Europaea.

Full CV of Prof. Helal can be found here.