Sahel Ahmad Hasan Alouneh, Ph.D

Director, Cybersecurity Program

Professor

Abu Dhabi Campus

+971 2 6133534

Cybersecurity_ad@aau.ac.ae

Biography

Sahel Alouneh is a full professor of electrical and computer engineering. Currently, he is the director of Cybersecurity program in Engineering college, Al Ain university, Abu Dhabi campus, in the UAE. His posts before joing Al Ain university, Prof. Alouneh held the post of the dean of Scientific Research at German Jordanian University (GJU) from October 2019 to August 2020. Also, he served as the dean of the faculty of electrical engineering and information technology at the German Jordanian University (GJU) from September 2015 and September 2019. Prof. Alouneh also served as the vice dean of the deanship of graduate studies and scientific research at GJU from March 2014 to March 2015. He also served as the director of computer center at GJU from July 2009 to January 2012.

 

Prof. Alouneh obtained his B.Sc. in electrical and computer engineering from Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST), Jordan in 2000. His M.Sc. and Ph.D were obtained from Concordia University, Canada in 2004 and 2008 respectively. His research interests include computer and communication networks, big data security, cloud computing, software security, MPLS security and recovery, Wireless networks security, Software testing, computer design and architecture. Prof. Alouneh published several journal and conference articles. Also, Dr. Alouneh has contributed to a total of 10 national and international projects (e.g. Tempus, Erasmus, FP7, DFG, Kuwait University seed grant, GJU seed grants).

Education

Ph.D, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada - August 2008

MSc. Electrical and Computer Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada - October 2004

Bsc. Electrical and Computer Engineering, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan - June 2000

Research Interests

Computer Security, Cyber Security, Software Security, Computer ethical hacking, Software Engineering, Software Testing, Buffer Overflow Attacks, Protocol validation and Testing, Big Data Security, Database management and security, Cloud security.

 

Funded Projects:

 

  • Building Innovation infrastructure via Technology Transfer offices COnducted IN Jordanian Higher Education Institutions (BITTCOIN-JO), GJU investigators:  Sahel Alouneh, Ala Khalifeh, and Raed Mesleh. Erasmus+ program - Key Action 2 - Capacity Building in the Field of Higher Education, European Commission. Total amount of fund: 846,704 Euro. Period: 1/1/2019-31/12/2021.
  • INTERNATION MASTER OF SCIENCE ON CYBER PHYSICAL SYSTEMS. GJU Investigators:  Dhiah Abou Tair, Sahel Alouneh, Ala Khalifeh, and Samer Nofal. Erasmus+ program - Key Action 2 - Capacity Building in the Field of Higher Education, European Commission. Total amount of fund: 999,976 Euro. Period: 1/11/2018-31/10/2021.
  • A Bottom-up Approach for Opening up Education in South-Mediterranean Countries (OpenMEd). GJU Investigators:  Mohammad Daoud, Manar Fayyad, Salem Al-Agtash, Loay Salhieh, Rana Sabri, and Sahel Alouneh. Erasmus+ program - Key Action 2 - Capacity Building in the Field of Higher Education, European Commission. Total amount of fund: 871,229.00 Euro. Period: 1/10/2015-30/9/2018
  • Partnership with Enterprises Towards Building Open Source Software Communities and Rejuvenation of Technical Education and Innovation (OSSCOM). GJU Investigators:  Salem Al-Agtash, Sahel Alouneh, and Mohammad Daoud. TEMPUS Program (Trans-European Mobility Program for University Studies), European Commission. Total amount of fund: 966,162.92 Euro. Period: 1/3/2014-1/11/2017.
  • BIOMed—New Horizons Biomedical Informatics Observatories in Mediterranean Region. GJU Investigators:  Sahel Alouneh and Mohammad Daoud. FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IRSES - Funding scheme: Marie Curie Actions - International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES), EU. Total amount of fund: 328,700.00 Euro. Period:14/1/2015- 1/4/2017.
  • Staff Mobility for Training mobility grant (between GJU and Siegen University - Germany). GJU Investigators: Sahel Alouneh, Dhiah Abou Tair, and Ala Khalifeh. Period: 2015-2018.
  • Staff Mobility for Training mobility grant (between GJU and IPCA University - Portugal). GJU Investigators: Dhiah Abou Tair, Ala Khalifeh, and Sahel Alouneh. Period: 2016-2017.
  • Kuwait University -Seed Grant, Co-applicant, Implementation of Arabic voice recognition based on FPGA,

       Total fund amount: 69,000$. Period: 2015-2017.

  • Self-Complementary Network- GJU Seed Grant. GJU investigators: Omar Al-Omari and Sahel Alouneh. Total fund amount: 6300 JOD. Period: 15/12/2016- 5/12/2018.

Selected Publications

Journal papers: 

  1. Alouneh, S., “A Multi-Path Approach to Protect DNS Against DDoS Attacks”, Journal of Cyber Security and Mobility, 12 (4), pp. 569-588, 2023.
  2. Dhiah el Diehn I Abou-Tair, Raad Haddad, Ala’ Khalifeh, Sahel Alouneh, Roman Obermaisser, “A Distributed and Secure Self-Sovereign-Based Framework for Systems of Systems”, Sensors, 2023.
  3. Baha A Alsaify, Mahmoud M Almazari, Rami Alazrai, Sahel Alouneh, Mohammad I Daoud, “A CSI-Based Multi-Environment Human Activity Recognition Framework”, Journal of Applied Sciences, Vol: 12, January, Issue: 2, January 2022 (Thomson Reuters ISI).
  4. Dhiah el Diehn I. Abou-Tair; Ala’ Khalifeh; Sahel Alouneh; Roman Obermaisser, “Incremental, distributed, and concurrent service coordination for reliable and deterministic systems-of-systems”, in IEEE Systems Journal, Published online: June 2021. (Thomson Reuters ISI).
  5. Feras Al-Hawari, Hala Barham, Omar Al-Sawaeer, Mai Alshawabkeh, Sahel Alouneh, Mohammad I Daoud, Rami Alazrai, “Methods to achieve effective web-based learning management modules: MyGJU versus Moodle”, PeerJ Inc., Journal: PeerJ Computer Science, Vol. 7, e498, April, 2021. (Thomson Reuters ISI).
  6. Ala’ Khalifeh; Ma’moun Mansour; Sahel Alouneh, “QUIC transmission protocol: Test-bed design, implementation and experimental evaluation”, De Gruyter Poland Inc., Journal of Electrical Engineering; Bratislava, Vol. 72, Issue. 1, 20-28, 2021. (Thomson Reuters ISI)
  7. Feras Al-Hawari, Mahmoud Al-Ashi, Fares Abawi, and Sahel Alouneh, “A Practical Three-Phase ILP Approach for Solving the Examination Timetabling Problem”, International Transactions in Operational Research, John Wiley, International Transactions in Operational Research 27 (2), 924-944. March 2020.(Thomson Reuters ISI)
  8. Gebremariam Mesfin, Gheorghita Ghinea, Tor-Morten Grønli, Sahel Alouneh, “REST4Mobile: A Framework for Enhanced Usability of REST Services on Smartphones”, Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, John Wiley, Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience 32 (1), Jan 2020. (Thomson Reuters ISI)
  9. Andreas Biørn-Hansen, Tor-Morten Grønli,Gheorghita Ghinea, and Sahel Alouneh, “An Empirical Study of Cross-Platform Mobile Development in Industry”, Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing, Wiley & Hindawi, Volume 2019, Article ID 5743892, 12 pages, (Thomson Reuters ISI).
  10. Sahel Alouneh, Saed Abed, Mohammad Al Shayeji, Raed Mesleh, “A comprehensive study and analysis on SAT-solvers: advances, usages and achievements”, Artificial Intelligence Review, Springer, 52, 2575–2601 December 2019. (Thomson Reuters ISI).
  11. Ismail Hababeh, Anton Thabain, and Sahel Alouneh, “An Effective Multivariate Control Framework for Monitoring Cloud Systems Performance”, TIIS, Volume 13, Issue 1,2019, Pages 86-109, (Thomson Reuters ISI).
  12. Sahel Alouneh, Feras Al-Hawari, Ismail Hababeh, and George Ghinea , “An Effective Classification Approach for Big Data Security Based on GMPLS/MPLS Networks”, Security and Communication Networks, Wiley & Hindawi, Vol 2018, 10 pages, (Thomson Reuters ISI).
  13. Mohannad Alhanahnah, Peter Bertok, Zahir Tari, Sahel Alouneh, “Context-Aware Multifaceted Trust Framework for Evaluating Trustworthiness of Cloud Providers”, In Future Generation Computer Systems, Elsevier, Volume 79, Part 2, 2018, Pages 488-499. (Thomson Reuters ISI).
  14. Raed Mesleh, Omar Hiari, Abdelhamid Younis and Sahel Alouneh, “Transmitter Design and Hardware Considerations for Different Space Modulation Techniques”, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, In press (published online), September 2017. (Thomson Reuters ISI)
  15. Raed Mesleh, Salama Ikki, Iyad Tumar, Sahel Alouneh, “Decode-and-forward with quadrature spatial modulation in the presence of imperfect channel estimation”, Journal of Physical Communication, Elsevier, Volume 24, 2017, Pages 103-111. (Thomson Reuters ISI)
  16. Sahel Alouneh, Saed Abed, and George Ghinea, “Security of VoIP traffic over low or limited bandwidth networks”. Security Communication Networks, John Wiley, Volume 9, pp. 5591–5599, 2017. (Thomson Reuters ISI)
  17. Mohannad J. Alhanahnah, Arshad Jhumka, and Sahel Alouneh, “A Multidimension Taxonomy of Insider Threats in Cloud Computing”, The Computer Journal, Oxford Publication, Volume. 59, Issue. 11, Nov, 2016. (Thomson Reuters ISI)
  18. Sahel Alouneh, Mazen Kharbutli, Rana Alqurem, “Software Approach for Stack Memory Protection Based on Duplication and Randomisation”, International Journal of Internet Technology and Secured Transactions, INDERSCIENCE, Volume 6, Issue 4, 2016. (Scopus)
  19. Sahel Alouneh, Heba Bsoul, Mazen Kharbutli, “A Software Tool to Protect Executable Files from Buffer Overflow Attacks”, International Journal of Internet Technology and Secured Transactions, INDERSCIENCE, Volume 6, Issue 2, 2016. (Scopus)
  20. Sahel Alouneh, Mohammad Al-Shayeji, Sa’ed Abed, M.D. Samrajesh, and Sari Sultan, “FPGA enhanced implementation of ECG QRS complex detection algorithm”, International Journal of Circuits, Systems, and Signal Processing, Volume 9, 2015. (Scopus)
  21. Sahel Alouneh, Saed Abed, Basim Jamil Mohd, Mazen Kharbutli, “MPLS Technology in Wireless Networks”, Journal of Wireless Networks (WINET), Springer, Vol 20. No. 5, July, 2014. (Thomson Reuters ISI)
  22. Sahel Alouneh, Sa’ed Abed, Bassam J.  Mohd, Ahmad Khasawneh, “Software Comprehension Based on Database Relational Algebra”, International Journal of Information and Communication Technology, INDERSCIENCE, Vol. 6, No. 1, 2014. (Scopus)
  23. Sahel Alouneh, Sa'ed Abed, Bassam Jamil Mohd, Mazen Kharbutli, “An Efficient Backup Technique for Database Systems Based on Threshold Sharing”, Journal of Computers, Vol 8, No 11, 2013. (Scopus)
  24. Bassam mohd, Saed Abed, Sahel Alouneh, “Carry-Based Reduction Parallel Counter Design”, Journal of International Journal of Electronics, Taylor & Francis, 2012. (Thomson Reuters ISI)
  25. Sa’ed Abed, Ashraf Hasan Bqerat, Sahel Alouneh, Bassam Jamil Mohd, “A novel approach to enhance distributed virtual memory”, Journal of Computers and Electrical Engineering, ELSEVIER, in press, 2012. (Thomson Reuters ISI)
  26. Saed Abed, Basim Jamil, Ziad Al-Bayatti,Sahel Alouneh, “Low Power Wallace Multiplier Design based on Wide Counters”, International Journal of Circuit Theory and Applications, John Wiley & Sons, 2011. (Thomson Reuters ISI)
  27. Sahel Alouneh, Anjali Agarwal, Abdeslam En-nouaary, “A Novel Path Protection Scheme for MPLS Networks Using Multi-path Routing”,Journal of Computer and Telecommunications Networking, ELSEVIER, Vol. 53, Issue 9, June 2009, pp. 1530-1545. (Thomson Reuters ISI)
  28. Sahel Alouneh, Abdeslam En-nouaary, Anjali Agarwal, “MPLS Security: An approach for Unicast and Multicast Environments”, Annals of Telecommunication, Springer, Vol. 64, Issue 5, 2009, pp. 391-400. (Thomson Reuters ISI)   
  29. Sahel Alouneh, Abdeslam En-Nouaary, and Anjali Agarwal, “Providing Data Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability, and IP Spoofing Protection for MPLS Networks”, Special issue in the Journal of the Scientific & Practical Computing, 2008.  
  30. Sahel Alouneh, Abdeslam En-Nouaary, and Anjali Agarwal, “A Multiple LSPs Approach to Secure Data in MPLS Networks”, Journal of Networks, Vol 2, Issue 4, pp 51-58, August 2007.  (Scopus)

Conferences

Conference papers: 

  1. J Theoder, BS Metharath, S Alouneh, “Securing Domain Name Systems with Blockchain” 2023 Fourth International Conference on Intelligent Data Science Technologies and Applications (IDSTA), IEEE.
  2. Mohammad Alja'afreh, Sahel Alouneh, Muath Obaidat, Ali Karime, Abdulmotaleb Elsaddik, “Metaverse through Blockchain and Intelligent Networking: A Comprehensive Survey”, 2023 Fifth International Conference on Blockchain Computing and Applications (BCCA), IEEE.
  3. Badri, A.M.A., Alouneh, S., “Detection of Malicious Requests to Protect Web Applications and DNS Servers Against SQL Injection Using Machine Learning” (2023) 2023 International Conference on Intelligent Computing, Communication, Networking and Services, ICCNS 2023, pp. 5-11.
  4. Sahel Alouneh, Ala’ Khalifeh, Dhiah el Diehn I. Abou-Tair, Khaled Aldahdouh, and Feras Al-Hawari, “An Open Source LoRaWAN Simulator Framework for the Internet of Things Applications”, The 8th International Conference on Internet of Things: Systems, Management and Security (IOTSMS 2021), IEEE, Gandia, Spain, December 6-9, 2021 (Virtual).
  5. Ala’ Khalifeh; Khaled Aldahdouh; Sahel Alouneh, “Optimizing the Energy Consumption Level in LoRaWan Networks”. 2020 21st International Arab Conference on Information Technology (ACIT).
  6. Fadia Shoura, Ammar Gharaibeh, Sahel Alouneh, “Optimization of Migration Cost for Network Function Virtualization Replacement”. 2020 21st International Arab Conference on Information Technology (ACIT).
  7. Dhiah El Diehn, Sahel Alouneh, Roman Obermaisser, Michael Schmidt, “Admission Control and Resource Allocation for Distributed Services in System-of-Systems: Challenges and Potential Solutions”, 2018 IEEE 13th International Symposium on Industrial Embedded Systems (SIES), 6-8 June 2018, Graz, Austria.
  8. Ala Khalifeh, Haya Salah, Sahel Alouneh, Anwar Al-Assaf and Khaled Darabkh, "Performance Evaluation of DigiMesh and ZigBee Wireless Mesh Networks," 2018 International Conference on Wireless Communications, Signal Processing and Networking (WiSPNET), Chennai, 2018, pp. 1-6.
  9. Sahel Alouneh, Ismail Hababeh and Tamer Alajrami, “Toward Big Data Analysis to Improve Enterprise Information Security”, In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Management of Emergent Digital EcoSystems (MEDES'18). ACM, September 2018, Tokyo, Japan.
  10. Ala Khalifeh, Dhiah el Diehn Abou-Tair, Sahel Alouneh, Roman Obermaisser and Michael Schmidt, “Admission Control and Resource Allocation for Distributed Services in System-of-Systems: Challenges and Potential Solutions”, 2018 IEEE 13th International Symposium on Industrial Embedded Systems (SIES), Graz, Austria, 2018, pp. 1-4.
  11. Sahel Alouneh, “GMPLS/MPLS Wireless Networks”, In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Management of Digital EcoSystems (MEDES '17). ACM, Thailand, November 2017, pp. 228-234.
  12. Sahel Alouneh, Dhiah el Diehn Abou-Tair, Ala Khalifeh, Roman Obermaisser, “Service Identification Framework for Systems of Systems Based on MPLS Technology”, The 12th International Conference on Future Information Technology (FutureTech 2017), Springer, Seoul, South Korea, May 22-24, 2017.
  13. Dhiah el Diehn I. Abou-Tair, Sahel Alouneh, Ala Khalifeh, Roman Obermaisser, “A Security Framework for Systems-of-Systems”, The 12th International Conference on Future Information Technology (FutureTech 2017), Springer, Seoul, South Korea, May 22-24, 2017.
  14. Sahel Alouneh, Ismail Hababeh, Firas Al-Hawari and Thamer. Alajrami, “Innovative methodology for elevating big data analysis and security”, 2nd  International Conference on Open Source Software Computing (OSSCOM), IEEE, Beirut, 1-3 December 2016, pp. 1-5.
  15. Ismail Hababeh, Sahel Alouneh and Ala Khalifeh, “A Position Aware Mobile Application for E-Health Services”, 7th International Conference on Intelligent Systems, Modelling and Simulation (ISMS), IEEE, Bangkok, 25-27 January 2016, pp. 144-148.
  16. Sahel Alouneh, Heba Bsoul, Mazen Kharbutli, “Protecting Binary Files from Stack-Based Buffer Overflow”, 6th International Conference on Information Science & Applications (ICISA2015), LNEE, Springer, Pataya, Thailand, February 24-26 2015, pp. 415-422.
  17. Sa’ed Abed, Sahel Alouneh, “Optimization on QRS Chip for Minimum Latency”, Proceeding of the 14th International Conference on Software Engineering, Parallel and Distributed Systems (SEPADS’15), Dubai, UAE, February 22-24, 2015, pp. 150-156.
  18. Sahel Alouneh, Mazen Kharbutli, Rana Alqurem, “Stack Memory Buffer Overflow Protection Based on Duplication and Randomization”, 4th International Conference on Emerging Ubiquitous Systems and Pervasive Networks (EUSPN), Elsevier, ScienceDirect, Niagara Falls, Canada, October 21-24-2013, pp. 250-256.
  19. Sahel Alouneh, Sa'ed Abed, Bassam Jamil Mohd, and Ahmad Khasawneh, “Relational Database Approach for Execution Trace Analysis”, proceeding of the CIST12, IEEE, Jordan, 2012.
  20. Bassam Jamil Mohd, Thaeir Hayajneh, Sa'ed Abed, and Sahel Alouneh,  “FPGA Hardware of the LSB Steganography Method”, proceeding of the CIST12, IEEE, Jordan, 2012.
  21. Sa’ed Abed, Bassam Jamil, Bassam Alnaami, and Sahel Alouneh, “Design and Implementation of Interfacing two FPGAs”, proceeding of the 8th International Conference on Innovations in Information Technology, IIT’12, IEEE, UAE, 2012.
  22. Sahel Alouneh, Sa’ed Abed, Ashraf Hasan BqeratBassam Jamil Mohd, “A Methodology for Distributed Virtual Memory Improvement”, proceeding of the international conference of Informatics Engineering and Information Science (ICIEIS), Lecture Notes in Computer Science LNCS, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Springer, Vol. 253, pp. 378–384, Nov 14-16-2011.
  23. Bassam Jamil Mohd, Sa’ed Abed, Bassam Alnaami, and Sahel Alouneh, "Image Steganography Optimization Technique", proceeding of the International Conference on Advances in Signal & Image Processing -ASP 2011, Springer, Amesterdam, Netherlands, 2011.
  24. Sa’ed Abed, Sahel Alouneh and Otmane Ait Mohamed, “Reliability of Recursive Concentrator Structure", In Proc. IEEE Symposium on Industrial Electronics & Applications  (IEEE ISIEA'09), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 4-6, 2009, pp. 209-211.
  25. Sahel Alouneh, Anjali Agarwal, Abdeslam En-nouaary, , “A New Approach for Security in MPLS Multicast Networks ”,  proceeding of the 5th International Conference on Distributed Computing and Internet Technology, Lecture Notes in Computer Science LNCS , Springer, ICDCIT2008.
  26. Sahel Alouneh, Anjali Agarwal, Abdeslam En-nouaary, “A Multiple Tree Approach for Fault Tolerance in MPLS Networks”,  proceeding of the 4th International Conference on Distributed Computing and Internet Technology, Lecture Notes in Computer Science LNCS , Springer, ICDCIT2007, 17- 20 December 2007. (Acceptance rate 19%).
  27. Sahel Alouneh, Abdeslam En-nouaary and Anjali Agarwal, “Providing Data Confidentiality in MPLS Networks,” Proceeding of the International Conference on New Technologies of Distributed Systems (NOTERE 2007), June 4-8, 2007. (Acceptance rate 26%). (Selected as best paper).
  28. Sahel Alouneh, Abedslam En-nouaary, Anjali Agarwal, “Securing MPLS network using Multi-path Routing”, Proceeding of the 4th IEEE International Conference on Information Technology : New Generations IEEE/ITNG 2007, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, April 2-4 2007. (Selected as best paper).
  29. Sahel Alouneh, Anjali Agarwal, Abdeslam En-nouaary, “A Novel Approach for MPLS Fault Tolerance”, in Proceeding of the Third IEEE International Conference of Innovations in Information Technology IIT'06,  IEEE, Dubai, UAE, November 19-21 2006.
  30. S. Alouneh and A. En-Nouaary, “A New Method for Testing Buffer Overflow Vulnerabilities in C and C++ Programs”, Fifth International Network Conference, Samos Island, Greece, July 2005.

 

FELLOWSHIPS/SYMPOSIUM - GRANTS AND AWARDS

      

  1. Funded to participate in the sixth Arab-American Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine symposium, held in partnership with the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and hosted at the Kuwait National Library in Kuwait City on November 4 – 6, 2018.
  2. Dean Fellowship Grant for Doctoral students, Concordia University                                                      2006/2007
  3. Teaching Assistant fellowships, Concordia University                                                                           2003 -2008

 

Teaching Courses

  • Cryptography and Computer Network Security
  • Secure Systems Architectures and Mechanisms
  • Computer networks
  • Computer Security Fundamentals 
  • Computer ethical hacking
  • Software Engineering
  • Software Testing
  • Software security
  • Buffer Overflow Attacks
  • Protocol validation and Testing
  • Database management and security
  • Computing fundamentals (Programming in C/C++, Java)
  • Operating systems
  • Multimedia Technology
  • Digital Systems Design
  • Digital Logic Design
  • Microprocessors and microcomputer systems
  • Computer Organization
  • Circuits, Electronics, digital electronics
  • Computer Architecture
  • Computer Organization 
  • Computer Skills
  • Special topics in computer engineering (MPLS: Multi-Protocol Label Switching and VPN networks)

 

Ability to teach:

Software Security, Protocol Design and Validation, Real time Multimedia and Communication Over Internet, Advanced Network Management, Software Engineering, Digital System Design and Synthesis, Optical Networks: Architecture and Protocols.

 

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all.

This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  

 

Memberships

  • Referee: King Abdullah II prize for innovation - 2018
  • Member: Quality Assurance committee – Accreditation and Quality Assurance Commission for Higher Education Institutes - Jordan
  • Board member: International Association for Armed Forces for Communication & Electronics Association (AFCEA) – Jordan Chapter.