AUS College of Engineering Dean Dr. Fadi Aloul appointed Chair of UAE Engineering Deans Council

Dr. Fadi Aloul, Dean of the American University of Sharjah (AUS) College of Engineering (CEN), has been appointed Chair of the UAE Engineering Deans Council, a national body that unites deans of engineering, information technology and computer science programs across the UAE. 

Established on October 11, 2012 under the auspices of the Society of Engineers - UAE, the UAE Engineering Deans Council serves as a unified national platform to advance engineering education and research, strengthen academic standards and support national development priorities. The council provides a forum for sharing best practices and challenges, promoting collaborative research, supporting accreditation excellence and enhancing engagement with industry, government and international organizations. The council currently has 20 members.

“I am honored to have been elected by my fellow deans to lead the UAE Engineering Deans Council. Working together as one community, we can further strengthen engineering education and research in the UAE and ensure our graduates are prepared to drive the country’s ambitions as a global knowledge-based economy,” said Dr. Aloul.

As Chair for a two-year term, effective immediately,  Dr. Aloul will lead national efforts to enhance collaboration among engineering deans and strengthen the visibility and impact of engineering programs across the UAE. His responsibilities include coordinating council meetings, overseeing strategic initiatives and guiding collective efforts to elevate engineering education and research nationwide. “My top priority as Chair is to foster open collaboration among all engineering colleges in the UAE. By increasing visibility between universities and actively sharing our events, activities and best practices, we can create more opportunities for joint initiatives in education, research and innovation. A more connected ecosystem will benefit our students, our faculty and the broader engineering community, and will support the UAE’s national development goals,” he said.

As Dean of CEN, Dr. Aloul leads a college of 104 faculty members, 26 lab instructors, 21 staff members and more than 2,800 students, offering ten undergraduate programs, ten master’s programs and four doctoral programs. Shortly after his appointment as Dean, Dr. Aloul led a major revamp of all undergraduate and graduate programs, ensuring that curricula are aligned with the latest industry needs and emerging technologies. The college has also launched several new undergraduate and graduate programs and general education courses tailored to evolving market demands. Under his leadership, six research clusters were identified within the college to focus and amplify faculty expertise, with five of these evolving into university research centers.

Dr. Aloul holds PhD and master of science degrees in computer science and engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA, and a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering (summa cum laude) from Lawrence Technological University, Michigan, USA. His research and industrial interests include cyber-security, mobile applications, teaching innovation and design optimization. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional and a Certified Reviewer for the UAE Commission for Academic Accreditation.

He has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Global Engineering Deans Council Airbus Engineering Diversity Award, the Sheikh Khalifa Award for Higher Education, the Sheikh Rashid Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement, the Abdul Hameed Shoman Award for Young Arab Researchers and the AUS Excellence in Teaching Award. He has authored more than 160 publications and holds one US patent. A senior member of IEEE and Association for Computing Machinery and a member of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Academy of Scientists, Dr. Aloul has been consistently named among the top 2 percent of scientists worldwide by Stanford University and Elsevier. 

At the college level, he established the CEN Strategic Mission, which positions the college as a regional leader in engineering education and clearly articulates its strategic pillars—recruiting, retaining and rewarding (3 R’s) top students; empowering, excelling and entertaining (3 E’s) faculty and staff, fostering innovation and enhancing media visibility, advancing women in engineering and embedding core values of excellence, inclusion, integrity and impact across the college. 

Dr. Aloul has spearheaded several flagship initiatives that have raised the profile of AUS engineering nationally and internationally. He initiated the Discover Engineering campaign to engage and recruit top high school talent, offering a series of boot camps, workshops, competitions, enrichment visits and shadowing opportunities that immersed thousands of students from hundreds of UAE schools in the AUS engineering experience. He also led the launch of the AUS Engineering Al Nukhba Program, an industry partnership framework that deepens collaboration with leading companies through memoranda of agreement covering joint research, professional development programs, extended internships, capstone project supervision and field visits, ensuring CEN students graduate with elite, career-ready experience. 

A respected academic and thought leader, Dr. Aloul is a frequent speaker at international conferences on cybersecurity, AI, technology and innovative education. His thought leadership has earned him recognition as one of the top voices in Higher Education in the UAE (#6), among the UAE’s top LinkedIn voices (#17), and among the world’s top 200 voices in education (#41) in 2025.

Dr. Aloul’s appointment as Chair of the UAE Engineering Deans Council further underscores AUS leadership in engineering education and its commitment to shaping the future of the profession in the UAE and beyond. Through its strong academic programs, active research centers and deep partnerships with industry and government, AUS continues to play a central role in developing talent, advancing innovation and contributing to the UAE vision for a competitive, knowledge-based economy. To learn more about CEN leadership, click here.