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Overview

Industrial Experience

Dr. Al-Qirim joined academia in 1999 as an assistant professor (lecturer) in Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand after working in the IT industry for twelve years (since 1989). While working in the IT industry, he was a technical consultant/manager with different multinational companies such as IBM, COMPAQ, Group Bull/Honeywell, Siemens Nixdorf, and Data General. He managed different computing, networking and IT solution-based projects. He is considered a consultant in the area of document management, archival and workflow. His role involved various technical and managerial activities covering various sectors (governments, banking, health, tourism, telecommunications and news agencies, aviation, imaging systems and document management systems, security and others).

 

This extensive experience with different IT projects and sectors in the economy has shaped Dr. Al-Qirim's professional and academic (teaching and researching) experience. This experience is reflected on his teaching by providing real life stories from his experience.

 

 

Academic experience

 

Academic Qualifications

 

Dr. Al-Qirim possesses the following qualifications:

i.                     Bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering (1989, Kuwait University),

ii.                   MBA (1998, Lincolnshire and Humberside University, UK),

iii.                  PostGradDip‑InfoSys. (Hons. with distinction) (2000, Massey University, NZ),

iv.                 Cert. in Tertiary Education (2002, AUT University, NZ), and

v.                   PhD‑IS (2003, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia).

 

In 1999, he obtained the positions of a lecturer (Assistant Professor) and later promoted to different roles in the School of IT and Computer Sciences in Auckland University of Technology (New Zealand) such as a researcher (Research Path) and as a module coordinator for e-Business. In 2004, he joined the College of IT, United Arab Emirates University in UAE as an Assistant Professor.

 

At the administration level, Dr. Al-Qirim is the course coordinator of almost all the courses he teaches with other faculty members. He is responsible for producing course portfolio (syllabi, assessment criteria, content, labs, etc.) in accordance with the ABET standards. He is also involved in curricula review/update and in participating in the college's different meetings concerning the college's strategy/direction.

 

Dr. Al-Qirim developed different IS/IT, knowledge management, Networking and E-Business courses. Examples of developed courses include introduction to eBusiness, introduction to IT, supply chain management, eGovernment, eBusiness Models, IT issues in knowledge management and others as detailed below. Given his industry, research and academic qualifications above (i.e., MBA) Dr. Al-Qirim integrates different management, business and technical/technology issues into his teaching. This academic experience is enriched with quality teaching, researching and community activities. Dr. Al-Qirim obtained a certificate in tertiary teaching to master many teaching and assessment skills and styles.

 

In addition to supervising different group-based projects that are executed at the different courses, Dr. Al-Qirim is very interested to supervise student-graduation projects (senior exhibition, IT-Core). Further, he is very interested to address issues that are relevant to the surrounding environment and indeed, most of these projects have business and country implications (telemedicine, eBusiness, and eGovernment adoption in the UAE). For example, in the developed eGovernment course, the emphasis is put on mastering various aspects of the portal technology at both the business and the technical levels taking into consideration latest trends in Dubai's and Abu Dhabi's eGovernment initiatives. He offers all his research and expertise to students and this is evident in the topics of the different projects. For example, Dr. Al-Qirim and a group of students won the prestigious eBiz Challenge contest in 2006 at the Gulf level (detailed below).

 

In total, Dr. Al-Qirim has more than 19 years of experience in academia, business and IT.

 

Research and Publications

Coming from the industry side, Dr. Al-Qirim likes to investigate research areas that have both professional and theoretical contributions and implications. His interdisciplinary research approach is evident by researching important eCommerce technologies and sectors such as IT and eCommerce strategy in SMEs, eGovernment, health Information Systems and telemedicine, mobile commerce, outsourcing, supply chain management and eCommerce in developing countries and in Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).

 

Dr. Al-Qirim published more than 70 articles in internationally refereed publications: journals, books, conference papers and book chapters. His publications are evident of his interest and commitment to scientific research and exploration despite the lack of master and PhD students in both undergraduate institutions that he worked with. Dr. Al-Qirim is the editor of three books. These books were well received by the IS community and they are offered through the web site of Idea Group Publishing and Amazon (please refer to Appendix 2 and the web site of idea-group.com to read the views and testimonials about some of his books). Also, you are kindly referred to search the Google search engine for some of his publications and activities in different avenues.

 

He was included in the Marquis's Who's Who in Science and Engineering as "one of the leading industry professionals from around the world". He is also included in the International Biographical Centre (Cambridge, England) 21st Century Award for Achievement. Also, in Emerald Who's Who for Executives and Professionals as potential candidate to represent his region.

 

Online education tools and teaching excellence

In line with recent educational research calls for more flexibility in the education process and shifting the power from the lecturer to students, Dr. Al-Qirim encourages his students to take a leading role in his classroom by engaging them in lengthy case-discussions, group work, presentations and exercising different business games/scenarios.

 

Dr. Al-Qirim has sound experience in online learning and teaching tools. For example, he developed a course (E-Business Process (Supply Chain)) and created a business game where groups of students select and negotiate different business entities in a supply chain scenario using different online tools ending-up with forming strategic alliances between the selected businesses. The students are then requested to put a plan to initiate and establish these businesses and build and integrate the corresponding web sites. Black-Board features are used to implement the business game and for positing different information about the different courses. He also developed a course with hybrid teaching tools (video, audio, PPTs, discussion forums, chatting (negotiations), games, etc) to act as an educational aid to students' learning process. The intention of introducing such tools is to enrich the educational delivery to students during the class – departing away from the one-way delivery strategy. Also, Dr. Al-Qirim emphasizes in his senior courses to create a supplementary web site to include all students' online contributions, links, presentations, projects, etc. This web site should act as a knowledge repository for future students which in turn will further develop this web site. Other tools such as Black Board, WebCT, Turnitin (cheating) are known and used in different educational scenarios. 

 

Membership in academic institutions 

Dr. Al-Qirim is an active member in major international and regional conferences (AMCIS, BLED, IIT, IRMA, MoMM), associations (AIS, IRMA, IFIP, SBIRIT) and Journals. He has chaired many tracks and sessions in international conferences and hosted workshops and panels in the area of eBusiness, telemedicine and supply chain. He is a reviewer as well in these conferences.

 

He is a member in the editorial advisory board of the several journals: Journal of Information and Knowledge Management (JIKM), Associated reviewer to Electronic Markets (EM) Journal, Journal of Cases on Information Technology (JCIT), Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations (JECO), Business Process management Journal (BPMJ), International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organizations (IJNOV), Idea Group Inc. and an ad-hoc to the editorial board to Information Management Resources Journal (IRMJ) and International Journal of Computers and Applications.

 

In addition to conference paper reviewing, on average, he reviews 3-4 papers for each of the above journals per year. He is also the associate editor of the SIS Web page of ISWorld. He also reviewed 3 research-based books.

 

Community work

Dr. Al-Qirim is active player in the community (within and outside the University) and in maintaining relationship with peers, colleagues and students. This is demonstrated by executing joint research projects with peers and students and by being a member in International professional and academic associations and organizations (above) and in establishing links with the industry. Dr. Al-Qirim is the chair of the college's Industry Outreach group. This vital role entails establishing links with the industry and creates business opportunities in the area of IT consultancy, training and research and development. Dr. Al-Qirim implemented a survey looking at local market demand for our graduates in the different areas (security, network, eCommerce, IS, etc.).

 

Other examples included delivering two training courses to Abu Dhabi Police in the area of Knowledge Management and eBusiness. Also, Dr. Al-Qirim was involved in a consultancy work (part of a team) to identify the educational needs of ADWEA's (local electricity and water authority) employees at different levels. Another example of a leading role within the faculty is when he succeeded to promote the eCommerce track to Female students within the faculty where according to his presentation, 18 fresh students opted to join/specialize in the eCommerce area and this represents a great achievement for the track. Also, Dr. Al-Qirim is involved in various activities and committees within the faculty and he was the co-chair of the college’s annual conference (IIT'05), which is a successful event by all measures taking into consideration that it was initiated in 2004 only. Dr. Al-Qirim is also the mentor of the college’s male student association since the academic year 2005-2006. Dr. Al-Qirim is involved in various academic activities within the college. For example, he is a member in the Track Area Improvement Team (TAIT is composed of the course coordinators within each track). TAIT is an integral part of the College of IT assessment and improvement process.

 

Awards and prizes

Dr. Al-Qirim has won scholarships and contestable research and conference funds for research projects and research papers. For example, he was awarded the best paper presentation in a conference in New Zealand. Also, his team achieved the 3rd position overall the GCC region (from around 400 submitted projects) in the eBiz Challenge 2006 (Hosted by Zayed University) for the project “TelePark” by the “Legend” team. This event attracted the media's attention and appeared in several TV interviews/news. He was also rewarded several times at the university level by recognizing his contributions toward the college for the academic years 2005-2006 and 2006-2007.

 

Dr. Al-Qirim enjoys research, networking and most field-sport activities such as soccer, basketball, volleyball, diving and fishing.