Profiles

Ali Shoker is a Research Associate Professor in the Computer Science Program at KAUST and a founding team member of the former Resilient Computing and Cybersecurity Center (RC3) and the former Cyber Security and Resilience Community (CriSys), focusing on advancing cyber-secure, cyber-resilient, and cyber-physical systems. He also led the development and operation of the Cyber Security and Resilience (CSR) lab at KAUST.

Before joining KAUST, Dr. Ali co-founded and led the Cybersecurity and Smart Distributed Systems research team at VORTEX CoLAB, part of the Capgemini Group, where he managed the full lifecycle of research and innovation projects. At INESC TEC (HASLab research unit) in Portugal, he co-authored mainstream models for Conflict-free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs), which have been widely adopted by leading systems, including Facebook Apollo, PayPal, and Microsoft Azure CosmosDB.

Dr. Shoker earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science with a European Label from the University of Toulouse, France, focusing on adaptive Byzantine and intrusion-tolerant protocols. He conducted part of his doctoral research at EPFL (Switzerland) under the co-mentorship of Prof. Rachid Guerraoui. He has held academic appointments as an Invited Assistant Professor at the University of Minho and the MAP-I Ph.D. school in Portugal, where he taught cybersecurity, blockchain, and scalable systems topics.

With over 30 peer-reviewed publications, two EU patents for decentralized smart systems, and recognition through awards such as the IFIP Best Paper Award, Dr. Ali's current research interests include resilient Byzantine systems, intrusion-tolerant computing, and cyber-secure automotive systems.

Prof. Ali prioritizes research and innovation that serve humanity, focusing on impactful advancements in technology for societal benefit.

His primary research interests center on designing and building cyber-secure, resilient, scalable, available, efficient, environmentally friendly, smart, and distributed systems.

Over his career, Dr. Ali has explored a broad range of topics, including Byzantine and intrusion fault tolerance, blockchain technology, resilience, cybersecurity, anonymous communication, cloud, fog, and edge computing, automotive systems, and data management (Conflict-free Replicated Data Types - CRDTs).

More recently, his work has focused on cyber-secure and cyber-resilient automotive systems, including autonomous and connected vehicles (V2X), cyber-physical systems such as smart and connected infrastructures, and blockchain/distributed ledger technologies. Dr. Ali remains open to multidisciplinary research that enhances and integrates these areas for more robust and innovative solutions.

Professor Hassan Ali brings extensive academic and professional expertise to KAUST, with a focus on cybersecurity education and curriculum development. Before joining KAUST, he served as a professor of cybersecurity at the School of Applied Computing, Sheridan College, Ontario, Canada. 

As program coordinator for Sheridan’s Honors Bachelor of Cybersecurity program, Professor Hassan was responsible for leading curriculum development, overseeing accreditation, and conducting comprehensive program reviews to ensure alignment with industry needs and stakeholder expectations. He facilitated professional advisory council (PAC) meetings for the cybersecurity program, utilizing industry connections to provide strategic input that enhanced programming and kept the curriculum current with evolving requirements.

Earlier in his career, Hassan served as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Computing and Information Technology, University of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from 2012 to 2018 and in the Department of Computer Science at CIIT Lahore from 2010 to 2012. These roles allowed him to cultivate a strong foundation in teaching, research, and academic leadership.

Additionally, Hassan has provided personalized academic guidance, facilitated program-specific support, and actively participated in student engagement activities such as orientation sessions, open houses, and recruitment events, fostering a collaborative and inclusive learning environment.

Professor Hassan’s research interests are focused on three key areas: malware analysis, exploit development, and vulnerability research in operational technology (OT). 

• Energy-efficient wireless multi hop networks.
• RF Detection. Resilience, and Analysis
• Cross-layer protocol design.

• Applications of stochastic geometry in performance analysis.

   

Research Specialist on Cyber Security

Cyber Security, Cyber Threats, SOC, IDS, IPS, UAV, Malware

Inês is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the CyberSaR.

Before coming to KAUST, she worked as a Research Scientist at Intel Labs (Germany), where she explored safety features in the realms of open-source hardware and chiplets. In 2022, she obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Luxembourg where, being part of the CritiX group of the Interdisciplinary Center for Security, Reliability, and Trust (SnT), she researched architectural support for hypervisor-level intrusion tolerance in multiprocessor systems-on-chip (MPSoCs). In the same year, she briefly worked as a Research Associate in the same group, looking into NoC security and FPGA-based matrix accelerators.

Her Bachelor's and Master's studies were completed at the University of Lisbon, where she also worked as a Junior Researcher in the LaSIGE research unit (Navigators group).

Her research interests include fault- and intrusion-tolerant resilient systems, computer architecture, hardware design, FPGA security, FPGA partial reconfiguration, hardware description languages (HDLs) and Multi-Processor Systems-on-Chip (MPSoCs).

Luis Vazquez obtained a Bachelor Degree on Robotics and Telecommunication from Universidad de las Americas Puebla, his final thesis work was a review on autonomous control and Natural Language Processing for the Robotics human-machine collaboration and interconnection between digital and physical components.

My research is focused on the effects of physical attacks to a robot sensor in the digital processing of the autonomous process more focused on Autonomous control algorithms for 2D vehicles and drones.

• Energy-efficient wireless multi hop networks.
• RF Detection. Resilience, and Analysis
• Cross-layer protocol design.

• Applications of stochastic geometry in performance analysis.

   

Professor Hassan Ali brings extensive academic and professional expertise to KAUST, with a focus on cybersecurity education and curriculum development. Before joining KAUST, he served as a professor of cybersecurity at the School of Applied Computing, Sheridan College, Ontario, Canada. 

As program coordinator for Sheridan’s Honors Bachelor of Cybersecurity program, Professor Hassan was responsible for leading curriculum development, overseeing accreditation, and conducting comprehensive program reviews to ensure alignment with industry needs and stakeholder expectations. He facilitated professional advisory council (PAC) meetings for the cybersecurity program, utilizing industry connections to provide strategic input that enhanced programming and kept the curriculum current with evolving requirements.

Earlier in his career, Hassan served as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Computing and Information Technology, University of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from 2012 to 2018 and in the Department of Computer Science at CIIT Lahore from 2010 to 2012. These roles allowed him to cultivate a strong foundation in teaching, research, and academic leadership.

Additionally, Hassan has provided personalized academic guidance, facilitated program-specific support, and actively participated in student engagement activities such as orientation sessions, open houses, and recruitment events, fostering a collaborative and inclusive learning environment.

Professor Hassan’s research interests are focused on three key areas: malware analysis, exploit development, and vulnerability research in operational technology (OT). 

Ali Shoker is a Research Associate Professor in the Computer Science Program at KAUST and a founding team member of the former Resilient Computing and Cybersecurity Center (RC3) and the former Cyber Security and Resilience Community (CriSys), focusing on advancing cyber-secure, cyber-resilient, and cyber-physical systems. He also led the development and operation of the Cyber Security and Resilience (CSR) lab at KAUST.

Before joining KAUST, Dr. Ali co-founded and led the Cybersecurity and Smart Distributed Systems research team at VORTEX CoLAB, part of the Capgemini Group, where he managed the full lifecycle of research and innovation projects. At INESC TEC (HASLab research unit) in Portugal, he co-authored mainstream models for Conflict-free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs), which have been widely adopted by leading systems, including Facebook Apollo, PayPal, and Microsoft Azure CosmosDB.

Dr. Shoker earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science with a European Label from the University of Toulouse, France, focusing on adaptive Byzantine and intrusion-tolerant protocols. He conducted part of his doctoral research at EPFL (Switzerland) under the co-mentorship of Prof. Rachid Guerraoui. He has held academic appointments as an Invited Assistant Professor at the University of Minho and the MAP-I Ph.D. school in Portugal, where he taught cybersecurity, blockchain, and scalable systems topics.

With over 30 peer-reviewed publications, two EU patents for decentralized smart systems, and recognition through awards such as the IFIP Best Paper Award, Dr. Ali's current research interests include resilient Byzantine systems, intrusion-tolerant computing, and cyber-secure automotive systems.

Prof. Ali prioritizes research and innovation that serve humanity, focusing on impactful advancements in technology for societal benefit.

His primary research interests center on designing and building cyber-secure, resilient, scalable, available, efficient, environmentally friendly, smart, and distributed systems.

Over his career, Dr. Ali has explored a broad range of topics, including Byzantine and intrusion fault tolerance, blockchain technology, resilience, cybersecurity, anonymous communication, cloud, fog, and edge computing, automotive systems, and data management (Conflict-free Replicated Data Types - CRDTs).

More recently, his work has focused on cyber-secure and cyber-resilient automotive systems, including autonomous and connected vehicles (V2X), cyber-physical systems such as smart and connected infrastructures, and blockchain/distributed ledger technologies. Dr. Ali remains open to multidisciplinary research that enhances and integrates these areas for more robust and innovative solutions.

Research Specialist on Cyber Security

Cyber Security, Cyber Threats, SOC, IDS, IPS, UAV, Malware

Inês is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the CyberSaR.

Before coming to KAUST, she worked as a Research Scientist at Intel Labs (Germany), where she explored safety features in the realms of open-source hardware and chiplets. In 2022, she obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Luxembourg where, being part of the CritiX group of the Interdisciplinary Center for Security, Reliability, and Trust (SnT), she researched architectural support for hypervisor-level intrusion tolerance in multiprocessor systems-on-chip (MPSoCs). In the same year, she briefly worked as a Research Associate in the same group, looking into NoC security and FPGA-based matrix accelerators.

Her Bachelor's and Master's studies were completed at the University of Lisbon, where she also worked as a Junior Researcher in the LaSIGE research unit (Navigators group).

Her research interests include fault- and intrusion-tolerant resilient systems, computer architecture, hardware design, FPGA security, FPGA partial reconfiguration, hardware description languages (HDLs) and Multi-Processor Systems-on-Chip (MPSoCs).

Luis Vazquez obtained a Bachelor Degree on Robotics and Telecommunication from Universidad de las Americas Puebla, his final thesis work was a review on autonomous control and Natural Language Processing for the Robotics human-machine collaboration and interconnection between digital and physical components.

My research is focused on the effects of physical attacks to a robot sensor in the digital processing of the autonomous process more focused on Autonomous control algorithms for 2D vehicles and drones.