Project PI: Dr. Mohamed E. Hussein, Dr. Marwan Torki
Project Team: Eng. Mahmoud Fayyaz, and Eng. Ahmed ElSallamy
Google scholar:
Dr. Elsayed’s   http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jCUt0o0AAAAJ
Dr. Torki’s        http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aYLNZT4AAAAJ&hl=en
Research area: ICT

Abstract

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is a challenging task, whose difficulty depends on the nature of the document and on the document’s language. In that context, handwritten documents are more difficult than printed onesو and some language scripting systems are more difficult than others. The Arabic scripting system is one of the most difficult for OCR. Moreover the research work on Arabic is generally relatively limited compared to Latin and Asian languages. One of the obstacles facing research in Arabic OCR is the lack of publicly available large datasets for training intelligent OCR systems, along with a standard benchmark tests on these datasets.

The goal of this project is to advance the state of the art in recognizing and Arabic handwritten documents. The specific objects are the following:

• Collect a very large dataset of Arabic handwritten documents with ground truth.
• Create a benchmark evaluation framework for the collected dataset and make it publicly available for the research community.
• Conduct a thorough comparative study with state of the art techniques on the collected dataset.

Use the dataset to experiment with multiple modern machine learning techniques that have never been applied before to Arabic OCR.

Project PI: Dr. Iman Elghandour
Project Team: Dr. Mohammed Khalefa, Eng. Ahmed Khalifa
Google scholar: http://scholar.google.com.eg/citations?user=L_MCU18AAAAJ&hl=en
Research area: Cloud Computing/ Real-time Big Data Analytics

Abstract

Road congestion is one of the major traffic problems in Egypt. Traffic congestion leads to time loss, wasted fuel, inability to forecast travel time, and preventing emergency vehicles from timely response. Intelligent traffic management help address some of the causes and consequences of traffic accidents and congestion. The project aims to build a real time big data analytics framework that uses GSM data, and information from social networks (e.g., Bey2ollak, waze.com, and twitter) to provide a universal real time traffic management system that helps

(1) Reduce congestion,
(2) Detect emergencies and accidents,
(3) Guide people in case of emergencies, and
(4) Estimate travel time for public transportation.

Project PI: Dr. Shaimaa Lazem
Project Team: Dr. Marwa Elteir
Research area: Computer science/ Education systems

Abstract

Using  ICT  technologies  such  as  computerized  curricula  and  educational  games  is  proved  to  be  very  effective  in  improving learning experience of children. However, the cost of delivering such technologies to all governmental schools may not be afforded by the government.

This project incorporates knowledge from distributed systems and human-computer interaction to reduce the digital gap between the children and adults who have access to ICT facilities and those who don’t due to their social, economic, or geographical reasons. Specifically, it aims to achieve the following goals:

• Create a prototype for a low-cost digital infrastructure that can be conveniently deployed in  under-developed  rural  areas  where  IT  services  are  either  costly  or  not  available.
• Reduce the cost of using ICT technologies in children’s education through adoption of this infrastructure by public schools.

Design educational applications to engage semiliterate adults in learning activities.  The applications’ interfaces will be designed to have minimal learning cost so that adults focus on the educational content of the application. The applications will be deployed in public spaces to transform learning to a service that semiliterate adults can get anytime, anywhere at their convenience.

Project PI: Dr. Hanaa Abou Gabal
Project Team: Prof. Moataz Soliman, Eng. Sameh Hegazy
Research area: Renewable Energy

Abstract

As a result of Egypt’s growing energy demand, the government plans to increase the amount of power generated from renewable sources, particularly wind and solar energy. Therefore, developing the technology of renewable energy can be regarded as a vital need in Egypt.

This project is concerned with one of the most important types of renewable energy, namely “the solar cells”. This project aims is to produce a high performance chalcopyrite thin film solar cell applying innovative preparation ideas and treatments. The effect of the preparation techniques and conditions on the properties of each of the deposited films and consequently on the cell performance as a whole will then be studied. Chalcopyrite-type materials are selected as they are considered to be the most promising thin-film solar cell materials. They exhibit direct band gaps well matched to the solar spectrum in addition to their very favorable electronic properties.

Project PI: Dr. Ziad Elsahn
Project Team: Dr. Ahmed Farid, Dr. Ali M. Elrashidi
Research area: Optical Communications

Abstract

This project will be looking at inexpensive solutions for next generation passive optical networks (PONs) aiming to:

1.  user bit rates higher than 1 Gb/s;
2. longer PON reach; and
3. larger number of users per optical line terminal (OLT).

Both green‐field and brown‐field deployment scenarios will be considered. To do so, we may consider wavelength‐division multiplexed (WDM) PONs and try to address the design challenges and requirements. Further, we may be studying the possibility to use optical code‐division multiple-access (OCDMA), subcarrier‐multiplexing (SCM), optical orthogonal frequency‐division multiplexing (OFDM), optical interleaved‐division multiple‐access (OIDMA), or some other hybrid techniques for next generation PONs. The use of coherent detection will also be addressed to enable high order modulation formats, and digital signal processing (DSP).

This research work will be focusing on both the system and device levels. The performance of the proposed solutions will be evaluated mainly via Matlab and Optisystem simulations, and possibly some basic experiments may be conducted.

Project PI: Dr. Nader Shehata
Project Team: Dr. Islam Ashry, Dr. Ishac Kandas
Research area: Renewable Energy & Nanotechnology

Abstract

This proposal reports the fabrication of multi-layers polymeric solar cell with the integration of different nanostructures. Polymeric solar cells have many privileges because they are cheap (compared to silicon wafers or heterostructures), easy to be fabricated, and they do not need cleaning room processes. However, the main problem of the polymeric solar cells is the relatively low power conversion efficiency. Increasing the efficiency is the main target of this project through the deposition of different separate/combined layers including quantum dots (QDs), nonlinear polymers, fluorescent nanoparticles, and conductive nanofibers. The added materials would act as wavelength converters to get benefit of the unabsorbed wavelengths from the solar spectrum.

In this project, we report three different methods that could be used separately or combined to enhance the efficiency of polymeric solar cells. Spin coating and layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly techniques will be used to add QDs, nonlinear materials, and some fluorescent nanoparticles to polymeric solar cells during their fabrication. Additionally, electro-spinning process will be used to deposit conductive nanofibers over the polymeric solar cells to improve the conductivity of the generated photo-electrons from the active region to the electrodes.