Featured Graduate Student, October 2009
Hussein Ahmed

Interview:

How would you describe your area of study to your grandmother?
Hey Grandma, my work is about making it possible for you to control anything like your TV, VCR and Nintendo in the way you like. Instead of being forced to control or play in a certain fixed way, using a specific controller, it would be possible for you to make up your very own favorite way of control. Another part of my work is to also make sure that you and your friends all over the world could make use of the service at the same time without compromising your quality of service. Cheer up grandma, you don't have to go through all those user manuals anymore in order to know how to control something.

What is your primary motivation for persevering through graduate school?
My primary motivation to persevere through graduate school is to become a more knowledgeable person who can be of greater advantage to the world. Yes, I mean it, the whole world. I always wonder, when would someone voluntarily stop acquiring knowledge and experience, for me, I can't see this happening anytime soon.

Did your past experiences in life or education help prepare you for graduate school or did you have to develop different strategies to succeed?
Sure, during my school days and then college, I was always struggling to assure maintaining high ranks and high grades. I had a lot of cold wars with class mates and always had to take that extra step to get an advantage and an edge over my colleagues. I have also worked for a while in industry where no one can survive and excel without striving to be the best.

If you were able to merge another discipline with yours, what would it be?
I would have merged business management. Management entails crucial skills that would not only benefit business but your life as a whole. Also, from a career perspective, being on the managerial level in any setting, be it education, industry or research you would have some control to steer rather than just follow.

What is your favorite stress-reduction technique?
Well, this has just changed recently. I used to chill out by ordering my favorite Papa John's pizza and watching the latest comedy movie. This changed lately with my resolution to have a much better body, so now, my technique is to hit the gym for at least an hour every single day. Guess what, the gym wins!

Please describe your most meaningful academic relationship.
I was always really fortunate to have great mentors in my academic life. My most meaningful though would be with my advisor, Dr. Denis Gracanin. I don't see the student-advisor relationship as a professional one. My advisor for five years, Dr. Gracanin, besides technical advice, he has taught me a lot of things about life, including how to deal with people, manage time, prioritize things and also even to opt for a healthy life. He keeps pushing me to join him for a marathon and I hope I could make his wish come true before I graduate this year. Dr. Gracanin also focuses on building a new professor/researcher rather than just helping me to get a degree. Back in Egypt also, in the Arab Academy for Science and Technology, I didn't feel I was in a school/work setting. It was more of a family. The Dean, Dr. Yasser Hanafy, and our department head, Dr. Osama Badawy, and all faculty treated us as younger siblings and they hung out with us, invited us to dinner and even joked together. I consider myself really lucky to have these wonderful idols in my life.

What do you feel is the greatest challenge that graduate students face and how have you dealt with this challenge?
In my opinion, I think its time. If time is managed well and ahead, a lot could be done or at least what actually counts. As I've learned from my advisor, Dr. Gracanin, you can't just do everything. At some point you will run out of time and you should better be finished with what is really important by then. Well, again everything is important but sure there are priorities that are different for each and everyone of us.

How has getting involved in campus or community activities shaped your graduate experience?
That's really amazing! I was criticized by a lot of friends and other people that I shouldn't get involved in non-academic activities as they are just waste of time, which is our most expensive commodity. However, getting involved in campus and community activities contributed a lot to my knowledge and experience. You get to meet different people in different settings, you learn new things, you start even seeing things from totally different perspectives. Attending council and societies' meetings, covering an event as a photojournalist, helping to set up an event, raising funds or advertising - all these wonderful activities taught me a lot of different things that I sure wouldn't have learned by just sitting in class.

How do you find balance between work, play, and your other non-academic responsibilities?
I think the first step is not to have high hopes like thinking you will go home after 5:00 every day and relax. The next step, after realizing how life is, is to put a schedule for everything, even playing. In fact, me and Samah (my wonderful wife) put a plan even for playing time to have something fun to look for. The trick is to plan everything realistically and according to your deadlines in order to avoid disappointments.

If you hadn't been admitted to graduate school, what do you think you would be doing right now?
I think I would have been a business owner by now, running a number of companies with a line of world changing products. I have an entrepreneurial spirit and I think I wouldn't have still been working as just an employee.

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