Tell us about your contribution that has been recognised through the associate professorship.

The outstanding contribution has been in Research and Innovation (R&I), in addition to Academic Citizenship and Leadership (AC&L). The significant contribution has been in Teaching and Learning (T&L).

My achievements and related impact are evidenced by:

• Oct 2021, I have been awarded the Innovate UK Driving the Electric Revolution competition grant (25k) for a nationally impactful project to develop a new framework for Power Electronics Industry-Fed Curriculum to ensure a good supply of skilled engineers for power electronics market.
• Oct 2021, a Patent has been filed that will drive new commercial products toward driving series Silicon Carbide (SiC) MOSFETs for high voltage applications.
• 29 peer-reviewed journal papers and conferences contributions since 2016. Five papers still under review. The citation is over 583 in Google Scholar, h index:13.
• Supervision of five PhD students, two of them are complete and three are in progress.
• Securing a significant direct and indirect income as PI and Co-PI, in addition to running internal funded initiatives (£130k) for T&L and developing labs.
• A demonstrable contribution to the integration of professional experience into teaching and mentorship for undergraduate students through (a) several teaching enhancement mini-funded projects since 2017 to 2020 and (b) a top-rated YouTube educational channel involving 400k learners since 2014 and feeding back the values to students and my academic citizenship.
• Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
• Course leadership, leading the review activities and course adjustment and initiating changes to fit the new guidelines and student’s needs, which resulted in significant progression scores in NSS (100% in 2019) and in league table, highest rated course in the department. Consistently highly-evaluated modules by student’s feedback and evaluation questionnaires (MEQ). Achieving the minimum Degree Awarding Gap ever for the course (-2%), with Good Honours Rate for BAME students of 80%.
• Recently, I have taken on the role of EDI Lead role as a departmental level leader for more than 20 courses bringing my vision to address the BAME awarding gap and underrepresented groups’ experiences.

What does it mean personally to you to be an associate professor at Sheffield Hallam? What do you value about it?

It means a real recognition of the efforts and achievements during my career. It also reflects a healthy environment where each can do better and develop.

Tell us a bit about your career story so far.

I was awarded a scholarship from University of Exeter to pursue my PhD in Renewable Energy in 2011 to develop novel topologies and controllers for inverter-based smart grids. Furthermore, I was responsible for establishing the power electronics lab at Penryn campus as I was the first to tackle that problem there.

I joined an EPSRC project as a research fellow working with Imperial College of London, Strathclyde and several IIT Indian universities to develop a microgrid for community.

Concurrently, some contracted projects and consultancy were delivered, as well as my involvement with Kuwait Fund-sponsored PhDs to build the first Semi-transparent Photovoltaic testbed at Exeter and also, later, at Sheffield Hallam.

I launched a free educational YouTube channel in 2014 to bridge gaps in teaching and learning of electronics sciences internationally, serving about 450,000 learners and attracting businesses to critically review their market products and supporting the values of knowledge. I was successful using the channel to obtain PhD students, in kind income, internships and collaborations.

Prior to my PhD, I worked as Head of Laboratories and Development, IUG, Palestine, working with university staff to develop new laboratories and courses, set strategies to increase the students’ engagement with the market and deliver a series of hands-on sessions supporting students in need. That culminated in a successful project, where I worked as European Project Knowledge Transfer Coordinator, to enhance the graduate students’ skills to fit the market needs.

Since 2020, I have served as a FULL EPSRC College Member in which I am responsible for providing informed, objective, and timely reviews for fund proposals and serving on prioritisation panels where invited.

If you could go back in time and give yourself some career advice, what would it be?

Do more networking and collaboration with other researchers internally and externally, in addition to focusing on the impactful activities.

What’s next? Tell us about how you want to further develop your contribution.

Obtaining the associate professorship puts me in a strong position to:

• continue building on my contributions and expanding the research network,
• gain more trust and authenticity to attract more PhD students,
• seek more funding from different resources,
• promote Sheffield Hallam as a leader for new strand multidisciplinary research.