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Dr Dhouha Kbaier

Profile summary

  • Central Academic Staff
  • Senior Lecturer in Computing & Communications
  • Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics
  • School of Computing & Communications
  • dhouha.kbaier

Web links

Professional biography

Dr Dhouha Kbaier joined the Open University in September 2020 as a Senior Lecturer in Computing & Communications. Her journey has been marked by diverse experiences and notable achievements in the field. She has worked as a technical consultant in Communications and Networking for QA Ltd. Her academic voyage includes a significant tenure as a Senior Lecturer in Computer Networking at the University of Wolverhampton, where she was an active research member of the Wolverhampton Cyber Research Institute (WCRI). Her academic foundation was solidified through her academic pursuits at Telecom Bretagne (Brest, France), culminating in a PhD awarded with the highest honours in 2011, along with a Master of Engineering degree in 2008. Her specialisation in Space Communications Systems was nurtured at the French "Grande École" ISAE in Toulouse, renowned as the heart of the European Aerospace Industry. Prior to working at the University of Wolverhampton, Dr Kbaier was holding a position at the University of Bedfordshire as a Lecturer in Telecommunications and Network Engineering since 2016. In addition, she contributed significantly to the academic landscape as an Associate Lecturer within the Digital Technology Infrastructure Apprenticeship at the University of Exeter from 2017 to 2019. Before establishing her presence in the UK, she garnered substantial research experience in France, where she worked for several years as a post-doctoral research fellow, first at Telecom Bretagne, then with Thales Airborne Systems, and finally at IFREMER. Her multi-disciplinary proficiency and her diverse research background led to her recognition, with the prestigious French "Maître de conférences" qualifications awarded in different fields, both in 2012 and 2016.

Dr Kbaier is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an Engineering Professors’ Council (EPC) member. Her research prowess has been acknowledged with multiple productivity bonuses and two best paper awards, one from IEEE and the other from Spring.

2024-ongoing  BCS Fellowship, home to the most influential professionals in the digital industry. Dr Dhouha Kbaier elected as Fellow of the BCS - News - OU Life

Several full texts are available in her My ResearchGate.

Research interests

Dr Dhouha Kbaier is an integral member of the NeXt Generation Multimedia and network Technologies (XGMT) research group that undertakes high-quality research into various aspects of these exciting and evolving technologies. Her research interests include signal processing applied to telecommunications and oceanography, channel coding, digital communications, information theory, error correction in VANET environments, data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence, climate change, etc. Several publications and full texts are available in her ResearchGate. 

Current Project (OSC): Game-Theoretic Approaches to Environmental Risk​

  • Applying game theory to analyse and mitigate environmental risks​
  • Research Focus: Investigating game-theoretic models and strategies for addressing environmental risks and uncertainties​
  • Collaboration: Collaborative project with the University of Bath involving interdisciplinary research, collaboration with experts in environmental science and policy, and engagement with relevant stakeholders​​
  • Join us on Nov 21st @OpenUniversity for an exciting #EvidenceCafé on Environmental Risk! #RegisterNow #HybridEvent"
  • Flyer Evidence Café Workshop  

How Dr Kbaier would like to engage with Industry:

  • Collaborative Research Projects: Collaborate on research to address industry challenges and generate innovative solutions​
  • KTPs: Transfer academic knowledge to industry through partnerships​
  • Consultancy Services: Provide specialised insights and advice to address industry needs​
  • CPD: Design and deliver industry-focused training and workshops​
  • Funding Bids: Collaborate on joint funding proposals to secure research funding​
  • Industry-Academia Events: Organise conferences and seminars to foster knowledge exchange and collaboration​
PhD supervision 
 
Dr Kbaier has an extensive experience supervising postgraduate students across various research projects, including environmental monitoring, digital divide, impact of the pandemic on healthcare, anomaly detection in FinTech, secure vehicular communications, etc. She is currently supervising four PhD students:
  • Full-time Ph.D. student, “Impact of Coronavirus on primary care appointments”, EPSRC studentship.
  • Part-time Ph.D. student, “A Novel Semi-Autonomous Time Series Analysis App for Polar Environmental Monitoring and Predictive Decision-Making”.
  • Part-time Ph.D. student, “Reducing the UK Digital Divide: A Comparison of Rural and Urban Areas”.
  • Part-time Ph.D. student, “A Novel Approach to Anomaly Detection in Cloud FinTech Systems”.

Collaboration

Collaboration sits at the core of Dr. Kbaier's approach. Whether you are an active researcher, a prospective PhD/MSc research student, or a representative of an organisation or a company in search of innovative partnerships, I encourage you to reach out via Dhouha.Kbaier@open.ac.uk.

Current PhD topics

Currently, Dr Kbaier is actively seeking to engage with PhD students, either through self-funding or by exploring funding avenues through the school. The following project outlines present exciting opportunities:

Teaching interests

Current teaching commitments:

TM112 - Introduction to computing and information technology 2

TM355- Communications technology (Module Chair)
 

Impact and engagement

Recent highlights

 

External collaborations

  • External examining: Keele University (2021-2024) and Edge Hill University (2023-2026)
  • Academic reviewer - The American College of Thessaloniki BSc (Hons) Business Computing BSc (Hons) Computer Science (2024-2026)
  • Academic reviewer for York College on the teaching of FD Digital Technologies with Cyber Security (2021-2023)
  • OUVP: Demonstrated strong leadership skills as the Chair of multiple virtual and face-to-face validation events. Conducted thorough reviews of validation documents, providing constructive feedback that supported colleges in meeting approval conditions. Successfully facilitated panel discussions, ensuring productive and focused conversations, maintained efficient meeting schedules, and engaged professionally with college staff and students, contributing significantly to the success of these events.
  • Nuffield Research Scheme: Responded to the STEM call for hosting Nuffield research placement students over the summer. Also, captured evidence in the form of a blog. Offered valuable support for this scheme in providing an underrepresented A level student for research experience in computing.
  • Supervising UG dissertations with other institutions 
  • Contributions to conferences (technical committee, session chair, international scientific committee, etc)
  • Several invited lectures, lightning talks, research talks, STEM day, etc.
 
 
 

Publications

Bridging the BAME Divide: Unveiling the Impacts of Covid-19 on Ethnic Minority Students and Empowering Change—A Case Study at the Open University (2024)
Kbaier, D.; Kane, A. and Kouadri Mostéfaoui, S.
International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 14(1) (pp. 125-131)

Experience of Health Professionals with Misinformation and Its Impact on Their Job Practice: Qualitative Interview Study. (2022)
Kbaier, Dhouha; Ismail, Nashwa; Farrell, Tracie and Kane, Annemarie
JMIR formative research, 6, Article e38794(11)

Adaptive and Optimum Secret Key Establishment for Secure Vehicular Communications (2021-03)
Bottarelli, Mirko; Karadimas, Petros; Epiphaniou, Gregory; Kbaier, Dhouha and Maple, Carsten
IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, 70(3) (pp. 2310-2321)

Physical characteristics of wireless communication channels for secret key establishment: A survey of the research (2018-09)
Bottarelli, Mirko; Epiphaniou, Gregory; Kbaier Ben Ismail, Dhouha; Karadimas, Petros and Al-Khateeb, Haider
Computers & Security, 78 (pp. 454-476)

Nonreciprocity Compensation Combined With Turbo Codes for Secret Key Generation in Vehicular Ad Hoc Social IoT Networks (2018-08)
Epiphaniou, Gregory; Karadimas, Petros; Kbaier Ben Ismail, Dhouha; Al-Khateeb, Haider; Dehghantanha, Ali and Choo, Kim-Kwang Raymond
IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 5(4) (pp. 2496-2505)

Statistical properties and time-frequency analysis of temperature, salinity and turbidity measured by the MAREL Carnot station in the coastal waters of Boulogne-sur-Mer (France) (2016-10)
Kbaier Ben Ismail, Dhouha; Lazure, Pascal and Puillat, Ingrid
Journal of Marine Systems, 162 (pp. 137-153)

Advanced Spectral Analysis and Cross Correlation Based on the Empirical Mode Decomposition: Application to the Environmental Time Series (2015-09)
Kbaier Ben Ismail, Dhouha; Lazure, Pascal and Puillat, Ingrid
IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, 12(9) (pp. 1968-1972)

A survey of three-dimensional turbo codes and recent performance enhancements (2013-04-26)
Kbaier Ben Ismail, Dhouha; Douillard, Catherine and Kerouédan, Sylvie
EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking, 2013, Article 115(1) (pp. 1-13)

Analysis of three-dimensional turbo codes (2012-06)
Kbaier Ben Ismail, Dhouha; Douillard, Catherine and Kerouédan, Sylvie
annals of telecommunications - annales des télécommunications, 67(5-6) (pp. 257-268)

Improving irregular turbo codes (2011-10)
Kbaier Ben Ismail, D.; Douillard, C. and Kerouédan, S.
Electronics Letters, 47(21) (pp. 1184-1186)

Design of suitable permutations for irregular turbo codes (2011-06-23)
Kbaier Ben Ismail, D.; Kerouédan, S. and Douillard, C.
Electronics Letters, 47(13) (pp. 748-749)

Understanding the Cyber-Victimisation of People with Long Term Conditions and the Need for Collaborative Forensics-Enabled Disease Management Programmes (2018-12-06)
Alhaboby, Zhraa A.; Alhaboby, Doaa; Al-Khateeb, Haider M.; Epiphaniou, Gregory; Kbaier Ben Ismail, Dhouha; Jahankhani, Hamid and Pillai, Prashant
In: Jahankhani, Hamid ed. Cyber Criminology. Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications.. Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications (pp. 227-250)
ISBN : 978-3-319-97180-3 | Publisher : Springer | Published : Cham, Switzerland

Enhancing Student Learning in OpenSTEM Labs Through Live Support: The Lab Assist Project (2024)
Kbaier, Dhouha; Kear, Karen; Lockett, Helen; Sykes, Peter and Long, Steve
In : 18th International conference on computer science and education (ICCSE 2023)) (01-07 Dec 2023, Sepang, Malaysia) (pp. 327-339)

Understanding the Acceptance of Artificial Intelligence in Primary Care (2023-07-09)
Sides, T.; Farrell, T. and Kbaier, D.
In : 25TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION (23-28 Jul 2023, AC Bella Sky Hotel and Bella Center, Copenhagen, Denmark) (pp. 512-518)

Understanding the Impact of Covid-19 on Ethnic Minority Students: a Case Study of Open University Level 1 Computing Modules (2023-06)
Kbaier, Dhouha; Kouadri Mostéfaoui, Soraya and Kane, Annemarie
In : International Higher Education Teaching & Learning Association (HETL) Conference 2023. Re-Imagining Education: Collaboration and Compassion (12-14 Jun 2023, Aberdeen)

Unmasking the Disparities: Investigating the Profound Effects of Covid-19 on Ethnic Minority Students – A Case Study at the Open University (2023)
Kbaier, Dhouha; Kane, Annemarie and Kouadri Mostéfaoui, Soraya
In : 7th International Conference on Teaching, Learning and Education (ICTLE 2023) (3-5 Nov 2023, Copenhagen, Denmark)

Rapid Adaptive Climate Change Model: Application of a Probabilistic Centred Approach to the Minas Passage Bay of Fundy datasets (2022-12-19)
Kenny, Ian and Kbaier, Dhouha
In : OCEANS 2022 (17-20 Oct 2022, Hampton Roads, VA, USA)

A novel environmental system-focused empirical mode decomposition analysis: Application to Minas passage (2022)
Kenny, Ian and Kbaier, Dhouha
In : 24th International Conference on Computational Statistics (COMPSTAT 2022) (23-26 Aug 2022, University of Bologna, Italy)

Advanced statistical analysis of environmental data in the Gascoyne Inlet (2021-09-20)
Kbaier, Dhouha
In : OCEANS 2021 (20 Sep - 23 Sep 2021, San Diego: Porto)

Methodology to Build Radio Cartography of Wi-Fi Coverage (2021)
Kbaier Ben Ismail, Dhouha and Singh, Deep
In : ICICT 2020: Fifth International Congress on Information and Communication Technology (20-21 Feb 2020, London, UK) (pp. 278-289)

Error Reconciliation with Turbo Codes for Secret Key Generation in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (2019)
Kbaier Ben Ismail, Dhouha; Karadimas, Petros; Epiphaniou, Gregory and Al-Khateeb, Haider M.
In : Proceedings of the 2018 Computing Conference (10-12 Jul 2018, London, UK) (pp. 696-704)

Optimizing Turbo Codes for Secret Key Generation in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (2019)
Kbaier Ben Ismail, Dhouha; Karadimas, Petros; Epiphaniou, Gregory and Al-Khateeb, Haider
In : Proceedings of the 1st American University in the Emirates International Research Conference (2017, Dubai, UAE) (pp. 287-293)

Quantisation feasibility and performance of RSS-based secret key extraction in VANETs (2018-12-06)
Bottarelli, Mirko; Epiphaniou, Gregory; Kbaier Ben Ismail, Dhouha; Karadimas, Petros and Al-Khateeb, Haider
In : 2018 International Conference on Cyber Security and Protection of Digital Services (Cyber Security) (11-12 Jun 2018, Scotland, UK) (pp. 1-8)

Time-Frequency analysis of long-term marine data from Cambridge Bay in the Canadian Arctic. High resolution ADCP, CTD and Fluorometer time series analysis (2017-10-26)
Kbaier Ben Ismail, Dhouha
In : MTS/IEEE OCEANS 2017 (19-22 Jun 2017, Aberdeen, 2017) (pp. 1-5)

Application of Hilbert-Huang decomposition to temperature and currents data in the Réunion island (2016-12-01)
Kbaier Ben Ismail, Dhouha; Lazure, Pascal and Puillat, Ingrid
In : OCEANS 2016 MTS/IEEE Monterey (19-23 Sep 2016, Monterey, California, USA.) (pp. 1-9)

Time-frequency analysis of currents data sampled at four stations in the Réunion island: application of EMD and wavelets (2015-07-01)
Kbaier Ben Ismail, Dhouha; Lazure, Pascal and Puillat, Ingrid
In : ITISE 2015: International work-conference on Time Series Analysis (1-3 Jul 2015, Granada, Spain)

Model-driven estimation of operators’ workload for usage centred design of interactive systems (2015-05-18)
Kbaier Ben Ismail, Dhouha and Grivard, Olivier
In : 2015 IEEE International Multi-Disciplinary Conference on Cognitive Methods in Situation Awareness and Decision Support (CogSIMA) (9-12 Mar 2015, Orlando, USA) (pp. 63-69)

A model-driven approach to the a priori estimation of operator workload (2015-05-18)
Kbaier Ben Ismail, Dhouha and Grivard, Olivier
In : 2015 IEEE International Multi-Disciplinary Conference on Cognitive Methods in Situation Awareness and Decision Support (CogSIMA) (9-12 Mar 2015, Orlando, USA) (pp. 1-7)

Analyse statistique et spectrale de la température, salinité et turbidité du système MAREL", Instrumentation haute fréquence pour l’observation et la surveillance de l’environnement marin (2014-06-12)
Kbaier Ben Ismail, Dhouha; Lazure, Pascal and Puillat, Ingrid
In : Colloque organisé à l’occasion des 10 ans de la station instrumentée MAREL Carnot (12-13 Jun 2014, Boulogne-Sur-Mer, France.)

Reducing the convergence loss of 3-dimensional turbo codes (2010-10-28)
Kbaier Ben Ismail, Dhouha; Douillard, C. and Kerouedan, S.
In : 6th International Symposium on Turbo Codes & Iterative Information Processing, (6-10 Sep 2010, Brest, France) (pp. 146-150)

Improving 3-dimensional turbo codes using 3GPP2 interleavers (2010-01-08)
Kbaier Ben Ismail, Dhouha; Douillard, C. and Kerouedan, S.
In : ComNet'09: First International Conference on Communications and Networking (3-6 Nov 2009, Hammamet, Tunisia, 2009.) (pp. 1-7)

Towards ideal codes: looking for new turbo code schemes (2011-02-04)
Kbaier Ben Ismail, Dhouha
PhD thesis Telecom Bretagne, Brest, France