{"id":70955,"date":"2020-11-09T10:26:33","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T15:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=70955"},"modified":"2025-10-20T09:27:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:27:21","slug":"rawan-alkurd-gadgets-machines","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/rawan-alkurd-gadgets-machines\/","title":{"rendered":"Fall Graduation 2020: From Gadgets to Patents \u2014a Lifelong Fascination with Machines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Fall Graduation 2020: From Gadgets to Patents \u2014a Lifelong Fascination with Machines\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Carleton\u2019s Fall Graduation 2020, a university-wide online celebration, launched on Saturday, Nov. 14. Watch the celebration at the Carleton Grads 2020<\/a> website now!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As a child growing up in the United Arab Emirates, Rawan Alkurd\u2019s preferred birthday gift was always the latest gadget rather than the latest toy.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI was not only fascinated with gadgets, but I wanted to learn how to build them,\u201d explains Alkurd.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to know how to communicate with machines and how to train them to understand things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only university path for Alkurd in the United Arab Emirates was electrical engineering, and she went on to earn a bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degree in the subject. But her search for a deeper understanding of machines continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"From
Rawan shares a photo from her childhood<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know much about data science, but I was always fascinated by physics and I loved coding,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWhen AI and machine learning surfaced, I started reading about it and I became even more interested in these technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Alkurd began searching for a PhD supervisor who could help her make the transition into data science and artificial intelligence. She was thrilled when Systems and Computer Engineering Prof. Halim Yanikomeroglu<\/a> invited her to study with him at Carleton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was looking for a well-established research group with good support and the opportunity to interact with brilliant researchers,\u201d says Alkurd, who arrived in 2015. \u201cProf. Halim is a world-renowned researcher in the wireless communications community, so I was extremely excited to work with him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Rawan<\/figure>\n\n\n

An Idea Drawn from Adversity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s hard to imagine anything good arising from a frigid night at an Ottawa bus stop, but that is where Alkurd found the inspiration that has fuelled her success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Prof.
Prof. Ibrahim Abualhaol<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was February and I had just come to Ottawa. I was waiting for hours and it was confusing for me\u2014I was trying to figure out which bus to take,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI had no cellphone service while other people were watching videos. That led me to question why the network couldn\u2019t detect an urgent need for service.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alkurd brought the idea to her supervisors, Yanikomeroglu and Sprott School of Business Prof. Ibrahim Abualhaol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team had several brainstorming sessions to develop a proposal that would enable a network to personalize the delivery of network services and guarantee a certain quality of service for high priority usage. Then they had to convince others in the field that it was possible.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThe biggest challenge was that this idea was not defined; there was no solid background in the literature,\u201d recalls Alkurd.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWe eventually managed to convince them that this was real, not science fiction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an electrical engineering graduate, Alkurd faced another hurdle\u2014her own educational background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had to reinvent myself as a data scientist,\u201d explains Alkurd. \u201cI trained myself from scratch through online and in-person courses and hands-on projects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Rawan<\/figure>\n\n\n

Doctoral Degree and Award Winner<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Alkurd has now earned her PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering and was awarded a Senate Medal<\/a> for outstanding academic achievement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alkurd also won a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship in 2016, a prestigious award worth $50,000 per year for three years.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThe Vanier award made me financially independent from the industry and other organizations,\u201d says Alkurd.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cIt enabled me to own all of my inventions and hence, I have the right to commercialize them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alkurd and her supervisors have since secured two patents through Carleton\u2019s Innovation Transfer Office. They are also planning to launch a startup up with the support of Carleton University.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Rawan<\/figure>\n\n\n

A New Company and a New Country<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Not only did Alkurd\u2019s PhD change the course of her career, it also changed the lives of her family, who were Palestinians living in the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were stateless because we were not allowed to be citizens in the UAE. That was one of the reasons I wanted to come here, to build a life and be part of a community. Two years ago, I convinced my family to start a new life here, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rawan
Rawan with her parents<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Alkurd says she is incredibly grateful that her parents, younger sister and two brothers have now joined her in Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI really appreciate all of the support I\u2019ve received in Canada,\u201d says Alkurd.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWithout the Vanier award, I would have struggled to continue my studies. Then there was the support I received from Carleton and my supervisors. And finally, the Canadian government allowed my family to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have been so fortunate. I can\u2019t thank them enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Rawan<\/figure>\n\n\n

—
\nMore Stories<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carleton\u2019s Fall Graduation 2020, a university-wide online celebration, launched on Saturday, Nov. 14. Watch the celebration at the Carleton Grads 2020 website now! As a child growing up in the United Arab Emirates, Rawan Alkurd\u2019s preferred birthday gift was always the latest gadget rather than the latest toy. \u201cI was not only fascinated with gadgets, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":70978,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[25,1592],"cu_story_tag":[1923,1925,1922],"class_list":["post-70955","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-student-experience","cu_story_type-teaching-learning","cu_story_tag-graduate-studies","cu_story_tag-research","cu_story_tag-sprott-school-of-business"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/70955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/70955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97693,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/70955\/revisions\/97693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=70955"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=70955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}