Dr. Al-Assaf is a widely published and academic and senior education management professional with extensive international experience.
He is currently President of Rochester Institute of Technology- Dubai, a leading not for profit American University, established in conjunction with the Dubai Government in Dubai Silicon Oasis.
Prior to this he was Dean of the College of Engineering (CEN) at the American University of Sharjah (AUS) where he was one of the founding members of the electrical engineering and computer engineering programs. Dr. Al-Assaf was also one of the founding members and Chair of the Industrial Engineering Department at University of Jordan where he headed Outreach and External relations, focusing on industry links.
During his tenure at RIT Dubai, he has ensured that the university plays a major role in the ecosystem of Dubai Silicon Oasis and has introduced a number of new programs to meet the needs of industry and technology partners including: Smart City Sciences, Industrial Engineering, as well as Energy majors. He has established two research centers in Energy & Sustainability, and Mechatronics in collaboration with local industry as well as securing ABET accreditation.
As Dean of the College of Engineering at AUS, it became the largest college at AUS and introduced a range of programs in chemical, civil, computer, electrical and mechanical engineering.
Dr. Al-Assaf\’s research focuses on using soft computing to model and control various industrial and medical systems. Applications include materials modeling and classification, prostheses control, industrial quality control and optimization. His industrial experience is in the areas of adaptive and predictive control, soft computing and industrial instrumentation and control He has designed and developed various automated control systems for a range of industries including agriculture and the textile and sheet-cutting sectors.
