Prestigious award for leading BUiD student

In recognition of his scholarship and enormous academic potential, the Knowledge Media Institute (KMi) of the Open University has agreed to enroll and fund Fouad Zablith in his Doctoral studies. This will constitute a major change of career for Zablith, who is the current chief of the business development and IT infrastructure of ZeTrading.com.

Last academic year saw Zablith, a Lebanese national, complete his Master of Science thesis and be awarded a Distinction grade. He is also the first graduate of BUiD's Institute of Informatics MSc in Informatics (Knowledge and Data Management Stream).

His paper, "Laying the foundations for a Worldwide Argument Web" - co-authored with Dr. Iyad Rahwan - was accepted by Artificial Intelligence Journal (AIJ). Dr. Rahwan is delighted at his former student's success.
"Fouad's achievement in obtaining a doctoral scholarship from a leading UK research institution can be seen as evidence of the quality of the research-based education we offer at the British University in Dubai," said David Lock, Registrar, the British University in Dubai.

"Our MSc in Information Technology degree - offered jointly with the University of Edinburgh - combined with the cutting-edge research we conduct here, placed Fouad as an ideal candidate for this competitive scholarship," added Dr. Iyad Rahwan, MSc in Information Technology Programme Coordinator, Institute of Informatics, British University in Dubai and Honorary Fellow, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh.

"I am very proud that our first batch of MSc graduates has produced such success. I look forward to helping more students achieve their scientific ambitions by giving them the skills and knowledge to be world-class researchers," Dr. Rahwan concluded.

There is a close symmetry between Mr. Zablith and the KMi. Based at the Open University, itself a bold, modernizing initiative in 1960s Britain, the KMi aims to be at the leading edge of web, semantic, learning and new media technologies, known collectively as convergence knowledge media.

KMi's commitment to "Real Systems, Real Users" - demonstrating that technologies deliver for both the commercial world and in the wider community - corresponds to Zablith's own creative and research interests. As part of his thesis, he produced ArgDF (http://www.argdf.org/), an advanced second-generation Web (i.e. Semantic Web) application, for supporting multi-user dialogue and argumentation.

Fouad Zablith will be taking up his new role in October 2007.