Rabab Kreidieh Ward

Who Is She

Rabab Kreidieh Ward
Organisations: 
University
Professions: 
Consultant
Coordinator
Educator
Researcher
Areas of expertise: 
Technology
Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
Sciences

Personal information

Engineer, Professor, Scientist, Researcher, Consultant
Rabab Kreidieh Ward

What I have done for Lebanon

 I give many public lectures  and speeches worldwide . I usually mention that I am Lebanese and that I owe my education (and any success that I have achieved ) to Lebanon. Amongst the graduate students I have supervised and  graduated:  3 Doctorate students and 2 Master students were from Lebanon. They are now enjoying successful careers . Two are professors ( in top USA and  UAE universities )  and the others enjoy high positions in Industry.

Contact information / Work

University of British Columbia
Fred Kaiser Bldg., 5500 - 2332 Main Mall
V6T 1Z4
British Columbia
Vancouver
Canada
Phone: 
9428 822 604 1 00
rababw@ece.ubc.ca
http://ipl.ece.ubc.ca/rababw.html

Education

Education: 
  • Doctorate degree, Electrical Engineering, 1972, University of California (Berkeley), United States of America.
  • Master's degree, Electrical Engineering, 1969, University of California (Berekely), United States of America.
  • Bachelor degree, Electrical Engineering, 1966, University of Cairo, Egypt.

Areas of expertise

Expertise: 
  • Electrical & Computer Engineering
  • Signal Processing
  • Medical Imaging
  • Multimedia Research
Languages: 
  • Arabic
  • English

Work history

Jobs: 
  • Professor, 1979 - present, University of British Columbia.
  • Science and Engineering Research Coordinator, 2008 - 2015, Office of the Vice-President Research and International, University of British Columbia.
  • Director of the Institute for Computing, 1996 - 2007, Information & Cognitive Systems, University of British Columbia.
  • Senior Lecturer, 1975 - 1979, University of Zimbabwe.

Honorary office and memberships

  • Director, Division 1X, IEEE , 2019-2020.
  • President, President-Elect, IEEE Signal processing Society  ,2014-2017.
  • Genera; Chair of the IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2016.
  • General Chair of the International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (IEEE ICASSP), 2013.
  • General Chair of the International Workshop on Multimedia Signal Processing (IEEE MMSP), 2012.
  • Member of the University of British Columbia (UBC) three-people delegation that visited Saudi Arabia to strengthen research and collaboration between Saudi Universities and UBC, April/May, 2010 & 2011.
  • Member of a 15 scientists committee to advise Qatar Foundation headed by Her Heighness Sheika Mozah on how to establish and promote scientific research in Qatar, 2006-2008.
  • General Chair of IEEE Symposium on Signal Processing and Information Technology (IEEE ISSPIT), 2006.
  • Member of the Editorial Board of the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, Jan 2006 - 2008.
  • Associate Editor of the Journal of Electronic Imaging, 2001 - 2006.
  • Vice - Chair of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (IEEE ISCAS), 2004.
  • Vice - President of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Signal Processing Society, 2003 - 2005.
  • Member of the University of British Columbia Committee to plan the Kuwait Institute for Business and Technology, 2001- 2004.
  • General Chair of IEEE Conference on Image Processing (IEEE ICIP), 2000.
  • Chief Scientist of Ward Laboratories Inc., 1993 - 2006.
  • Co- founder of the Society for Canadian Women in Science & Technology, 1981 - present.

Productions

Major achievements: 
  • She has published over 200 refereed journal papers, 340 refereed conference papers, 14 book chapters  and co-edited 3 books . These are mainly related to signal processing and its applications to cable TV, HDTV, image coding, stellar images, medical images, brain computer interfaces and biomedical applications including early detection of cancer from mammographic images and finding the level of a baby's distress from his/her cry signals, that have won nine best paper awards, 1978 - present.
  • Holder of 6 active patents related to cable television:
  1. Du, J., Li, X., Shi, P., and Ward, R.K., "Noise Reduction for Video Signals," U.S. Patent registration number 6,061,100, issued May 9, 2000.
  2. Ward, R.K., "System for Non-Intrusive Measurements of Noise Impairments in Cable TV," U.S. Patent registration number 5,661,529, issued February 27, 1997.
  3. Ward, R.K., Shi, P. and Xie, Q., "System for Reducing Beat Type Impairment in a TV Signal," U.S. Patent registration number 5,585,859, issued Dec.17, 1996.
  4. Zhang, Q. and Ward, R.K., "Automatic Signal-to-Noise Ration Assessment of TV Pictures," U.S. Patent registration number 5,329,311, issued July 12, 1994.
  5. Shi, P. and Ward, R.K., "Cancelling Composite Triple Beats in Cable TV Pictures," U.S. Patent registration number 5,323,239, issued June 21, 1994.
  6. Zhang, Q. and Ward, R.K., "Cable Television Signal Quality Monitoring System," U.S. Patent registration number 5,221,967, issued June 22, 1993., PCT #92908960, Japan #HEI 4-508,411, Canada #2,102,404, held in 1993.
  • Advising 50 44 M.A.Sc. and 43 Ph.D. students: 13 of the Ph.D. students have been appointed as professors, 7 had their Ph.D. dissertations nominated for prizes and some have started new companies in Canada and China.
  • She is a pioneering woman in engineering. She was the first woman to be appointed as professor in engineering in British Columbia, 1979.
  • First woman professor to be appointed to the Engineering Faculty in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, 1975.
  • First woman to become a member of the Lebanese Professional Engineering Society.
  • Consultant for the following organizations:
  1. MDA, 2014.
  2. AdvancedIO Systems Inc., since 2007 
  3. WebTech Wireless,telematics, 1999-2005
  4. R.F.I.D., Passport photograph compression, November 1996-1999.
  5. Hewlett-Packard (Santa Rosa, Calif.), Non-intrusive measurements of cable TV parameters.
  6. Vision Systems Inc. Building a computer vision system for grading lumber, 1989.
  7. The Whitsun Foundation of Rhodesia, building a computer model for Agrarian Reform, 1978.
Exhibitions, lectures & performances: 
  • She has co-directed/co-produced many videos that have been extensively used to attract students to the field of signal processing:
  1. What is Signal Processing
  2. Signal Processing and Machine learning
  3. Under the Radar
  4. Multimedia Forensics
  5. Signal Processing in Free Viewpoint Television
  6. The Benefits of Spoken Language Technologies

 

 

 

Awards and Distinctions

Distinctions: 
  • Full scholarship from the Lebanese Council for Scientific Research to do graduate work in Electrical Engineering in Berkeley, California (5 years).
  • Won the Egyptian government scholarship award to study engineering or medicine (5 years).
  • Won the American University of Beirut Scholarship award to study medicine (but declined it because I wanted to study engineering. Women were not allowed at that time to study engineering at the American University of Beirut in 1961).
Awards: 
  • Recipient of the Outstanding Mentor/Sponsor Award of Wendy McDonald Awards, 2017.
  • Recipient of Centennial Gold Medal, UBC Applied Science, 2016.
  • Killam Award for Excellence in Mentoring, UBC, 2013.
  • Meritorious Service Award of IEEE Signal Processing Society, 2013.
  • Paradigm Shifter Award of the Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology, Nov 2011.
  • Millennium Award, IEEE Vancouver Chapter, Aug 2011.
  • CUFA BC “Career Achievement Award”, May 2011. (CUFA is the association representing all professors in all B.C. universities). This is the highest of the 3 awards it gives each year.
  • UBC Engineering Co-op “Faculty of the Year“ Award, 2010.
  • WYCA Woman of Distinction Award, 2008.
  • The “Society Award” of the IEEE Signal Processing Society, 2008. This is the highest and most prestigious award of this society, emphasizing technical leadership and achievements in the field.
  • R.A. McLachlan Award of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia, 2007. Amongst its nine awards, this is the top and most prestigious, emphasizing education, research, innovation in engineering, and community service.
  • Recipient of the UBC Killam Research Prize, 1998.
  • “Distinction Award” for being the first in Lebanon in the 1960 Scientific Baccalaureate national Exam.
  • Registered Professional Engineer (of the BC Professional Engineers Association).