Sahar Abdullah: Role Model for Women’s IT Education

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Most young women growing up in Yemen have few opportunities for higher education and professional jobs. But Sahar Abdullah’s parents believe that higher education plays an integral role in personal development, so they strongly encouraged Sahar and her sister to continue education after high school.

Because Sahar was one of the top secondary school students in Yemen, she received a scholarship to study for her bachelor’s degree in Egypt. Her love for programming and problem solving led Sahar to choose computer science as her major. At Cairo University she successfully completed her bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and master’s degree in Information Systems, and completed a Cisco diploma at American University.

After learning about our unique MS in Computer Science in a LinkedIn message from MUM, Sahar kept thinking that one master’s degree was enough–but the idea for a second master’s emphasizing OOP software development kept popping into her head. So she decided to research Maharishi University of Management and our MS in Computer Science for Computer Professionals program, and joined our Facebook group. When Sahar realized that many Arab students had happily and successfully enrolled in this program, she decided to apply, and was accepted for the October 2014 entry.

Happy at MUM

When she first arrived at MUM last year, Sahar’s initial impression of the University was that everyone here was happy. She told her mother, “All the people here are smiling and saying hi!”

After a year on campus, Sahar reflects on the special nature of the MUM/Fairfield, Iowa community: “I really love this peaceful environment that I am in–an environment full of love, happiness and joy obtained from the incredible benefits of practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique. Just living in this community with international software professionals all doing TM together is an honor for me in itself.”

Even though she is far from her parents and sister, and misses them very much, Sahar’s family is relieved to know she is in a very safe and completely supportive environment at MUM.

Harmony in Diversity

“As a Muslim lady living in Fairfield, I feel that people around me are respecting me and others,” says Sahar. “They treat me as one of them, despite the fact that I wear my scarf. I have never felt mistreated. Friends greet us on Eid (a Muslim holiday), and Eid prayers trips are arranged for us.”

Top Academics

Sahar has also been pleased with the academics in the Computer Professionals program: “The program’s high standards create a powerful motivation. I look to this program like a tree: You plant the seed, water it, and take care of it. As the knowledge grows within, you gain fruits forever. Every aspect of the academic program was the best either in moments of challenge, or moments of success. The courses were very challenging, but now that I am finished, I am ready for my curricular practical training internship in the IT industry.”

Advice for Other Female Software Developers

“Nowadays, the biggest challenge for a female is to be employed and feel useful for society and herself. I would like to tell all female software developers who feel they are creative, full of ideas, and dreams, but have not found the appropriate ways to express their talents–at MUM you will get the support and knowledge to realize the best in your skills and competencies.”


A Bright Future

In January, Sahar will begin her IT career as a Software Engineer at Intel in Oregon where she will be part of a product development engineer team. Her job will be transforming designs into competitive products, and testing development for microprocessors, system-on-chips and chip sets. We wish her great happiness and success, as we stay in touch with another special member of our world family.

Student Achieves Success

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Zheng Yang has a strong thirst for knowledge, and the desire to excel as an IT professional.

Prior to enrolling in our MSCS program, Zheng worked for about 2 years as a Software Engineer in mainland China. At that time he started looking for a graduate program combining academic learning and practical working opportunities. Once he heard about the MS in Computer Science for Computer Professionals at Maharishi University of Management, he applied and began his studies here in February 2010.

While still an MUM student, Zheng Yang has already achieved a number of laudable professional achievements. Following completion of his on-campus courses, Zheng interned at Snibbe Interactive in San Francisco as an Immersive Media Software Engineer. There he got the chance to work with Scott Snibbe, the pioneer of computer vision technology, who came up with the idea of “Gravilux.”

Microsoft Featured App: Gravilux

Gravilux is an interactive musical starfield visualizer: it’s a combination of music, animation, art, and science. As you touch the screen, gravity draws simulated stars to your fingertips. You can tease and twist the particles into galaxies, or explode them like a supernova. Color the stars by their speed, and make them dance. After making a version for IOS, Zheng was instrumental in making a version of Gravilux for Windows 8. Out of 50,000 apps in the Windows Store “Entertainment” category, Microsoft decided to feature Gravilux.

Wrote and Published Book

While working full time at Snibbe, Zheng was also completing distance education courses as part of his MUM MS program. On his own time, he wrote the book, Windows Phone 7 XNA Cookbook. Because there were no specific books about game programming for Windows Phone at the time, he wanted to share what he had learned. After 17 months of writing and editing, the book was published in cookbook style, offering solutions using a recipe-based approach. Each recipe contains detailed instructions followed by analysis of what was done in each step. The book was written for aspiring game programmers who have basic knowledge of C# and object-oriented programming, and want to create games for Windows Phone 7. Reviews have been quite positive.

Goals

Zheng Yang’s goals include making a video game engine that can provide realistic playing experiences, and developing a new art form called “Generative Art,” which creates computer generated music and painting. His MSCS program at MUM has been a big help in allowing Zheng to rethink the best practices for designing the architecture of game engines with efficient algorithms. He has been most stimulated by the Advanced Programming Design, Computer Graphics, and Algorithms courses at MUM.

Zheng especially appreciates the MUM block system of studying one course full-time each month, allowing for dedication and deep appreciation of each discipline. He finds the quiet and peaceful campus atmosphere ideal for calm, focused studying.

To assist other software developers in advancing their careers, Zheng advises people to work hard and keep learning. People should enjoy what they do, practice their skills every day, never give up, challenge themselves, manage time well, maintain discipline, and remain optimistic.

TM Practice

Zheng says that practicing the Transcendental Meditation® technique produces a calm, relaxed mind and enhances self-knowledge in a fast and noisy world, leading to greater patience and productivity.

Current Activities

At the beginning of April this year, Zheng returned to MUM to take two additional courses of great interest: (1) Mobile Device Programming, and (2) Enterprise Architecture. Because mobile programming with Android is one of the main streams in current technology, and because he only has experience on Windows Phone and IOS, Zheng is taking the Mobile programming course to learn Android programming.

Software Engineer, Student, and Scholar

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Our MSCS student interns work full-time in their professional IT positions. They also take required distance education courses. As a result, most students find little time left for any other activities. Mohamed Sobhy M.A. Farag is an exception. Not only is he working full-time as a Technical Consultant for the top IT consulting company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and earning A’s in his distance education courses, but Mohamed has made the time to pursue a number of scholarly activities.

Mohamed was born in a small town in northern Egypt, and attended primary and high school in Saudi Arabia. By the time he finished high school, he was ranked sixth among the top ten students in Saudi Arabia. During this period Mohamed became inspired by computers, and he returned to Egypt to study Computer Science in Menoufia University, where he specialized on the architecture of computing machines and operating systems.

By third level at Menoufia University, Mohamed was listed on the FreeBSD contributor list. He got the opportunity to develop an approach for loading FreeBSD kernel modules at run time dynamically. As a result of this project, he was awarded a Google Summer of Code Prize. His interest reached to both the node structure level, and to the node communication level. By the fourth year at Menoufia University, he studied Computer networks and received CCNA Academy certificate (CISCO Certified Network Associate). In May 2011, he graduated with a grade of Excellent with Honor degree.

Recent Honors and Achievements

During 2010 and 2011, Mohamed received several honors:

  • First place in “Best Programming Project”, Renewable Energy Conference, Egypt, 2010.
  • Google Summer of Code Award, Google, 2010.
  • First place in “Best Programming Project”, Renewable Energy Conference, Egypt, 2011.
  • Top 20 Engineers in Egypt, 2011.
  • Technical Lead at ArabBSD project (December, 2010 – Present).
  • Organizer at Google Developer Group (January 2011 – Present).

Mohamed’s recent scholarly achievements:

  • August 2012: Mohamed published the article, “Multicore dynamic kernel modules attachment technique for kernel performance enhancement,” in the International Journal of Computer Science & Information Technology (IJCSIT), vol 4, no 4, under the Maharishi University of Management, Department of Computer Science.
  • December 2012: He published, “An enhanced run-time kernel visual debugger,” in the IEEE 8th International Computer Engineering Conference (ICENCO) Proceedings, also under the Maharishi University of Management, Department of Computer Science.
  • February 2013: Mohamed was formally invited to speak at the session on “The Emerging Mobile Applications and Services” at BIT’s 2nd Annual World Congress of Emerging InfoTech-2013, to be held June, 2013 in Dalian, China.
  • March 2013: Mohamed’s proposal, “Cryptology from Operating System Paradigm,” was accepted as a chapter for a new book discussing the importance of information security in a multidisciplinaric manner. In this context, “multidisciplinary” indicates the presentation of computer security topics in terms of other disciplines, i.e. introducing security in file systems, kernels or cloud instead of offering pure security topics. Currently, his chapter is being revised by several professors who specialize in computer security.
  • April 2013: He was invited to participate in the US Department of Defense “Cloud Computing & Assurance for Critical DoD Initiatives Conference” in Maryland.

Why attend MUM?

When asked why he chose Maharishi University of Management for his Masters degree in Computer Science, Mohamed replied, “The choice for graduate study depends on a student’s objective. The majority of programs miss the ability of tracking market needs. There’s a gap between the theoretical research and practical life. I can feel it in my new workplace where we have other universities’ Master’s students lacking the industrial qualities. From my perspective, MUM is one of the top places in preparing students with the required qualities and experiences for the US market. I gained the industrial experience indirectly during my on-campus studies at MUM, and have faced many situations in my job similar to what I had in course labs.”

Advantages of practicing the TM® technique

“The focus on self-development along with educational qualities is fascinating at MUM. Transcendental Meditation as a common self-development technique [practiced by all students, faculty and staff at MUM] helps me to listen to my inward capabilities, and to enhance my emotional stability.”

Future goals

Mohamed’s goals: “According to the rest and activity cycle, I’m planning to return to academic studies soon. I’m intending to study for a PhD to build and refine my systematic thinking and investigate new ways of problem solving.” He is considering MIT, Stanford and Carnegie-Melon for his PhD.

Advice for other Software Engineers

“Maharishi University of Management is one of the top programs which prepares students for top industrial positions in the US IT market. You should consider MUM if you want to be a leader in the IT world.”