Iyad A. Ajwa is a professor of computer science at Ashland University. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan; a Masters of Science degree in Mathematics and a Masters of Science degree in Computer Science from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; and Doctor of Philosophy degree in Computer Science from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio. Before joining Ashland University in August 1997, Ajwa was a Visiting Instructor at the University of Akron, Akron, Ohio. He was also a Graduate Assistant in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Kent State University. His research interests include parallelism in symbolic mathematical computations, computer algebra, and computer science education. Ajwa is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), a member of the ACM Special Interest Group on Symbolic and Algebraic Manipulations (SIGSAM), and a member of the ACM Special Interest Group in Computer Education (SIGCSE).
Since the early days of his elementary education, Ajwa had studied closely and admired his teachers. He considers teaching to be one of the most exciting professions. Soon after graduating from the University of Jordan in 1981, he began a teaching career in secondary education. Since then Ajwa has come to appreciate research as an important ingredient for successful teaching. Teachers touch the future by preparing students for its challenges, while researchers experience the challenges of modern technology. Ajwa has found that he thoroughly enjoys working in the university environment because it offers him both the opportunity of teaching and the challenges of research.
Ajwa began his research experience during his senior year in college and enhanced it while he was a graduate student at Lehigh University. He conducted a thesis research on parallel processing and algorithms under the supervision of Dr. Meghanad Wagh at Lehigh University. The research was a comprehensive study on the parallel algorithms for algebraic and numerical problems.
During his Ph.D. program at Kent State University, Ajwa was thoroughly exposed to research. He conducted a dissertation research under the supervision of Dr. Paul Wang. This research is on parallel algorithms and implementations of the Gröbner Bases Algorithm and the Characteristic Sets Method: two important techniques in the rapidly growing field of Computer Algebra. Out of his dissertation research, Ajwa has several publications appearing in refereed journals and conference proceedings including an award winning paper (The NAECON'97 Student Best Paper Award: Second Runner-Up). Awarded by the IEEE 1997 National Aerospace and Electronics Conference, the best paper award recognizes the quality of Ajwa's paper titled Applying Parallel/Distributed Computing to Advanced Algebraic Computations.
One of Ajwa's professional career goals is to strengthen research and education in the computer science field at Ashland University, a predominantly undergraduate institution where the primary focus of his department is at undergraduate instruction. Therefore, he has been involving undergraduate students in advanced research projects. He also has been providing the students with opportunities for independent studies. These research opportunities have culminated in several refereed publications that had grown out of undergraduate research projects and other teaching and education experiences.
Ajwa has been a professor of computer science at Ashland University since August 1997. He has taught a variety of computer science courses including Computer Literacy, Logic and Computing, Computer Programming I, Computer Programming II, Data Structures, Computer Architecture, Theory of Computation, Computer Algorithms, Theory of Database Management Systems, Computer Graphics, Software Engineering, Java Programming, Introduction to UNIX, Web Design, and Web Programming. Due to his recognized teaching at Ashland University, Ajwa was nominated several times for the most prestigious teaching award at Ashland University, The Teaylor Excellence in University Teaching Award. However, this is not Ajwa's first teaching experience.
Ajwa taught Mathematics from 1981 to 1983 in Jordan. Between 1983 and 1987 he worked as a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Mathematics at Lehigh University. In 1986, Ajwa was honored by winning The 1986 Arthur E. Humphrey Teaching Assistant Award. Established by Lehigh University in 1986, the teaching assistant award recognizes teaching assistants that truly provide high class quality teaching and demonstrate the teaching processes and commitment necessary to continuously improve over the long-term. Ajwa is extremely proud to be the first teaching assistant to ever win this recognition by Lehigh University. In 1987, Ajwa was assigned to teach Mathematics at the Northampton Community College as an adjunct faculty until December 1990. During his Ph.D. program at Kent State University (January 1991 - August 1997), Ajwa worked as a Graduate Assistant in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. From January 1996 to December 1996, Ajwa was a part-time instructor of computer science in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Akron. In January 1997, Ajwa was invited to join the graduate faculty of the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Akron as a Visiting Instructor until August 1997.