Experience

Hamdan Dammag Experience

Work Experience:

Academia and Scientific Research:

I am the Deputy Rector of the Yemen Centre for Studies and Research (YCSR).
Head of the Applied Science and IT Research Department at YCSR.
My research interests include:
       - Safety Analysis and Design
       - Safety critical systems
       - Software Engineering
       - Formal Methods in Developing countries
       - Formal Specification of Critical-Systems
       - State-Based Modelling and Statecharts
       - Security and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
       - Formal Methods
I am particularly interested in visual formalisms and the specification and design of safety properties of reactive systems. The design of dependable systems is often required to satisfy several critical properties, such as availability, reliability, safety and security, simultaneously. There is a growing interest in the degree to which techniques from one domain could complement, or conflict with, those from another. I am particularly interested in using safety-oriented mechanisms for dealing with security issues.
In my PhD work, I have proposed a safety-oriented variant of Statecharts, called Safecharts.

Journalism and Literature:

I am the Chief Editor of Ghaiman, a specialised literature magazine published by the House of Poetry in Yemen.
I worked as the Managing Editor of Yemen Time newspaper, the first and most widely read English-language newspaper in Yemen.
I have been working in the field of journalism and literature since 1990. I write articles and reports, sketch caricatures and participate in publishing newspapers and literature books (in Arabic).

Web Design:

I work also as a freelance Web Designer and Web Consultant. I have designed several websites, including:
- The Embassy of Yemen, London.
- Ghaiman Net
- Almaqaleh Net (under development)
I have worked in graphic design with MD Computer Services, designing commercial logos and business cards.

Teaching:

Personal Tutor and Scribe for students with disabilities, London South Bank University, 2004.
Tutor - Effective Web Design for second year students, South Bank University, 2003.
Lecturer - Introduction to Computing and Mathematics - South Chelsea College, London, UK, 2003.
Tutor - Effective Web Design for second year students, South Bank University, 2003.
Lecturer - Introducing IT and the internet - MD Computer Services - Sana'a, Yemen, 2000.
Tutor - Logic and Maths, Pascal and Delphi for first year Computer Science Students, University of Reading, UK, 1997-1999.
Maths and English for preparatory school students - Al-Nahada School, Sana'a, Yemen, 1991.

Qualification:

Ph.D. in Computer Science from The University of Reading, 2005 (with research and supervision carried out at London South Bank University).
B.Sc. in Computer Science - Computer Science Department, University of Reading, 1997. (2:1 with honors)
Foundation Course (Preparatory Course) - University of Reading, 1994. (First Class - Science Section). I received £1000 award for best achievement.
IELTS student at CALS, University of Reading, 1993.
General Secondary Certificate (Science Section) - Al-Kuwait Secondary School - Sana'a - Yemen 1991.
General Preparatory Certificate - Al-Ahlyah School - Sana'a - Yemen 1988.

Conferences & Workshops:

The following are some of the conferences, workshops and meetings I have participated and/or attended:

Annual Meeting of the The Middle East Studies Association (MESA08), Washington DC, USA, 22-25 November 2008.
Naji Al-Ali: Critical Readings Symposium (Organizer), Yemen Center for Studies and Research, Sana'a, 26th August- 3rd September, 2008.
The 5th IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering and Formal Methods, London, UK. (SEFM 2007) - September 10-14, 2007.
The 59th World Newspaper Congress and the 13th World Editors Forum, Moscow, Russia, 4-7 June 2006.
Invited speaker, School of Cybernetics and Computer Science Seminar - University of Reading, 27/01/2005.
25 Years of CSP, Institute for Computing Research, London South Bank University, 7-8 July 2004
Formal Methods and Testing Workshop (Fortest), Faculty of Business, Computing and Information Management, London South Bank University, 23-24 October 2003.
International Conference of Formal Aspects of Security (FASec '02), Royal Holloway, University of London, UK- 18-20 December, 2002.
The Middle East/North Africa (MENA) Summer School - Parallel, Distributed, Mobile, and Internet Computing (Theory, methods, applications and research directions) - American University of Beirut- Lebanon, 5-13 July, 2002.
WindRiver Seminar: Putting Faces on Faceless Devices. London, November 1998.
The 4th Workshop on Rigorous Object-Oriented Methods, King's College London, UK, March 22, 2002.
The 18th IEEE Symposium on Reliable Distributed Systems, October 19-22, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1999. (Presented my first paper there)

Activities:

I am a writer and I have published many articles, poems and short stories in major Arabic newspapers. I have started publishing since 1990. My first collection of short stories was published in 2000, and my first collection of poetry is under publication.
I have participated in publishing and editing many other literature books.
I have participated in organising many cultural events both in the UK and in Yemen.
President of the Arab Society, University of Reading, from 1997 until 2000.

I am a member of:

The British Computer Society (BSc) since 1996
Centre of Applied Formal Methods (CAFM) since 2000
Formal Aspects of Computing Science (FACS)
Yemeni Writer Union (YWU) since 1997.
Yemeni Journalist Syndicate (YJS) since 2007.
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) since 2009.
The British-Yemeni Society (BYS) - London since 1998
Arabic Writer Union
Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (CAABU)
Queen Sheba Cultural Group

Sports:

Football

Kuwait High School Team (1990) - Yemen
Whiteknights Hall Team (1994) - Reading - UK

Table Tennis

(more will be added soon)

(Last updated: 05/11/2007)