Speakers
Areej Al-Wabil, Professor of Software Engineering and Director of the HCI Lab, Alfaisal University
Scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur. Areej is the Founder and Director of Alfaisal's AI Center, a Center of Excellence for AI research, teaching, theory, and practice. She joined Alfaisal University in 2020 after serving as the Executive Director of IP Enablement in the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property, where she spearheaded the national network of technology and innovation support centers (TISCs). Prior to this, she was Principal Investigator at the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) within the Center for Complex Engineering Systems at KACST and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is currently a Research Affiliate with MIT's Media Lab and the Director of the Masters in Applied AI (MAI) in the College of Engineering and Advanced Computing at Alfaisal Computing, with a teaching focus on Human-Centric AI in Extended Reality and Generative AI for Creativity and the Arts. She held a series of leadership positions of increasing responsibility in various academic and research institutions within the Kingdom, particularly in the scope of research and development. Areej holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science, with a Postdoc from (MIT)'s School of Engineering and received her MSc degree in Computer Graphics and Multimedia from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at George Washington University. With over 15 years in research and development, she has led humanistic co-design programs across the public, private, and non-profit sectors and has been an industry champion for diversity and inclusion. She is involved in several professional and civic organizations, including the Advisory Board of the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) for women and the national IEEE Women in Engineering Affinity Group in Saudi Arabia and serves on the jury for the pre-collegiate National Olympiad for STEM; and was formerly the founder and president of the chartered chapter of the Arab Women in Computing for Saudi Arabia. Areej's research experience includes extended reality (XR), AI in health, neurotechnology and brain-computer interfaces (BCI). Her current work focuses on human-centric AI and the impact of AI-generated art on defining art, the dynamic between artists and their tools, the process of digital curation, and the question of whether AI systems can match human creativity. In her research leaders roles, director of the AI Center and HCI Lab at Alfaisal University, her research strategies focus on driving organizational and societal transformation by strengthening the role of science and promoting innovation through strategic initiatives, academic alliances, and governance processes.