Program Mentors
Each FacultyHack@Gateways 2026 faculty team is paired with a technical mentor from the Gateways community who guides development and implementation of their revised course materials.
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Dr. Ahmad Al-Omari is an Assistant Professor of Computer Information Systems and Security at Our Lady of the Lake University. He holds a Doctor of Science in Information Assurance and Computer Security and a Master of Science in Information Systems, both from Dakota State University, along with an MBA and a B.A. in Banking and Finance from Yarmouk University. His work focuses on information security policy compliance, cybersecurity ethics, security awareness, insider threats, data privacy, security informatics, and digital forensics. In the classroom, he combines lectures, discussion sections, and hands-on projects to build an interactive learning environment, and he is an active member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Association for Information Systems (AIS).
FacultyHack History
- 2024 — Faculty Participant
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Dr. Anas AlSobeh is an Assistant Professor of Applied AI in the Department of Information Systems & Technology at Utah Valley University, which he joined in January 2026 after serving as Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator of Information Technology & Cybersecurity at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Utah State University and both his M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Computer Information Systems from Yarmouk University in Jordan. His research spans AI-driven cybersecurity, trustworthy and explainable AI, software engineering, cloud computing, and data science, with applications including malware detection and deepfake analysis. He currently leads a USDA-funded project developing AI- and microscopic-imaging-based Salmonella detection methods for food safety, has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications, received the IACIS 2024 Best Paper Award, and holds Senior Member status with IEEE.
FacultyHack History
- 2025 — Mentor
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Dr. Elijah MacCarthy is an HPC Engineer in the Systems Acceptance and User Environment group of the National Center for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He holds a Ph.D. in Computational Science and Engineering from North Carolina A&T State University. Before joining ORNL, he was an Assistant Professor of Mathematics in the Division of Natural and Physical Sciences at Lane College, where he served as the XSEDE Campus Champion and led GPU programming and program optimization research within high-performance computing environments. His research interests include GPU programming, program parallelization and optimization, and infection spread modeling, work that bridges applied mathematics and large-scale computational science.
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Dr. Felicia Doswell is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Norfolk State University and former Interim Chair of the Department of Computer Science. She earned a Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. in Computer Science from Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, and Norfolk State University, respectively. Dr. Doswell brings more than three decades of combined academic and industry experience to computing education and research. Prior to joining academia, she held technical positions with AT&T Bell Laboratories, Tekelec, and Nortel, contributing to software engineering and network systems. Her research interests include cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and computing education. She has secured funding from the National Science Foundation and industry partners, including Lockheed Martin, Apple, Google, and Micron Technology, to support workforce development efforts and student research. Dr. Doswell is committed to mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, advising numerous theses and capstone projects in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, secure software development, and cloud computing. Her leadership has contributed to ABET accreditation efforts, curriculum innovation, development of accelerated degree programs, expansion of research infrastructure, and service to the broader computing education community through active involvement in professional organizations and conference board membership.
FacultyHack History
- 2022 — Faculty Participant
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Hector Santiago III is a Software Engineer at Nationwide and a Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) alumnus. He began his own journey in the SGX3 community as a Coding Institute participant, later completing two internships at Indiana University and earning recognition as a Young Professional of the Year Award recipient. He has since organized, mentored, and participated in numerous hackathons and codeathons with HackHPC, and is currently pursuing a Master's in Computer Science & Information Technology at WSSU.
FacultyHack History
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Dr. John Holmen is an HPC Engineer in the System Acceptance and User Environment Group of the National Center for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He holds a B.S. and M.S.E. in Computer Engineering from Kettering University and a Ph.D. in Scientific Computing from the University of Utah, where his dissertation research under Dr. Martin Berzins focused on portable, scalable approaches for preparing large legacy codes and asynchronous many-task runtime systems for exascale computing. As a developer for the Uintah Computational Framework, he tested performance across major systems including NSF Frontera, DOE Lassen, DOE Summit, NSF Stampede2, DOE Theta, and DOE Titan. Before graduate school, he worked as a Development Engineer at R.W. Beckett Corporation designing embedded systems for safety-critical combustion products, having started there as a Kettering co-op student.
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Mohamed Elbakary is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Technology at Elizabeth City State University, where he also coordinates the university's Engineering Technology program within the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He teaches and advises students across ECSU's engineering technology curriculum and has spoken publicly about the university's ongoing expansion of its STEM and data science degree offerings.
FacultyHack History
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Dr. Mohammed Elmellouki is an Assistant Professor at Mississippi Valley State University, where his research centers on computational fluid dynamics, turbulence modeling, and heat transfer, including simulation work using the Nek5000 spectral element solver. He holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and has published on turbulent flow and thermal structures in low-Prandtl number buoyant flows using direct numerical simulation. He currently serves as Principal Investigator on a Mississippi Research Alliance-funded project focused on enhancing research capacity and workforce development through multidisciplinary simulation and experimental testing of novel ventricular shunt designs. Dr. Elmellouki also served as lead faculty advisor for MVSU's team at the 2024 Presidential Forum for Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Atlanta, Georgia.
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Dr. Olabisi Ojo is a Professor in the Department of Natural Sciences at Albany State University, a position he has held since 2021. He earned his Ph.D. in Microbiology from University College Cork, an M.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Lagos, and a B.Sc. from the University of Benin. His research spans microbial genomics, molecular epidemiology, and the application of AI and machine learning to microbiology and healthcare, and he teaches Introduction to Microbiology, Introduction to Biological Sciences, and Senior Research. Dr. Ojo received a Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP) award to advance microbial genomics research and strengthen microbiology curricula, collaborating with the Department of Microbiology at Osun State University in Nigeria on curriculum co-development, workshops, and graduate student mentoring.
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Dr. Sabrina Perry is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Information Technology at Austin Peay State University, which she joined in 2025. She earned her Ph.D. in Engineering Science with a concentration in Computer Science from the University of Mississippi, a B.S. from Mississippi Valley State University, and an M.S. from Illinois State University. Before joining Austin Peay, she spent nearly a decade in the classroom as an engineering technology instructor at Mississippi Valley State University beginning in 2016, building extensive experience teaching computing and engineering concepts to undergraduates. That combination of applied engineering technology instruction and doctoral-level computer science training informs her approach to computing education at Austin Peay.
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Sajida Faiyaz, P.Eng, PMP, M.Eng, MS, is a Professor in the Information Technology & Cybersecurity program at Austin Community College, where she also serves as a Faculty Senator representing Computer Science and IT. She teaches courses spanning SQL and relational database design, Python and Java programming, and cybersecurity fundamentals, and is a licensed Professional Engineer and certified Project Management Professional. Students frequently note that her industry experience and clear teaching style make complex technical topics approachable.
FacultyHack History
- 2025 — Mentor
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Subil Abraham is an HPC Engineer in the Operations – User Assistance group of the National Center for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He holds an M.S. in Computer Science from Virginia Tech, where his graduate thesis examined container performance on HPC workloads and filesystems. Before his current role, he interned in ORNL's Technology Integration group evaluating SymphonyFS performance. His interests include containers for high-performance computing, parallel programming, and HPC infrastructure and performance evaluation.