Rabab Kreidieh Ward
Personal information
Rabab Kreidieh Ward
Engineer, Professor, Scientist, Researcher, Consultant
Contact information (Work)
University of British Columbia
00 1 9428 822 604
Community/Lebanon Impact
I give many public lectures and speeches worldwide . I usually mention that I am Lebanese and that I owe my education (and any success that I have achieved ) to Lebanon. Amongst the graduate students I have supervised and graduated: 3 Doctorate students and 2 Master students were from Lebanon. They are now enjoying successful careers . Two are professors ( in top USA and UAE universities ) and the others enjoy high positions in Industry.
Work history
Previous Professions:
- Professor, 1979 - present, University of British Columbia.
- Science and Engineering Research Coordinator, 2008 - 2015, Office of the Vice-President Research and International, University of British Columbia.
- Director of the Institute for Computing, 1996 - 2007, Information & Cognitive Systems, University of British Columbia.
- Senior Lecturer, 1975 - 1979, University of Zimbabwe.
Major Achievements
Major achievements:
- She has published over 200 refereed journal papers, 340 refereed conference papers, 14 book chapters and co-edited 3 books . These are mainly related to signal processing and its applications to cable TV, HDTV, image coding, stellar images, medical images, brain computer interfaces and biomedical applications including early detection of cancer from mammographic images and finding the level of a baby's distress from his/her cry signals, that have won nine best paper awards, 1978 - present.
- Holder of 6 active patents related to cable television:
- Du, J., Li, X., Shi, P., and Ward, R.K., "Noise Reduction for Video Signals," U.S. Patent registration number 6,061,100, issued May 9, 2000.
- Ward, R.K., "System for Non-Intrusive Measurements of Noise Impairments in Cable TV," U.S. Patent registration number 5,661,529, issued February 27, 1997.
- Ward, R.K., Shi, P. and Xie, Q., "System for Reducing Beat Type Impairment in a TV Signal," U.S. Patent registration number 5,585,859, issued Dec.17, 1996.
- Zhang, Q. and Ward, R.K., "Automatic Signal-to-Noise Ration Assessment of TV Pictures," U.S. Patent registration number 5,329,311, issued July 12, 1994.
- Shi, P. and Ward, R.K., "Cancelling Composite Triple Beats in Cable TV Pictures," U.S. Patent registration number 5,323,239, issued June 21, 1994.
- Zhang, Q. and Ward, R.K., "Cable Television Signal Quality Monitoring System," U.S. Patent registration number 5,221,967, issued June 22, 1993., PCT #92908960, Japan #HEI 4-508,411, Canada #2,102,404, held in 1993.
- Advising 50 44 M.A.Sc. and 43 Ph.D. students: 13 of the Ph.D. students have been appointed as professors, 7 had their Ph.D. dissertations nominated for prizes and some have started new companies in Canada and China.
- She is a pioneering woman in engineering. She was the first woman to be appointed as professor in engineering in British Columbia, 1979.
- First woman professor to be appointed to the Engineering Faculty in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, 1975.
- First woman to become a member of the Lebanese Professional Engineering Society.
- Consultant for the following organizations:
- MDA, 2014.
- AdvancedIO Systems Inc., since 2007
- WebTech Wireless,telematics, 1999-2005
- R.F.I.D., Passport photograph compression, November 1996-1999.
- Hewlett-Packard (Santa Rosa, Calif.), Non-intrusive measurements of cable TV parameters.
- Vision Systems Inc. Building a computer vision system for grading lumber, 1989.
- The Whitsun Foundation of Rhodesia, building a computer model for Agrarian Reform, 1978.
- For a list of her publications , please see http://ipl.ece.ubc.ca/publications.
Exhibitions, lectures & performances:
- She has co-directed/co-produced many videos that have been extensively used to attract students to the field of signal processing:
- What is Signal Processing
- Signal Processing and Machine learning
- Under the Radar
- Multimedia Forensics
- Signal Processing in Free Viewpoint Television
- The Benefits of Spoken Language Technologies
- She has given 45 invited lectures stated in http://ipl.ece.ubc.ca/research.
Accomplishments
Distinctions:
- Full scholarship from the Lebanese Council for Scientific Research to do graduate work in Electrical Engineering in Berkeley, California (5 years).
- Won the Egyptian government scholarship award to study engineering or medicine (5 years).
- Won the American University of Beirut Scholarship award to study medicine (but declined it because I wanted to study engineering. Women were not allowed at that time to study engineering at the American University of Beirut in 1961).
Awards:
- Recipient of the Outstanding Mentor/Sponsor Award of Wendy McDonald Awards, 2017.
- Recipient of Centennial Gold Medal, UBC Applied Science, 2016.
- Killam Award for Excellence in Mentoring, UBC, 2013.
- Meritorious Service Award of IEEE Signal Processing Society, 2013.
- Paradigm Shifter Award of the Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology, Nov 2011.
- Millennium Award, IEEE Vancouver Chapter, Aug 2011.
- CUFA BC “Career Achievement Award”, May 2011. (CUFA is the association representing all professors in all B.C. universities). This is the highest of the 3 awards it gives each year.
- UBC Engineering Co-op “Faculty of the Year“ Award, 2010.
- WYCA Woman of Distinction Award, 2008.
- The “Society Award” of the IEEE Signal Processing Society, 2008. This is the highest and most prestigious award of this society, emphasizing technical leadership and achievements in the field.
- R.A. McLachlan Award of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia, 2007. Amongst its nine awards, this is the top and most prestigious, emphasizing education, research, innovation in engineering, and community service.
- Recipient of the UBC Killam Research Prize, 1998.
- “Distinction Award” for being the first in Lebanon in the 1960 Scientific Baccalaureate national Exam.
- Registered Professional Engineer (of the BC Professional Engineers Association).
Competences & Skills
Field(s) of Expertise:
- Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Signal Processing
- Medical Imaging
- Multimedia Research
Languages:
- Arabic
- English