Welcome to Amjad Umar's Personal Web Site

 

On this website you will find the following information:

·         Research and development projects I am currently involved in

·         My current, future, and past books.

·         Course materials (course outlines, presentation slides, project assignments) based on university and industrial courses that have been taught from these books

·         Information about other matters based on requests                                              


My Brief Background   

Education: M.S. in Computer and Communication Engineering and Ph.D. in Information Systems Engineering, both from the University of Michigan.

Current Assignments:

·         Founder/CEO of a startup company that specializes in business and technical aspects of next generation enterprises. Leading long-range projects with global corporations and industrial research in computer aided consulting.

·         Director and Professor of Information Systems Engineering and Management at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. Establishing graduate programs in ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) leadership at a brand new university.  

·         Adjunct Professor of Telecom Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Have been teaching graduate level courses in wireless communications, and web technologies & architectures since 2000. 

·         Senior Technical Advisor to the United Nations initiative on ‘ICT for Developing Countries.

·         Fulbright Senior Specialist on ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) with the US Council of International Exchange of Scholars.

Current Areas of Interest: Strategic ICT Planning at a Global level, ICT4D (ICT for Developing Countries), Enterprise Architectures and Integration, Mobile Computing and Wireless Communications, Information Security and Privacy, Digital Enterprises, Digital Governments, Digital Health.

Previous Assignments:

·         Director of  eBusiness and Distributed Systems at  Bellcore (part of the Bell Labs system, now known as Telcordia Technologies) for 10 years. Supervised large scale projects in IT Planning, enterprise architectures and integration, mobile computing, and information security.

·         University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University, Fordham Graduate School of Business, Peking University 

·         Senior management/consulting assignments with  global telecom organizations, US Department of Navy, US Army Research Labs, Frost and Sullivan (England), Toyota Corp., Society of Manufacturing Engineers, manufacturing organizations, and professional services organizations in England, Singapore, China, Italy, and Canada.

Publications:

·         Author of more than 60 research papers and nine books on different aspects of enterprise systems, distributed systems, ebusiness, security and wireless communications.

Awards: Faculty Award from IBM, Fulbright Senior Specialist Award from the US Council of International Exchange of Scholars, Distinguished Faculty Award from the University of Michigan, Best Adjunct Faculty Award from Fordham, and Outstanding Performance Awards from Bellcore.

Email: umar@amjadumar.com.


My Recent Industrial Projects

Next Generation Enterprises (NGEs): I am actively conducting industrial research on the business and technical aspects of NGEs. My main focus is on IT planning, integration, security and administration of NGEs and what type of decision support models and patterns are needed for such enterprises. More

Computer Aided Planning and Consulting. I am leading projects on computer aided consulting services by using patterns and integrated intelligent systems. The goal is to remotely deliver high quality planning services to developing countries and small to medium businesses (SMBs). The following diagram shows the main results so far (More):

·         Computer Aided Strategic Planner (STRAP): The main purpose is to enable governments develop strategic ICT plans quickly and effectively in global settings. STRAP is a main component of the United Nations GAID (Global ICT for Development) initiative.      

·         PISA (Planning, Integration, Security and Administration): This detailed IT planning environment guides the ICT professional through planning of new systems, integration of new systems with existing ones by using SOA, securing the IT assets, and administrating the resulting complex IT systems. 

·         GEZA (Global Enterprise Zone for All):  This  comprehensive portal supports entrepreneurship for developing and developed countries. It provides a set of integrated services (e.g., knowledge services, SMB Yellow Pages, IT Solutions,  outsourcing center, and discussion forum) for SMBs of developing plus developed countries.    

·         Pattern Repository for Industry Segments (PARIS): This comprehensive repository of industry patterns provides a system approach to learning about different industry segments and contains business process patterns and enterprise application patterns from 20 industry segments. As shown in the diagram, PARIS serves as knowledgebase for STRAP, PISA and GEZA but is now evolving into a very strong standalone tool that can be used for corporate training, business games and business simulations.

·         Business Games and Simulations:  We are leveraging our patterns repository and computer aided planning systems to develop innovative business games and simulations in entrepreneurship, system integrations, security risk analysis, and business strategies.

 


My Books

Recent and Upcoming Books (click here for more details)

·         “Strategic IT Planning in the Global Age”, Target (Dec, 2010)  

·         Enterprise Architectures and Integration Using SOA”, NGE Solutions (Jan 2010)

·         “Mobile Computing and Wireless Communications”, second edition, NGE Solutions, Target  (Sept 2010)  

·         “Information Security and Auditing in the Digital Age”, NGE Solutions   (2004)

·         “Third Generation Distributed Computing Environments”, NGE Solutions (2004)

·         “e-Business and Distributed Systems Handbook”, NGE Solutions  (2004)

 

Previous Books (Oldies but Goodies)

·         "Distributed Computing and Client/Server Systems", Prentice Hall, 1993.

·         "Object-Oriented Client/Server Internet Environments" Prentice Hall, February 1997.

·         "Application (Re)Engineering: Building Web-based Applications and Dealing with Legacies", Prentice Hall, May 1997.

 

Note: All these books are available through Amazon and other booksellers.


Courses Taught (University and Corporate Training)

·         Strategic IT Planning (Corporate Training and Graduate Courses at Harrisburg University). Since 2007

·         Web Technologies, Web Services, and SOA (Univ. of Pennsylvania). Every Fall since 2000  

·         Mobile computing and wireless communications  (Univ of Pennsylvania)- Every spring, since 2000

·         Enterprise Architectures & Integration (Fordham Grad School of Business) – 2003-2008

·         Information Security, Privacy and Controls for Managers (MBA Course, Fordham Grad School of Business) – 2003-2008

·         IT for Business (MBA Course, Fordham Grad School of Business) – 2003-2008

·         IT Quality and Governance (Corporate Training and Graduate Courses at Harrisburg University). Since 2007

·         eBusiness Strategies & Technologies  (Fordham Schools of Business) – 2003-2008

·         Information Systems Analysis,  Design, and Management: Taught at Fordham Grad School of Business (since 2004-2007), Rutgers School of Business (1998-2003), University of Michigan- School of Engg and School of Business (1984-1989) 

·         Decision Support and Expert Systems, Data Mining: Fordham Grad School of Business (1996-2000), Rutgers School of Business (2000-2002)

·         Distributed Computing and Client-Server Systems: University of Michigan (School of Business plus Engineering), Stevens Institute of Technology (School of Management), Fordham (School of Business), and Corporate Training (through Frost & Sullivan and Society of Manufacturing Engineers) since the mid 1980s (over 30 times)

·         Communication networks:  University of Michigan (school of Business plus Engineering), Stevens Institute of Technology (School of Management), Fordham (School of Business) – have taught variations of this course since 1984 at graduate level (almost 20 times)