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Dr. Hussein Abdel-Wahab

Dr. Wahab joined 51Ç鱨վ's Computer Science department in 1980 as an associate professor, after having worked as an assistant professor at Rochester Institute of Technology and then at the University of Maryland at Baltimore County. He was promoted to full professor at Old Dominion in 1994. He was instrumental in developing the BS, MS and PhD Computer Science programs, served as a graduate program director for 15 years, and advised 15 Ph.D. graduates at Old Dominion and four more as a co-advisor at other institutions.

He was an expert in communication networks, security and systems. Abdel-Wahab spent countless hours helping graduate and undergraduate students with system-related issues in their courses and projects.

"Hussein had a passion for teaching and always put students' interests in front of his own," said Ravi Mukkamala, chair of the Department of Computer Science.

Ajay Gupta, director of computing resources in the department, said Abdel-Wahab dedicated his life to teaching computer science. "He was a beloved teacher, who was highly respected by both his colleagues and students alike."

Abdel-Wahab also played an important role in the development and growth of the department. Kurt Maly, professor and eminent scholar, said Abdel-Wahab was brought to Old Dominion by the founding chair of computer science, Richard Cheng, to be one of the core faculty members of the department.

"Hussein was instrumental in bringing me in from the University of Minnesota as the next chair, and in the next few years was my right hand," Maly said. "Ever since, I could rely on him to have only the well-being of students in mind when making decisions. He also became a wonderful friend who was always there when I needed him."

"Hussein was my teacher and then, for many years, my colleague," said Irwin Levenstein, an emeritus faculty member in computer science. "He was a kind and passionate man. He was dedicated to, and proud of, his teaching and his family."

Abdel-Wahab was an adjunct faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1986 to 2004. It was at that time he developed XTV, a system for sharing X Window applications simultaneously among Internet-connected remotely located users. The development of the program was funded by the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation.

The Wahab Cluster is a reconfigurable high performance computational system that supports a broad spectrum of research. The cluster was acquired through a successful NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program grant led by Hongyi Wu, (Principal Investigator), Batten Chair of Cybersecurity and Director, Center for Cybersecurity Education and Research, Nikos Chrisochoides, the Richard T. Cheng Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, Jingwei Huang, Associate Professor of Engineering Management & Systems Engineering, Khan Iftekharuddin, Associate Dean of the Batten College of Engineering, Masha Sosonkina, Professor of Modeling, Simulation, and Visualization Engineering.