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Ibrahim Tawfik
Ibrahim Tawfik

http://www.ibrahimtawfik.com/resume

About Me

I used to think that I’m deeply interested in all forms of digital technologies out there, especially those related directly to cyberspace. How can’t I be after spending most of my professional career doing things that fall in that category - and really enjoying this.

Having to close my laptop’s lid and take my dog for a walk in the park with music streaming from my state-of-the art smartphone - at that time - to my wireless headphones and feeling grateful for the freedom offered by this tech/nature mix made me realize that I’m not into digital technologies per se. I’m rather into the value it adds to our daily lives, how technology helps make life better, simpler and more enjoyable without just being trapped in “technology”.

I’m always driven by a sense of exploration that helped me gain some diverse experiences in some useful - and a lot of quite useless - fields and contexts. This too shaped and developed what I think to be a broad range of soft skills that enhanced my problem solving, creativity and efficiency (which proved practical when being used in further exploration)

When it comes to professional career, mine spanned some university teaching in the field of information technologies, freelance web design/development, a masters degree in information systems and a current position in IT management. My personal interests on the other hand include - but never limited to - nature, literature, history, mythology, psychology arts and of course music and - to a very limited extent - sports.

Career

further details available in Appendix I: Detailed Job Description

2014 - Present:

Head of Information Systems/Software Development Sector, Department of Information Technology (IT), German University in Cairo (GUC).

2010 - 2014:

Project Manager, IT Department, GUC.

2007 - 2010:

System Analyst, IT Department, GUC.

2004 - 2007:

Teaching Assistant, Faculty of Media Engineering and Technology, Department of Computer Science, GUC.

2001 - 2008:

Assistant Lecturer/Teaching Assistant at Cairo University, Faculty of Computers and Information, Department of Information Systems.

Aug - Nov 2010:

Pre-sales Technical Consultant at Link Development.

Summer 2008:

Project-Based Web Designer/Developer at Cologne University, Department of Business Informatics and Operations Research.

2001 - Present:

Freelance Web Developer/Designer.


Timeline view:

Technical Skills

further details available in Appendix II: Technical Skills Details

Web Design and Development

Working with different web technologies, frameworks and tools such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, XML, PHP, ASP.net, Adobe Flash, ActionScript, WordPress, Adobe ColdFusion, Adobe Flex and Classic ASP.

Database Tools and Technologies

Extensive experience with Database Management Systems and design/implementation tools (SQL, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Sybase PowerDesigner). Familiarity with Data Warehousing and Data mining concepts, tools and techniques.

Graphics and Animation

Intermediate skills working with Adobe Photoshop, Corel Paint Shop Pro and GIMP. Familiarity with Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape and Corel Draw.

Mobile Development

Beginner level in both Android and iOS development tools and platforms.

Desktop Development

Good command of miscellaneous desktop development tools such as Sybase PowerBuilder, .NET desktop and Microsoft Access.

Programming Languages

Extensive to intermediate skills in different programming languages/paradigms such as Java, C, C++, C# and few artificial intelligence languages such as CLIPS and Prolog.

General Purpose Tools

Good command of Microsoft Office packages with moderate VBA Skills. Varying levels of experience with different operating systems with strong ability to explore and experiment with new tools and platforms.

Basics

Education

2005:

M.Sc. in Information Systems, Cairo University, Faculty of Computers and Information.
"Management of E-Commerce; with a Special Emphasis on Security" focusing on access control of XML documents using role-based access control models.

2001:

B.Sc. in Information Systems, Cairo University, Faculty of Computers and Information. Overall Grade: Excellent with Honors. Rank: Third in class.

Languages

Arabic:

Mother tongue.

English:

Very good command of both spoken and written.

German:

Beginner.

General

Nationality:

Egyptian.

Marital Status:

Single.

Contact

 
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Intermission

There’s always a lot more to explore! Ruby, Rails, online distributed version/package management and source code repository platforms (Git, Bower, SourceForge... etc), cross-platform runtime environments (Node.js), digging deeper into Linux and related development utilities, Android/iOS and OS X application development, a more robust grip of computer and internet security, UX fundamentals and practices, gaming engines and game development on different platforms as well as a more dedicated effort towards theoretical and practical fundamentals of leadership, management, project management and emerging software development methodologies.

Media creation/manipulation has always been something I’m looking forward to explore more. Gaining some practical experience with vector illustrations, font creation and professional photography has always been on the list. Audio editing, music production and mixing is a field that I’m currently trying to tap into on a very amateur level.

Further insight into humanities and social sciences (history, economics, sociology and psychology) on an academic level is in a way an illusive dream that hopefully might be realized on day.

For many many years I’ve been enjoying the abundance of valuable resources out there, learning a lot and acquiring knowledge from other people’s contribution to the world. Answers on forums, blog entries and articles, tutorials, plugins, open source project, wiki pages, Wikipedia articles… etc. And to that I’m very grateful. However, my contribution in return has been very limited. I’ve merely been redistributing this knowledge among colleagues, coworkers and friends whenever possible. That’s one of the things that need to be expanded in the very near future to start giving back appropriately.

The following appendices contain detailed operational and administrative job responsibilities followed by details of different technical skills, proficiency levels - from a personal point of view - and brief description of their usage scenarios and circumstances.

Credits section concludes this Résumé with acknowledgement of the tools, technologies, resources and expertise of other individuals incorporated in the technical implementation of this page.

Appendix I: Detailed Job Description

German University in Cairo, GUC (2004 – Present)

2007 - Present: Department of Information Technology

Head of Information Systems/Software Development sector (2014 - Present)↑

Project Manager (2010 - 2014)↑

System Analyst (2007-2010) ↑

GUC's Information Technology department is an in-house center developing and maintaining tailored applications and providing technical infrastructure (hardware and networking) as well as integration services for third-party applications aiming at supporting the GUC's needs and vision in addition to specific needs of different academic and administrative departments and clients.

Currently carrying out the following activities and responsibilities:

  • Participating in high-level business analysis sessions, periodic cross-departmental meetings, crisis management activities maintaining the alignment of all information systems to business directions and needs.
  • Leading analysis and requirements gathering sessions with members from different entities and departments.
  • Technical exploration of new concepts and technological advancements introducing solutions to both meet business needs and present new business opportunities.
  • Preparing and conducting cross-departmental presentations and orientation sessions for new GUC staff members and students introducing them to the university’s information systems services and facilities.
  • Analyzing and evaluating external technical services offerings by third-party suppliers aiming to introduce new or improved services.
  • Leading crisis resolutions in cases of performance drops, service unavailability, software or hardware failure – on both the application and database levels.
  • Building requirements verification prototypes using simple ad hoc technologies.
  • Mapping and conversion of external innovative solutions in cases of platform incompatibility.
  • Working on information aggregation, presentation, consistency/quality maintenance frameworks.
  • Supporting third-party applications integration with university’s custom developed applications and databases.
  • Troubleshooting integration issues for recently-developed and legacy applications.
  • Planning, reviewing and executing new applications and services implementation plans in terms of database designs, application architecture, reuse of existing components, user experience and coding.

Administrative and mentoring responsibilities:

  • Initiating and carrying out internal department structuring/restructuring and personnel-related activities with the continuous aim of up-scaling the IT department capabilities and quality/maturity level to better meet GUC needs and eventually be able to server external clients and academic institutes.
  • Evaluation and appraisal of senior and junior system developers and team leaders – under supervision of the general head of IT department.
  • Recruitment, orientation and training of new department members.
  • Assessing and proposing training needs for existing department members.
  • Bringing new technologies into spotlight by conducting introductory presentations for department members on different client and server technologies and techniques.
  • Providing mentoring and consultancy for team members on different aspects of the daily business activities and internal/external communications streamlining.
  • Harmonizing the department’s workforce emphasizing team members’ satisfaction, productivity, accuracy and collaboration.
  • Responsible for initiating and supervising technological upgrades within the Information Technology department – OS migrations, Hardware upgrades – in collaboration with the Technical Support department.

2004 – 2007: Teaching Assistant, Faculty of Media Engineering and Technology, Department of Computer Science ↑

Assisted in teaching and coursework/lab-materials preparation for different courses such as:

  • Introduction to Computer Programming.
  • Data Structures and Algorithms.
  • Media Design (Introduction to Web Design).

Cairo University, Faculty of Computers and Information, Department of Information Systems (2001 – 2008) ↑

Assistant Lecturer (2005 – 2008).

Teaching Assistant (2001 – 2005).

Assisted in teaching and coursework/lab-materials preparation for different courses such as:

  • System Analysis and Design.
  • Managerial Information Systems.
  • Geographical Information Systems.
  • Database Management Systems.
  • Data Warehousing.
  • Human-Computer Interaction.
  • Introduction to Computer Programming.
  • Miscellaneous computer literacy courses such as introduction Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office.

Carried out the following administrative responsibilities:

  • Allocation of fellow Teaching Assistants to tutorials and labs (scheduling).
  • Organizing and coordinating the assignment of fellow Teaching Assistants to other administrative duties (exams proctoring, event management… etc).
  • Working closely with Quality Assurance Unit for conducting academic surveys and questionnaires.

Pre-sales Technical Consultant at Link Development (August – November 2010) ↑

Responsible for:

  • Conducting detailed analysis and study of client companies’ RFPs / RFQs received through sales representatives.
  • Arranging for and conducting Q&A sessions with clients for any needed elaborations.
  • Drafting initial technical proposals with preliminary solution architecture.
  • Investigating technical possibilities and capabilities and alternate solutions with delivery managers and team leaders.
  • Collaborating with graphical design teams for creating graphical demonstrations and user interface prototypes.
  • Preparing final technical proposals and amending related case studies and success stories of Link Development.
  • Participating in peer review sessions with fellow pre-sales team members.
  • Preparing and presenting business and technical presentations in cooperation with sales representatives or alternatively sending presentations to remote sales representatives for foreign client companies.
  • Conducting follow-up meetings with delivery teams for cases where client companies request major scope changes.

Project-Based Web Designer/Developer at Cologne University, Department of Business Informatics and Operations Research (Summer 2008) ↑

Working on the realization of a prototype for ShariahIntelligence – a web based Islamic asset evaluation tool based on principles from a university Ph.D. thesis:

  • Gathering and documenting system requirements and prototype scope.
  • Designing the underlying Database model and creating corresponding SQL Server database.
  • Designing and developing an ASP.net (C#) web application applying business logic and guidelines introduced in the underlying Ph.D. thesis.

Freelance Web Developer/Designer (2001 – Present) ↑

Working directly with clients or through an intermediary software house/digital agency covering most of the initiation, planning, design, development and maintenance activities.

Carrying out the following activities throughout different web development projects:

  • Conducting initial discussion sessions with clients to obtain preliminary business scope and requirements.
  • Preparation of technical and financial proposals creating a tailored solution to meet the project’s vision and objectives.
  • Investigating and implementing different required technologies – though not directly related to web development activities – such as online radio broadcasting systems and digital media platforms in some cases.
  • Occasionally handling graphical design activities for projects with simple graphical interface requirements; Cooperating with professional graphical designers for other graphically intensive projects.
  • Building simple complementary animation and advertisement banners based upon clients' needs.
  • Conducting various web development activities including applications and database design and tailoring (in case of using open source or third-party applications and tools), server and client side development and user interface design.
  • Preparing and conducting project demonstrations and presentations for clients, gathering feedback, analyzing and negotiating modifications and adaptations if needed.
  • Delivery and deployment of projects on client’s hosting environment – or obtaining and preparing third-party hosting environment on behalf of the client.
  • Conducting training sessions for client and supporting teams for using and maintaining developed web sites and applications.
  • Conducting needed maintenance activities, enhancements, updates and extensions to projects based upon clients’ requests.

Credits and Tools

One of humanity's best qualities is the ability to accumulate a mutual body of knowledge to build upon and move forward; for that we are grateful.

The lovely people at ZURB Foundation , the workforce behind jQuery and other Javascript enabling technologies, this awesome guy Nick Downie for his Chart.js plugin, Claudia Romano who rocks for her beautiful Vertical Fixed Navigation , Roko C.B. who gave me some peace of mind with his answer at stackoverflow with the inViewport plugin and last but not least Ahmed Saber's generous photography skills.

Álvaro Trigo's fullPage.js was a great inspiration though it isn't acutally a part of the final output due to space vs. contents limitations on mobile screens, still an amazing plugin!

GIMP, INKSCAPE and iDraw were amazingly friendly tools for computer graphics amateur while both Eclipse and Sublime Text provided a simple and flexible workspace for scripting, styling and composing HTML in addition to the final extra crisp from the folks at Google Fonts .

All content handcrafted unless mentioned above.