About Me

Short Bio

Pierre A. Akiki received the BSc and MSc degrees in computer science from the Notre Dame University—Louaize (NDU), Lebanon, in 2004 and 2007, respectively. He also received the MSc degree in international business from the Bordeaux Business School (now KEDGE), France, and the MBA degree from the Notre Dame University—Louaize, Lebanon, through a joint program in 2011.

He received a Ph.D. degree in computing from the Open University (OU), Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, in 2014. Afterward, he joined NDU as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science and became a Visiting Research Fellow in Computing at the OU. He became an Associate Professor at NDU in 2020. Previously, he had worked part-time in academia as a computer science instructor and full-time in the software industry as a senior software developer and a software architect focusing on enterprise systems.

He is mainly interested in researching adaptive model-driven interactive software systems. His research work was published in several venues including IEEE TSE, ACM TOCHI, ACM Computing Surveys, and ICSE and it received the best paper award at ACM SIGCHI EICS’13.

Long Bio

Pierre A. Akiki is a computer scientist and a researcher who is natively from the “Land of the Cedars”, Lebanon. He enjoys developing commercial applications as much as conducting research primarily related to the disciplines of software engineering and human-computer interaction. Pierre is mainly interested in researching adaptive model-driven interactive software systems. His research work was published in several venues including IEEE TSE, ACM TOCHI, ACM Computing Surveys, and ICSE and it received the best paper award at ACM SIGCHI EICS’13. Pierre's mother tongue is Lebanese (Arabic), but he received his education primarily in English and he speaks French as a second foreign language.

Pierre was awarded the degree of Bachelor of Science in Computer Science - Computer Information Systems in 2004 from Notre Dame University - Louaize (NDU), Lebanon, and the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science - Computer Information Systems in 2007 from NDU as well.

Pierre started his professional career in the software industry immediately after being awarded his Bachelor’s degree. He worked in this domain for seven years (2004-2011), as a senior software developer and software architect. After being awarded a Master’s degree, he joined the Department of Computer Science at NDU as a part-time instructor. There he taught courses on Database Design and Programming, and Computer Programming for a period of four years (2007-2011).

Pierre’s interest in enterprise line-of-business applications like Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERPs), in addition to his passion for having a varied education, encouraged him to enroll in a Business Master’s program. This program was a collaboration between Bordeaux Management School (BEM, now KEDGE), France, and NDU. He completed all the requirements of this program in March 2011 and was awarded two Master’s degrees, the Master of Science in International Business from BEM and the Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) from NDU.

In October 2011, Pierre joined The Open University (OU) in the United Kingdom as a full-time Ph.D. student and graduated in August 2014 with a Ph.D. in Computing. The title of his Ph.D. thesis is "Engineering Adaptive Model-Driven User Interfaces for Enterprise Applications".

In September 2014, Pierre joined NDU as a full-time Assistant Professor of Computer Science and also became a Visiting Research Fellow in Computing at the OU. In 2020, he became an Associate Professor in Computer Science at NDU. As part of his work at NDU, Pierre teaches undergraduate and graduate courses that are primarily related to software engineering, human-computer interaction, and databases. He also supervises Master Theses that are primarily related to software engineering and human-computer interaction. His work also includes serving as a member of several committees, coordinating multi-section courses, and advising undergraduate computer-science students. Pierre has also served as a reviewer for several international conferences and journals.

Pierre has a passion for history and a tendency to pursue and acquire knowledge on various history-related topics by reading books and watching documentaries. He also enjoys artistic works in general including music, movies, plays, and paintings. With an ever-growing amount of work, little time is left for sports. Yet when possible, a game of basketball or ping pong would be fun.