In the presence of His Excellency Sheikh Fahim bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Executive Chairman of the Department of Government Relations, and His Excellency Prof. Hamid M.K. Al Naimiy, Chancellor of the University of Sharjah, the College of Computing and Informatics held its first Advisory Board meeting through video conferencing technology in line with the precautionary measures that the University is currently taking.

The meeting was attended by Dr. Salah Taher, Vice Chancellor of the University for Community Affairs; Prof. Mohammad S. Obaidat, Dean of the College of Computing and Informatics; and Prof. Ashraf Alnagar, Vice Dean of the College and Secretary of the Board.

At the beginning of the meeting, His Excellency Sheikh Fahim bin Sultan Al Qasimi welcomed the members of the Board and the attendees, and stressed in a speech delivered on this occasion that the United Arab Emirates has the infrastructure and digital equipment that makes it able to face the challenges and exceptional circumstances, especially in the field of education, and added that the University Sharjah is always a forerunner in introducing academic programs that meet the needs of the labor market. He added that the fields of information technology, data analysis and artificial intelligence are among the most important areas of the future, and ended his speech by expressing gratitude to His Excellency the Chancellor Prof. Hamid M.K. Al Naimiy and Dr. Salah Taher as well as thanking the members of the Advisory Board, hoping that the meetings of the Board would produce proposals and opinions that contribute to achieving the strategic plan of the College of Computing and Informatics until its mission is achieved by graduating a generation of scientists and researchers who work on community service and development.

The Chancellor of the University, welcomed the attendees, thanking Sheikh Fahim bin Sultan Al Qasimi, and the members of the Board for joining the Advisory Board of the College, stressing that the University of Sharjah is aiming to become a pioneer in the field of computing and informatics in the country through offering a number of academic programs specialized in the field. He pointed to the faculty's endeavor to benefit from the experiences and proposals of the Board members in a way that contributes to supporting the College and improving it and its academic programs and its contribution to serving the local community.

As for the Dean of the College Prof. Mohammad S. Obaidat, he provided an introductory overview of the College of Computing and Informatics and its academic programs at the bachelor's, master's and PhD levels, indicating that the College will contribute through its graduates to meet the needs of labor markets in the field of computing, informatics, information security and artificial intelligence, and will work to host many conferences, symposiums and scientific workshops during the upcoming period in cooperation with many international institutions and bodies such as the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the largest professional association in the world the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) as well as a number of international universities.

Through the discussions that took place during the meeting, the members of the Board presented a set of proposals, including: developing a special charter to define the desired goals of the Advisory Board: clarifying the responsibilities and roles assigned to the Board members; emphasizing the importance of continuous and constructive cooperation between the Advisory Board and the College of Computing and Informatics; and building new channels for communication and forming sub-committees, while defining a set of indicators to measure the overall performance of the College.

The Board members include Her Excellency Noor Ali Al Noman, Director of the Department of E-Government in Sharjah; His Excellency Dr. Fahem Al Nuaimi, CEO of Ankabut the UAE's Advanced National Research and Education Network (NREN); His Excellency Mohamed Ahmed Amin, Director General of the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Her Excellency Dr. Amna Al Dahak Al Shamsi, Assistant Undersecretary for Care and Activities Sector; Her Excellency Ahoud Shaheil, Director General of Ajman Digital Government; Her Excellency Dr. Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, General Manager of Smart Dubai; and Her Excellency Dr. Bushra Al Balushi, Deputy Director of Information Services Department at the Dubai Electronic Security Center.

The Board members also included His Excellency Shihab Al Hammadi, Director of Sharjah Media City (Shams); His Excellency Abdullah Hashem, CEO of Etisalat Services Holding Company; Her Excellency Zeina Saadi, Cisco Middle East Company; His Excellency Samir Ibrahim Abdel Hadi, Founder and CEO of SamTech Middle East; and His Excellency Eng. Fathi Jabr Afaneh, CEO of Fast Building Contracting in Sharjah; and His Excellency Adrian Bickering, Regional Director of Red Hat MENA.