We spoke to Dr Rana Khallaf in June 2021. Rana is a prominent early career researcher in Egypt with a rising profile in the CIB network and beyond, including for her foundation and leadership of the Arabs in Academia (AIA) network. She took her PhD at Purdue University in the USA under Mark Hastak, currently CIB Vice President, and her current research is related to public-private partnerships, integrated project delivery, lean construction, and artificial intelligence. She is also interested in expanding her research to data analytics and exploring how it can benefit the construction sector. Her advice for students and early career researchers included to choose a topic with a ‘future’, to build their own network, and to take other courses if available outside their chosen area. We discussed the AIA network, why she set it up, its activities and the benefits of participating – see https://www.linkedin.com/company/arabs-in-academia/ and https://www.facebook.com/groups/592171341734152/. Rana’s top opportunity for politicians and policy makers was to share experience of PPP more widely for all to benefit globally.
You can join the Arabs in Academia network by applying through this link.
