Prof. Tarek M. Sobh, Ph.D., P.E., CMfgE

Vice President for Graduate Studies and Research
Dean, School of Engineering

University of Bridgeport

Professor Tarek M. Sobh received the B.Sc. in Engineering degree with honors in Computer Science and Automatic Control from the Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Egypt in 1988, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer and Information Science from the School of Engineering, University of Pennsylvania in 1989 and 1991, respectively. He is currently the Vice President for Graduate Studies and Research and Dean of the School of Engineering at the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut; the Founding Director of the Interdisciplinary Robotics, Intelligent Sensing, and Control (RISC) laboratory; and a Professor of Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering.

He was the Vice Provost from 2006-2008, Interim Dean of the School of Business, Director of External Engineering Programs , Interim Chairman of Computer Science and Computer Engineering, and Chairman of the Department of Technology Management at the University of Bridgeport . He was an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Computer Engineering at the University of Bridgeport from 1995 -- 1999, a Research Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the Department of Computer Science , University of Utah from 1992 -- 1995, and a Research Fellow at the General Robotics and Active Sensory Perception (GRASP) Laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania from 1989 -- 1991. He was the Founding Chairman of the Discrete Event and Hybrid Systems Technical Committee of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society from 1992-1999, and the Founding Chairman of the Prototyping Technical Committee of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society from 1999-2001.

His background is in the fields of computer science and engineering, control theory, robotics, automation, manufacturing, AI, computer vision and signal processing.

Research Interests and Activities:

Dr. Sobh edited special issues of numerous journals, and is also an Associate Editor of the Journal of Computing and the International Journal of Science and Technology. He has been on the program committees of several international conferences and has chaired and organized several sessions, workshops, tracks and conferences in the Robotics, Automation, and Sensing areas.

Dr. Sobh is a reviewer for many journals and conferences on AI, Computer Vision, Manufacturing, Sensing, Robotics, Control and Automation. He is also a reviewer for IEEE Press Books. Dr. Sobh has been actively participating in conferences, workshops, and symposia, in the Robotics, Automation, AI, Manufacturing, Sensing, and Control fields for several years, and has made many presentations, invited talks, invited lectures and colloquia, seminars, and panel participations, at research meetings, University departments, research centers, and companies.

The current research and development activities at the RISC laboratory include work on tolerance representation and determination for inspection and manufacturing, hybrid controllers for robotics and automation, service robots, prototyping and synthesis of controllers, simulators, and monitors for manipulators, algorithms for uncertainty computation from sense data, and web-based prototyping, control synthesis, and simulation of robots.

Prof. Sobh has supervised many graduate and undergraduate students working on different projects within robotics, prototyping, computer vision, control, and manufacturing. Dr. Sobh is active in consulting and providing service to many industrial organizations and companies. He has consulted for several companies in the U.S., Switzerland, India, Malaysia and Egypt, to support projects in robotics, automation, manufacturing, sensing, numerical analysis, and control. He has also worked at Philips Laboratories in New York, and a number of companies in Egypt.

Dr. Sobh has been awarded many research grants to pursue his work in robotics, automation, manufacturing, and sensing. Dr. Sobh was chosen for the top Schlumberger Oil Company international engineering internship award in 1987; the Alexandria University Scholarship, for academic achievements, 5 times, 1983-1988; an International Exchange Fellowship for Computer Research in 1991; a University of Pennsylvania teaching fellowship in 1988; the University of Pennsylvania Research Fellowship 1989-1991; and a Degree of Honor from Alexandria University in 1988. Dr. Sobh is a Licensed Professional Electrical Engineer (P.E.) in the State of Utah, a Certified Manufacturing Engineer (CMfgE) by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, a Certified Professional Manager (C.M.) by the Institute of Certified Professional Managers at James Madison University, a Certified Reliability Engineer (C.R.E.) by the American Society for Quality, a member of Tau Beta Pi (The Engineering Honor Society), Sigma Xi (The Scientific Research Society), Phi Beta Delta (The International Honor Society), Upsilon Pi Epsilon (The National Honor Society for the Computing Sciences, and an honorary member of Delta Mu Delta (The National Honor Society for Business Administration). Dr. Sobh was the recipient of the Best Paper Award at the World Automation Congress Conference (WAC 98) in Anchorage, Alaska.

Dr. Sobh is a member or senior member of several professional organizations including; ACM, IEEE, IEEE Computer Society, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI), the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE), the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), the American Society of Quality (ASQ), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), and a founding member of the Society for Industrial Computing. Dr. Sobh is a graduate of Victoria College, Alexandria, in 1983 and a life member of the Old Victorians Association. He is also a life Member of the Egyptian Engineering Syndicate, a licensed engineer of the Egyptian Engineers Association and the Alexandria Engineering Organization.

Dr. Sobh contact coordinates are: