MCSA in Depth

Faisal Akkawi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of Information Systems Programs at Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies. He holds a doctorate in computer science and a master's degree in electrical engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology. Dr. Akkawi is an accomplished educator with experience in classroom instruction, curriculum development, faculty and course scheduling, faculty and student recruitment, and budgetary development. An active researcher, his work focuses on knowledge management, concurrent object-oriented software systems, aspect-oriented technology, and the evolution of technological education. Dr. Akkawi has been honored with two NASA Faculty Fellowships, completing projects within the Avionic Offices of both Johnson Space Center and the Ames Research Center. His fellowship work included designing and implementing a framework used in the Advanced Diagnostic and Advanced Caution and Warning System for the International Space Station (ISS), as well as the Integrated System Health Management (ISHM) Testbed project to develop next-generation technologies for the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), lunar habitats and human missions to Mars. Kayed Akkawi. Ph.D., is dean of the Morris Graduate School of Management at Robert Morris University. He holds a doctorate in computer science and a master's degree in electrical engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). Dr. Akkawi has extensive teaching experience at the graduate level. His professional projects have included developing a natural language interface for information retrieval and a search engine for accessing large-scale databases, as well as designing a toolkit to measure retrieval accuracy for bilingual information. Dr. Akkawi serves as chair of the educational committee for the Chicago-Amman International Sister Cities Program. Gabriel J. Schofield, MBA, CFA, is the Director of Application Development at Symphony Asset Management LLC. He holds an MBA from Durham University and is a CFA charterholder. With over 15 years of experience as a financial services technology professional, he combines strong leadership skills with a passion for applying technology to solve complex business problems. Gabriel has led project teams that have delivered industry-leading solutions for a variety of front and back-office financial applications. Gabriel is a proactive member of several industry groups that define and maintain financial messaging and data standards.