Rate My Professor Heba El-Fiqi

Dr Heba El-Fiqi is a Senior Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence with the School of Systems and Computing (SYSCOM) at UNSW Canberra, University of New South Wales. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from UNSW (2009-2013), with her doctoral thesis titled "Detection of Translator Stylometry using Pair-wise Comparative Classification and Network Motif Mining," and a Master's degree in Computer Science from Cairo University (2005-2009), focused on "An Intelligent System for Tracking Network Attacks." Her career at UNSW includes serving as AI Discipline Coordinator in the School of Engineering and Information Technology (2021-2023), where she led the development of key courses such as ZEIT4150 Fundamentals of AI (2022), ZEIT8601 Applied Machine Learning (2024), and co-designed ZEIT4151 Machine Learning (2022). These courses consistently achieve student satisfaction ratings of 90% to 100%. Dr El-Fiqi has secured more than AUD 1.2 million in competitive funding, including 1 million in external grants, underscoring her impact in the field.

Dr El-Fiqi's research centers on decentralised intelligent systems, swarm intelligence, representation learning, and cognitive signal processing for robust AI in dynamic environments. Notable technical contributions include the Weighted Gate Layer Autoencoder (WGLAE, IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, 2021), utilized as a benchmark in EEG signal processing and cognitive biometrics, and the open-source Shepherding Library for Swarm Guidance. Select publications feature "Gate Control Mechanisms of Autoencoders for EEG Signal Reconstruction" (Sensors, 2025), "Applications of Machine Learning in Assessing Cognitive Load of Uncrewed Aerial System Operators and in Enhancing Training: A Systematic Review" (Drones, 2025), "The Limits of Reactive Shepherding Approaches for Swarm Guidance" (IEEE Access, 2020), and "Convolutional Neural Networks Using Dynamic Functional Connectivity for EEG-Based Person Identification in Diverse Human States" (IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, 2019). Awards include the Dell EMC Award of Distinction (2017) and IBM Big Data Developer - Instructor Award for Educators (2017). She serves as Academic Editor for PLOS ONE, Senior Member of IEEE, Vice-Chair of the IEEE CIS Mentoring Committee, and leads equity initiatives like Women in AI events and YoWIE Robotics outreach.