Mohammed Al-Alshaqi is a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at Howard University, Washington, D.C., within the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Under the supervision of Dr. Danda B. Rawat, he is actively engaged in cutting-edge research at the Howard University Data Science and Cybersecurity Center (DSC2). His research interests encompass machine learning, deep learning, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things (IoT), with a strong focus on multimodal fake news detection, emotion-aware disinformation classification, and transformer-based models for text and image analysis.
Mohammed is dedicated to advancing AI-driven solutions for real-world problems, particularly in automated content verification, natural language processing, and deep learning model optimization. His contributions aim to enhance the security and reliability of information dissemination in an era of increasing digital misinformation.
Beyond his academic and research pursuits, Mohammed is actively involved in collaborative projects, mentorship, and scholarly discourse within the AI and cybersecurity communities.
Danda B. Rawat (Senior Member, IEEE) received his Ph.D. from Old Dominion University in 2010. He is the Executive Director of the Research Institute for Tactical Autonomy (a UARC of the U.S. DoD), Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, and a Full Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Howard University. He is also the Founding Director of both the Howard University Data Science and Cybersecurity Center and the DoD Center of Excellence in AI and ML. Dr. Rawat has secured over USD 110 million in research funding as PI and over USD 18 million as Co-PI from agencies such as NSF, DHS, NSA, DoE, NIH, DoD, and major industry partners including Microsoft, Intel, VMware, and PayPal. He is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award (2016), DHS Scientific Leadership Award (2017), Provost’s Distinguished Service Award (2021), and several IEEE Best Paper Awards.
He has served as Editor/Guest Editor for 100+ international journals, including Associate Editor roles for IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking, IEEE IoT Journal, IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering, and IEEE Transactions on Services Computing. Dr. Rawat is a Senior Member of ACM, Fellow of IET, and a member of ASEE and AAAS. He served as an ACM Distinguished Speaker (2021–2023).
