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Akmal Younis, Associate Professor in the College of Engineering, Passes Away


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    Akmal Younis

    Akmal Younis, an associate professor in the University of Miami’s College of Engineering, died suddenly on Saturday, December 3. He was 48 years old.

    Younis, whose research included biomedical imaging, medical informatics, and networks and information security, received both his master’s and Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Miami and had been a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering since 2001.

    “We are saddened to have lost a gifted and promising colleague,” said College of Engineering Dean James M. Tien. “One of my first decisions as incoming dean of the college in 2007 was to strongly support [Younis] for tenure and promotion. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.”

    Younis started at UM in 1989 as a research associate in the industrial engineering department, coming from Ain Shamis University in Cairo, Egypt. Shihab Asfour, professor, associate dean, and chair of the Department of Industrial Engineering, was instrumental in convincing Younis to join UM’s College of Engineering. He remembers Younis’s love for computing and his enthusiasm when collaborating with Miller School of Medicine faculty members on medical informatics projects. Younis’s most recent work includes being principal investigator on projects funded by INFOTECH, the National Institutes of Health, IBM, and Cisco.

    Mansur Kabuka, who served as Younis’s doctoral advisor and mentor, also acknowledged Younis’s drive and determination, describing him as working “110 percent from his heart” to develop labs and programs. He praised Younis’s research efforts in working with researchers from the Miller School, especially faculty members in the Department of Radiology, and noted his mentoring of graduate and undergraduate students.

    Mohamed Abdel-Mottaleb, chair of the Department of Electrical and Computing Engineering, described Younis as “an outstanding computer engineer who cared very much about the quality of teaching and research.” Abdel-Mottaleb pointed out that Younis chaired the college’s Computer Engineering Curriculum Committee and was instrumental in developing the software engineering option. “Akmal was not only a colleague but a dear friend, and we will miss him tremendously,” Abdel-Mottaleb said.

    Younis is survived by his wife, Amal, and four children, Omar, Dana, Mazen, and Mohamed.

     

     

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