Dr. Nawal El Boghdady

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Dr. Nawal El Boghdady

Assistant Professor

Faculty of Engineering

Full Time

Nawal El Boghdady | LinkedIn

 

 

 

Biography


After obtaining her BSc. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science from the American University in Cairo, Dr. Nawal received her MSc. in Computational Neuroscience from the Institute for Neuroinformatics (INI) at ETH Zürich, Switzerland, and later her PhD from the University of Groningen and the University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands. Throughout her Master’s, Dr. Nawal developed a passion for acoustics from the work she did with Prof. Shih-Chii Liu on speaker tracking using neural spikes from a neuromorphic silicon cochlea chip. To shift to more clinical research, she did her master thesis in Prof. Norbert Dillier’s lab at the University Hospital Zürich on neural modeling of cochlear implant coding strategies. She continued her research on cochlear implants also throughout her PhD under the co-supervision of Prof. Deniz Baskent and Dr. Etienne Gaudrain, in which she focused on the transmission of voice characteristics through the signal processing of cochlear implants, and how this can be improved in future versions of the medical device. Currently, she is co-founder and chief data scientist at Nexus Analytica, whose focus is on utilizing energy data analytics and visualization techniques to provide digital and consultancy solutions to the energy and industrial sectors. She has also taught a number of courses at the American University in Cairo as an adjunct assistant professor, during which she developed the Data Visualization course curriculum and material as part of the newly founded Data Science program. Her research interests include healthcare and energy data analytics, neuroprostheses, cochlear implant signal processing (speech and music), speech production and perception, in addition to voice perception.

 

Education


2019 Ph.D., University of Groningen (RUG)/ University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), Netherlands

Topic: On the color of voices: the relationship between cochlear implant users’ voice cue perception and speech intelligibility in cocktail-party scenarios

2014 MSc., Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich)/University of Zürich, Switzerland

Topic: Multichannel Electroencephalography (EEG) Analysis of Sound Coding Strategies for Cochlear Implants

2011 BSc., Electronics Engineering, American University in Cairo (AUC), Egypt

Minor: Computer Science

Specializations: VLSI Design

Topic: Power gating of VLSI circuits using MEMS switches in low power applications

 

Courses Taught


  • Data Visualization, The American University in Cairo
  • Fundamentals of Programming I, The American University in Cairo
  • Digital Design II, The American University in Cairo
  • Scientific Data Visualization, University of Groningen, NL

 

Publications


  • Nogueira, W., Boghdady, N., Langner, F., Gaudrain, E., & Baskent, D. (2021). “Effect of Channel Interaction on Vocal Cue Perception in Cochlear Implant Users.” Trends in Hearing, 25, 1-23, https://doi.org/10.1177/23312165211030166
  • El Boghdady, N., Langner, F., Gaudrain, E., Başkent, D., & Nogueira, W. (2021). “Effect of spectral contrast enhancement on speech-on-speech intelligibility and voice cue sensitivity in cochlear implant users”. Ear & Hearing. https://doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0000000000000936
  • El Boghdady, N., Gaudrain, E., & Başkent, D. (2019). “Does good perception of vocal characteristics relate to better speech-on-speech intelligibility for cochlear implant users?”. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 145(1), 417-439. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5087693
  • El Boghdady, N., Başkent, D., & Gaudrain, E. (2018). “Effect of frequency mismatch and band partitioning on vocal tract length perception in vocoder simulations of cochlear implant processing.” The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 143 (6), 3505-3519. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5041261
  • El Boghdady, N., Kegel, A., Lai, W. K., & Dillier, N. (2016). “A neural-based vocoder implementation for evaluating cochlear implant coding strategies”. Hearing research, 333, 136-149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heares.2016.01.005

Shobak, H., Ghoneim, M., El Boghdady, N., Halawa, S., Iskander, S.,&  Anis, M. (2011) , "Power gating of VLSI circuits using MEMS switches in low power applications," Microelectronics (ICM), International Conference on , vol., no., pp.1-5, 19-22 Dec. 2011.

 

Academic Achievements


  • 05.2019, Travel award grant to present at the Conference on Implantable Auditory Prostheses
  • 01.2019, Publication (El Boghdady et. al., 2019) selected as featured article on the cover of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA)
  • 05.2017, Travel award grant to present at the Conference on Implantable Auditory Prostheses
  • 05.2015, Travel award grant to present at the Conference on Implantable Auditory Prostheses
  • 11.2014 – 11.2018, Research grant from Advanced Bionics and UMCG funding 4 years of research work
  • 09.2012 – 02.2014, Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships for Foreign Scholars and Artists (ESKAS)
  • 09.2006 – 06.2011, Academic Achievement Scholarship, American University in Cairo

 

Industrial Experience


Co-founder & Chief Data Scientist at Nexus Analytica. Nexus Analytica is an SME offering consultancy services and internet of things (IoT) solutions with a particular focus on the energy and industrial sectors. Nexus Analytica deals with statistical data analytics, energy systems modeling and simulation, and strategic consultancy for public and private entities. We use collected data, developed models, in addition to our vast experience, delivering unique risk-free solutions to our customers, meeting their economic, social, environmental and political requirements. (www.nexusanalytica.com)