Khadijah Al Safwan

Khadijah Al Safwan, Ph.D.

I was recently awarded my Ph.D. from the Virginia Tech Department of Computer Science, specializing in software engineering. My research journey has immersed me in the intricate world of software evolution and maintenance, focusing on understanding the information needs of software developers and conducting thorough analyses of software development tools and practices.

Throughout my dedicated pursuit of academic excellence, I diligently cultivated a versatile skill set encompassing technical, soft, and interpersonal abilities. These capabilities have driven my success as a researcher and positioned me as an effective educator. My unwavering commitment to personal and professional growth has consistently motivated me to expand my horizons and exceed expectations.

As an ambitious candidate, I am eagerly exploring the job market. I am actively seeking my next career opportunity. I am genuinely excited about the prospect of contributing my expertise within an organization that values innovation, encourages collaboration, and places a premium on continuous development. I am confident in my capability to deliver significant and impactful contributions to any such organization, and I eagerly anticipate embracing new challenges.

Education

Virginia Tech

Doctor of Philosophy

Computer Science
Virginia Tech

Master of Science

Computer Science
University of Dammam

Bachelor of Science

Computer Science

Work Experience

  • All
  • Recent
  • Academic
  • Industry

  • 2021, 2022, 2023

    Instructor of Record

    Virginia Tech

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

    I worked as an instructor of records (lecturer) for junior-level software engineering course. As an instructor, I developed many skills including presentation, communication, management, and conflict resolution skills.

    Semester

    Course

    TA/s

    Students

    2023 Spring

    CS 3704 Intermediate Software Design

    Hunter Leary , Divyansh Mishra , Jared Joo , and Matthew Chitre

    100 Students

    2022 Fall

    CS 3704 Intermediate Software Design

    Gabriella Nikki Ramirez , John Oh , Christopher Stoll , and Abhilash Chauhan

    73 Students

    2022 Summer II

    CS 3704 Intermediate Software Design

    Shunyu Yao

    9 Students

    2021 Spring

    CS 3704 Intermediate Software Design

    Ibrahim Asadullah Tahmid , Ahmad Hossein Yazdani , Chinmayee Schandra , Tahmid Muttaki , and Yuan Chen

    90 Students

  • 2019 - 2023

    Graduate Teaching Assistant

    Virginia Tech

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

    I worked as a teaching assistant (GTA) for various computer science courses (graduate and undergraduate) including software engineering, databases, data structure, and web development courses. My responsibilities focus on assisting both enrolled students and the course instructors. As a GTA, I developed many skills including working under pressure and communication.

    Semester

    Course

    Instructor/s

    Students

    2022 Spring

    CS 5704 Software Engineering

    Dr. Gregory Kulczycki

    67 Students

    2021 Fall

    CS 5704 Software Engineering

    Dr. Gregory Kulczycki

    90 Students

    2020 Fall

    CS 5774 User Interface Software

    Dr. Kurt Luther

    25 Students

    2020 Summer

    CS 3114 Data Structures & Algorithms

    Rifat Sabbir Mansur (Ri)

    41 Students

    2020 Spring

    CS 4604 Introduction to Data Base Management Systems

    Richard Quintin and Michael Schulte

    64 Students

    2019 Fall

    CS 5704 Software Engineering

    Dr. Francisco Servant

    21 Students

    2019 Spring

    CS 5704 Software Engineering

    Dr. Gregory Kulczycki

    61 Students

  • Fall 2018 and Summer 2021

    Graduate Research Assistant

    Virginia Tech

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

    I worked as a graduate research assistant (GRA) for Dr. Francisco Servant's research projects during Fall 2018 and Summer 2021. My responsibilities comprise of assisting the development of research instruments and defining research problems. As a GRA, I developed many technical skills (e.g., data analysis) and soft skills (e.g., critical thinking, decision-making).

  • 2014 - 2015

    Researcher

    University of Dammam

    Dammam, Eastern, KSA

    For the senior project of my undergraduate studies, I lead a team of five students. We build a prototype for a research project. As a team leader, I developed my technical skills (e.g., programming and literature review) and soft skills (e.g., organization and leadership).

  • Summer 2014

    COOP Trainee

    Wipro Arabia Limited

    Al Khobar, Eastern, KSA

    I train at Wipro the summer after my junior year. As a trainee, I developed my technical skills (e.g., ABAP programming).

  • Oct - Dec 2013

    Administrative-Work Assistant

    University of Dammam

    Dammam, Eastern, KSA

    I helped the administration office staff of the Computer Science Department. I worked on the paperwork for exams scheduling and arrangement. As an assistant, I developed my soft skills (e.g., problem-solving).

  • Summer 2013

    Summer Trainee

    Saudi Aramco

    Dhahran, Eastern, KSA

    I train at Saudi Aramco the summer after my sophomore year. As a first time trainee, I gain exposure to the work environment, processes, and systems. I developed my technical skills (e.g., database querying) and soft skills (e.g., teamwork and coordination).

Publications

The documents listed below is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.
  • All
  • 2015 (1)
  • 2016 (1)
  • 2019 (1)
  • 2022 (1)
  • 24\% Acceptance Rate (1)
  • Conference Paper (2)
  • Conference Paper (2)
  • ESEC SIGSOFT FSE (1)
  • First Author (4)
  • First Author (4)
  • First Author (4)
  • First Author (4)
  • IJCDS (1)
  • JSS (1)
  • Journal Paper (2)
  • Journal Paper (2)

Skills

  • All
  • Most Expert In
  • Computer Skills (75)
  • Apps and Tools (34)
  • Data Science (20)
  • Cloud Computing (17)
  • Programming Languages (17)
  • Integrated Development Environments (9)
  • Visualization Tools (7)
  • Modeling and Design (6)
  • Office and Writing (6)
  • JetBrains (5)
  • Server (4)
  • Soft Skills (4)
  • Adobe (3)
  • Communication (3)
  • File Transfer (3)
  • Operating Systems (3)
  • Simulation Tools (3)
  • Grading (2)
  • Remote Connection (2)
  • Spoken Languages (2)
  • Teaching (2)
  • Google G Suite (1)
  • Hardware (1)
  • Microsoft Office (1)

Skype

Slack

Zoom

Sublime Text

DataGrip

IntelliJ

NetBeans

PHPStorm

PyCharm

SAP IDE

Visual Studio

WebStorm

Atom
Mathematica

Microsoft SQL Server

MySQL Workbench

R

SPSS

Studio 3T

Pandas

SciKit-Learn

Apache Solr

MongoDB

MySQL

PostgreSQL

Google Workspace

LaTeX

Microsoft Office

Qualtrics

NodeJs

Prolog

CSS

HTML

Java

SQL

ABAP
ASP.NET
C
C++
Lisp
Scheme

JQuery

JavaScript

PHP

Python

CPanel

Cyberduck

Docker

FileZilla

GoodSync

Putty

Secure Shell (SSH)

Amazon Web Service

Mac OS

Raspberry Pi

Ubuntu Linux

Windows

Apache

Nginx

Passenger

VNC

Leadership

Organization

Technical Writing

Verbal Communication

Arabic

English

Canvas

Web-Cat

D3

Plotly

Processing

Tableau

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Lightroom

Lucidchart

Circuit Maker

MatLab

National Instruments
Packet Tracer

Adobe Dreamweaver

Axure

Balsamiq Wireframes

Projects

  • All
  • Recent
  • Course Project (20)
  • University of Dammam (14)
  • Virginia Tech (13)
  • Programming (12)
  • Research (7)
  • Empirical Study (6)
  • Rationale (3)
  • Topic Search (3)
  • Hardware (2)
  • Prototype (2)
  • Desktop Application (1)
  • Modeling and Simulation (1)
  • Senior Project (1)

Awards

  • All
  • Recent
  • Travel Award (2)
  • Scholarship (3)
  • Excellence Award (2)
  • Competition Winning Award (2)

Activities and Services

  • All
  • Recent
  • Volunteering (7)
  • Virginia Tech (18)
  • University of Dammam (5)
  • Services (4)
  • Research (6)
  • Presentations (5)
  • Papers Review (4)
  • Mentorship (3)
  • Leadership (1)
  • Conferences (7)
  • Career Development (6)
  • 2023 (6)
  • 2022 (4)
  • 2021 (6)
  • 2020 (3)
  • 2019 (8)
  • 2018 (1)
  • 2017 (2)
  • 2016 (1)
  • 2015 (3)
  • 2014 (2)
  • 2013 (2)

  • 2023

    Reviewer - Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE) Journal

    TSE 2023

  • 2023

    Advisory Board Member - Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL)

    Virginia Tech

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

  • 2023

    Member - CS Department Teaching Apprenticeship Program

    Virginia Tech

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

  • 2023

    Junior Reviewer - Mining Software Repositories (MSR) Program Committee (PC)

    MSR 2023

    Melbourne, Australia

  • Spring 2023

    Instructor of Record - CS3704

    Virginia Tech

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

  • Fall 2022

    Instructor of Record - CS3704

    Virginia Tech

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

  • 2022

    Panelist - Graduate Honor System (GHS) Chair Selection Committee

    Virginia Tech GHS

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

  • Summer 2022

    Instructor of Record - CS3704

    Virginia Tech

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

  • 2021

    Reviewer - Realizing Artificial Intelligence Synergies in Software Engineering (RAISE) Program Committee (PC)

    RAISE 2021

    Virtual venue

  • Summer 2021

    Research Mentor - Zaineb Almarzooq

    Virginia Tech

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

  • 2021

    Reviewer - Mining Software Repositories (MSR) Shadow Program Committee (PC)

    MSR 2021

    Virtual venue

  • Spring 2021

    Instructor of Record - CS3704

    Virginia Tech

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

  • Spring 2021

    Attendee- Accelerate to Industry (A2i)

    Virginia Tech Graduate School

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

  • Spring 2019 & 2020

    Volunteer - VT CS Recruitment Weekend

    Virginia Tech

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

  • Spring 2020

    Presenter - 5 Minutes Madness

    Virginia Tech

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

  • Fall 2019

    Presenter - Lightning Talks

    Virginia Tech

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

  • Sep 2019

    Attendee - CMD-IT/ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference (Tapia)

    Tapia

    San Diego, CA, USA

  • 2016 & 2019

    Attendee - CS Career Fair

    Virginia Tech

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

  • Aug 2019

    Attendee - ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE)

    ESEC/FSE

    Tallinn, Harju, Estonia

  • Summer 2019

    Research Mentor - Chenkai Ren

    Virginia Tech

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

  • 2019 - 2022

    Volunteer - Research Lab Representative

    Virginia Tech

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

  • 2018 - 2019

    Volunteer - National Science Foundation Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (NSF ITEST)

    VT PEERS

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

  • Summer 2017

    Research Mentor - Jahdiel Couchman

    Virginia Tech

    Blacksburg, VA, USA

  • Feb 2017

    Attendee - Capital Region Celebration of Women in Computing Conference (CAPWIC)

    CAPWIC

    Washington, DC, USA

  • Mar 2015

    Presenter - Career Forum

    Dhahran Exhibitions

    Dammam, Eastern, KSA

  • Apr 2014

    Volunteer - University Libraries

    University of Dammam

    Dammam, Eastern, KSA

  • Feb 2014 & 2015

    Attendee - Aramco Seminar

    University of Dammam

    Dammam, Eastern, KSA

  • Dec 2013

    Volunteer - E-Government Workshop

    University of Dammam

    Dammam, Eastern, KSA

  • Feb 2013

    Volunteer - University Intro-Session

    University of Dammam

    Dammam, Eastern, KSA

Contact Me

The best way to get in touch with me is via email . If you email me, I will do my best to respond within 48 hours. You are welcome to follow me in online social frameworks:

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