With more than 29 years of experience in the field of Information and Communication Technologies, Dr. Karam has proved to have a well-established career in Higher Education and Information and Communication Technologies. After earning his master’s degree in Electrical Engineering (Majoring in Computer and Communication) in 1990, he worked in the USA for a year and a half before returning to Beirut to start a professional and an academic career. On the academic side, he held teaching positions in the departments of Computer Science and Computer Engineering at the University of Balamand (UOB), where he still lectures senior topics in computing. During his presence in academia, he completed a PhD program in the doctoral school of the “Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications,” Telecom ParisTech, Paris, France. His research interests include signal and image processing, face recognition, biometrics, and artificial intelligence. His primary teaching responsibilities are in the computing field; he has been teaching graduate and undergraduate courses of Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Mathematics. As part of his teaching responsibilities, he has introduced modern programming methodologies in the department of Computer Science, namely the Java technology, revamped the teaching approach in the Numerical Analysis course in the department of Mathematics, and designed several courses in the departments of Computer Engineering and Mathematics, all of which were developed to fill a void in the programs of study, and stay at the forefront of the fast evolving discipline of computing and telecommunications. A review of his students and peer evaluations demonstrates a consistently high rating of effectiveness as well as a commitment to improvement and professional growth.

In addition to research and teaching, he held several administrative positions at the University of Balamand in network management, network security, distance learning, and Free & Open Source Software. He was recently appointed a member of the “UOB Ranking Committee,” and a member of the “Faculty Accreditation Committee.” He was also elected to represent the Department of Computer Engineering in the University Faculty Senate.

On the professional side, he has provided ICT consultancy services and expertise in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Tunisia, and Egypt for the private sector, the public sector, and regional and international organizations such as the World Bank, ESCWA, ALECSO, the ITU Arab Regional Office, the European Commission, and ELCIM (Euro-Lebanese Center For Industrial Modernization.)

Dr. Karam has served as a technical advisor to the Lebanese minister of telecommunications from February 2014 to December 2016. This advisory task involved providing intellectual and/or knowledge-based services (e.g. expert analysis and advice) through delivering reports, studies, assessments, recommendations, and proposals that contributed to decision or policy-making in the Ministry of Telecommunications. During this service, he led a team of a World Bank supported project “Mobile Internet Ecosystem” and secured its approval in the Council of Ministers and the relevant parliamentary committees.

Dr. Karam is a senior IEEE member and the past chair of the IEEE Computer Society, Lebanon Chapter. He’s currently the secretary of the IEEE Lebanon Section. He was recently appointed “Area Coordinator” for Geographic Activities for the IEEE Computer Society for 2020, covering section chapters of Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, and Oman. He’s also an active member of the Internet Society, Lebanon Chapter.

Dr. Karam holds a PhD in Telecommunications Engineering from Telecom Paris-Tech (2010), a Master of Science in Computer Engineering from South Dakota State University (1990), and a Bachelor in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology (1987).

CIT Innovation Voucher Grant – for a research and development project titled “A real-time system for recognizing faces in video surveillance CCTV cameras” from the European project “Innovation Voucher” managed by the Center for Innovation and Technology (CIT) at the Industrial Research Institute (IRI).
CS4HS 2013 – A Google funded project: “CS4Math: Computational Mathematics for High School Teachers: A Training Workshop & Contest on Numerical Analysis, Statistics, and Graphics”
CS4HS 2011 – A Google funded project: “A Computer Science Experience & Contest for High School Students – A Free Software Approach.”