 Good evening. My name is Kevin Mitchell, and I serve as the Chancellor. On behalf of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al-Kasimi, member of the UAE Supreme Council, ruler of Sharjah, and president of the American University of Sharjah, the Board of Trustees and the faculty and staff, welcome. I extend a special welcome to the family and friends who are with us today. We share your pride in the accomplishments of the candidates for the Ph.D. in Engineering Systems Management. This event marks an important occasion in the history of AUS as we celebrate the university's first doctoral graduates. When founded in 1997, the university was mandated to become a center of research for educational development and the solution of social problems. The doctoral work done by the candidates not only contributes to advancing knowledge in their fields, it also contributes to advancing the university's mission. Congratulations on this significant accomplishment. As the first doctoral program graduates, you will be important representatives for the university, and we look forward with great anticipation to your continued success. In closing, I would like to thank all of my colleagues who have worked to develop the doctoral program and to ensure that we could be here on this momentous occasion. I would also like to recognize the dedication and commitment of the advisors, Dr. Ahmed, Dr. Bahari, and Dr. Alsaya. On behalf of His Highness, Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Kasimi, the members of the Board of Trustees and the faculty and staff of AUS, congratulations again to Ph.D. candidates in Engineering Systems Management. I would now like to introduce the Provost and Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Juan Sanchez. Thank you, Chancellor. I'm delighted and honored to welcome you all to this very important milestone for the university. This will go into history as the first cohort of graduates in the Ph.D. of Engineering Systems Management. I would also like to extend a warm welcome to the family members that I'm sure they are as proud of the accomplishments of the candidates like we are. This is, again, a significant and very difficult accomplishment by all the candidates. I would also like to welcome with thanks the faculty that guided the candidates through their degree and through very hard work at the university. To the graduates, I would like to underscore the fact that you have attained the highest degree that the discipline can offer. It does come with privileges that you should never abuse, but also with responsibilities that should always assume. Now, I would like to recognize several members of the AUS community that are here present with us. Dr. Mark Mood Anatawi, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Samir Al-Ashash, Interim Dean of the College of Engineering. Dr. Najesh Burbakri, Dean of the School of Business Administration. Dr. Lotfi Ramadan, Associate Dean for the College of Engineering. Dr. Vian Ahmed, Advisor. Dr. Salwa Deheri, Advisor. Dr. Samek Alsayek, Advisor. Dr. Akmal Abdelfattah, Program Coordinator. Dr. Malik Niyayi, Dissertation Advisor. Dr. Aiman Badawi, Dissertation Advisory Committee Member. Next, I would like to introduce Ms. Lina Hury, who will call the names of the candidates and will give us a brief account of their accomplishment in the dissertation. As your name is called, please come to the stage. Candidates for the Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering Systems Management. Taha Saeed Anjamrooz. Taha's dissertation title is Portfolio Value Optimization Model for Sustainable Construction. Taha Anjamrooz's dissertation provides valuable research for the construction industry, encouraging developers to consider sustainability as a key criterion in their portfolio selection. If adopted, his research has the potential of positively transforming the construction industry's sustainability impact. Conducted under the supervision of Dr. Samek Alsayek, Taha's research aims at developing a new portfolio value optimization model that integrates sustainability, organization-benefit realization, and project success criteria in order to shift decision-making towards sustainable outcomes. His research identifies 26 selection criteria classified into two groups. The first, the sustainability group consisting of three pillars, environmental, social, and economic, and the second, with two subgroups, organization-benefit realization and project success. Through engaging with key developers and clients in the UAE construction industry, Taha was able to determine the weight of these new criteria should they be used in the decision-making process. He found that, when presented with these criteria, developers do indeed consider sustainability as more important than organizational benefits and project success. Specifically, the top six selection criteria for developers were revealed to be energy use, material use, health and safety, strategic fit, profitability, and organizational risk. Based on these findings, Taha developed three portfolio value optimization models, including a project screening matrix, a linear programming model, and genetic algorithms. And presented a real-case study to demonstrate their application. Taha proposes these models as a valuable tool for developers to ultimately impact decision-making towards sustainable construction. We now present Dr. Taha Saeed Anjamrooz. Mustafa Sahban Tkriti. Mustafa's dissertation title is Tracking the Commitment to Sustainable Development Decisions. Mustafa at Tkriti's research provides organizational leaders with an effective mechanism for tracking commitment to sustainable development-related decisions and how these decisions are ultimately executed at the corporate level. Organizational leaders are under tremendous pressure to make decisions that not only consider a wide range of variables, but also satisfy the complex and interwind maxims of sustainable development in their organizations. These maxims, when adhered to, should dictate organizational policy, shape short- and long-term corporate goals, influence leadership decisions, and set the tone for programs and projects to enhance the triple bottom line. However, while several support systems have been developed to address decision-making in different industries and corporate structures, these systems tend to focus on the initial process and the relevance of the decisions to the corporate business strategy. Yet, without a well-developed commitment tracking system, corporate leaders are unable to effectively track and assess their organization's commitment to sustainability goals down the line and therefore truly assess their project's success. Under the supervision of Dr. Selvab Hairi and Dr. Vian Ahmad, Mustafa has successfully developed a new mechanism to track corporate commitment to sustainable development-related leadership decisions, including a holistic framework and sustainable development-commitment tracking tool. In addition, he has created a user interface apparatus to facilitate the tool's application in public entities and private corporations alike. Through an infrastructure project case study, Mustafa has highlighted the knowledge gaps in organizational structures and their execution of capital projects, and has emphasized the hurdles of these leadership decisions permeating down the line of command. His first related publication in a series of journal articles was published in the highly indexed Sustainability Journal in May this year. We now present Dr. Mustafa Sahban Tikriti. Hassan Saleh Mahmoud. Hassan's dissertation title is a data analytics approach for forecasting cash flow in construction projects. Hassan Mahmoud's research aims to benefit the construction industry by providing an owner-perspective cash flow prediction framework that allows for more accurate cash flow estimates. As one of the most crucial sectors in any economy, the construction industry leads the development of underlying infrastructure across the board, including industrial, transportation, environmental and commercial elements. The industry fosters and executes projects that strengthen corporate performance and is considered the largest employer worldwide, engaging and training various technical and vocational expertise. It is vital, therefore, that the construction industry maintains its financial competitive advantage through the combined performance of individual projects and collective programs to sustain its operations. As such, there is a continuous need for owners to more accurately forecast, monitor and control project performance. While many tools have been developed to monitor both the cost and scheduled performance of construction projects, most have lacked a comprehensive integration of risk factor quantification tools and the inclusion of owner-tailored input, particularly in cash flow monitoring and prediction. Under the supervision of Dr. Vian Ahmed and Dr. Selwab Haeri, Hassan has successfully created, validated and tested a cash flow risk index that integrates relevant risk factors and collects and models project data to analyze contractor's default probabilities and predict time and cost overruns. In addition, he has created a metric that measures the response of project owners towards identified risks and their response strategy. Finally, Hassan has created an interactive tool for owner-developers to monitor and control the financial performance of project operations. Earlier this month, the first related article was accepted in the Journal of Risk and Financial Management as the first of a series of articles scheduled to come out of this study. We now present Dr. Hassan Saleh Mahmoud. Well, this concludes this historic graduation ceremony. And on behalf of all present and of the entire AUS community, I would like to once again congratulate the newly inducted doctors. Congratulations. Now ask that you please proceed to the rotunda so photos can be taken. Good night and thank you very much.