Ahmad Al Hanbali

Dr. Ir. Ahmad Al Hanbali

School of Management and Governance, Dep. Industrial Engineering and Business Information Systems
University of Twente
P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede,
The Netherlands

Ravelijn, room RA3335, Drienerlolaan 5,
7522 NB Enschede
Tel: (+31 53 489)4033
E-mail: a.alhanbali@utwente.nl

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Ahmad Al Hanbali was born in Lebanon in 1980. Since November 2014 he is an associate professor in Industrial Engineering and Business Information Systems at the University of Twente. He was a member of many technical program committees of international conferences. He served as a reviewer for several international journals. He is a full member of the Beta research school The Netherlands, the International Society of Inventory Research (ISIR), Production and Operations Management Society (POMS), Twente is Maintenance Excellence (TIME), and Service Logistics Forum (SLF), and Dutch Network on the Mathematics of Operations Research (LNMB).

Professional experience

• November 2014 – now: Associate professor in Industrial Engineering and Business Information Systems, University of Twente, The Netherlands.
• December 2009 – October 2014: Assistant professor in Industrial Engineering and Business Information Systems, University of Twente, The Netherlands.
• December 2008 - November 2009: Post-doc at the Queueing and performance analysis group, EURANDOM, TU/e Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
• June 2007 - November 2008: Post-doc at Stochastic and Operations Research group, University of Twente, The Netherlands.
• September 2006 - June 2007: Lecturer at the polytechnical engineering school of the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, Computer Science department.

Education

• 2006: PhD degree in Computer Science, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, France. The PhD thesis was carried out at Maestro team, INRIA, Sophia Antipolis under supervision of: Research Director (DR.) Philippe Nain and Eitan Altman. (PhD with distinction)
• 2003: Master degree in Networking and Distributed Systems, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, France. (Ranked second in the Master)
• 2002: Electrical and Electronics Engineering degree, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon. (Very good)

Publications

My performance: h-index 11 (more than 697 citations), 18 journal publications, 9 peer-reviewed conference proceeding papers, and 7 short abstracts.

Peer-reviewed journal papers (18 in total)

• F. Hamdani, M. Masmoudi, A. Al Hanbali, F. Bouyahia, and A. Ait Ouahman. Diagnostic and modeling of elderly flow in a French healthcare institution. Accepted for publication in Computers & Industrial Engineering, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2017.05.009
• S. Rahimi Ghahroodi, A. Al Hanbali, W.H.M. Zijm, J.C.W. van Ommeren, A. Sleptchenko. Integrated Resource Planning in Maintenance Logistics with Spare Parts Emergency Shipment and Service Engineers Backlogging. To appear in OR-Spectrum 2017.
• Z. Benhouria, M. Masmoudi, A. Al Hanbali, I. Khatrouch, F. Masmoudi. Quantitative techniques for medical equipment maintenance management. To appear in European journal of Industrial Engineering (EJIE), 2016
• M. Masmoudi, Z. Ben Houria, A. Al Hanbali, F. Masmoudi. Decision Support Procedure for Medical Equipment Maintenance Management. Journal of clinical engineering, vol. 41, issue 1, 19-29, 2016.
• S. Behfard, M.C. van der Heijden, A. Al Hanbali, W.H.M. Zijm. Last time buy and repair decisions for spare parts. European Journal of Operational Research (EJOR), vol. 244, issue 2, 498-510, 2015.
• A. Al Hanbali, E.M. Alvarez, and M.C. van der Heijden. Approximations for the waiting time distribution in an M/G/c priority queue. OR Spectrum, vol. 37, 529-552, 2015.
• M.E. Zonderland, R.J. Boucherie, A. Al Hanbali. Appointments in care pathways: the Geo^x/D/1 queue with slot reservations. Queueing Systems, vol. 79, issue 1 (2015).
• A. Al Hanbali, R. de Haan, R.J. Boucherie, J.C.W. Van. Ommeren. Delay in tandem queueing model with mobile queues: An Analytical Approximation. Probability in the Engineering and Information Science (PEIS), vol. 28, issue 3, 363-387, 2014.
• A. Al Hanbali, M.C. van der Heijden. Interval Availability Analysis of a Two-echelon, Multi-Item System. European Journal of Operational Research (EJOR), vol. 228, issue 3, 494-503, 2013.
• T. Coenen, H. van den Berg, R. Boucherie, M. de Graaf, A. Al Hanbali. Bottlenecks and stability in networks with contending nodes. AEÜ - International Journal of Electronics and Communications, vol. 67, issue 2, 88-97, 2013.
• A. Al Hanbali, R. de Haan, R.J. Boucherie, J.C.W. van Ommeren. Time-Limited polling systems with Batch Arrivals and Phase type Service Times. Annals of Operations Research, vol. 198, issue 1, 57-82, 2012.
• A. Al Hanbali. A busy period analysis of level dependent PH/PH/1/K queue. Queueing Systems, vol. 67, issue 3, 221-249, 2011.
• A. Al Hanbali, M. Mandjes, Y. Nazarathy, W. Whitt. The asymptotic variance of departures in critically loaded queues. Advances in Applied Probability, vol. 43, issue 1, 243-263, 2011.
• A. Al Hanbali, O. Boxma. A busy period analysis for state dependent M/M/1/K queue. Operations Research Letters, vol. 38, issue 1, 1-6, 2010.
• A. Al Hanbali, P. Nain, E. Altman. Performance of Ad Hoc Networks with Two-Hop Relay Routing and Limited Packet Lifetime—Extended Version. Performance Evaluation, vol. 65, issue 6-7, 463-483, June 2008.
• M. Ibrahim, A. Al Hanbali, P. Nain. Delay and Resources Analysis in MANETs in Presence of Throwboxes. Performance Evaluation, vol. 64, issue 9-12, 933-947, 2007.
• A. Al Hanbali, A. A. Kherani, R. Groenevelt, P. Nain, E. Altman. Impact of Mobility on the Performance of Relaying in Ad hoc Networks—Extended Version, Computer Networks, vol. 51, issue 14, 4112-4130, 2007.
• A. Al Hanbali, E. Altman, P. Nain. A survey of TCP over Ad Hoc Networks, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, vol.7, issue 3, 22-36, 2005.

Submitted journal papers

• Maintenance logistics optimization submitted to a journal with blind review process.
• A. Oblakova, A. Al Hanbali, R.J. Boucherie, J.C.W. van Ommeren, W.H.M. Zijm. Exact expected delay and distribution for the fixed-cycle traffic-light model and similar systems in explicit form. Memorandum 2056, ISSN 1874-4850, Submitted to Transportation Research, 2016.
• S. Behfard, A. Al Hanbali, M.C. van der Heijden, W.H.M. Zijm. Last time buy and repair decisions for fast movers spare parts. Submitted to CEJOR 2015.
• Modelling of patient pathways in a hospital submitted to a journal with double blind review process.
• N. Baer, A. Al Hanbali, R.J. Boucherie, J.C.W. van Ommeren. A successive censoring algorithm for a system of connected QBD-processes. Submitted to Probability in the Engineering and Informational Sciences (PEIS).
• A. Al Hanbali, R.J. Boucherie, R. de Haan, J.C.W. van Ommeren. Transient analysis of time-limited polling systems. Submitted to Queueing Systems, 2014.

Conference proceedings (Peer-reviewed, nine in total)

• Z. Benhouria, M. Masmoudi, A. Al Hanbali. Medical equipment maintenance optimisation: Mixed-Integer Linear Programming. To appear in Proc. of 4^th IFAC AMEST workshop, Biarritz, France, 2016.
• A. Al Hanbali, A. Sleptchenko, W.H.M. Zijm. Integrated service engineers and spare parts planning in the maintenance logistics. In Proc. of 27^th Production and Operations Management (POMS) conference, Orlando, USA, 2016.
• A. Al Hanbali, M.C. van der Heijden. Interval Availability Analysis of a Two-echelon, Multi-Item System: short version. In Proc. of International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems (ICORES), Algarve, Portugal, February 2012.
• A. Al Hanbali, R. de Haan, R.J. Boucherie, J.C.W. van Ommeren. A Tandem queueing model for delay analysis in disconnected ad hoc networks. In: K. Al-Begain, A. Heindl, M. Telek (editors), Analytical and Stochastic Modeling Techniques and Applications, Springer Berlin Heidelberg Lecture Notes, 189-205, 2008. ISBN 978-3-540-68980-5. (Best paper award)
• A. Al Hanbali, P. Nain, E. Altman. Performance of Ad Hoc Networks with Two-Hop Relay Routing and Limited Packet Lifetime. Short version of this paper appeared in Proc. VALUETOOLS, Pisa, Italy, October 2006. (Finalist for best student paper award)
• A. Al Hanbali, R. de Haan, R.J. Boucherie, J.C.W. van Ommeren. Time-Limited and k-Limited polling systems: A matrix geometric solution. In Proc. of SMCTools, Athens, Greece, October 2008, pp. 1-10. ISBN: 978-963-9799-31-8.
• A. Al Hanbali, M. Ibrahim, V. Simon, E. Varga, I. Carreras. A Survey of Message Delivery Protocols in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks. In Proc. of Inter-Perf, Athens, Greece, October 2008, pp. 1-16. ISBN: 978-963-9799-31-8.
• A. Al Hanbali, A. A. Kherani, P. Nain. Simple Model for Performance Evaluation of a Class of Two-hop Relay Protocols. In: I. Akyildiz, R. Sivakumar, E. Ekici, J. Oliveira, and J. McNair (editors), NETWORKING 2007: Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks, Wireless Networks, Next Generation Internet, Springer Berlin Heidelberg Lecture Notes, 189-205, 2007. ISBN 978-3-540-72605-0.
• A. Al Hanbali, A. A. Kherani, R. Groenevelt, P. Nain, E. Altman. Impact of Mobility on the Performance of Relaying in Ad hoc Networks. In Proc. of IEEE INFOCOM, Barcelona, Spain, April 2006. (18% acceptance rate)

Abstracts (seven in total)

• S. Rahimi Ghahroodi, A. Al Hanbali, W.H.M. Zijm, J.C.W. van Ommeren, A. Sleptchenko. Integrated Resource Planning in Maintenance Logistics with Spare Parts Emergency Shipment and Service Engineers Backlogging. In proc. of 21^th Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (MSOM) Conference, Auckland, New-Zeeland, 2016.
• Ahmad Al Hanbali, Sajjad Rahimi-Ghahroodi, and Henk Zijm, Integrated Resource Planning in Maintenance Logistics, ERCIM NEWS, April 2016.
• N. Baer, R.J. Boucherie, A. Al Hanbali, J.C.W. van Ommeren. A folding algorithm for a system of coupled QBD-processes. In Proc. of International Conference on Matrix Analytic Methods In Stochastic Models (MAM), Calicut, India, 2014.
• N. Baer, R.J. Boucherie, A. Al Hanbali, J.C.W. van Ommeren. An Aggregation Method For The Tandem Threshold Queue. Abstract in the 17th INFORMS Applied Probability Conference, Costa Rica, 2013.
• S. Behfard, M.C. van der Heijden, A. Al Hanbali, W.H.M. Zijm. Last time buy and reuse of spares for advanced capital goods. In Proc. of International Society of Inventory Research conference (ISIR), Budapest, Hungary, 2012. (Best poster award Beta-Trail congress, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2012)
• Dieter Fiems, Ahmad Al Hanbali and Herwig Bruneel. Queueing analysis of error-prone production systems. Abstract in the International Workshop in Applied Probability (IWAP), Mardrid, 2010.
• A. Al Hanbali, P. Nain, E. Altman. Performance of Ad Hoc Networks with Two-Hop Relay Routing and Limited Packet Lifetime [short paper]. In Proc. of IEEE IWQoS, New Haven, CT, USA, June 2006.

Working papers

• Sajjad Rahimi Ghahroodi, Ahmad Al Hanbali, Ingrid Vliegen, Morris Cohen. Integrated Field Service Engineers and Spare parts Planning in Maintenance Logistics: full backlogging.

External funding (Research project)

• Dynafloat project funded by the Dutch Organisation for Scientif Research (NWO), 2014. Project budget 700k€. Role: Lead PI, work package leader, project manager.
• Optimal Resources Planning for Maintenance Logistics project funded by Qatar Foundation, QNRF 2014. Project budget 800k$. Role PI, work package leader.

Academic Service Activities

I served as a reviewer for various international journals and conferences:

Journals

• 2006: IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials (CST), Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing (WCM)
• 2007: Computer Networks, Information Sciences (INS), Performance Evaluation, Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing (WCM)
• 2008: University of Mauritius Research Journal, Performance Evaluation, IEEE Transaction on Networking, Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing (WCM)
• 2009: Computers and Operations Research, Mathematical Methods of Operations Research, Journal of Applied Mathematics, Performance Evaluation, Computer Networks, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Methodology and Computing in Applied Probability
• 2010: Annals of Operations Research, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, European Transactions of Telecommunications, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
• 2011: IEEE Transactions on Networking, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems
• 2012: European journal of operational research
• 2013: International journal of production economics, Performance Evaluation, Queueing Systems, Applied Mathematical Modeling
• 2014: 4OR - A Quarterly Journal of Operations Research, Journal of Mechanical Engineering, Transportation Science, International journal of production economics, and International journal of production research
• 2015: OR Spectrum, Naval Research Logistics, Annals of OR, Queueing Systems, Computers and Industrial Engineering
• 2016: European Journal of Operational Research, Transportation Research Part B, Computer Networks, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Queueing Systems, Computers and Operations Research, Reliability Engineering and System Safety

Conferences

• TPC member:
  • 2008: Valuetools
  • 2009: Wiopt, RAWNET, Bionetics, NSTools, TEMACS
  • 2010: Wiopt
  • 2012: RAWNET/WNC3
  • 2013: WiNMee
• External Reviewer: WPMC (2004), Infocom (2005-2007), Globecom (2006, 2013), ISIT 2007, IWQoS (2008), NOTERE (2008), IFAC AMEST (2016).

Conference/Workshop/Seminar organization

• Young European Queueing Theorist YEQT 2014, Eindhoven university of Technology (with Joachim Aarts, TUe, and Peter van der Ven, CWI)
• Monthly series of seminars “Open problem session I stochastic OR” at EURANDOM research institute, Eindhoven university of Technology (with Yoni Nazarathy).

Teaching Activities

Tutor in Module 2 in Bachelor of Industrial Engineering and Management and Bachelor in International Business Administration.

Current:

• Dutch Network on the Mathematics of Operations Research (LNMB), PhD course, 2016-now, Algorithmic Methods in Queueing Theory (with Stella Kapodistria) (4ECTS)
• University of Twente, BSc program of Industrial Engineering and Management (Technische Bedrijfskunde), 2014-now: (201300109) Supply Chain Management Module (15ECTS). Role: teacher, module and project coordinator, and tutor of project groups.
• University of Twente, BSc Minor on Aerospace Management and Operations, 2015-now, (201500059). Role: teacher of a part on Maintenance Management and Reliability Analysis.
• University of Twente, BSc program of Industrial Engineering and Management (Technische Bedrijfskunde), 2014-now (every second year): (201300073) Introduction to Industrial Engineering and Management. Role: teacher of Supply Chain Management.
• University of Twente, department of Industrial Engineering, Production and Logistics Management track, MSc program, 2010-now: (191852630) Reliability Engineering and Maintenance Management. (5ECTS)
• University of Twente, department of Industrial Engineering, Production and Logistics Management track, MSc program, 2011-now: (191852620) Advanced Production Planning (with J.M.J. Schutten, E.W. Hans). (5ECTS)

Past:

• Coordinating the design and development of a new module (15ECTS) on supply chain management part of the new bachelor curriculum of industrial engineering and management at university of Twente, 2012-2013.
• University of Twente, department of Industrial Engineering, Production and Logistics Management track, MSc program, 2010-2011, 2011-2012: Supply Chain and Transportations Management (with P. Schuur, M. van der Heijden). (5ECTS)
• University of Vienna, department of Industrial Engineering, PhD course, 2009-2010, with Prof H. Zijm: Manufacturing and Logistics System Analysis: Planning and Control. (5ECTS)
• University of Twente, faculty of electrical and electronics engineering and applied mathematics (EWI), MSc program of Applied Mathematics, 2007-2008: (191531920) Markov Decision Theory and Algorithmic Methods (with J. Timmer). (5ECTS)
• Polytechnic engineering school of the university of Nice Sophia Antipolis France, department of computer science 2006-2007: Network Simulator NS2, Distributed Programming, and Project JAVA Programming.
• University of Nice Sophia Antipolis France, department of computer science, BSc program (2006-2007): Introduction to Computer Networking: (33h, 10 students)

Supervision Activities

PhD:

• Anno Oblakova, “Traffic flow management in urban areas using life data”, Univeristy of Twente. Started May 2015
• Sajjad Rahimi-Gahroodi, “Multi-resource planning in maintenance logistics”, university of Twente. Started Jan 2015
• Sina Behfard, “Integrated Last buy and re-use decision models for advanced capital goods”, co-supervision with Dr. M.C. van der Heijden, University of Twente. Started March 2011
• Zeineb Ben Houria: “Maintenance planning of medical equipment”, co-supervision with Prof. F. Masmoudi, Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieur de Sfax, Tunisie, Dr. M. Masmoudi, Université Jean-Monnet, Saint-Etienne, France. Started Nov. 2013 and graduated in Nov. 2016
• Roland de Haan: “Queueing models for mobile ad hoc networks”, co-supervision with Dr. J.-K. van Ommeren in the period from June 2007-May 2009 during my post-docs at university of Twente and Eindhoven University of Technology, promotor Prof. R.J. Boucherie. Roland graduated in June 2009

I collaborated and worked with several PhD candidates after my PhD defence: Mohamad Ibrahim (graduated in 2008 from university of Nice Sophia Antipolis, France), Tom Coenen (university of Twente), and Elisa Alvarez (graduated in 2013 from university of Twente).

Master:

44 (IBM, Océ-Cannon Group, Essent, Vanderlande Industries, Thales, NedTrain, VieCurie Hospital, Gordian, Siemens, Nedap, ASML, Philips Drachten, Loodswezen, Infineon, Fokker Aero structures, Siemens, Contour BV, Sundisk, Power-Packer, ProRail, ARS T&TT, Hunter Douglas, Bolletjes, PostNL, NLR, Wehkamp, ATAG)

Bachelor: 

15 (Océ, AkzoNobel, Aebi Schmidt, TATA Steel, Bosch, MST Twente, Tenplast, Contour BV, PANanalytic, Enexis, Power-Packer, EATON, Royal Ten Cate, ATAG, MAN Truck and Bus, NLR).

Students (PhD and Master) under my supervision with awards/nominations

• Sina Behfard (Beta-Trail conference best Poster Award, 2012)
• Chen Wang, Océ, (Finalist for Best SLF Master Thesis Award)
• Anke Verbaaschot, Océ, (SLF Best Master Thesis Award, 2011)
• R. de Haan (Best conference paper award in ASMTA 2008)

Articles in Press/News:

• ERCIM News 105, p. 35-36, April 2016 (Special Issue on Planning and Logistics): Integrated Resource Planning in Maintenance Logistics, by Ahmad Al Hanbali, Sajjad Rahimi-Ghahroodi, and Henk Zijm. (http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/)
• 1,2 MILJOEN EURO VOOR UT-ONDERZOEK DUURZAME LOGISTIEK (HTTP://WWW.UTWENTE.NL/NIEUWSEVENTS/2014/9/100356/12-MILJOEN-EURO-VOOR-UT-ONDERZOEK-DUURZAME-LOGISTIEK)
• Solutions cannot always be simple: (HTTP://WWW.UTNIEUWS.NL/NIEUWS/55804/SOLUTIONS_CANNOT_ALWAYS_BE_SIMPLE)