Based on the ASU research strategy and the research group establishment, a meeting to establish a Future IT research group was held on Thursday, 16 March. The meeting was organised by the Dean of Research and Graduate Studies together with the Dean of College of Arts and Science. The attendees were the members of Computer Science Department together with the members of the Management Information System Department.

The meeting started with a presentation from the Dean of Research and Graduate Studies, Professor Siddeeq Y. Ameen about the importance and initiatives of the research group formulation. This included research group’s objectives, issues, criteria, mechanism, funding and privileges and the importance of participation of all disciplines in the group to have collaborative and multidisciplinary research. The funding and support of the group was thoroughly discussed, in order to be aligned with the Kingdom of Bahrain’s vision and research priorities.

Many suggestions related to research projects, such as the adoption of cyber security, smart city security, big data analysis and health care information systems monitoring were discussed by the group.