Dr. Ihab Wattar brings over 30 years of national and international experience in both industry and academia, holding senior management and engineering roles across diverse sectors. He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering degree from Cleveland State University and both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering from Southern Illinois University, USA.

Since 2021, Dr. Wattar has served as an Assistant Professor at Cleveland State University. Prior to that, he was an Assistant Professor at Al Ghurair University in Dubai (2020–2021). His extensive industry experience includes leadership roles such as Proposal/Bidding Manager at ABB (2012–2019), Senior Design Engineer (1989–2000), Deputy General Manager at ITAS Group (2012), and Chief Operating Officer at Syrian Qatari Holding (2008–2011). From 2003 to 2008, he played a pivotal role in United Nations Development Programs (UNDP), leading multimillion-dollar projects in partnership with the Syrian Ministry of Communication and Syrian Customs.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Wattar worked as a Senior Application Engineer at Intel in the Chicago area. He has also contributed to academia as an Adjunct Faculty Member at Cleveland State University, Kalamoon University (Damascus), Robert Morris University (Chicago, IL), and Southern Illinois University (Carbondale).

Dr. Wattar is a published researcher with several articles and patents to his name and has received numerous accolades from industry collaborators. His research interests include Voice Recognition, Chaotic Vibration Signal Analysis, Fault Diagnosis of Rotating Machinery, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence.