Sayed Abdulfatah

One on my job duties as a database admin and reports officer in Altoukhi Company was to create reports using Microsoft Excel. The process was based on importing the company employees’ data from the company ERP in an XML format and then converting the file into Excel format and finally extracting the required information. For example, my direct manager may ask me to create a report on the company employees whose salaries exceed a specific limit. To create this simple report, I used to download all the company employees’ data in an xml file that I convert into an Excel file. Then I get rid of all the unrequired columns and rows of data so that I am left with the require date. The process had a lot of repeated steps such as selecting specific columns and deleting them, repositioning other columns, converting the dates into the American format, i.e. month, day, year, etc. Doing all this using the traditional tools of Microsoft Excel would take hours. However, I created a program using Python programming language that did the following tasks: • Deleting unrequired columns • Rearranging the remaining columns in a specific way • Converting the date format from the British one (i.e. day, month, year) into the American one (i.e. month, day, year) • Translating the column headings from English into Arabic • Changing the page orientation from “Left to Right” to “Right to Left” The program was so efficient that the above tasks were accomplished in almost no time although the file had more than a hundred columns and more than four thousand rows.

One of my job duties as a reports officer was to prepare an “accrued time off” report and a “flight tickets allowed” report for each employee who requested vacation. To do so manually would take much time because the rules for calculating the deserved vacation days for any employee at a specific time were complex. Some employees were entitled for 30-day vacation every year and some were entitled for 45-day vacation every two years. Some were entitled for a travel ticket every year and some were entitled for a ticket every two years. Some were allowed family tickets and some weren’t. So, I prepared an Excel user defined function to carry out the calculations and provide a text report about the accrued time off and the allowed tickets for each employee.

While working as an English program coordinator for the Arab Open University, KSA, I was responsible for finalizing the exam results and publishing them. The process included some complex calculations and decision making. There were different ways for a student to pass a level and move to the next level or even to a higher one. It depended on a set of complex rules. For example, a student could be moved to a higher level based on the result of a test called "Oxford Online placement test". Those who couldn't score high enough to be moved to the immediate next level could also move to it through evaluating their school year work and their monthly quizzes results based on a set of rules. To finalize the student's results manually seemed as an almost impossible mission. I designed an Excel Macro to carry out such complicated process in almost no time.

Altoukhi Company used to pay for a health insurance policy for the employees and their families. However, there were doubts that some employees who resigned were still insured. I was asked to find out if there was any money leak. I used a file with all the company employees including those who were x-employees and a file with the insured employees. By comparing the two files using “V-Lookup” function, I could find out that some employees who left the company were still insured although some of them has resigned more than a year ago. I found out that the insurance employee failed to delete those who resigned from the insurance policy and he cost the company a big loss due to his inefficiency.

While working as an English program coordinator for the Arab Open University, KSA, I was responsible for a learning management system called Moodle. I wanted to update the online quizzes that were used to test the students because they were leaked over the years and they weren’t updated for years before I took over. I put a plan to collect different questions from the teachers and the branch coordinators. I decided to use Microsoft Excel as a container for the questions. Once I received all the Excel files from the different branches of the university, I complied them in one master file and sought a way to upload it to Moodle. I asked the IT professionals at the University about the way they used to upload questions to Moodle. I was astonished to know that the only way they knew of was to type the questions manually into different text boxes on the Moodle interface. I explored the Moodle system to try to find a quicker way and I found that I could export and import quizzes in XML format. By the time I knew little about XML. I downloaded a quiz to check its structure and see if I could convert my questions into the same structure and upload them directly to Moodle. I used mail merge feature to merge each question in my Master Excel file into an XML version of the same question. It worked and thus I could upload all the quizzes as one file to Moodle in a few minutes.

While working for Altoukhi Company for Contracting, I was asked by my direct manager to summarize the company salary slips into a smaller number of pages. The company ERP system was used to generate a salary payroll in about 100-page pdf file. My manager wanted to reduce the number of pages to about 15 pages with the same content. There were a lot of white space one the 100-page version that I could reduce to achieve the required goal. I downloaded the salary slip data from the ERP as an xml file and converted it into an Excel file. I created some Macros to accomplish the task and accommodate the content into a small number of pages.

While working for Altoukhi Company, the IT department head decided to send a soft copy of the salary slip for each employee every month. He decided to do so using mail merge and I was chosen to implement the process every month being a database admin at the time. I used the company ERP to extract the salary slip data and organized it in an Excel file that I edited to prepare as a source file for the mail merging process. I used to send emails to all the company employees with their respective salary slips every month.

In 2002, I was invited to present in the ESL/EFL National Conference in Egypt. I prepared an auto-questionnaire on the learning styles using Visual Basic and presented it in a workshop in one of the conference venues. I designed the auto-questionnaire using visual basic and a video editing software. The questionnaire consists of some questions shown on a number of consecutive screens. The user responds to the questions and based on his responses, he/she is shown a pre-recorded video telling him about his/her best learning style and how to improve other learning styles. The visual basic part took the decisions of which videos to show based one the user responses.

This was a requirement of a course I studied at Lehigh University. I recorded a video using a video camera and transferred it to a computer. Then I captured my computer screen using Camtasia Studio while implementing a loop into a pre-recorded Microsoft Word macro. I combined the two videos into one and edited it adding an introductory screen. The final product was a video in which I explained how to implement a loop into an MS Word macro.

This was a research project carried out during my study at Lehigh University. My academic supervisor asked me to find out how much of a design template called CRAP model (Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity) is applied to the Egyptian Museums websites. He also asked me to evaluate the educational content of those sites. The result was a research paper investigating the content and visual design of the Egyptian Museums Websites.

I was requested to compile a website using Dreamweaver and other supporting software to create content for the website which was supposed to be educational. I chose to design a website on teaching the Arabic Alphabet for non-native learners of Arabic. The Site had videos showing my hand typing each Arabic letter. It had audio files with the pronunciation of each letter mixed with the different vowels. It had some simple words, phrases, and sentences too. I used videos, audio files, text and images and I applied a design model to the visual appearance of the site screens. I also used a simple but effective navigation panel. This project was a requirement of one of the courses I studied at Lehigh University.

This project was a requirement of my independent study while pursuing my master degree in 2006. I agreed with my professor to create a multimedia piece of software using "Macromedia Authorware" to teach some animal names and their spelling for young learners who are non-native learners of English. I used a photo gallery software called “Print Artist”, Photoshop and audio editing software to create content for the project. The design process went through the following stages: • Planning the layout of each screen • Collecting, editing and organizing the different material including animal images, audio files with animal names, text, and other material for designing the navigation panel and icons • Designing the different screen templates. • Filling the templates with their respective content • Testing, fixing errors, testing again until making sure that the piece works as planned. The final product had two main parts, a learning part and a practice one which consists of different exercises including matching and spelling. The learner is supposed to use the learning section first and then go to the practice one to check his/her learning outcome. I got an A for this independent study.

This was a project that I was asked to accomplish as an intern in Northampton Community College, PA, USA in 2006 during my study at Lehigh University. I created it using some tools including captivate and some video and audio editors. It was an interactive piece of software to teach the new users of the online Blackboard System (a learning management system) how to use it.