Message from the General Chair

Welcome to AICCSA-05 and welcome to beautiful Cairo – the home of genuine hospitality.

It has been four years since AICCSA was inaugurated in Beirut in 2001. In only four years, the conference has become a well-known and respected forum for the exchange of ideas among researchers in this exciting and rapidly changing field of computer systems and applications. The increasing number of submissions and attendees, and the declining acceptance-to-submission ratio, are all healthy signs and evidence on the maturity and success of this forum. The collection of papers published in this volume is a representation of the most recent research in the field. The authors of these papers come from several academic, governmental, and industrial organizations in more than 30 countries and represent every continent.

I wish to express my thanks and appreciation to all the people who have worked so hard to make this conference a success and this compendium of papers a part of the literature. Margaret Dunham, the program chair, has shown tremendous creativity, reliability, and resolute perseverance in leading the paper selection process. The track chairs: Mohsen Guizani, Michael Langston, Suku Nair, and Behrooz Shirazi helped in putting together this timely and representative sampling of papers. Beth Minton, the conference coordinator, worked so hard to bring all the loose ends together at the right time. Sumi Helal, the tutorials and panels chair, has selected 5 tutorials and 2 panels of the highest quality. Vijay Kumar, the workshops chair, helped in the solicitation and selection of the workshops. Ramzi Haraty answered many of my questions about registration in previous years. Zaitun Abu-Bakar, Hella Ben Ayed, and Emad Mohamed did a great job in publicity that resulted in a number of submitted papers that exceeded expectations. Gopal Nair from SMU wrote the online registration software. To all these people I am indebted.

I recognize the American University in Cairo for hosting our conference. Amir Zeid, the local arrangement chair, has worked relentlessly to make this meeting in Cairo a reality. I am grateful for the effort and time he spent processing hundreds of my e-mail messages, answering my phone calls even late at night, and hosting me during my site visit to AUC. I would also like to extend my special thanks to Salim Hariri, the chair of the steering committee, for his friendship and continuous support. Salim graciously shared with me his experience from previous AICCSA meetings. Credit is in order to the steering committee members for their input and support, and to the program committee members and referees who provided valuable insight and comments. Finally, I would like to gratefully acknowledge the sponsorship of the Arab Computer Society and the IEEE Computer Society. I am also obliged to SMU for providing the conference with the needed infrastructure and logistical support.

Hesham El-Rewini, Ph.D., P.E.

AICCSA-05 General Chair

SMU, USA

January 2005