US-Egypt Cooperative Research: Grid Computing for Authentication of Arabic Text

George Washington University, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

0109038 Elghazawi Description: This award is to support a collaborative project between Dr. Tarek El-Ghazawi, Department of Computer Science, George Washington University, Washington, DC and Dr. Mohamed F. Tolba, Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. Dr. Nadia Hegazi of the Electronics Research Institute (ERI) in Cairo, Egypt will also be involved in the project. The project deals with two problems simultaneously. One is machine recognition of Arabic handwritten text, and the other is utilizing distributed systems to solve problems that normally require massive supercomputing facilities. The goal of the research is to develop a grid computing methodology to recognize Arabic handwritten text, using advanced techniques based on neural nets and wavelets. The project will produce results in Arabic text recognition, and in grid computing, and will provide the necessary computational resources to solve a complex problem. Scope: The project supports collaboration between two experienced investigators. El-Ghazawi has extensive experience with high performance computing which would cover the grid computing aspects of the work. The Egyptian scientists have experience in various areas, including Arabic text recognition. The involvement of the ERI is important because of the technical rescues available at that institute. The success of research will benefit research on other problems that are computationally intensive. It also will provide the foundation for practical prototypes for Arabic character recognition applications, which is a unique problem due to the complexities of the written Arabic language. The project will include exchange of students between the two countries. The proposal meets the INT objective of supporting collaborative research in areas of mutual interest. This project is being supported under the US-Egypt Joint Fund Program, which provides grants to scientists and engineers in both countries to carry out these cooperative activities.