Abdelwahab Hamou-Lhadj, PhD, ing, SMIEEE Professor & Chair Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada
I am Professor and Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Concordia University. I previously served as an Affiliate Researcher with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California Institute of Technology from 2022 to 2025, and I continue to collaborate on advanced research initiatives with the laboratory.
I lead a research group specializing in software observability, AI for IT Operations (AIOps), software tracing and logging, and model-driven engineering. Our work focuses on developing advanced methods and tools to improve the resilience, robustness, and governance of large-scale software systems in the era of AI, cloud intelligence, and advanced distributed architectures.
My team employs various techniques including machine learning, LLMs, AIOps, software observability and monitoring, tracing and logging, model-driven engineering, and empirical studies. See publication list.
I have long-standing partnerships with various companies, most notably Ericsson Global AI Accelerator (GAIA), Ubisoft, and NASA Jet Propulsion Lab at Caltech.
I have taught and developed courses on machine learning, AIOps, model-driven engineering, software development, product design using Scrum, BPM, and TOGAF. I am also one of the content developers of OCUP2 (OMG Certified UML Professional) and OCEB2 (OMG-Certified Expert in BPM).
Web presence: Google Scholar, DBLP, ORCID, Linkedin
Recent Publications
- M. Panahandeh, N. E. Jivan, A. Hamou-Lhadj, J. Miller, "CARE: Context Aware Root Cause Identification Using Distributed Traces and Profiling Metrics," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 2025.
- M. Janecek, N. Ezzati-Jivan, A. Hamou-Lhadj, "Execution Trace Reconstruction Using Diffusion-Based Generative Models," in Proc. of the IEEE/ACM 47th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), 2025.
- I. Sedki, A. Hamou-Lhadj, O. Ait-Mohamed, N. Ezzati Jivan, "Developing a Taxonomy for Advanced Log Parsing Techniques," in Proc. of the 33rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC), 2025.
- M. Mehrabi, A. Hamou-Lhadj, H. Moosavi, "The Effectiveness of Compact Fine-Tuned LLMs for Log Parsing," in Proc. of the 40th IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME'24), 2024.
- Y. Liu, A. Hamou-Lhadj, J. Li, Q. Lu, "Observability and Explainability for Software Systems Decision Making," IEEE Software 41(1): 45-49, 2024.
- Y. Nong, R. Sharma, A. Hamou-Lhadj, X. Luo, and H. Cai, "Open Science in Software Engineering: A Study on Deep Learning-Based Vulnerability Detection," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 2023. See all publications
Executive and Governance Councils
- Member, The Concordia Applied AI Institute Advisory Committee
- Member, The Canadian Engineering Qualifications Board, Engineers Canada
- Member, Institut en génie de l’énergie électrique
- Member, Comité d'admission à l'exercice, Ordre des Ingenieurs du Quebec
- Member, Business Technology Management (BTM) Governance Council (2018-2023)
Recent Services
- Associate Editor, IEEE Software
- Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Reliability
- PC Member, The Microsoft 7th International Workshop on Cloud Intelligence and AIOps (AIOps'26) , co-located with ASPLOS'26.
- PC Member, The 33rd IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER'26)
- PC Member, The ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA'26)
- PC Member, The 48th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'26), Software Engineering in Society Track
- PC Member, The 48th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'26), Tool Demo Track
- PC Member, The 30th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE'26)
Projects:
- AIOps for Intelligent Maintenance and Operations at Ericsson, MITACS, Ericsson
- Context-aware and Robust Architectures for Defence and Security Operations, IDEAS, ETS
- Trust-SOS: Improving trustworthiness of intelligent systems, NASA JPL, GCS
- Improving the observability of large-scale software systems, NSERC
- D2K+: Deep Learning of System Crash and Failure Reports for DevOps, Ericsson Global AI Accelerator, MITACS
- Log Analytics for Operational Intelligence, Ubisoft, MITACS
- CLEVER Project: Mining Code Commits for Enhanced Software Quality, Ubisoft, NSERC
- D2K: From Data To Knowledge for Better System Maintenance, Ericsson, MITACS
- OpenSim: An Open Architecture for Aircraft Simulation Integration and Monitoring Methods Using the HLA Standard, Marinvent, NSERC
- Tools and Infrastructure for OpenSim, Marinvent, CRIAQ, Aero-Connect, NSERC
- Advanced Host-level Surveillance, DRDC, NSERC
- Integrated Anomaly Detection Models and Techniques, DRDC, NSERC
- Improving Software Maintenance through Advanced Trace Abstraction Techniques, NSERC
- Kernel Tracing Techniques for Anomaly Detection in the Context of Redundancy and Diversity, DRDC, NSERC
- Program Comprehension through Dynamic Analysis, NSERC
- The Analysis of Execution Traces for Program Comprehension, FQRNT
- Online Surveillance of Critical Computer Systems through Advanced Host-based Detection, Ericsson, DRDC, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, University of Toronto, ETS
- Cyber Surveillance of Information Systems, DRDC
- AVIO 508-Diagnostics for Real Time Distributed Multi-core Architecture in Avionics, CAE, OPAL-RT, NSERC, CRIAQ, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal
- Tracing and Monitoring Tools for Distributed Multi-Core Systems, Ericsson, DRDC, NSERC, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, University of Ottawa
- Building a Linux Kernel-Based Attack Taxonomy, DRDC
Media Coverage and Public Outreach
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Dr. Hamou-Lhadj was invited as a panelist at the AI Forum of the Conseil du patronat du Québec to speak about the adoption of responsible AI in Quebec SMEs.
- Concordia researchers working wih Ericsson’s Global Artificial Intelligence Accelerator
- The Globe and Mail
- The Financial Post
- Ottawa Citizen
- CTV News
- Penticton Herald
- Wired
- Bloomberg
- Futurism
- gamesindustry.biz
- Concordia University News
- L'Actualite
- Concordia professors bring their research to the 87th Congrès de l’Association francophone pour le savoir
- Award for Dr. Hamou-Lhadj and his group at IBM Center of Advanced Studies Conference
LATEST NEWS
December 2025. A new paper titled "CARE: Context Aware Root Cause Identification Using Distributed Traces and Profiling Metrics", IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.
December 2025. A new paper titled "TechnoHealth: A Modular Framework for Reproducible Research in Precision Healthcare with Heterogeneous Wearable Data", accepted at ICSE'26 Software Engineering in Society Track.
December 2025. A new paper titled "Redundancy as the Shadow of Explainability: A Trade-Off Principle for AI-Intensive Systems", accepted at ICSE'26 New and Emerging Research Track.
September 2025. A new paper titled "Model-Based Systems Engineering Perspectives: A Survey of Practitioner Experiences and Challenges," presented at the 17th System Analysis and Modeling Conference (SAM'25), co-located with MODELS'25
May 2025. I gave a keynote presentation at Onto:Nexus, a NASA JPL industrial workshop on the topic of "Model
Based Systems Engineering: A Survey of Practitioner Experiences and Challenges".
March 2025. A new paper in COMPSAC'25 titled "Mining Five Years of Actively Exploited Vulnerabilities".
February 2025. A new paper in ICSE'25: Execution Trace Reconstruction Using
Diffusion-Based Generative Models.
January 2025. I have started my position at the Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, where I lead the research and teaching directions of the department.
July 2024. A new paper in JSS: AML: An Accuracy Metric Model for Effective Evaluation of Log
Parsing Techniques,"
May 2024. I joined the program committee of the 13th International Conference on Model-Based Software and Systems Engineering (MODELSWARD'25).
May 2024. Our paper titled "The Effectiveness of Compact Fine-Tuned LLMs for Log Parsing," is accepted at ICSME'24. Congrats to the whole team!
March 2024. Congratulations to Mohammed Shehab for successfully defending his PhD thesis. The topic of the thesis is "Techniques to Enhance Just-In-Time Software Defect Prediction Models." Well done!
March 2024. Two new papers in ICPE'24: "Efficient Unsupervised Latency Culprit Ranking in Distributed Traces with GNN and Critical Path Analysis," and "Context-aware Root Cause Localization in Distributed Traces Using Social Network Analysis."
March 2024. I joined the program committee of the 35th IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE'24).
January 2024. I joined the program committee of the AIOps workshop, co-located with ASPLOS.
January 2024. A new ICSE'24 NIER Track paper titled "XAIport: A Service Framework for the Early Adoption of XAI in AI Model Development"
January 2024. A new ICSE'24 Poster paper titled "Decoding Log Parsing Challenges: A Comprehensive Taxonomy for Actionable Solutions"
January 2024. IEEE Software paper on "Observability and Explainability for Software Systems Decision Making."
October 2023. A new JSS paper: "ServiceAnomaly: An Anomaly Detection Approach in Microservices Using Distributed Traces and Profiling Metrics."
October 2023. A new paper in QRS'23 "JITBoost: Boosting Just-In-Time Defect Prediction Using Boolean Combination of Classifiers."
October 2023. A new paper in MODELS/SAM'23 "openCAESAR: Balancing Agility and Rigor in Model-Based Systems Engineering."
December 2023. Congratulations to PhD candidate Issam Sedki for winning the FSE'23 Student Research Competition Award.
November 2023. I gave an invited talk to UCLA software students on large language models in software engineering.
August 2023. Congratulations to MASc student Heba Aburish for successfully defending her thesis and for joining PwC as a data scientist and LLM developer.