Rafik Goubran was born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1955. He received the B.Sc. degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering and the M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Cairo University, Egypt, in 1978 and 1981 respectively. He received the Ph.D degree in Electrical Engineering from the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, in 1987.
In January 1987, he joined the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, as Assistant Professor, then Associate Professor and then Professor. He was appointed as Chair of the Department for three terms: 1997-2000 and 2001-2006. In July 2006 he was appointed as Acting Dean and in July 2007 as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Design.
He has participated in many research projects with industry and government organizations including Nortel, Mitel Networks, Bell Canada, Vienna Systems (Nokia), NSERC, CITO, Revenue Canada, the Department of National Defense (DND), Smiths Detection, Bota Teleconferencing, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC).
Dr. Goubran's research interests include: Digital
Signal Processing and its applications in audio processing and biomedical
engineering. He has led many research projects in the areas of VoIP, sensors,
noise and echo cancellation, microphone arrays, and the design of smart
independent living environments for seniors. Dr. Goubran has completed the
supervision of 12 Ph.D. and 51 Master's students. He has published over 170
journal and conference papers and 10 patents in these areas.
Dr. Goubran served in many administrative positions and committees such as
member of the OCE-CITO Board of Directors, IEEE guest co-editor and member of
several IEEE conference committees. He is a research scientist at the Elisabeth
Bruyère Research Institute
(EBRI),
the co-leader of the Technology Assisted Environment for the Third Age (TAFETA) project, and a member of the Research
Ethics Board of the Ottawa Heart Institute. Dr. Goubran was the founding
Director of the Ottawa-Carleton Institute for Biomedical Engineering (OCIBME).
He is a senior member of the IEEE and a member the association of
Professional Engineers of Ontario.