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Samar WebPage

Samar is a PhD student at SFU School of Interactive Arts+Technology and a research assistant at the SCIENCE Lab. She joined the lab group in 2010. Her principal research interests are: Visual Analytics, Flow Cytometry Data Analysis, Biomedical/Health Informatics.

Samar received her A.A in Information Technology Management from Saint Joseph University, Beirut, Lebanon, and her B. Sc in Computer Information Systems and M. Sc summa cum laude in Telecommunications Management from Golden Gate University, San Francisco, CA, USA. Samar worked in the computer industry at Radiance (Silicon Valley, CA) and First Page Marketing (Vancouver, BC). She established positions in the health sector working in Health Information Systems at various local and abroad hospitals and research centers including King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (Saudi Arabia), Hamad Medical Corporation (Qatar), the BC Cancer Agency (BCCA), the Child and Family Research Institute (CFRI) and the Developmental Neurosciences & Child Health, BC Children's Hospital, Vancouver. 

Email: samar_al-hajj@sfu.ca


Projects:

1. Interactive Visual Analytic Dashboard System to Facilitate Problem Solving and Support Decision-Making for Child and Youth Injury Prevention Program. 
The main objective of this research study focuses on the design and evaluation of an interactive Visual Analytics system to support decision-making for Child and Youth Injury Prevention program. The deliverables of this project will be to replace the existing injury prevention dashboard with an interactive Visual Analytics System Dashboard, which incorporates advanced visualization techniques to support and optimize decision-making by various injury prevention stakeholders. This project is conducted by the British Columbia Injury Research and Prevention Unit/ BC Children’s Hospita, Vancouver.

2. HIV-Exposed but Uninfected (HEU) Infants: Exploration of the Causes of Enhanced Morbidity and Mortality.
This research study focuses on better understanding the effects of potential underlying causes of mortality and morbidity in South African HEU exposed but uninfected infants. My main responsibility is to conduct exploratory analysis of Flow Cytometry data using visual analytic tools and techniques to assist health professionals with smart data analysis and knowledge discovery. This research project is conducted by the Child and Family Research Institute CFRI/ BC Children’s Hospital and collaboratively sponsored by the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies/ UBC and the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study/ South Africa.
 

 

PUBLICATIONS:
 

  1. Al-Hajj, S., Pike, I. & Fisher, B. (2013) " Interactive Dashboards: Using Visual Analytics for Knowledge Discovery and Transfer". Proceedings of the 2013 Visual Analytics in HealthCare (VAHC 2013). In Conjunction with AMIA 2013. Washington, DC, USA (November 2013)

  2. Al-Hajj, S., Pike, I., & Fisher, B. (2013) "Visual Analytics dashboard: Decision-Making Support for Health Informatics". Proceedings of IEEE Visual Analytics in HealthCare Workshop 2013: Public Health's Wicked Problems: Can InfoVis Save Lives?.  In Conjunction with IEEE VisWeek 2013. Atlanta, GA, USA (October 2013).

  3. Al-Hajj, S., Pike, I., Riecke, B. E., & Fisher, B. (2013). “Visual Analytics in Public Health: Supporting Knowledge Construction and Decision-Making”. 2013 46th Hawaii International Conference in System Sciences (HICSS). Maui, Hawaii, USA. IEEE Computer Society Press, Jan 2013, pp. 2416-2423.


  4. Al-Hajj, S., Pike, I., & Fisher, B. “Visual Analytics to Support Medical Decision Making Process”.  Short Communication, XXIV Conference of the European Federation for Medical Information: Quality of life through Quality of Information. Pisa, Italy ( August 2012).

  5. Al-Hajj, S., Fortuno II, E.S., & Fisher, B. (2011). “Data Visualization of Immunological Competence of HIV Exposed but Uninfected Infants”. IEEE Visual Analytics Science and Tecnology (VAST) 2011 Providence, RI, USA. Best Student Discovery Exhibition Award (IEEE VAST 2011).

  6. Al-Hajj, S., Arias-Hernandez, R., & Fisher, B. (2011) “Interactive Visualization for Analyzing and Understanding Medical data”. Proceedings of IEEE Visual Analytics in Health Care Workshop 2011: Understanding the Physician Perspective, 45-48 (October 2011).

 

POSTERS:

 

 

Al-Hajj, S., Pike, I. (2013). "Child and Youth Injury Dashboard: Design and Evaluation". The Canadian Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Conference. Evidence to Action: Prevent Injury and Violence Now!. Montreal, Quebec (2013).
Al-Hajj, S., Pike, I., & Fisher, B. (2012). “Visual Analytics for Medical Decision Making”. Displayed October 2012 at Fraser Health - Simon Fraser University Joint Research Day. Simon Fraser University, Surrey, BC, CANADA.
Al-Hajj, S., Pike, I., & Fisher, B. (2012). “Visual Analytics to Support Medical Decision Making Process”. XXIV Conference of the European Federation for Medical Information: Quality of life through Quality of Information. Pisa, ITALY (2012).
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Al-Hajj,S., Fortuno II, E.S., & Fisher, B. (2011). “Data Visualization of immunological competence of HIV Exposed but Uninfected infants”. IEEE Visual Analytics Science and Technology (VAST) 2011 Providence, RI, USA.
Al-Hajj, S., Arias-Hernandez, R., & Fisher, B. (2012). “Paired Analysis using Interactive Visualization to Facilitate Exploratory Analysis of HEU data”. SFU Health Research Day at the Interdisciplinary Research in the Mathematical and Computational Sciences (IRMACS) Centre. Simon Fraser University, BC, Canada (2012)
Al-Hajj, S., Arias-Hernandez,R., & B. Fisher (2011). “Interactive Exploratory Analysis of Immunological data using PCA-based Visualization”  “IRMACS 2011 Thematic Year: Scientific Modeling at SFU”. The Interdisciplinary Research in the Mathematical and Computational Sciences (IRMACS) Centre. Simon Fraser University, BC, Canada (2011).
Al-Hajj,S., & Wakkary, R. (2011) “Attitudinal Acceptance of Environmentally Sustainable Practices in the Healthcare Sector”. Proceedings of Public Health International Conference 2011. Sept. 8-9, 2011, London, UK.

 

 

OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS:

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    Fisher, B.,  Kastraa, L., Calderon, N., Al-Hajj S and Ethan Soutar-Rau. “Pair Analytics: Research Manual”. In Progress. SCIENCE Lab. Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada; 2013.

  2. Piedt, S., Rajabali, F., Zargaran, A., Al-Hajj, S., and Pike, I. (2013). “Pilot testing BCCH CHIRPP data using BC Injury Indicators Dashboard and iDOT”. Prepared by BC Injury Research & Prevention Unit and CIHR Team in Child and Youth Injury Prevention for Public Health Agency of Canada. Vancouver; 2013.

  3. Al-Hajj, S., and Pike, I. (2012). “Visual Analytics System Pilot Dashboard Report”. Prepared by BC Injury Research & Prevention Unit and CIHR Team in Child and Youth Injury Prevention for Public Health Agency of Canada. Vancouver; 2012.

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