{"224221":{"#nid":"224221","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Teaching Wasn\u2019t Always in Cards for Beyah","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAs a 6-year-old boy, Raheem Beyah dreamt of soaring to space and visiting far off planets. He even had the \u201cuniform\u201d \u2014 a store-bought costume \u2014 ready to go. But something happened on his way to the moon.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI\u2019m not really sure what changed my mind, but it probably had something to do with a love for video games,\u201d said Beyah, an associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. \u201cIn high school, I didn\u2019t have a clue as to what an engineer did. But a counselor saw that my strengths were math and science, and explained that engineering would be a good path for me.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile working on his bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees, Beyah gravitated more and more toward the world of computer engineering and became fascinated with networking and virtual reality.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWorking at a consulting firm seemed like the right place for me once I graduated,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, I quickly realized that I didn\u2019t like the lack of flexibility when it came to the projects on which I worked \u2014 many were not challenging \u2014 so I headed back to get a Ph.D.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut it wasn\u2019t until Beyah had an opportunity to teach a class at Georgia State University (GSU) that he had his aha moment.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI was teaching and helping Gary May coordinate the Facilitating Academic Careers in Engineering and Science (FACES) initiative at Tech when I realized that teaching and education might be a good fit for me,\u201d he said. \u201cSeeing students that I work with succeed gives me a satisfaction that I can\u2019t get from anything else.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERecently, we had a chance to learn more about Beyah and his time at Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESo how did you arrive at Tech?\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; \u003Cbr \/\u003EI earned my master\u2019s and Ph.D. here in the late 1990s\/2000s and worked as a research faculty member for a few years. I spent six years on the computer science faculty at GSU and happily returned to Tech in 2011.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETell us about your area of expertise.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003EI develop algorithms to improve the performance and security of computer networks and computing devices connected to networks. For example, one project I\u2019ve worked on created a method for identifying electronic devices based on their digital footprints \u2014 meaning the way the devices interact with various websites, networks, and each other.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat is a typical day like for you?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI\u2019m usually teaching a class and meeting with my graduate students. I do a lot of reporting to the agencies that fund my research projects. I\u2019m also director of the Summer Undergraduate Research in Engineering\/Science (SURE) Program, faculty advisor for the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Program, and coordinator of a postdoctoral fellowship program for the FACES initiative. So my responsibilities to these groups keep me pretty busy.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat do you do to keep students engaged in your class? \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECybersecurity is a topic that is always in the news, so it\u2019s easy to make the subject relevant to students\u2019 lives. Also, I really enjoy what I do, so I think I come across as being excited about what I\u2019m talking about, which gets my students excited, too.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhere is your favorite spot on campus?\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Starbucks in Clough Commons. It\u2019s convenient and comfortable, so I usually have a lot of my meetings there. \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhere is your favorite place to eat lunch?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003EMarlow\u2019s Tavern. The trout is delicious.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETell us the biggest risk you ever took.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E \u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003EAsking my wife to marry me 11 years ago.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat do you do in your free time?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003EI have a 6-year-old daughter and 5-month-old son, so a lot of my free time is spent with my wife and children. I also enjoy being engaged in the community beyond Tech. As a faculty member, it\u2019s easy to just focus in on your area of research. But I\u2019ve realized that knowing what\u2019s going on in Atlanta and being a part of that community is key to my happiness. I\u2019ve served on the board of directors for the KIPP WAYS Academy, which is a charter school in Atlanta. Recently, I was accepted into the Leadership Atlanta program, so that will keep me pretty busy in the year to come.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAs a 6-year-old boy, Raheem Beyah dreamt of soaring to space and visiting far off planets. He even had the \u201cuniform\u201d \u2014 a store-bought costume \u2014 ready to go. But something happened on his way to the moon.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"As a 6-year-old boy, Raheem Beyah dreamt of soaring to space and visiting far off planets. He even had the \u201cuniform\u201d \u2014 a store-bought costume \u2014 ready to go. But something happened on his way to the moon."}],"uid":"27445","created_gmt":"2013-07-22 17:12:46","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:14:34","author":"Amelia Pavlik","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2013-07-22T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2013-07-22T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"224141":{"id":"224141","type":"image","title":"Raheem Beyah","body":null,"created":"1449243551","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:39:11","changed":"1475894896","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:48:16","alt":"Raheem Beyah","file":{"fid":"197379","name":"raheem.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/raheem_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/raheem_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2283210,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/raheem_0.jpg?itok=h8IviX_L"}}},"media_ids":["224141"],"groups":[{"id":"1259","name":"Whistle"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[{"id":"594","name":"college of engineering"},{"id":"67741","name":"Raheem Beyah"},{"id":"166855","name":"School of Electrical and Computer Engineering"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:amelia.pavlik@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EAmelia Pavlik\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EInstitute Communications\u003Cbr \/\u003E404.385.4142\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}