Hyacinth Ali
Personal Website: https://hyacinth-ali.github.io/web/
Contact
Teaching Professor, Faculty of Engineering - Electrical & Computer Engineering Dept
- hcali@ualberta.ca
- Address
-
11-292 Donadeo Innovation Centre For Engineering
9211 116 StEdmonton ABT6G 2H5
Overview
Area of Study / Keywords
Model-Driven Engineering Software System Design AI-Led Automation Software Requirement Engineering Agentic-AI
About
Dr. Hyacinth Chijioke Ali is a Teaching Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Alberta. He earned his B.Eng. in Electronic Engineering from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 2012, graduating with First Class Honors as the second-best graduating student. He completed his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at McGill University in 2023.
Prior to joining the University of Alberta in August 2026, Dr. Ali conducted postdoctoral research across several leading institutions, including Polytechnique Montréal, McGill University, and the Université de Montréal.
Research
Software Engineering plays a pivotal role in the design and evolution of modern intelligent systems. My research explores the intersection of software engineering and artificial intelligence, specifically applying Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) principles to build more reliable AI systems, while leveraging generative AI to advance MDE practices and Software Engineering.
Core Research Focus:
- Human-Controlled Agentic-AI Systems
- Model-Driven Engineering
- Software Language Engineering
- Intelligent Enterprise Applications
Courses
ECE 321 - Software Requirements Engineering
Software quality attributes. Software requirements. Requirements elicitation via interviewing, workshops, prototyping, and use case analysis. Vision document and Software Requirement Specification document standards. Formal software specification methods including operational and descriptive models. Design by contract. Verification and validation of requirements. Prerequisite: CMPUT 275. Credit may be obtained in only one of CMPE 310 or ECE 321.
ECE 325 - Object-Oriented Software Design
Software engineering principles of object-oriented design: basic data structures, classes and objects, creation tactics, inheritance, composition, polymorphism, interfaces, compilation and execution. Programming Objectives: introduction to advanced data structures, inner classes, and reflection. Exception handling and unit testing. Prerequisite: CMPUT 275.