Hassan joined UEL in October 2011 as the Dean of the School of Architecture, Computing, and Engineering (ACE) and since then he has been successful in leading over £1.9 million multinational research and knowledge-transfer projects. He is currently the lead investigator of a European FP7 project entitled “Pan-European Data Centre Academy” jointly with twelve companies and universities from across Europe.
A fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) and Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, he is the author and co-author of over 100 papers published in international journals and conferences worldwide. He has served on the TSB/DTI Advisory Board, is a member of the EPSRC peer review college/assessment panel and also sits on many research boards and committees overseas.
Hassan was appointed the head of Product and Spatial Design incorporating the Leicester School of Architecture at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) from 2003 to 2009, where he transformed the School, led the team to regain ARB prescriptions and RIBA accreditations, boosted its profile and turned it into one of the best schools in the UK. He was the principal investigator of several national and international projects and from 2009 to 2011 was a college Dean at the University of Sharjah (UoS), the most prestigious University in the Gulf. Hassan established the College as the design hub of the region and led the curriculum design and development and successful accreditation for all its programmes. He made a substantial contribution to stimulating research culture across the Institution.
Whilst head of Design Management and Communication and a multinational research group at DMU, Hassan was sponsored by the British Council to travel internationally and establish research collaborations with some of the most research-intensive institutions from Japan, Europe, and USA. He was awarded a Medal of Appreciation by the IMS Center in Tokyo, which is run under the auspices of the Japanese Government, in recognition of his innovation and substantial contribution to the international collaboration with Kajima Corporation, Hazama Corporation, University of Tokyo, and Waseda University.
He has been leading major research projects nationally and internationally in partnership with world class universities and organizations and has a track record of securing funds from EPSRC, DTI, industry and the Commission of the European Union. He led several technology transfer projects in the East Midlands in collaboration with the regional development agency and SMEs.