A graduate of Al Akhawayn University, where she earned a master’s degree in computer networks in 2001, Kaoutar El Maghraoui also holds a PhD in computer science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York.

As a principal researcher at IBM Research AI, her work focuses on innovations at the intersection of systems and artificial intelligence. She also teaches computer science at Columbia University in New York City, continuing a long-standing passion—just over twenty years ago, after finishing her studies at Al Akhawayn, she had already been teaching courses there in computer networks, assembly language programming, C programming, and Pascal programming.

The fact that IBM entrusted her with the leadership of a strategic research center is, in itself, a mark of recognition and validation of her expertise. For IBM, this center is a key asset in the fierce competition among major tech companies in the AI race. It hosts research and development activities, prototyping, testing, and simulation for new applications of artificial intelligence.

Kaoutar El Maghraoui led a research project there that applied IBM Watson’s cognitive technology to diagnose and solve system issues on the Power platform. Her main areas of interest include cloud computing, operating systems, high-performance computing, distributed systems, and analytics.

A charged agenda

A sign of the growing influence she holds within her company, Kaoutar El Maghraoui contributed to shaping IBM’s vision for the future of computing in both research labs and enterprises, with a focus on strengthening IBM’s leadership in AI. Previously, she was part of the advanced systems groups, where she studied various aspects of the AIX operating system, including performance, multithread and multicore scheduling, Flash SSD storage, system diagnostics, and operating system failure recovery.

Kaoutar El Maghraoui has received multiple honors, including the prestigious Robert McNaughton Award for best computer science dissertation, the 2021 Best of IBM Award, the 2021 IEEE TCSVC Women in Service Computing Award, and the 2022 IBM Technical Corporate Award. She is a member of the Society of Women Engineers and a co-author of numerous conference papers and journal articles in systems research and high-performance computing. She has also served in various roles—co-chair, program committee member, and reviewer—at major technical conferences.

Despite a demanding schedule, Kaoutar El Maghraoui is deeply involved in community work. She is the global vice president of ArabWIC, the Arab Women in Computing community affiliated with the Anita Borg Institute. Her advocacy centers on promoting and increasing women’s participation in science and computing. She has also been an active member of the leadership team for the Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC), the world’s largest gathering of women in computing.

To learn more:

LinkedIn profile of Kaoutar El Maghraoui
Profiles of Who’s Who AUI
Project overview of Who’s Who AUI

Written in French by Jankari Consulting, edited in English by Nielson English