The University of Ottawa is investigating a high-profile professor in its Faculty of Engineering who is also working full time at New York University, Abu Dhabi, for a salary twice as high as he earns in Ottawa.
Abdulmotaleb El Saddik is University Research Chair in Ambient Interactive Media and Communications and a specialist in haptic technology, the use of touch and sensation feedback in computing. According to Ontario’s Sunshine report, he earned $157,000 at the University of Ottawa in 2014.
The NYU-AD website lists El Saddik as a visiting professor of electrical engineering and says he joined the faculty in 2010.
NYU-AD taxation documents filed in the United States list El Saddik among the school’s 16 highest earners — at US$312,000 in 2012 — and say he works there 60 hours a week, on average.
His profile on the NYU AD site says,”He continues to hold an appointment as Professor and University Research Chair in the School of Information Technology and Engineering at the University of Ottowa (sic).”
In a statement to the Citizen on Tuesday afternoon, the University of Ottawa acknowledged that it was investigating El Saddik.
“The University is aware of the allegations and is currently investigating the matter. However, privacy rules prevent the University from commenting any further on this issue,” the statement said.
According to the university, full time professors “can teach at other universities provided that such activity does not conflict or interfere with the fulfilment of their obligations to the University of Ottawa and that they obtain confirmation from their Dean.”
There is no restriction on part-time professors.
In an email to the Citizen from Quebec City, where he is attending a conference, El Saddik said that the professors’ collective agreement allows them to hold positions elsewhere.
“Professors are governed by the collective agreement,” he wrote. “According to the collective agreement ARTICLE 33, a member can pursue visits (national and international), consulting work, receive honorarium, research awards, travel compensation and even start up a company (which is a hot-topic by many universities nowadays), as long as these activities do not impact the member’s obligations, duties and responsibilities (i.e., teaching, research and administrative duties) at the University of Ottawa as stipulated in the collective agreement.”
He did not reply when asked if the University of Ottawa knew about his Abu Dhabi position.
The association representing faculty at the university said it was unaware of the investigation. Association president Jennifer Dekker said it’s common for faculty to hold positions elsewhere and the University of Ottawa itself hosts visiting professors.
“Our members are extremely skilled, talented and experienced. Therefore they are often in demand outside of the university. In many faculties, this is considered an advantage,” Dekker said in an email. “Students can certainly benefit from a professor who has outside professional activities, especially in the professional schools such as Education or Engineering, but also in more theoretical areas of study.
“Our contract is clear that members can have outside professional activities as long as they do not interfere with the performance of their duties at the University of Ottawa.”
El Saddik is a fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada and has published extensively in his field, including on the application of haptic technology. Such technology is used in everything from video games — to give gamers the physical feeling of firing a weapon, for example — to remote surgery applications where the doctors can “feel” the pressure on their scalpel even though they could be remotely operating on a patient who may be thousands of kilometres away.
In 2014, the University of Ottawa named El Saddik a “distinguished professor,” noting that he was “an internationally-recognized scholar who has made a major contribution to the knowledge and understanding of multimedia computing, communications and applications … ”
According to his online biography, El Saddik holds an master of science and a PhD from Darmstadt University of Technology, Darmstadt, Germany.
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