Nizar Ben Neji, Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program, University of Massachusetts – Amherst, 2015

Nizar Ben Neji,
Teaching Professor,
Faculty of Sciences of Bizerte
Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program,
University of Massachusetts – Amherst, 2015.

“I had a great opportunity to experience life in a typical American university town while attending the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (UMA). One of the finest tertiary institutions in America, UMA is now ranked among the Top 30 public universities in the United States.

During my stay, I had several opportunities to explore and travel within and around Massachusetts. On February 26, 2015, I went to the Institute of Politics of Harvard University in Boston to attend the public speech of Mehdi Jomaa our former Prime Minister. It was a great opportunity to meet him and ask questions after his excellent talk entitled “Tunisia: A Start-up Democracy.” My long trip from Amherst to New York City was a memorable souvenir too. It was a pleasant trip by bus with Wi-Fi and a power supply on board and with beautiful sightseeing along the way.

This experience helped me expand my knowledge, share my experience and push forward what I have already started. I made new friends and a lot of contacts with junior and senior researchers from the field. I can say that I have built a strong partnership with the Network Systems Laboratory represented by Professor Tilman Wolf and with the Center for Public Policy and Administration represented by Professor Jane Foutain.

I am currently leading a research project at the Innovation Center of El Ghazala Technopark in Tunis called COUPINT (Coupling Internet Connections). The main objective of the project is to design and implement an innovative solution, to be used by anyone wandering around, to combine multiple available Internet connections; a solution that can help Internet users, wherever they are, to enhance their connectivity. In the near future, It will be easy with COUPINT to combine or to aggregate 3G/4G and Wi-Fi.”