Biography

Dr. Youakim Badr is Professor of Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence at Penn State Great Valley, where he serves as professor-in-charge of the Master of Artificial Intelligence program. His research advances trustworthy, secure, and scalable AI service systems—including agentic and composable AI—supporting high-impact applications in areas such as cybersecurity and healthcare. 

A defining theme of Dr. Badr’s career is academic innovation through program leadership and curriculum design. At Penn State, he has led the development of the Master of Artificial Intelligence (including the 2020 program prospectus), the creation of stackable graduate certificates (Foundations of AI, NLP, and Computer Vision), and the design of the AI for Entrepreneurship graduate certificate, emphasizing no-code/low-code pathways. He also contributed to the development of new graduate offerings in 2025, including an MBA in AI (MBAi) and a Master of Science in AI (MS.AI).  At INSA de Lyon (France), he co-founded and co-chaired an international master’s program in information systems and later founded and chaired Innov@INSA, a summer innovation program that expanded global and experiential learning opportunities. 

Dr. Badr is the author or co-author of more than 152 peer-reviewed papers in top-tier journals and conferences and a recent Springer book on Smart Digital Service Ecosystems. He is the recipient of multiple Penn State Great Valley awards for research, teaching, innovation, service, and student engagement, alongside national research awards from the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research. 

Dr. Badr is also a regular expert evaluator for AI and data-intensive systems on national and international funding panels, including the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the French National Research Agency (ANR), and other governmental funding agencies and foundations. He also contributes to graduate program consultation and review, with a focus on curricular rigor and effective hybrid pedagogy.