Dr. Imane Benkhelifa is the Chair of the Digital Innovation Hub (DIH) and Director of CERIST Startup Incubator. She is also the co-founder and ex-CEO of Proxylan, an Algerian public economic company specializing in cybersecurity services since 2018. Previously, she served as a permanent researcher at the CERIST Research Center, where she worked on transforming research ideas and results into commercially viable products and business ventures.
Her research and professional work have focused on smart cities, IoT, AI, and sensor networks, contributing to projects such as smart parking, smart buildings, Crisis management systems, and vehicular sensor networks. Dr. Benkhelifa holds a PhD and a Master’s degree in Mobile Computing from USTHB University and a State Engineer diploma in Computer Systems from the Higher School of Computer Science (ESI), Algeria. She undertook research visits to multiple European research laboratories including Politecnico di Torino and Politècnica de Catalunya.
She has extensive international experience, including participation in the TechWomen program in Silicon Valley in 2015, where she interned at Cisco Systems’ IoT Lab and visited leading technology companies. She is also an alumna of the She Entrepreneurs program organized by the Swedish Institute in 2018 and a participant in the JAMII Women 2023 entrepreneurship program for African female entrepreneurs and 2024 Next-Gen TechCamp Jordan for women driving digital transformation in the middle east.
A strong advocate for women in STEM, entrepreneurship, and leadership, Dr. Benkhelifa is committed to empowering women and fostering innovation and technology-driven entrepreneurship.