Watch: UAE's Dr Bushra AlBlooshi, a hidden gem of innovation to her beloved Emiratis

In June 2021, His Highness Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, issued a decree that established Dubai Digital Authority (DDA) and appointed Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori as its Director-General in a bid to further enhance the emirate’s digital transformation.

The decree empowered all the separate entities of the Dubai government such as the Smart Dubai Government (SDG), the Dubai Data Establishment (DDE), the Dubai Electronic Security Center (DESC) and the Dubai Statistics Center (DSC), to operate under the jurisdiction of the DDA.

The consolidation bid by Dubai’s visionary ruler led to the flowering of several Emirati talents, whose potential are coming to fruition amid the emirate’s aim to emerge as the Silicon Valley in the Arab world that are being powered by Emiratis.

Dr Bushra AlBlooshi, the Head of Research and Innovation, DESC, is one such precocious talent whose achievements belie her unassuming deportment.

She is the only Arab member in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Future Council on cybersecurity in Davos, Switzerland, since 2020 and the chairwoman of the digital skills committee in the DDA.

Dr AlBlooshi epitomises an Arab lady who can strike a happy balance between her home, health and workplace with confidence.

Born in Ras Al Khaimah, she completed her undergraduate studies at UAE University in Al Ain, which was “the first university to offer a degree in information technology and software engineering”. She was the first batch to enrol for the programme.

However, initially, she wanted to pursue a career in medicine and later changed her mind to immerse herself in coding.

Dr AlBlooshi reflected on the beginning of her incredible career path. “I graduated in 2005 with a grade point average (GPA) of 3.76,” she said.

The demure young lady developed her skills in coding and cybersecurity at home and “never felt the need to study abroad”.

She joined the state-run oil and gas major, ADNOC in Abu Dhabi after her graduation as a software developer.

“Though the coding language at ADNOC was at odds with what I had learnt in the university, at one point, I acquired the skills on my own to overcome the challenges by dint of sheer grit, determination and perseverance,” she said.

She worked with ADNOC for two years, and her talent was appreciated by the leadership team. She upskilled herself in no time, such as accomplishing the development plan in a year which usually takes at least a couple or more.

In 2007, she joined Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority (RTA) and worked there for the next three and half years. In 2010, she joined Khalifa University to pursue her postgraduate degree and completed her PhD in cloud cybersecurity in 2015 amid motherhood and other domestic responsibilities. She had joined DESC in 2016, which was subsequently subsumed in DDA last year.

Dr AlBlooshi, who is modest to a fault and refuses to speak about her stellar achievements, has got a patent on cloud cybersecurity that is registered and approved by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

- joydeep@khaleejtimes.com