Someone did it. So can you.
Some years ago, I was in the middle of changing my entire career trajectory, from engineering to computer science, with a focus on cybersecurity.
I was obsessed with security and privacy, but I had no roadmap.
Around me were people far smarter and more hardworking than me. Most of them were excelling at competitive programming or diving deep into pentesting and bug hunting. These were legitimate, respected paths, followed by some of the brightest people I knew.
I just didn't find them interesting enough. They were valuable, but they didn't ignite something in me.
Then I heard about something called academic research.
I had no idea what that meant.
The first rejection
One day, I stumbled upon a post about EPFL's summer research internship.
I didn't understand what a research internship was, and I couldn't even properly explain myself in English. I applied anyway and got rejected, which was not surprising.
Looking back, I'm grateful for that rejection. It forced me to ask a question I had never seriously asked before:
What is this thing called research, and why does it feel so out of reach?
Reading my first paper
The real turning point came when a kind, supportive professor at my undergraduate institution agreed to meet with me.
He told me about a conference called USENIX Security.
"If you want to do research in cybersecurity and become a great researcher," he said, "start by reading papers from there."
I went home, opened the conference proceedings, picked a paper, and understood absolutely nothing.
Not the abstract, not the introduction, and certainly not the methodology. It felt like reading a foreign language about a foreign planet.
But I didn't stop. I took it one paper and one concept at a time, and somehow, without really knowing why, I kept going.
It's a long journey. I could write an entire book about it. Maybe someday.
Standing on the shoulders of others
I'm only here today because I stood on the shoulders of great, inspiring people.
That professor who told me about USENIX Security? Today, he's listed on a website I help maintain: Egyptians in CS Research.
This project was originally created by Badr AlKhamissi, focused on Egyptians doing AI research. I want to thank him for that. At a time when the path felt impossible, his work gave me something real to hold onto. Seeing names of Egyptians doing world-class research made me think:
If they did it, maybe I can too.
I later reached out to Badr, and we started collaborating. What began as his idea has grown into something we now build together, expanding it beyond AI to include all of computer science: security, systems, theory, HCI, and more. I'm grateful for that collaboration.
The gap we're trying to fill
What if you're an Egyptian student right now, sitting where I sat some years ago?
What if you're not interested in the established paths? Not drawn to becoming a software engineer immediately after graduation? Not excited about bug hunting? Not passionate about the roles everyone around you seems to be pursuing?
What if your curiosity pulls you somewhere less traditional, toward something like frontier research? How would you even know that path exists?
That's the gap we're trying to fill. By gathering Egyptian CS researchers in one place, we're showing that it does exist: 262 researchers across 16 research tracks, with papers at top venues.
The message is this is real, and someone did it.
Why I help maintain this
I took a lead role in maintaining this website because I remember what it felt like to need just one example. I needed to see one person doing security research at a top venue, just to believe it was real, and to fall asleep knowing that someone from my background had done it.
If they could do it their way, why couldn't I do it mine?
To anyone taking a non-traditional path
If you're not sure where you fit, if the traditional paths don't excite you, or if you're curious about research but don't know where to start, I hope this helps. You don't need permission to dream big or to follow the crowd. You just need to know the path exists.
Someone did it. So can you.
Explore the website: egyptians-in-cs.github.io
Originally published on Medium.