Alif M Khawand

Benjamin Banneker Tech B, Rm 202

Monday            11:15 am – 03:15 pm

Wednesday      11:15 am – 03:15 pm

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Mr. Alif Khawand joined Florida A & M University in 2017. He is currently a member of the Electronic Engineering Technology faculty, at the School of Architecture and Engineering Technology.

Alif graduated from Collège du Sacré Coeur, a French high school in Beirut Lebanon, with a Baccalaureate degree in Mathematics. He completed his higher education at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. After his first semester, Alif was admitted in the Honors program and was granted two scholarships and a teaching assistantship. Alif earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics, and a Master of Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Upon graduation, Mr. Khawand founded Digital Lighting Systems, an electronic design and manufacturing company. Alif designed and developed a lighting control and animation product line geared towards the entertainment industry. Once the products were successfully launched, Alif looked for another related industry segment to cater to. He became one of the first pioneers of Home Automation systems. Short of having Siri and Alexa, the system he developed allowed home owners to conveniently control their lighting and appliances from within the home and remotely via data modems and telephone keypads. Other notable achievements include the design of a custom computer system, used to program and automate the renowned City of Miami Orange Bowl halftime lighting show. For fifteen consecutive years, Digital Lighting Systems produced and controlled the Half-Time lighting shows, which became an Orange Bowl brand.

In 2000, Alif was recruited by Motorola’s advanced technology division in Ft. Lauderdale. In little over a year, he was promoted to “Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff”. Alif managed the “Local Connectivity and Biometrics” engineering group. Under his leadership, Bluetooth, WiFi, fingerprint sensors, and other new technologies were modified and validated for integration into Motorola cell phones. Shortly after, Alif was given the additional role of director of the NFC center of excellence. NFC is an enhanced RFID technology. Alif led a team that developed “PayPass”, a mobile phone payment and entry access technology. The end-to-end system allowed a credit card to be downloaded and securely stored in the cell phone. At the point of purchase, the user would simply wave the phone over an RFID equipped credit card terminal to make a secure payment. Many of the innovations introduced by Alif and his teams were intellectual property, which earned them several patents from the United States Patents and Trade office.

In 2010, after the closure of the Motorola Ft. Lauderdale plant, Alif Joined ITT Technical Institute with over 140 campuses around the country. He was hired as the chair of the school of electronics technology at the Tallahassee campus. At the time the school ranked in the bottom 130 of all campuses nationwide and last out of 14 Florida campuses. Two years later, under Alif’s leadership the school ranked first in Florida and in the top 20, nationwide. That year, Alif was given the ITT employee of the year award.

In late 2016 ITT closed its doors. Alif was referred by one of his instructors at ITT, a FAMU Electronic Engineering Technology graduate, to Dr. Li., area coordinator of the Electronic Engineering Technology program. Dr. Li hired him as an adjunct in 2017. In 2018 he was promoted to a visiting faculty position, which was made full-time in 2020. Alif is very passionate about educating his students and bringing over 35 years of field experience into his classroom.

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• Electronic Product Design
• Embedded Systems
• Microprocessors
• Programmable Logic Controllers

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• Instructor, FT • 2020 - present
  Florida A&M University
• Instructor, visiting • 2017 - 2019
  Florida A&M University
• Chair, School of Electronics • 2010 - 2016
  ITT Technical Institute
• Engineering Advisor, PT • 2009 – 2010
  Digital Lighting Systems, Inc. 
• Founder and CTO • 1978 – 2000
  Digital Lighting Systems, Inc.
• Adjunct Faculty • 1978 – 2000
  University of Miami

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• Created permanent exhibits of various student projects to showcase the work of our students to prospective students and visitors.
• Hosts the STEM Day department activities which include a tour of the showcase exhibits, where several hundred high school students have an opportunity to observe and interact with some of the displayed demonstrations.
• Designed, developed, and produced a microprocessor trainer circuit board. The trainer was customized for use in CET2123 Microprocessor Fundamentals Lecture and It was also made available to use as a hardware platform for senior projects.
• Designed, developed, and produced a Programmable Logic Controller trainer circuit board. The trainer was customized for use in ETS3543 Introduction to Programmable Logic Controllers Lecture and It was also made available to use as a hardware platform for senior projects.

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• US Patent #7240832: Payment Brand Announcement at a Wireless Payment Point of Sale Terminal.
• US Publication #2006/0089163: Method and system for delivering messages.
• Patent disclosure ID 54417: A predictive method to facilitate RF coexistence of other technologies on a WiMAX device.

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• ITT Technical Institute 2012 Employee of the Year Award for Excellence in Quality, Compliance and Customer Satisfaction
• MOTOROLA Engineering Excellence and Outstanding Performance Bravo monetary awards. Over twelve awards.
• Illuminating Engineering Society Award for designing the first computerized control system used to program and automate the renowned City of Miami Orange Bowl halftime Lighting Show (1980 – 1995).

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• EET4165 Electronic Circuit Design I
• EET4165L Electronic Circuit Design I LAB
• EET4166 Electronic Circuit Design II
• EET4166L Electronic Circuit Design II LAB
• CET2123 Microprocessors Fundamentals
• CET2123L Microprocessors Fundamentals LAB
• ETS3543 Intro to Programmable Logic Controllers
• ETS3543L Intro to Programmable Logic Controllers LAB
• EET4950 Senior Project Proposal
• EET4914 Senior Project