ISyE associate professor Faiz Al-Khayyal was placed on indefinite suspension without pay last Friday by the Institute for what was described as “alleged violation of the university’s computer usage policy.” He was arrested Tuesday night on charges of child pornography.
Al-Khayyal was charged with 15 counts of sexual exploitation of a child, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI). He is currently being held without bond at the Fulton County jail.
According to Institute spokesman Matt Nagel, Tech’s Department of Audits detected a virus on Al-Khayyal’s computer that was commonly associated with illicit activities, and a follow-up to the virus report determined that the matter should be reported to the GBI. The GBI then raided Al-Khayyal’s house and seized his computer in order to search for evidence of child pornography.
GBI representatives refused to comment on the ongoing situation.
“Georgia Tech expects its employees to maintain the highest standards in all aspects of their conduct including adherence to Institute policies,” Nagel said in an online statement released by the institute. “In cases where we have reason to believe that policies and procedures have been violated, incidents are aggressively reviewed and appropriate action is taken.”
OSCAR lists Al-Khayyal’s only instructional commitment this semester as teaching a graduate course called Deterministic Optimization, with 85 students distributed among three sections.