Amman, Sept. 9 (Petra) -- Blocking harmful online content without breaking encryption and detecting speeding vehicles without cameras or GPS are among dozens of technologies developed by Jordanian engineer Suleiman Al-Shaqran, whose path from the schools of Ramtha has taken him to a senior role at Google Cloud and nearly 40 U.S.-registered patents.

Over almost two decades, Al-Shaqran has moved through telecommunications, 5G networks, cloud computing and artificial intelligence, building a career around a principle he says has remained constant: technology should solve human problems rather than become an end in itself.

Today a senior cloud and AI architect at Google Cloud, Al-Shaqran leads engineers working on generative AI and cloud technologies designed to turn technical concepts into solutions for real-world business challenges. In 2026, he received Google Cloud’s Elite Club award, which he said is given to the top one percent of the company’s engineers worldwide.

His route to the global technology industry began in Ramtha and continued at Jordan University of Science and Technology, where he earned his bachelor’s degree, before completing a master’s degree at Concordia University and a doctorate in computer engineering at the University of Quebec.

He then spent about a decade at Ericsson in research and development and network engineering before moving to T-Mobile, where he led engineering and design work on cloud-based 5G infrastructure. Al-Shaqran told the Jordan News Agency (Petra) that he led the design of the world’s first cloud-based 5G network for the company.

But some of his most distinctive work has focused on problems encountered far beyond telecommunications networks.

One of his patents tackles a challenge facing parental-control systems after the widespread adoption of HTTPS encryption made it harder for conventional tools to identify and filter content without intercepting encrypted communications.

Al-Shaqran developed a different approach: instead of breaking encryption, the system monitors internet directory queries, allowing restricted websites to be filtered at the source while preserving secure communications.

Another patent turns ordinary radio signals from telecommunications towers into a tool for road safety.

The technology can determine vehicle speed without cameras, GPS tracking, internet data or access to personal information. It uses the angle of arrival of a radio signal and mathematical calculations based on the Pythagorean theorem to determine distance, time and speed.

Al-Shaqran said telecommunications companies could use the technology to alert drivers when they are speeding, without cameras or automatic traffic tickets. The objective, he said, is prevention rather than enforcement.

Those inventions form part of a portfolio of around 40 patents registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, reflecting an approach that places privacy, safety and practical use at the center of technological design.

For Al-Shaqran, however, the next technological leap cannot be driven by infrastructure and algorithms alone.

He argues that the decisive factor in the AI era will be people: whether universities, companies and public institutions can equip their workforces with the skills needed to understand, use and develop emerging technologies.

"The qualified human element is the real foundation of any digital resilience," he told Petra, warning that one of the biggest barriers to AI adoption is not the sophistication of the models but the readiness of people and institutional cultures to work with them.

That conviction has also shaped his involvement with Jordan. Al-Shaqran said he played a key role in working with Google teams to provide Jordanian university students with free access to the advanced Gemini Pro platform beginning last December, giving students access to AI tools that can support research, learning and innovation.

He sees the initiative as part of a broader opportunity to move young Jordanians from being users of emerging technologies to participating in their development.

His emphasis on education has roots in his childhood in Ramtha. Both of his late parents were teachers in the public school system, and Al-Shaqran credits them with shaping his view that science and technology should ultimately contribute to human development.

That idea followed him from Ramtha through university laboratories and telecommunications networks to the development of cloud and AI systems at some of the world’s largest technology companies.

It also underpins what he wants to do next.

Al-Shaqran hopes to bring technologies developed through his international career closer to Jordan, particularly systems that could improve road safety and protect children online, while expanding educational initiatives and supporting regional innovation centers.

His ambition is for Jordan not simply to consume advanced technology, but to develop expertise capable of producing it and exporting technological solutions beyond the Kingdom.

For an engineer whose career has moved from the classrooms of Ramtha to the architecture of global cloud and AI systems, that remains the central measure of innovation: not how sophisticated a technology is, but what it can do for people.

//Petra// RZ

09/09/2026 10:58:28