Events

Nov 7 - Nov 13, 2021

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  Deep-Ultraviolet Optoelectronics Based on GaN Quantum Disks and Bio-Inspired Nanostructures

  Ram Chandra Subedi, Ph.D. Student, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Nov 10, 18:00 - 19:00

  B3 L5 R5209

  Optoelectronics in the deep-ultraviolet (DUV) regime is still a growing research field that requires significant effort to understand the material properties and optimize the device structures to realize highly efficient DUV devices. Of all the wide bandgap materials, AlGaN is perhaps the most studied semiconductor to replace the environmentally hazardous mercury lamps; however, the external quantum efficiency (EQE) of AlGaN based DUV devices is insufficient to replace the existing old-fashioned mercury UV lamps.
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  On the Downlink Operation and Architecture Optimization of Multi-User VLC Systems

  Amr M. Abdelhady, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Communication and Computing Systems Lab

  Nov 9, 16:00 - 18:00

  KAUST

  The limited overcrowded radio frequency spectrum compelled researchers to explore higher frequency ranges for wireless transmission such as optical frequency bands. In recent decades, visible light communications (VLC) have gained lots of research attention thanks to the abundant bandwidth they offer and the existing lighting infrastructure they utilize that consequently reduces deployment costs.
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  Hybrid inorganic heterostructures and methods of fabricating p-type semiconductors for optoelectronic devices

  Jian Wei Liang, Ph.D. Student, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Nov 8, 14:00 - 16:00

  KAUST

  Semiconductor devices based on wide-bandgap materials exhibit a higher breakdown voltage, temperature tolerance, and device stability, and lower energy loss than devices based on low-bandgap materials. Several limitations challenge the use of III-nitrides and transition metal oxides as wide-bandgap materials. This thesis proposes novel methods to surmount these issues.
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  Lyapunov equations that go beyond Lyapunov equations for system stability and performance

  Eric Feron, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Nov 7, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Lyapunov equations

  Lyapunov's stability theory, which was formulated around 1892, presents itself as a watershed event in the study of dynamical systems.

Oct 31 - Nov 6, 2021

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  Social Decision Making for Robot Navigation

  Shinkyu Park, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Oct 31, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Social robot navigation

  Robot navigation typically comprises of decision making at two different levels - global planning to compute a viable trajectory to the robot's destination and strategic (local) interaction to elicit cooperation and resolve any conflicts with other robots/pedestrians that would arise while navigating along the trajectory. Robot navigation in crowded environments is particularly challenging as the robot needs to exhibit navigation behaviors that are conceived as socially compliant by human pedestrians or vehicles they maneuver at both of the levels. In this presentation, I will introduce some of relevant works from my research group.

Oct 24 - Oct 30, 2021

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  High-Bitrate Photodetection in Ultraviolet-to-Visible for Optical Wireless Communication

  Chun Hong Kang, Research Scientist, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Oct 28, 16:00 - 17:00

  KAUST

  Optical wireless communication, taking advantage of the unlicensed ultraviolet-to-visible wavelength region of the electromagnetic spectrum, had been coined as the next-generation wireless communication technology and holds promises to deliver a boundless, high-speed, reliable and secured broadband experience.
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  Topologically Transformed Electronics for Internet-of-Things Applications

  Nazek El-Atab, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Oct 24, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Topologically Transformed electronics

  We live in the age of information where electronics play a critical role in our daily life. Moore’s Law: performance over cost has inspired innovation in complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology and enabled high performance, ultra-scaled CMOS electronics.

Oct 10 - Oct 16, 2021

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  Asymmetric Signaling: A New Dimension of Interference Management in Hardware Impaired Communication Systems

  Sidrah Javed, Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Oct 11, 17:00 - 18:00

  KAUST

  Hardware impairments (HWIs) impose a huge challenge on modern wireless communication systems owing to the characteristics like compactness, least complexity, cost effectiveness and high energy efficiency. Numerous techniques are implemented to minimize the detrimental effects of these HWIs ,however, the residual HWIs may still appear as an additive distortion, multiplicative interference, or an aggregate of both. Numerous studies have commenced efforts to model one or the other forms of hardware impairments in the radio frequency (RF) transceivers. Many presented the widely linear model for in-phase and quadrature imbalance (IQI) but failed to recognize the impropriety induced in the system because of the self-interfering signals. Therefore, we have presented not only a rigorous aggregate impairment model along with its complete impropriety statistical characterization but also the appropriate performance analysis to quantify their degradation effects. Latest advances have endorsed the superiority of incorporating more generalized impropriety phenomenon as opposed to conventional propriety.
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  Present and Future of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface-Empowered Communications

  Ertugrul Basar, Associate Professor, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Koç University

  Oct 10, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Present and Future of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface-Empowered Communications

  Signal processing and communication communities have witnessed the rise of many exciting communication technologies in recent years. Notable examples include alternative waveforms, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) signaling, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), joint communications and sensing, sparse vector coding, index modulation, and so on.

Oct 3 - Oct 9, 2021

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  Visible light-emitting diodes for next-generation displays

  Daisuke Iida, Senior Research Scientist, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Oct 3, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Visible light emitting diodes for next generation displays

  This talk will provide an overview of the III-nitride-based visible light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Especially, the InGaN-based blue LEDs are very contributed to energy-saving for light sources all over the world.

Sep 26 - Oct 2, 2021

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  Frequency Control and stability for Low-Inertia Systems

  Ha Thi Nguyen, Assistant Research Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Connecticut

  Sep 30, 15:30 - 16:30

  KAUST

  synchronous condenser synthetic inertia real time digital simulator

  The rapid penetration of renewable energy sources (RESs) into power systems has introduced many challenges in securing a stable network operation and has forced power systems to operate in low inertia conditions. Low short-circuit power and intrinsic inertial response from converter-interfaced RES may cause poor dynamic performance of systems and render the system frequency more vulnerable than conventional grids. The talk proposes and analyzes different strategies using synchronous condenser (SC), synthetic inertia (SI) of wind power plant, and their combination to enhance the frequency stability of low inertia systems under various scenarios and wind conditions.
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  Accurate and Efficient Methods to Simulate Electromagnetic Systems

  Hakan Bagci, Associate Dean for Students, Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering

  Sep 28, 16:00 - 17:30

  B9 L2 R2322

  Simulation tools are often enablers of cutting-edge research in many fields of science and engineering. This also applies to the field of electromagnetics: Design and characterization of many electromagnetic systems and devices, which drive technological advances in areas such as communications, computing, biomedicine, and solar energy, would not be possible without simulation tools. Having said that, developing numerical methods for electromagnetic analysis of such complex systems is not a trivial task. Dimensions of these systems are large (longer than several wavelengths), their frequency of operation has a wide range, and their geometry has sub-wavelength features. When it comes to simulating these systems by solving the Maxwell equations (in differential or integral form), these characteristics translate into multiscale discretizations, large and often ill-conditioned matrix systems with millions of unknowns to be solved for, and long execution times. My research group at KAUST has been developing efficient, accurate, and robust electromagnetic solvers to address these challenges. In this talk, I will provide an overview of my group’s recent research activities. Technical part of my presentation will focus on two examples, where I talk about solvers we have developed to efficiently and accurately simulate photoconductive antennas (used in terahertz source generation) and plasmonic structures (with a wide range of applications from sensing to solar energy). I will provide results that demonstrate the benefits of these solvers over existing methods. I will conclude my talk with a brief description of my future research plans and a few slides about my research supervision, teaching activities, and international visibility of my research group.
• 

  Advanced Ga2O3 flexible and electronic devices

  Xiao Tang, Research Scientist, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Sep 26, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Nowadays, the development of portable and wearable electronics becomes unprecedentedly significant because they allow for real-time communication, remote controlling, and monitoring of various potential environmental hazards regardless of location and time.

Sep 19 - Sep 25, 2021

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  Network-based clustering approaches for integrative multiomics data and drug response prediction

  Zehor Belkhatir, Senior Lecturer, Control Engineering, De Montfort University

  Sep 20, 15:00 - 16:00

  B1 L2 H2

  multiomics data integration Wasserstein distance gene ontology

  Biological data sets, such as gene expressions, copy number alteration, and pharmacogenomics, are often high-dimensional and thus difficult to analyze and interpret. This talk presents two data analysis methodologies that we recently developed based on network analysis via Wasserstein optimal transport combined with unsupervised classification techniques.
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  Resilience is the Cybersecurity of the XXI century, and here's why! - 2021-09-19

  Sep 19, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  In a nutshell, Resilient Computing is a new paradigm based on modelling, architecting and designing computer systems so that: they have built-in baseline defences; such defences cope with virtually any quality of threat, be it accidental faults, design errors, cyber-attacks, or unexpected operating conditions; provide incremental protection of, and automatically adapt to, a dynamic range of threat severity; provide sustainable operation. Resilient Computing will be a game changer in the craft of designing computer systems of today and future.

Sep 12 - Sep 18, 2021

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  Audio Event Recognition for Automatic Acoustic Monitoring

  Farook Sattar, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Victoria, Canada

  Sep 16, 16:00 - 17:00

  KAUST

  bioacoustics acoustic signals audio event recognition

  Nowadays acoustic sensors collect huge amount of data on a regular basis to monitor various activities. This necessitates automated audio event recognition using acoustic data. In this talk, we will present effective methods for detecting and classifying different audio events. Interesting ideas and results will be shown for the proposed methods related to biological/bioacoustic signals.
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  End-to-end Optics Design for Computational Cameras

  Qilin Sun, Ph.D. Student, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Sep 15, 16:20 - 18:10

  KAUST

  Imaging systems have long been designed in separated steps: the experience-driven optical design followed by sophisticated image processing. Such a general-propose approach achieves success in the past but left the question open for specific tasks and the best compromise between optics and post-processing, as well as minimizing costs. Driven from this, a series of works are proposed to bring the imaging system design into end-to-end fashion step by step, from joint optics design, PSF optimization, phase map optimization to a general end-to-end complex lens camera.
• 

  Multiphysics Simulation of Semiconductor Optoelectronic Devices

  Liang Chen, Research Scientist, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Sep 12, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Multiphysics Simulation

  In this talk, I will introduce a simulator specifically formulated and implemented for photoconductive terahertz devices enhanced with nanostructures. The fundamental challenge in formulating this simulator is the rigorous modeling of the coupling mentioned above. My talk will focus on this aspect as well as the general concerns in building mathematical models for various physical processes and their numerical discretization. To this end, I will introduce a discontinuous Galerkin framework that can efficiently discretize the multiscale mathematical models formulated for coupled semiconductor physics and electromagnetics. Furthermore, I will present numerical results which demonstrate the applicability of this framework in characterizations of photoconductive terahertz antennas and photomixers.

Sep 5 - Sep 11, 2021

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  Microwave Water Cut Sensors for Oil Industry: From Design to Deployment in the Field

  Muhammad A. Karimi, Chief Technology Officer, Saher Flow Solutions

  Sep 5, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  This talk will be focused on developing low-cost sensors, which can increase oil production efficiency through real-time monitoring of oil wells. The mechanism behind the development of low-cost & printed microwave sensors will be introduced followed by a number of applications where these sensors can be utilized. A specific application to measure the composition of production fluid will be described in detail. Unique benefits of Microwave DMOR technology, utilized in the sensors, will be explained in comparison with existing technologies.

Aug 29 - Sep 4, 2021

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  Dark Vision: A Sensory Eye into Subsurface Wellbore Casings

  Shehab Ahmed, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Aug 29, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Dark Vision Sensory Eye Subsurface Wellbore

  After a quick overview of the ECE Graduate Seminar logistics, I will share a quick introduction to the wellbore construction process. This will help build the case for maintaining wellbore integrity in order to protect assets, people, the environment and production. The synergistic integration of electromagnetics, electronics and machine learning to create a novel mechatronic solution to address wellbore integrity needs is then discussed. The solution utilizes a full maxwell equations solver deployed on KAUST’s super computing platforms to enable next generation physics informed wellbore integrity solutions based on non-contact EM field propagation circuits. While downhole camera technologies are used today, they require illumination and an optically clear environment. Our electromagnetic ‘vision’ system overcomes these limitations and provides additional capability to ‘see through’ nested wellbore tubulars.

Aug 15 - Aug 21, 2021

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  Machine Learning in Healthcare: When Low Sample Size is not a Limitation

  Dr. Ricardo Henao, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University

  Aug 17, 14:30 - 15:30

  KAUST

  In this talk, I will describe three use cases that highlight present challenges and opportunities for the development of machine learning methodology for applications in healthcare. First, I will describe the development of simple word embedding approaches for bag of-documents classification and its applications to diagnosis of peripheral artery disease from clinical narratives. Second, I will present an approach for volumetric image classification that leverages attention mechanisms, contrastive learning and feature-encoding sharing for geographic atrophy prognosis from optical coherence tomography images. Third, I will discuss machine learning approaches for multi-modal and multi-dataset integration for biomarker discovery from molecular (omics) data. To conclude, I will summarize the contributions and insights in each of these different directions in which relatively low sample sizes are the common denominator.
• 

  Applications of Magnetic Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Monolayers to the Field of Spinorbitronics

  Idris H. Smaili, Ph.D. Student, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Aug 16, 11:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  flexible nanodevices flexible solar cells nanomaterials thin films density functional theory

  Magnetic random access memory (MRAM) devices have been widely studied since the 1960s. During this time, the size of spintronic devices has continued to decrease. Consequently, there is now an urgent need for new low-dimensional magnetic materials to mimic the traditional structures of spintronics at the nanoscale. We also require new effective mechanisms to conduct the main functions of memory devices, which are: reading, writing, and storing data.

Jul 25 - Jul 31, 2021

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  Stochastic Optimization in Target Positioning and Location-based Applications

  Hui Chen, Ph.D. Student (former), Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Jul 27, 17:00 - 19:00

  KAUST

  stochastic algorithm optimization Hand Gestures Recognition

  This event has been postponed from 20th July to 27th July. Stochastic optimization refers to the minimization/maximization of an objective function in the presence of randomness. The randomness may appear in objective functions, constraints, or optimization methods. It has the advantage of dealing with uncertainties that deterministic optimizers cannot solve or cannot solve efficiently. In this work, we discuss the implementation of stochastic optimization methods in solving target positioning problems and tackling key issues in location-based applications.

Jul 4 - Jul 10, 2021

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  State Estimation for Nonlinear Dynamical Systems: Methods and Applications | Part 2C

  Prof. Ali Zemouche, Université de Lorraine and Khadidja Chaïb Draa, TechnOptiz

  Jul 7, 14:00 - 17:00

  KAUST

  nonlinear dynamics linear matrix inequalities Lyapunov methods

  Abstract In this lecture we will address the problem of observer design for nonlinear systems. It is mainly devoted to Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) based methods and their use to improve observer design for a large class of nonlinear systems. A second part of this course will be dedicated to simple but useful contributions to high-gain observer design, where some techniques to improve performances of the standard high gain observer will be presented. Before tackling the problem of observer design, basic notions on stability by using direct and indirect Lyapunov methods will be thoroughly
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  State Estimation for Nonlinear Dynamical Systems: Methods and Applications | Part 2B

  Prof. Ali Zemouche, Université de Lorraine and Khadidja Chaïb Draa, TechnOptiz

  Jul 6, 14:00 - 17:00

  KAUST

  nonlinear dynamics linear matrix inequalities Lyapunov methods

  Abstract In this lecture we will address the problem of observer design for nonlinear systems. It is mainly devoted to Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) based methods and their use to improve observer design for a large class of nonlinear systems. A second part of this course will be dedicated to simple but useful contributions to high-gain observer design, where some techniques to improve performances of the standard high gain observer will be presented. Before tackling the problem of observer design, basic notions on stability by using direct and indirect Lyapunov methods will be thoroughly
• 

  State Estimation for Nonlinear Dynamical Systems: Methods and Applications | Part 2A

  Prof. Ali Zemouche, Université de Lorraine and Khadidja Chaïb Draa, TechnOptiz

  Jul 5, 14:00 - 17:00

  KAUST

  nonlinear dynamics linear matrix inequalities Lyapunov methods

  Abstract In this lecture we will address the problem of observer design for nonlinear systems. It is mainly devoted to Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) based methods and their use to improve observer design for a large class of nonlinear systems. A second part of this course will be dedicated to simple but useful contributions to high-gain observer design, where some techniques to improve performances of the standard high gain observer will be presented. Before tackling the problem of observer design, basic notions on stability by using direct and indirect Lyapunov methods will be thoroughly

Jun 27 - Jul 3, 2021

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  State estimation for nonlinear dynamical systems: Methods and applications | Part 1C

  Prof. Ali Zemouche, Université de Lorraine and Khadidja Chaïb Draa, TechnOptiz

  Jun 30, 14:00 - 17:00

  KAUST

  nonlinear dynamics linear matrix inequalities Lyapunov methods

  Abstract In this lecture we will address the problem of observer design for nonlinear systems. It is mainly devoted to Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) based methods and their use to improve observer design for a large class of nonlinear systems. A second part of this course will be dedicated to simple but useful contributions to high-gain observer design, where some techniques to improve performances of the standard high gain observer will be presented. Before tackling the problem of observer design, basic notions on stability by using direct and indirect Lyapunov methods will be thoroughly
• 

  State Estimation for Nonlinear Dynamical Systems: Methods and Applications | Part 1B

  Prof. Ali Zemouche, Université de Lorraine and Khadidja Chaïb Draa, TechnOptiz

  Jun 29, 14:00 - 17:00

  KAUST

  nonlinear dynamics linear matrix inequalities Lyapunov methods

  Abstract In this lecture we will address the problem of observer design for nonlinear systems. It is mainly devoted to Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) based methods and their use to improve observer design for a large class of nonlinear systems. A second part of this course will be dedicated to simple but useful contributions to high-gain observer design, where some techniques to improve performances of the standard high gain observer will be presented. Before tackling the problem of observer design, basic notions on stability by using direct and indirect Lyapunov methods will be thoroughly

Jun 13 - Jun 19, 2021

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  Learning over Graphs

  Ali H. Sayed, Dean of Engineering, EPFL Switzerland

  Jun 15, 16:30 - 17:45

  KAUST

  This talk explains how agents over a graph can learn from dispersed information and solve inference tasks of varying degrees of complexity through localized processing. The presentation also shows how information or misinformation is diffused over graphs, how beliefs are formed, and how the graph topology helps resist or enable manipulation. Examples will be considered in the context of social learning, teamwork, distributed optimization, and adversarial behavior.

Jun 6 - Jun 12, 2021

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  Research on Ultrawide Bandgap Semiconductors

  Xiaohang Li, Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Jun 8, 15:00 - 16:30

  KAUST

  Wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors including GaN have demonstrated great success in lighting, display, electrification, and 5G communication due to superior properties and decades of R&D. Lately, the III-nitride and III-oxide ultrawide bandgap (UWBG) semiconductors with bandgap larger than GaN have attracted increasing attentions. They are regarded as the 4th wave of the inorganic semiconductors after the consequential Si, III-V, and WBG semiconductors. Because the UWBG along with other properties could enable electronics and photonics to operate with significantly greater power and frequency capability and at much shorter far−deep UV wavelengths, crucial for sustainability and health of the human society. Besides, they could be employed for the revolutionary quantum information science as the host and photonic platform. This seminar would cover the latest research by the Advanced Semiconductor Lab. It includes multi-disciplinary studies of growth, materials, physics, and devices of the UWBG semiconductors.

May 30 - Jun 5, 2021

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  Part 2B | PDE Backstepping Boundary Control of Parabolic PDEs

  Prof. Mamadou Diagne, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

  Jun 2, 17:00 - 18:30

  KAUST

  Partial Differential Equations Lyapunov methods linear parabolic PDEs parabolic-hyperbolic PDE

  Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) are often used to model various complex physical systems. Representative engineering applications such as heat exchangers, transmission lines, oil wells, road traffic, multiphase flow, melting phenomena, supply chains, collective dynamics, and even chemical processes governing the state of charge of Lithium-ion battery, extrusion, reactors to mention a few. This course will explore the boundary control of a class of parabolic PDE via the well-known backstepping method.
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  Part 2A | PDE Backstepping Boundary Control of Parabolic PDEs

  Prof. Mamadou Diagne, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

  Jun 2, 15:00 - 16:30

  KAUST

  Partial Differential Equations Lyapunov methods linear parabolic PDEs parabolic-hyperbolic PDE

  Abstract Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) are often used to model various complex physical systems. Representative engineering applications such as heat exchangers, transmission lines, oil wells, road traffic, multiphase flow, melting phenomena, supply chains, collective dynamics, and even chemical processes governing the state of charge of Lithium-ion battery, extrusion, reactors to mention a few. Generally, key aspects of these processes operating mode are driven by convection phenomena with a spatiotemporal dynamic that cannot be approximated straightforwardly using a finite
• 

  Part 1B | PDE Backstepping Boundary Control of Parabolic PDEs

  Prof. Mamadou Diagne, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

  Jun 1, 17:00 - 18:30

  KAUST

  Partial Differential Equations Lyapunov methods linear parabolic PDEs parabolic-hyperbolic PDE

  PDE Backstepping Boundary Control of Parabolic PDEs Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) are often used to model various complex physical systems. Representative engineering applications such as heat exchangers, transmission lines, oil wells, road traffic, multiphase flow, melting phenomena, supply chains, collective dynamics, and even chemical processes governing the state of charge of Lithium-ion battery, extrusion, reactors to mention a few. This course will explore the boundary control of a class of parabolic PDE via the well-known backstepping method.
• 

  Part 1A | PDE Backstepping Boundary Control of Parabolic PDEs

  Prof. Mamadou Diagne, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

  Jun 1, 15:00 - 16:30

  KAUST

  Partial Differential Equations Lyapunov methods linear parabolic PDEs parabolic-hyperbolic PDE

  Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) are often used to model various complex physical systems. Representative engineering applications such as heat exchangers, transmission lines, oil wells, road traffic, multiphase flow, melting phenomena, supply chains, collective dynamics, and even chemical processes governing the state of charge of Lithium-ion battery, extrusion, reactors to mention a few. This course will explore the boundary control of a class of parabolic PDE via the well-known backstepping method.

May 23 - May 29, 2021

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  Computational Wavefront Sensing: Theory, Practice, and Applications

  Congli Wang, Ph.D. Student, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  May 26, 18:00 - 19:30

  KAUST

  Wavefront sensing is a fundamental problem in applied optics. Wavefront sensors that work in a deterministic manner are of particular interest. Initialized with a unified theory for classical wavefront sensors, this dissertation discusses relevant properties of wavefront sensor designs. Based on which, a new wavefront sensor, termed Coded Wavefront Sensor, is proposed to leverage the advantages of the analysis, especially the lateral wavefront resolution. A prototype was built to demonstrate this new wavefront sensor.
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  Towards 6G Wireless Communication Networks: Vision, Enabling Technologies, and New Paradigm Shifts

  H. Vincent Poor, Michael Henry Strater University Professor, Princeton University

  May 25, 15:30 - 16:30

  KAUST

  Fifth generation (5G) wireless communication networks are being deployed worldwide and more capabilities are in the process of being standardized, such as massive connectivity, ultra-reliability, and low latency. However, 5G will not meet all requirements of the future, and sixth generation (6G) wireless networks are expected to provide global coverage, enhanced spectral/energy/cost efficiency, greater intelligence and security, etc. To meet these requirements, 6G networks will rely on new enabling technologies, i.e., air interface and transmission technologies and novel network architectures, such as waveform design, multiple access, channel coding schemes, multi-antenna technologies, network slicing, cell-free architecture, and cloud/fog/edge computing. One vision on 6G is that it will have four new paradigm shifts. First, to satisfy the requirement of global coverage, 6G will not be limited to terrestrial communication networks, which will need to be complemented with non-terrestrial networks such as satellite and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication networks, thus achieving a space-air-ground-sea integrated communication networks. Multiple spectra will be exploited to further increase data rates and connection density, including the sub-6 GHz, millimeter wave (mmWave), terahertz (THz), and optical frequency bands. Third, facing the very large datasets generated by heterogeneous networks, diverse communication scenarios, large numbers of antennas, wide bandwidths, and new service requirements, 6G networks will enable a new range of smart applications with the aid of AI-related technologies. And, fourth, network security will have to be strengthened when developing 6G networks. This talk will review recent advances and future trends in these four aspects.

May 2 - May 8, 2021

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  Advances in Microelectromechanical Digital Circuit Design: Low Power Computation, Sensing and Beyond

  Hossein Fariborzi, Adjunct Professor (former), Electrical and Computer Engineering

  May 2, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Microelectromechanical Digital Circuit design Low Power computation Sensing

  Electromechanical switches were the core elements of the very first digital computers in early 20th century. While these switches were later replaced by the smaller, faster and more reliable "transistor" technology, they found a new life following the development of nanofabrication tools and Micro-electromechannical Systems (MEMS). In this seminar we will explore the most recent advances in the field of MEMS-based digital circuit and sensor design. We also examine the application of MEMS switches and resonators in building the most important blocks of a digital system, namely adders, multipliers, data converters, sequential and combinational complex logic, and discuss the future of this technology in the beyond-CMOS era.

Apr 25 - May 1, 2021

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  Dynamical Modeling, Analysis, Monitoring and Control of Wastewater Treatment Processes - Part 2B

  Prof. Denis Dochain, ICTEAM, Université Catholique de Louvain

  Apr 27, 14:00 - 15:30

  KAUST

  wastewater treatment adaptive linearizing control dynamical modeling

  There are three main classes of wastewater treatment processes (WWTP’s): activated sludge, anaerobic digestion, and lagoon. The course will start to give a short introduction on these three types of WWTP’s. Each topic considered in the course will be illustrated via these three processes.
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  Dynamical Modeling, Analysis, Monitoring and Control of Wastewater Treatment Processes - Part 2A

  Prof. Denis Dochain, ICTEAM, Université Catholique de Louvain

  Apr 27, 10:30 - 12:00

  KAUST

  wastewater treatment adaptive linearizing control dynamical modeling

  There are three main classes of wastewater treatment processes (WWTP’s): activated sludge, anaerobic digestion, and lagoon. The course will start to give a short introduction on these three types of WWTP’s. Each topic considered in the course will be illustrated via these three processes.
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  Applied Complexity: Ultra-flat AI materials for different applications

  Andrea Fratalocchi, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Apr 25, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  We review our recent results on artificial-intelligent designed ultra-flat materials that embeds "physical" neural networks for different application in biomedical imaging, optics, displays, and structural color generation.

Apr 18 - Apr 24, 2021

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  Introduction to hybrid dynamical systems: Part 2B

  Prof. Mohamed Djemai, University Polytechnique Hauts-de-France

  Apr 22, 14:00 - 15:30

  KAUST

  Dynamical Systems Modelization Time Scale Approach

  This research is motivated not only because the control of some systems is implemented through the combination of continuous control laws with discrete switching logic but also because a wide range of physical and engineering systems exhibit hybrid behavior. Among the problems to be addressed, those of stabilization and observation are particularly important in order to always improve the efficiency of systems in terms of performance, lifetime and efficiency.
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  Introduction to hybrid dynamical systems: Part 2A

  Prof. Mohamed Djemai, University Polytechnique Hauts-de-France

  Apr 22, 10:30 - 12:00

  KAUST

  Dynamical Systems Modelization Time Scale Approach

  In recent years, new theoretical tools have been developed to describe complex systems more precisely, such as hybrid dynamical systems (HDS). Many works ranging from modelling to stabilisation, or control and observation have focused on the study of this class of systems. This research is motivated not only because the control of some systems is implemented through the combination of continuous control laws with discrete switching logic but also because a wide range of physical and engineering systems exhibit hybrid behavior. Among the problems to be addressed, those of stabilization and observation are particularly important in order to always improve the efficiency of systems in terms of performance, lifetime and efficiency.
• 

  Dynamical Modeling, Analysis, Monitoring and Control of Wastewater Treatment Processes - Part 1B

  Prof. Denis Dochain, ICTEAM, Université Catholique de Louvain

  Apr 20, 14:00 - 15:30

  KAUST

  wastewater treatment adaptive linearizing control dynamical modeling

  There are three main classes of wastewater treatment processes (WWTP’s): activated sludge, anaerobic digestion, and lagoon. The course will start to give a short introduction on these three types of WWTP’s. Each topic considered in the course will be illustrated via these three processes.
• 

  Dynamical Modeling, Analysis, Monitoring and Control of Wastewater Treatment Processes - Part 1A

  Prof. Denis Dochain, ICTEAM, Université Catholique de Louvain

  Apr 20, 10:30 - 12:00

  KAUST

  wastewater treatment adaptive linearizing control dynamical modeling

  The objective of this course is to give an introduction and cover recent aspects of dynamical modeling, monitoring and control of wastewater treatment processes. There are three main classes of wastewater treatment processes (WWTP’s): activated sludge, anaerobic digestion, and lagoon. The course will start to give a short introduction on these three types of WWTP’s. Each topic considered in the course will be illustrated via these three processes.
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  KL Divergence Regularized Learning Model for Multi-Agent Decision Making

  Shinkyu Park, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Apr 18, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  The large population game framework has been widely adopted in biology, economics, and engineering fields to model and analyze strategic interactions among decision-making agents. In this framework, a population of agents select strategies of interaction with one another and repeatedly revise their strategy choices using revisions defined by a decision-making model. While many of existing works in the literature focus on designing decision-making models that ensure convergence of the agents’ strategy revision to Nash equilibrium, a still open challenge is to establish the convergence when the agents’ strategy revision is subject to time delay. Such scenarios include multi-agent decision problems in which there is delay in propagation of traffic congestion in congestion games, communication between the electric power utility and demand response agents in demand response games, and information transmission between agents in network games. In this seminar, I’ll introduce our recent work on designing a new decision-making model called the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence regularized learning. We will discuss how the new model enables a large population of agents to learn and self-organize to an effective strategy profile in population games subject to time delay and implication of the new model in engineering applications.

Apr 11 - Apr 17, 2021

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  Introduction to hybrid dynamical systems: Part 1B

  Prof. Mohamed Djemai, University Polytechnique Hauts-de-France

  Apr 15, 14:00 - 15:30

  KAUST

  Dynamical Systems Modelization Time Scale Approach

  This research is motivated not only because the control of some systems is implemented through the combination of continuous control laws with discrete switching logic but also because a wide range of physical and engineering systems exhibit hybrid behavior. Among the problems to be addressed, those of stabilization and observation are particularly important in order to always improve the efficiency of systems in terms of performance, lifetime and efficiency.
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  Introduction to hybrid dynamical systems: Part 1A

  Prof. Mohamed Djemai, University Polytechnique Hauts-de-France

  Apr 15, 10:30 - 12:00

  KAUST

  Dynamical Systems Modelization Time Scale Approach

  In recent years, new theoretical tools have been developed to describe complex systems more precisely, such as hybrid dynamical systems (HDS). Many works ranging from modelling to stabilisation, or control and observation have focused on the study of this class of systems.
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  Pointing and Trajectory Tracking Control for Optical Wireless Communication

  Ibrahima N’Doye, Research Scientist, Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), CEMSE, KAUST

  Apr 11, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Pointing Trajectory tracking control Optical wireless communication

  In this talk, I will present our recent works on reducing the beam pointing error for improved free-space optical communication (FSO) link performance. Specifically, I will discuss a robust control strategy that reduces the beam alignment error under controlled weak turbulence conditions for FSO systems. Then, I will discuss localization and tracking control of a mobile target ship with an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) in underwater environment. The framework is designed using a hybrid acoustic-optical underwater communication to drive the AUV to the maximum achievable data rate angle. The acoustic link is used for non-line-of-sight localization, and the optical link is for line-of-sight transmission. I will conclude the talk by providing recent results on estimating the alignment angle through a novel estimation-based reference trajectory control algorithm for an LED-based optical communication model.

Apr 4 - Apr 10, 2021

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  Discriminant Analysis and Support Vector Regression in High Dimensions: Sharp Performance Analysis and Optimal Designs

  Houssem Sifaou, Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Apr 8, 11:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Machine learning is emerging as a powerful tool to data science and is being applied in almost all subjects. In many applications, the number of features is comparable or even larger than the number of samples, and both grow large. This setting is usually named the high-dimensional regime. In this regime, new challenges and questions arise when it comes to the application of machine learning. In this work, we conduct a high-dimensional performance analysis of some popular classification and regression techniques. In a first part, discriminant analysis classifiers are considered. A major challenge towards the use of these classifiers in practice is that they depend on the inverse of covariance matrices that need to be estimated from training data. Several estimators for the inverse of the covariance matrices can be used. The most common ones are estimators based on the regularization approach. The main advantage of such estimators is their resilience to the sampling noise, making them suitable to high-dimensional settings. In this thesis, we propose new estimators that are shown to yield better performance.
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  Blue LED material beyond Blue for Micro-LED Displays

  Kazuhiro Ohkawa, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Apr 4, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  LED material Displays

  Energy is an indispensable part of our lives. We are challenging energy-saving novel light emitters and clean-energy generation systems at Energy Conversion Devices and Materials (ECO Devices) Laboratory at KAUST. The former is based on MOCVD technology, material science, and device technology. The latter is the nitride photocatalyst invented by Ohkawa. The development of highly-efficient InGaN-based blue LEDs was the topic of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics. InGaN-based green LEDs were realized after improving the quality of higher-In-content InGaN. The three primary colors in light are RGB. The current red LEDs are based on InGaP as the active region. If we realize red LEDs by InGaN, we can fabricate the monolithic RGB LEDs in a wafer. Such RGB integration will be a breakthrough for micro-LED displays that are the next generation after the OLED displays. In this seminar, the science of MOCVD, the growth of high-In-content InGaN, and the state-of-the-art InGaN-based red LEDs will be introduced.