Events

Mar 28 - Apr 3, 2021

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  Wireless Magnetic Sensors to Empower the Next Technological Revolution

  Abdullah Almansouri, PhD Student, Electrical and Computer Engineering, KAUST

  Apr 1, 16:00 - 17:00

  KAUST

  The next technological revolution, Industry 4.0, is envisioned as a digitally connected ecosystem where machines and gadgets are driven by artificial intelligence. By 2025, more than 75 billion devices are projected to serve this revolution. Many of which are to be integrated into the fabrics of everyday life in the form of smart wireless sensors. Still, two major challenges should be addressed to realize truly wireless and wearable sensors. First, the sensors should be flexible and stretchable, allowing for comfortable wearing. Second, the electronics should scavenge the energy it requires entirely from the environment, thus, eliminating the need for batteries, which are bulky, create ecological problems, etc. By addressing these two challenges, this dissertation paves the way for truly wearable sensors.
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  Transient Analysis of Electromagnetic and Acoustic Scattering using Second-kind Surface Integral Equations

  Rui Chen, PhD Student, Electrical and Computer Engineering, KAUST

  Mar 31, 16:00 - 18:00

  KAUST

  Time-domain methods are preferred over their frequency-domain counterparts for solving acoustic and electromagnetic scattering problems since they can produce wide-band data from a single simulation. Among the time-domain methods, time-domain surface integral equation solvers have recently found widespread use because they offer several benefits over differential equation solvers. This dissertation develops several second-kind surface integral equation solvers for analyzing transient acoustic scattering from rigid and penetrable objects and transient electromagnetic scattering from perfect electrically conducting and dielectric objects. For acoustically rigid, perfect electrically conducting, and dielectric scatterers, fully explicit marching-on-in-time schemes are developed for solving time domain Kirchhoff, magnetic field, and scalar potential integral equations, respectively.
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  Towards Robust and Accurate Navigation: Theory, Applications, and Future Directions

  Tareq Al-Naffouri, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Mar 28, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Towards Robust Navigation theory Applications Future Directions

  Navigation is an essential requirement for many applications (commercial, retail, military, scientific, ...etc) and in a variety of environments (in-doors, outdoors, space, underwater, and even underground). In this talk, I will overview some of my group's work in localization and navigation focusing on indoor and satellite positioning. The talk will demonstrate how the structure or constraints of the problem can help achieve very accurate localization (e.g. millimeter level indoors) that is robust to Doppler, multipath, and shadowing. The talk will also touch upon various related applications that the group is pursuing in smart health and smart cities. The talk will end with future directions for localization in extreme environments and in the TeraHertz spectrum where localization, environment sensing, and communication converge.

Mar 21 - Mar 27, 2021

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  Advancing Visual Intelligence via Neural System Design

  Hengshuang Zhao, Postdoctoral Fellow, Oxford University

  Mar 21, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Visual Intelligence Neural System design

  Building intelligent visual systems is essential for the next generation of artificial intelligence systems. It is a fundamental tool for many disciplines and beneficial to various potential applications such as autonomous driving, robotics, surveillance, augmented reality, to name a few. An accurate and efficient intelligent visual system has a deep understanding of the scene, objects, and humans. It can automatically understand the surrounding scenes. In general, 2D images and 3D point clouds are the two most common data representations in our daily life. Designing powerful image understanding and point cloud processing systems are two pillars of visual intelligence, enabling the artificial intelligence systems to understand and interact with the current status of the environment automatically. In this talk, I will first present our efforts in designing modern neural systems for 2D image understanding, including high-accuracy and high-efficiency semantic parsing structures, and unified panoptic parsing architecture. Then, we go one step further to design neural systems for processing complex 3D scenes, including semantic-level and instance-level understanding. Further, we show our latest works for unified 2D-3D reasoning frameworks, which are fully based on self-attention mechanisms. In the end, the challenges, up-to-date progress, and promising future directions for building advanced intelligent visual systems will be discussed.

Mar 14 - Mar 20, 2021

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  mm-Sized Wireless Implantable Medical Devices Toward Clinical Diagnostics and Therapeutics

  Pyungwoo Yeon, Postdoctoral Fellow, Electrical Engineering, Stanford University

  Mar 14, 16:00 - 17:00

  KAUST

  Implantable and wearable technologies are rapidly emerging and showing great promise in various medical therapeutics and diagnostics. These advances from health monitoring to therapeutic applications reorganize many aspects of daily life. Since the invention of the first implantable cardiac pacemaker for patients with arrhythmia in 1958, many implantable medical devices (IMDs) such as implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) and implantable deep brain stimulators (iDBSs) have been developed and have treated millions of patients. These IMDs eventually need wireless powering and communication for 1) eliminating transcutaneous power/data interconnects that elevate the risk of infection and 2) removing bulky batteries to avoid the risk of repeated surgical intervention. They also need small form factors and soft materials to mitigate tissue fibrosis due to foreign body responses. In this talk, I will introduce a new wireless neural interfacing tool within a cubic millimeter that can potentially record large scale neuronal ensembles over large brain area. The discussion will be focused on its building pieces across a wide range of science and engineering disciplines toward translating those into a complete clinically viable IMD. Also, I will present my recent research on RF-to-ultrasound power relay for powering deep mm-scale implants across air/tissue or tissue/skull media, and an all-soft and wireless pressure sensor tags that aim to address the issues of surgical complexity, tethering effect, and foreign body response. Finally, I will conclude the talk by presenting my future research plans toward clinically viable wireless medical diagnostics and therapeutics.

Mar 7 - Mar 13, 2021

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  Generation of Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) Modes with Spiral Phase Plate Integrated Laser Source

  Edgars Stegenburgs, Ph.D. Student, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Mar 10, 12:00 - 14:00

  KAUST

  The objective of this work is to develop a near-infrared laser device capable of emitting orbital angular momentum (OAM) light. The prototyped device must be suitable for compact, energy-saving optical communication applications. Integrated OAM lasers would revolutionize high capacity data transmission over any telecommunication network environment as OAM light can be guided and transmitted through kilometers of optical fibers as well as propagated in free space and underwater.
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  Materials and Devices for Printed Flexible Electronics

  Derya Baran, Assistant Professor, Material Science and Engineering, PSE, KAUST

  Mar 7, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  flexible electronics Flexible electronic devices

  The need for big data that the internet of things (IoT) has created in recent years has turned the focus on integrating the human body in the quest to understand it better, and in turn use such information for detection and prevention of harmful conditions. Applications in which continuous and uninterrupted operation is required, or where the use of external power sources may be challenging demands the use of self-powered autonomous systems. Organic photovoltaic devices are flexible, lightweight, and soft, capable of interacting with the human body and its mechanical demands. Their processability from solutions permits their adaptation to versatile fabrication techniques such as spin coating, roll-to-roll coating and inkjet printing, with benefits including low material usage and freedom of design. In this talk, I will present how organic photovoltaics can be utilized in printed electronics as energy harvesting devices and go through the historical progress of organic/hybrid photovoltaics as well as the main activities that are ongoing in my research lab ‘Omegalab’.

Feb 28 - Mar 6, 2021

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  The fourth wave: ultrawide bandgap compound semiconductors for photonics and electronics

  Xiaohang Li, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Feb 28, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  The fourth wave semiconductors photonics electronics

  Wide bandgap (WBG) compound semiconductors including GaN have shown enormous success in solid-state lighting, display, and electrification in recent decades due to superior properties such as direct bandgap, high electron mobility, and large breakdown field. They have been changing the world by elevating living standards and addressing grand challenges such as global warming. The pioneering researchers have been recognized by numerous accolades including the Nobel Prize and most recently, the Queen Elizabeth Prize. Lately, the III-nitride and III-oxide ultrawide bandgap (UWBG) compound semiconductors with bandgap larger than 3.4 eV have attracted increasing attentions: they have been regarded as the 4th wave/generation 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, respectively, both crucial for human society. Besides, they could be employed for the revolutionary quantum information science as the host and photonic platform. However, extensive multi-disciplinary studies of growth, materials, physics, and devices are essential to unearth the potentials due to the infancy. This seminar would cover the latest research on those aspects. It includes growth of state-of-the-art materials, discovery of unique material properties, and development of a widely adopted device physics framework for photonics and electronics especially short and long wavelength photonic devices.

Feb 21 - Feb 27, 2021

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  High-Dimensional Analysis of Regularized Convex Optimization Problems with Application to Massive MIMO Wireless Communication Systems

  Ayed M. Alrashdi, Ph.D. Student (former), Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Feb 21, 17:00 - 18:00

  KAUST

  In this thesis, we focus on precisely analyzing the high dimensional error performance of such regularized convex optimization problems under the presence of different impairments (such as uncertainties and/or correlations) in the measurement matrix, which has independent Gaussian entries. The precise nature of our analysis allows performance comparison between different types of these estimators and enables us to optimally tune the involved hyperparameters. In particular, we study the performance of some of the most popular cases in linear inverse problems, such as the Least Squares (LS), Regularized Least Squares (RLS), LASSO, Elastic Net, and their box-constrained variants.
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  Smart Meter Data-Driven Load Forecasting and Price Design in the Retail Market

  Dr. Yi Wang, Postdoctoral Researcher, Power Systems Laboratory, ETH Zurich

  Feb 21, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Smart Meter Data-Driven Load forecasting Price design Retail Market

  The widespread popularity of smart meters enables an immense amount of fine-grained smart meter data to be collected. Meanwhile, the deregulation of the power industry, particularly on the delivery side, has continuously been moving forward worldwide. Electricity retailer is one of the main participants in the retail market. This presentation will discuss how an electricity retailer can increase the competitiveness in the retail market by making full use of the fine-grained smart meter data. Since load forecasting is fundamental for various businesses of the retailer, the first part of this presentation will study how to enhance the performance of aggregated load forecasting using the fine-grained smart meter data. Designing customizing prices is an effective way to promote consumer interactions and increase customer stickiness for retailers. The second part of this presentation will introduce a novel data-driven approach for incentive-compatible customizing time-of-use (ToU) price design so that the benefits of both the retailer and consumers can be gained.

Feb 7 - Feb 13, 2021

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  Visible Light Communications Technology and Machine Learning - 2021-02-12

  Dr. Paul Anthony Haigh, Newcastle University, United Kingdom and Dr. Bo Tan, Tampere University, Finland

  Feb 12, 16:00 - 17:15

  KAUST

  vlc

  In this webinar we will give an overview of several key technologies related to our special issues in Frontiers of Communications and Networks; (1) visible light communications (VLC) and (2) applications of machine learning in optical and wireless communication systems.
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  Ariadne: Building safe autonomy with unproven algorithms

  Eric Feron, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Feb 7, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Ariadne safe autonomy unproven algorithms

  With the advent of increasingly intelligent algorithms, robots are capable of planning and performing increasingly challenging and creative tasks. Safety, however, remains an essential requirement on robotic behaviors. It is also a property that is hard or impossible to prove for virtually all intelligent algorithms of practical value. Ariadne is a model-based paradigm that enables the safe operation of many robotic systems, even though the algorithms involved with the operation may not be verifiable. Ariadne, or "plan B" engineering, will be illustrated in various current Robotics contexts derived from Ariadne's own Greek mythology, railroad systems, nuclear energy production, air transportation, and others.

Jan 31 - Feb 6, 2021

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  Mechatronics: Synergy throughout Systems

  Shehab Ahmed, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Jan 31, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Mechatronics Synergy throughout Systems

  Actuators, electric vehicles, renewable energy systems, oil rigs and smart cities are all examples of complex systems that have evolved over time to better address societal needs. Mechatronics, the synergistic integration of electrical, mechanical and computing, has powered this evolution and enabled higher power density actuators, increased hosting of renewable energy in power grids, improved drilling efficiency and responsive cities. In this talk, I will share research highlights from the Mechatronics and Energy Systems Research Group (MERGE) to demonstrate value creation through engineered synergies.

Jan 24 - Jan 30, 2021

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  Biosensors challenges and opportunities

  Khaled Salama, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Jan 24, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Biosensors challenges opportunities

  No summary is available.

Dec 20 - Dec 26, 2020

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  What’s the Story with UAV Cellular Communications?

  Prof. Giovanni Geraci, Assistant Professor, University Pompeu Fabra (UPF) in Barcelona, Spain

  Dec 22, 16:00 - 17:15

  KAUST

  UV Communications

  What will it take for UAVs—and the associated ecosystem—to take off? Arguably, ubiquitous high-capacity links paired with hyper-reliable command and control all along. And indeed, meeting these aspirations may entail a full-blown mobile network support. While the understanding of UAV cellular communications has been advancing, many fundamental challenges remain to be addressed, with new applications demanding original solutions. In this talk, we blend academic and industrial views, navigating from 4G to 6G UAV use cases, requirements, and enabling technologies

Dec 13 - Dec 19, 2020

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  Wireless Communications using Light - not all wireless is at RF

  Prof. Steve Hranilovic, Associate Dean, McMaster University, Canada and Dr. Imran Shafique Ansari, Assistant Professor, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom

  Dec 15, 16:00 - 17:15

  KAUST

  FSO systems

  Due to the increasing scarcity of RF spectrum and growing interference due to multiple users, deploying next generation high-speed wireless networks is becoming increasingly difficult. The use of unlicensed optical bands for wireless communications has been heralded as an exciting development for future broadband access for indoor, underwater and space communication links.

Dec 6 - Dec 12, 2020

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  Redesigning CMOS Electronics: What, Why and How?

  Dec 6, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Redesigning CMOS electronics

  A little more than half of the world’s population enjoy benefits of information technology which is enabled by complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) electronics. Going forward, we will enjoy further augmentation of quality of life through integrated CMOS electronic systems consisting of logic, memory, communication devices, energy storage and harvester, power management units, sensors and actuators. Their main attributes will include but not limited to high performance and storage capacity for data management; seamless connectivity; energy efficiency; hyper-scale integration density; appropriate functionalities based on their applications and operational environment; reliability and safety; and finally affordability and simplicity to expand their user base to include those who do not have any access to them today. Even using last fifty years’ wealth of knowledge and experience, such integrated electronic system development and deployment is a monumental engineering challenge. From that perspective, redesigning CMOS electronics might seem to be an overly ambitious goal specially, if that means transformation of such physically rigid complex electronic systems into a fully flexible one. To address this intriguing challenge, we have developed a unique coin like architecture based soft singular platform, which can be used as the building block of standalone fully flexible CMOS electronic system with all the aforementioned characteristics. We have devised an effective heterogeneous integration strategy based on mature and reliable CMOS technology only to integrate hybrid materials and diverse set of devices for multi-disciplinary applications. These will be the focus of this talk.

Nov 29 - Dec 5, 2020

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  Conquering the Terahertz Band: From Theory to Practice

  Prof. Josep M. Jornet, Northeastern University, in Boston, MA

  Dec 1, 15:45 - 17:15

  KAUST

  THz sensing THz signal source

  The need for higher data-rates and more ubiquitous connectivity for an ever-increasing number of wirelessly connected devices motivates the exploration of uncharted spectral bands. In this context, Terahertz (THz)-band (0.1–10 THz) communication is envisioned as a key wireless technology of the next decade. The very large bandwidth available at THz frequencies (tens to hundreds of consecutive GHz) can alleviate the spectrum scarcity problem while enabling wireless Terabit-per-second (Tb/s) links in personal and local area networks, backhaul for urban and rural areas, and even space networks.
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  Mobile Microrobotics

  Hussein Hussein, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Nov 29, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  mobile Microrobotics

  The implementation of robotic solutions to accomplish automated tasks in industrial sectors has tremendously increased the human performance capacity and enhanced the cost, quality and delivery time for different tasks and products. Having already proven their utility at the macroscale, robots also show their usefulness when we approach the infinitely small dimensions, for applications such as inspection, cell manipulation, assembly, biopsy and drug delivery. The way to the microworld is not that simple; reducing the size of robots from macro scale to micro scale cannot be accomplished by merely miniaturizing the different parts of an existing robot. The variation in the scale of physical effects with the size scale and the difficulties of fabrication and assembly at the micro scale make the macro-solutions for actuation and sensing unsuitable for microdevices. Other actuation mechanisms with deformable structures and integrated sensing solutions are more efficient at microscale and compatible with microfabrication limitations. This talk focuses on different aspects related to mobile microrobots, including limitations and challenges, actuation mechanisms, power delivery, and current works in our team for the development of mobile microrobots.

Nov 22 - Nov 28, 2020

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  The Tetracopter: A modular, self-similar flying robot

  Eric Feron, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Nov 26, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Modular robotics deals with robots that are an assemblage of smaller sized and often identical robots. The benefits of modular robots are many, chief among them being how easily they can be transported from one location to another. Moreover, their size can be adjusted according to the task at hand without requiring extensive redesign or specialization, therefore making them the object of significant research efforts.
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  Energy-Efficient Non-Orthogonal Multicast and Unicast Transmission of Cell-Free Massive MIMO Systems with SWIPT

  Prof. Minghua Xia, Sun Yat-sen University, China & Prof. Zilong Liu,University of Essex, United Kingdom

  Nov 24, 16:00 - 17:15

  KAUST

  SWIPT

  To suit massive connectivity of machine-type communications in smart cities, this talk discusses the energy-efficient resource allocation for layered-division multiplexing (LDM) based non-orthogonal multicast and unicast transmission in cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, where each user equipment (UE) performs wireless information and power transfer simultaneously. Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is an emerging paradigm for the enabling of massive connectivity in 5G networks and beyond.
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  Efficient and Accurate Numerical Methods for Transient Electromagnetic Analysis - 2020

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

  Nov 22, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Efficient numerical Methods Transient electromagnetic

  Electromagnetic devices and systems are at the heart of technological advances revolutionizing many fields of science and engineering including energy management, biomedical electronics, communications and computing, and even environmental monitoring and civil design. Many of these systems are electrically large, their frequency of operation has a wide dynamic range, their device components are geometrically intricate with dimensions varying by orders of magnitude, and finally their optimal design requires many repetitions of characterizations with different parameters.

Nov 15 - Nov 21, 2020

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  Start your Research Journey at KAUST - Master and Ph.D. degrees in Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Statistics

  Aigars Ekers, Assistant Dean, Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering

  Nov 18, 16:00 - 17:00

  KAUST

  Did you know that courses are taught in English at KAUST? Did you know that the faculty and students are from more than 100 countries? Did you know that you will be fully funded when studying at KAUST? What you will learn from this webinar: Life at KAUST: What are KAUST and CEMSE? Degrees and Academic Programs Research Areas and Lab Facilities Eligibility and Admission Requirements KAUST Fellowship: Benefits of studying at KAUST How to Apply?
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  Waves Functional Materials - 2020-11-15

  Ying Wu, Professor, Applied Mathematics and Computational Sciences

  Nov 15, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  waves Functional Materials

  Wave functional materials are artificial materials that can control wave propagation as wish. In this talk, I will give a brief review on the progress of wave functional materials and reveal the secret behind the engineering of these materials to achieve desired properties. In particular, I will focus on our contributions on metamaterials and metasurfaces. I will introduce the development of effective medium, a powerful tool in modeling wave functional materials, followed by some illustrative examples demonstrating the intriguing properties, such as redirection, emission rate enhancement, wave steering and cloaking.

Nov 8 - Nov 14, 2020

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  Control Theoretic Approaches to Computational Modeling and Risk Mitigation for Large Crowd Management

  Mohammed M. Alrashed, M.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Nov 11, 20:00 - 21:00

  KAUST

  resource management risk assessment computational models

  Abstract We develop a computational framework for risk mitigation in high population density events. With an increased global population, the frequency of high population density events is naturally increased. Therefore, risk-free crowd management plans are critical for efficient mobility, convenient daily life, resource management, and most importantly mitigation of any inadvertent incidents and accidents such as stampedes. The status-quo for crowd management plans is the use of human experience/expert advice. However, most often such dependency on human experience is insufficient, flawed
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  Civil drones traffic management: Wireless communication for safe UAV

  Prof. Sofie Pollin, KU Leuven

  Nov 10, 16:00 - 17:15

  KAUST

  UAV

  In this webinar, we describe the common terminology for these two communities. First, the traffic management system architecture, requirements, terminology, and services are discussed. A quick overview of existing technologies that can be useful for aerial deconfliction. Next, the focus will shift to wireless technologies used for the tactical (while flying) deconfliction: ADS-B, p2p LoRa, WiFi, FLARM.
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  A Novel HVDC Architecture for Offshore Wind Farm Applications

  Otavio Dezem Bertozzi Junior, MS Student, Physical Science and Engineering

  Nov 10, 15:00 - 16:00

  KAUST

  Novel HVDC architecture Offshore wind

  Advances in power electronics have enabled many renewable energy applications. Wind energy harnessing is very promising and offshore farm installations have grown considerably in the past years. In this thesis, we introduce a novel power converter solution for the parallel connection of high-power offshore wind turbines, suitable for HVDC collection and transmission. For the parallel operation of energy sources in an HVDC grid, DC link voltage control is required. The proposed system is based on a full-power rated uncontrolled diode bridge rectifier in series with a partially-rated fully-controlled thyristor bridge rectifier. The thyristor bridge acts as a voltage regulator to ensure the flow of the desired current through each branch, where a reactor is placed in series for filtering of the DC current. AC filters are installed on the machine side to mitigate harmonic content. The mathematical modeling of the system is derived and the control design procedure is discussed. Guidelines for equipment and device specifications are presented. The concept is validated through simulation, and an experimental framework for testing of the system is suggested.
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  UAV Enabled IoT Network Designs for Enhanced Estimation, Detection, and Connectivity

  Osama Bushnaq, Ph.D. (former), Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Nov 9, 11:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  The Internet of Things (IoT) is a foundational building block for the upcoming information revolution and imminent smart-world era. Particularly, the IoT bridges the cyber domain to everything and anything within our physical world which enables unprecedented ubiquitous monitoring, connectivity, and smart control. In this Ph.D. defense, we present Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) enabled IoT network designs for enhanced estimation, detection, and connectivity. The utilization of UAVs can offer an extra level of flexibility which results in more advanced and efficient connectivity and data aggregation for the IoT devices.
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  Developing smart systems to connect communities.

  Ahmed Eltawil, Associate Dean for Research, Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering

  Nov 8, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  smart systems connect communities

  In this talk, we address fundamental questions that should be asked when contemplating future smart and connected systems, namely, How, Where and What? How can we design computing and communication nodes that best utilize resources in a way that is cognizant of both the abilities of the platform, as well as the requirements of the network? Where are the nodes deployed? By understanding the context of deployment, one can architect unique solutions that are currently unimaginable. With the transformation to diverse applications such as body area networking, critical infrastructure monitoring, precision agriculture, autonomous driving etc., the need for innovative solutions becomes even more amplified. What benefit can be inferred from the data gathered by nodes in the capacity of computing, communication and sensing? The talk will discuss how recent advances in wireless computing and communication nodes can be harnessed to serve the multitude of deployment scenarios required to empower communities of the future with smart and connected systems.

Nov 1 - Nov 7, 2020

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  Using Massive MIMO Arrays to Reject Radar-Generated Interference and to Perform Integrated Sensing and Communications

  Prof. Stefano Buzzi, University of Cassino and Lazio Meridionale, Italy

  Nov 3, 16:00 - 17:15

  KAUST

  MIMO

  This webinar will explore the potentiality of massive MIMO arrays in a scenario where radar and communication tasks coexist. The first part of the talk will be devoted to the discussion of a scenario where a wireless network is to co-exist with an external radar system sharing the same frequency band. The second part of the talk will be instead focused on a scenario where a base station equipped with a large scale antenna array simultaneously perform the task of radar surveillance of the surrounding environment and of data communication with mobile users.
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  Design and topological optimization of nanophotonic devices

  Ronghui Lin, Ph.D. Student, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Nov 2, 10:30 - 12:30

  KAUST

  Nanophotonic research has a huge influence on various aspects of modern society, such as communication, commercial products, biochemistry, and information processing. A central topic in the research of nanophotonics is the geometrical optimization of the nanostructures since the geometries are deeply related to the Mie resonances and the localized surface plasmon resonances in dielectric and metallic nanomaterials. When many nanostructures are assembled to form a metamaterial, the tuning of the geometrical parameters can bring even more profound effects, such as bound states in the continuum (BIC) with infinite quality factors (Q factors). Moreover, with the development of nanofabrication technologies, there is a trend of integrating nanostructures in the vertical direction, which provides more degrees of freedom for controlling the device performance and functionality. In this dissertation, we explore how the geometrical changes of the nanostructures influence the nanophotonic devices, furthermore, we utilize machine learning techniques to actively control the topologies of the devices to enhance their performances.
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  Ultraviolet semiconductor technologies for COVID-19 and beyond

  Xiaohang Li, Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Nov 1, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Ultraviolet semiconductor technologies COVID-19

  COVID-19 is a wake-up call for public health and safety. Since the pandemic began, the ultraviolet (UV) technologies have been widely employed in numerous places to contain and eliminate the viruses. Although UV light is nonchemical and does not contaminate the environment, however, most of the UV light today comes from the toxic mercury lamps. In our lab and many institutions in the world, researchers are developing semiconductor-based UV technologies that are compact, reliable, and nontoxic. This seminar shows the research background and briefly discusses the research progress made by our team in a few key areas including material growth, physics, and device fabrication for UV lasers, LEDs, and photodetectors.

Oct 25 - Oct 31, 2020

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  Webinar on Resource Allocation in Cloud-Radio Access Networks and Fog-Radio Access Networks for B5G Systems

  Omar Knio, Professor, Applied Mathematics and Computational Sciences

  Oct 27, 15:45 - 17:15

  KAUST

  Fog-Radio Access cloud-radio access

  First Speaker: Megumi Kaneko, National Institute of Informatics, Japan. Talk Title: Resource Allocation in NOMA-Based Fog Radio Access Networks. In this talk, I will first describe the potential benefits offered by the integration of NOMA in an FRAN architecture for achieving the specific objectives of use cases envisioned in B5G, in terms of throughput, latency, reliability and energy efficiency. Second Speaker: Bruno Clerckx, Imperial College London, United Kingdom. Talk Title: Rate-Splitting Multiple Access and its Applications to Cloud-Enabled Platforms. This talk argues that to efficiently cope with the high throughput, reliability, heterogeneity of Quality-of-Service (QoS), and massive connectivity requirements of future multi-antenna wireless networks, multiple access and multiuser communication system design need to depart from the two extreme interference management strategies, namely fully treat interference as noise (as commonly used in 5G, MU-MIMO, CoMP, Massive MIMO, millimetre wave MIMO) and fully decode interference (as in NOMA).
• 

  Beyond Solid-State Lighting: Miniaturization and Integration of Nitride-based Visible LEDs

  Zhe Zhuang, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Oct 25, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Solid-State Lighting Miniaturization Integration Nitride-based Visible LEDs

  This talk will give an overview of the research of III-nitride based visible light-emitting diodes (LEDs) from the KAUST Energy Conversion Devices and Materials (ECO Devices) Laboratory (https://ecodevices.kaust.edu.sa/Pages/Overview.aspx). III-nitride based visible LEDs have achieved tremendous success in the field of solid-state lighting and dominated the lighting markets in the past decades. This technique becomes mature, and the luminous efficacy of LED devices approaches the theoretical maximum limit.

Oct 18 - Oct 24, 2020

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  Aerospace Systems Research at KAUST, an uplifting experience

  Eric Feron, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Oct 21, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Aerospace Systems research KAUST

  Aerospace Engineering is the source of much dreaming and worrying in most people's imagination. As such, it constitutes a marvelous support for the development and application of numerous disciplines, chief among them are aerodynamics, structures, flight and orbital mechanics. With time however, information technologies are progressively becoming the costliest activity within the aerospace engineering systems design phase. Indeed, they stand as the core elements of avionics systems, airline operations, air traffic control, spacecraft engineering, and planetary exploration, among others. Such subjects have been bringing much joy and teaching many lessons to your speaker for the past 30 years and will keep doing so, hopefully, for the next three decades.
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  Visible Light Communications Technology and Machine Learning - 2020-10-20

  Paul Anthony Haigh, Newcastle University, United Kingdom and Dr. Bo Tan, Tampere University, Finland

  Oct 20, 15:45 - 17:15

  KAUST

  machine learning Visible light communications

  In this webinar we will give an overview of several key technologies related to our special issues in Frontiers of Communications and Networks; (1) visible light communications (VLC) and (2) applications of machine learning in optical and wireless communication systems.

Oct 11 - Oct 17, 2020

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  Post-processing and Feature Extraction Methods for Smart Biomedical Signal Monitoring: Algorithms and Applications

  Abderrazak Chahid, Ph.D. Student, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Oct 14, 16:00 - 17:00

  KAUST

  Digital health solutions improve healthcare services and help achieve sustainable and higher standards of health and well-being. These solutions are mainly based on Digital Signal Processing (DSP) to record, interpret, and diagnose bio-signals such as Electrocardiogram (ECG) or Magnetoencephalography (MEG). In my thesis, a novel signal/image post-processing algorithm is proposed based on the Semi-Classical Signal Analysis method (SCSA) to enhance biomedical data quality. In addition, new feature extraction algorithms are proposed, based on the SCSA and the new Quantization-based Position Weight Matrix (QuPWM), which opens new tracks toward smart biomedical diagnosis and decision-making assistance in different fields such as predicting true Poly(A) regions in a DNA sequence, multiple hand gesture prediction.
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  3D Near Isotropic Antenna in Package for IoT Applications

  SU Zhen, Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Oct 14, 16:00 - 18:00

  KAUST

  Billions of IoT devices will need to communicate with each other in a wireless fashion in the future. Thus, new antenna designs, which perform irrespective of their orientation and position, and can be mass manufactured at lower costs are required. This work presents the theory and design of antennas with near isotropic radiation performance which can be additively manufactured on the packaging of the circuits.
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  Integrated access and backhaul for 5G and beyond

  Dr. Behrooz Makki and Dr. Filip Barać

  Oct 13, 16:00 - 17:30

  KAUST

  5G

  In this talk, we review the main backhauling techniques, and present the main motivations/standardization agreements on IAB. Moreover, we present comparisons between the IAB networks and the cases where all or part of the small access points are fiber-connected.
• 

  MXenes for Electronic and Sensing Applications

  Professor Husam Alshareef, Material Science and Engineering, KAUST

  Oct 11, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  MXenes Electronic Sensing Applications

  This talk will focus on the device applications of MXenes and MXene-derived functional materials. Our group has been developing device concepts that capitalize on the rich and promising properties of MXenes. For example, the excellent electrical conductivity of MXenes makes them good candidates as contact materials electronics (printed, wearable, and stretchable electronics) both as local and global contacts. We have demonstrated that MXenes can be used as electrical contacts in thin-film electronics, CMOS devices, quantum-dot transistors, LEDs, and solar cells.

Oct 4 - Oct 10, 2020

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  6G: A new frontier for the design of NOMA

  Prof. Zhiguo Ding, University of Manchester

  Oct 6, 16:00 - 17:15

  KAUST

  6G

  The aim of this talk is to provide an overview of the latest research results and innovations in NOMA technologies as well as their emerging applications. Future research challenges regarding NOMA in B5G and 6G are also presented.
• 

  Monolithic Integration of InAs Quantum Dot Lasers on Si Substrates

  Yating Wan, Postdoctoral fellow at of University of California, Santa Barbara

  Oct 4, 18:00 - 19:00

  KAUST

  monolithic Quantum Dots laser

  Here, I will talk about recent advances in the field of QD lasers with a focus on direct growth on Si. Si photonics has found widespread application, particularly for high volume applications and for co-integration with CMOS electronics. I will start with an overview of the field, followed with a summary of device performance and fundamental physics basis for the improved response.
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  Recent Advances in Sensor Design

  Khaled Salama, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Oct 4, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Recent sensor analog design optimization

  In this talk we will discuss the work conducted at KAUST sensors lab and KAUST sensor initiative

Sep 27 - Oct 3, 2020

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  Wireless Communications with Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces

  Prof. Ertugrul Basar, Koç University, Istanbul

  Sep 29, 16:00 - 17:15

  KAUST

  Abstract Extensive research has already started on 6G and beyond wireless technologies of 2030 due to the envisioned new use-cases including multisensory augmented/virtual reality applications, wireless brain computer interactions, and fully autonomous systems. Although a plethora of modern physical layer solutions have been introduced in the last few decades with the context of 4G and 5G wireless systems, it is undeniable that a level of saturation has been reached in terms of the available spectrum, adapted modulation/coding solutions and accordingly the maximum throughput as well as
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  Exploring the Potentials of EM Waves from Body-scale to Nano-communications for Healthcare and Next Generation Wireless Applications

  Akram Alomainy, Reader, Antennas and Applied Electromagnetics, Queen Mary University of London

  Sep 27, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  healthcare electromagnetic Radio frequency devices Biomedical Engineering

  With the advent of commercial products, such as Apple iWatch and Samsung Galaxy Gear, body-centric communication has increasingly garnered the public attention and smoothly translated state-of-the-art research work into reality. However, challenges still remains and these are often fundamental physical hurdles that need to be further explored and investigated to come up with efficient and scalable solutions applicable to many fields and areas. This becomes an important research area when you look at the scale or rather the multiple scales it needs to work at from body-size or larger networks to the nano-scale where there have been lots of interest recently on how to get nano-devices inside tissues and even inside intelligent materials around us. The talk will present recent development in the area of antennas, RF devices and electromagnetic solutions for applications such as healthcare, biomedical engineering and next generation wireless communications. It will look at the challenges from theoretical, numerical and experimental prospective to ensure that proposed concepts and outcomes are of benefit not only to those domains but other beyond such as agricultural technology and smart home and cities.

Sep 20 - Sep 26, 2020

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  Gbit/s Visible Light Communications

  Boon Ooi, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Sep 20, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Gbit/s Visible light communications

  Visible light communication (VLC or LiFi) has been a topic of intense research after the idea was proposed in 2011. To date, a data rate of multiple 100s Mbps has been demonstrated using LED as light source. At KAUST, we are developing the next generation of SSL lighting using visible laser diodes (LDs) and superluminescent diodes (SLDs). Laser diodes and SLDs do not suffer efficiency droop at high current densities. This allows for the design of lamps using a single, small footprint, light-emitting chip operating at high current densities. Using a single chip reduces system costs compared with LEDs because the system uses less material per chip, requires fewer chips, and employs simplified optics and a simplified heat-sink. The chip area required for LED technologies will be significantly reduced using LD/SLD-based solid-state lighting. This technology will also enable highly controllable beams in term of tunable throw distance, tunable color temperature and rendering index. Multiple Gbit/s VLC links have been demonstrated using LD/SLD as transmitters. In this talk, I will focus on the recent progress of visible diode LD/SLD-based lighting technology and high-speed transmitters and receivers for multiple-Gbps VLC and underwater wireless optical communication.

Sep 13 - Sep 19, 2020

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  High-Speed GaN-Based Distributed-Feedback Lasers and Optoelectronics

  Jorge A. Holguin-Lerma, Ph.D. Student, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Sep 17, 09:30 - 11:00

  KAUST

  Gallium nitride (GaN) is a semiconductor material highly regarded for visible light generation since it provides the most efficient platform for compact violet, blue, and green light emitters, and in turn, high-quality and ubiquitous white lighting. Despite this fact, the potential of the GaN platform has not been fully exploited. This potential must enable the precise control in the various properties of light, realizing functions beyond the conventional. Simultaneously, the field of the telecommunications is looking for candidate technologies fit for wireless transmission in the next generations of communication. Visible light communication (VLC) may play a significant role in the future of the last mile of the network by providing both a fast internet connection and a high-quality illumination.
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  Research at the Image and Video Understanding Lab (IVUL) - Graduate Seminar - ECE

  Bernard Ghanem, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Sep 13, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  research image Video Understanding Lab IVUL

  In this talk, I will give an overview of research done in the Image and Video Understanding Lab (IVUL) at KAUST. At IVUL, we work on topics that are important to the computer vision (CV) and machine learning (ML) communities, with emphasis on three research themes: Theme 1 (Video Understanding): We aim to extract meaningful semantic information from large-scale video data by tackling research problems such as object tracking, activity detection, moment retrieval, and language grounding in video. Theme 2 (Visual Computing for Automated Navigation): We develop methodology to enable more accurate, reliable, and robust perception of the visual world for automated navigation applications (e.g. self-driving cars and UAVs). In this theme, we tackle research problems such as object tracking, segmentation, and detection in 3D data, as well as transfer learning from simulation (sim2real). Theme 3 (Fundamentals/Foundations): In this theme, we tackle fundamental research problems in CV and ML that transcend specific applications with focus on deep network theory/analysis (e.g. robustness, certification, and interpretability) and structured optimization methods for large-scale CV/ML problems. Throughout the talk, I will highlight some of the interesting projects at IVUL to encourage students to get interested in the research field.

Sep 6 - Sep 12, 2020

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  Flexible, Wearable, Disposable Wireless Communication and Sensing Systems Through Additive Manufacturing - 2020

  Atif Shamim, Program Chair, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Sep 6, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  flexible Wearable disposable Wireless communication Sensing Systems additive manufacturing

  With the advent of wearable sensors and internet of things (IoT), there is a new focus on electronics which can be bent so that they can be worn or mounted on non-planar objects. Due to large volume (billions of devices), there is a requirement that the cost is extremely low, to the extent that they become disposable. The flexible and low-cost aspects can be addressed through additive manufacturing technologies such as inkjet, screen and 3D printing. This talk introduces additive manufacturing as an emerging technique to realize low cost, flexible and wearable wireless communication and sensing systems. The ability to print electronics on unconventional mediums such as plastics, papers, and textiles has opened up a plethora of new applications. In this talk, various innovative antenna and sensor designs will be shown which have been realized through additive manufacturing. A multilayer process will be presented where dielectrics are also printed in addition to the metallic parts, thus demonstrating fully printed components. Many new functional inks and their use in tunable and reconfigurable components will be shown. In the end, many system level examples of wireless sensing applications will be shown. The promising results of these designs indicate that the day when electronics can be printed like newspapers and magazines through roll-to-roll and reel-to-reel printing is not far away.

Aug 30 - Sep 5, 2020

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  Low Power Micro-electromechanical Resonator-Based Logic Circuits

  Sally Ahmed, Ph.D. Student, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Aug 31, 16:00 - 17:00

  KAUST

  Abstract The notion of mechanical computation has been revived in the past few years, with the advances of nanofabrication techniques. Although electromechanical devices are inherently slow, they offer zero or very low off-state current, which reduces the overall power consumption compared to the fast complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) counterparts. This energy efficiency feature is the most crucial requirements for most of the stand-alone battery-operated gadgets, biomedical devices and the internet of things (IoT) applications, which do not require the fast processing speeds