Events

Aug 30 - Sep 5, 2020

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  Power Electronics Applications in Offshore Wind Farms

  Otavio Bertozzi, Ph.D. Student, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Aug 30, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Power electronics Applications Offshore Wind Farms

  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 seminar we will go through some of the fundamentals of these enabling technologies and their applications. We will also present a simple, reliable, efficient and cost-effective concept applied to parallel connection of offshore wind turbines.

Aug 9 - Aug 15, 2020

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  Semi-talk: Efficiency Improvement of AlGaN based Deep UV emitter grown by HT-MOCVD

  Dr. Byeongchan So, Postdoctoral researcher / Ph.D. Department of Nano-Semiconductor Engineering, ​Korea Polytechnic University

  Aug 13, 15:00 - 16:00

  KAUST

  In this seminar, the approaches for improving the efficiency of AlGaN based DUV emitters will be presented. The high-temperature metal organic chemical vapor deposition system has been used to grow high-quality AlGaN based epi-layers and nanostructure on the sapphire substrate.

Jul 26 - Aug 1, 2020

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  Additively Manufactured Vanadium Dioxide (VO₂) based Radio Frequency Switches and Reconfigurable Components

  Shuai Yang, Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Jul 30, 18:00 - 20:00

  KAUST

  Frequency-reconfigurable RF components are highly desired in a wireless system because a single frequency-reconfigurable RF component can replace multiple RF components to reduce the size, cost, and weight. Typically, the reconfigurable RF components are realized using capacitive varactors, PIN diodes, or MEMS switches, which are expensive, require tedious soldering steps, and are rigid and thus non-compatible with futuristic applications of flexible and wearable electronics. In this work, we have demonstrated vanadium dioxide (VO₂) based RF switches that have been realized through additive manufacturing technologies (inkjet printing and screen printing), which dramatically brings the cost down to a few cents. Also, no soldering or additional attachment step is required as the switch can be simply printed on the RF component. The printed VO₂ switches are configured in two types (shunt configuration and series configuration) where both types have been characterized with two activation mechanisms (thermal activation and electrical activation) up to 40 GHz. The measured insertion loss of 1-3 dB, isolation of 20-30 dB, and switching speed of 400 ns is comparable to other non-printed and expensive RF switches. Moreover, as an application for the printed VO₂ switches, a fully printed frequency reconfigurable filter has also been designed in this work.

Jul 19 - Jul 25, 2020

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  Semi-talk: Ion beams in III-nitride research: Doping, characterisation and radiation resistant electronics

  Prof. Katharina Lorenz, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon

  Jul 23, 16:00 - 17:30

  KAUST

  Katharina Lorenz's main research interests are the doping of WBS with optically active ions and the study of radiation effects in WBS materials for radiation detectors and radiation resistant electronics.

Jul 12 - Jul 18, 2020

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  Semi-talk: Recent advances in deep-UV photodetectors based on ultrawide band gap semiconductors

  Prof. Digbijoy Nath, Indian Institute of Science

  Jul 16, 14:30 - 16:00

  KAUST

  Brief Biography Education: PhD, Electrical Engineering, 2013, The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA. B. E. (Hons), Electrical & Electronics Engineering, 2008, Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani.

Jul 5 - Jul 11, 2020

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  Heterogeneous Integration Strategy for Obtaining Physically Flexible 3D Compliant Electronic Systems

  Sohail Faizan Shaikh, Ph.D. Student, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Jul 9, 15:00 - 16:00

  KAUST

  In this thesis, we present a pragmatic heterogeneous integration strategy to obtain high-performance 3D electronic systems using existing CMOS technology. Critical challenges addressed during the process are; reliable flexible interconnects, maximum area efficiency, soft-polymeric packaging, and heterogeneous integration compatible with current CMOS technology. First, a modular LEGO approach presents a novel method to obtain flexible electronics in a lock-and-key (plug and play) manner with reliable interconnects. It includes a process to convert standard rigid IC into flexible LEGO without any performance degradation with a high-yield. For the majority of healthcare and environmental monitoring applications, a sensory array is essential for continuous spatiotemporal activity recording. Here we present an ultra- high-density sensory solution (1 million sensors) as an epitome of density and address each of the associated challenges. A generic heterogeneous integration scheme is devised to obtain a physically flexible standalone electronic system using 3D-coin architecture. Lastly, a feather-light non-invasive ‘Marine-Skin’ platform to monitor deep-ocean monitoring is presented using the heterogeneous integration scheme. Electrical and mechanical characterization establish the reliability, integrity, robustness, and ruggedness of the processes, sensors, and multisensory flexible system.
• 

  Semi-talk: Characteristics of gallium oxide based wide bandgap semiconductors

  Prof. Qixin Guo, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Saga University

  Jul 9, 09:00 - 10:30

  KAUST

  Prof. Dr. Guo received B. E., M.E., and Dr. E degrees in electronic engineering from Toyohashi University of Technology in 1990, 1992, and 1996, respectively. He is currently a Professor of Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Saga University as well as Director of Saga University Synchrotron Light Application Center. His research interests include epitaxial growth and characterization of semiconductor materials. Prof. Guo has published more than 300 papers in scientific journals including Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, Physical Review B, and Applied Physics Letters with more than 7200 citations (h-index: 43).

Jun 28 - Jul 4, 2020

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  Semi-talk: Wearable Textile Electronics for Personalized Health Care

  Jun Chen, Department of Bioengineering, University of California Los Angeles

  Jun 29, 19:00 - 20:30

  KAUST

  Dr. Jun Chen is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles. His current research focuses on nanotechnology and bioelectronics for energy, sensing, environment and therapy applications in the form of smart textiles, wearables, and body area sensor networks.

Jun 14 - Jun 20, 2020

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  Situational Awareness and Decision-Making Support for Crowd Management in Mina, A Grand Challenge Project Funded by the Ministry of Education

  Dr. Emad Felemban, Associate Professor in Computer engineering of Umm Al-Qura University

  Jun 17, 13:00 - 14:00

  KAUST

  Computer science communication engineering

  Recent real disastrous crowd incidents have shown that crowded places can be exposed to significant safety dangers and that the presence of many pedestrians can potentially result in injuries and fatalities at large scales if not planned and managed reasonably. This fact has resulted in significant challenges for managing the safety of large volumes of pedestrians in dense areas. In retrospect, many such real crowd disasters could have been avoided with better crowd management. Better tools and methodologies to predict crowd behavior during planning for potential emergencies would enable authorities to plan and prepare for improved public safety in crowded environments. Better still, real-time management of crowds might avert disasters if live event data could be used to make rapid predictions of crowd dynamics over the immediate future, allowing management to be optimized as an event unfolds. Such tools do not yet exist, and the technical demands of creating them are not trivial; they will require innovative approaches to both empirical research and modeling.
• 

  Semi-talk: MOCVD epitaxial growth and device fabrication of GaN-based laser diodes: from visible to ultraviolet

  Prof Ping Chen, Institute of Semiconductor, Chinese Academy of Sciences

  Jun 16, 16:00 - 17:00

  KAUST

  Dr. Ping Chen now works as a full Professor in the Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing China). He received his bachelor’s degree of Physics from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2003, and doctor’s degree of Microelectronics and Solid State Electronics from the Graduate School in University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2008. He worked in Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA) as a Visiting Scholar from 2017 to 2019.

Jun 7 - Jun 13, 2020

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  Semi-talk: Low Cost Photonics

  Dr. Naresh Chand, Life Fellow of IEEE, Associate Vice President, Chapter Relations of the IEEE Photonics Society

  Jun 9, 16:00 - 17:30

  KAUST

  Dr. Naresh Chand is a Life Fellow of IEEE, Associate Vice President, Chapter Relations of the IEEE Photonics Society, and the Chair, Photonics Society, North Jersey Chapter. Dr. Naresh Chand was previously with US R&D Center of Huawei Technologies in NJ in 2011-2019 where he was working on developing low-cost advanced technologies for Ultra Broadband Optical Access Networks. Prior to this, he worked for BAE Systems (2003-11), Agere Systems and AT&T/Lucent Bell Laboratories (1986-2003), and Dept of Electronics, Government of India (1974-79).

May 31 - Jun 6, 2020

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  Semi-talk: Deep UV photodetectors based on Ga2O3 thin films grown on sapphire and muscovite mica

  Prof. Rajendra Singh, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

  Jun 5, 16:00 - 17:30

  KAUST

  Dr. Rajendra Singh is presently a Professor at the Department of Physics, IIT Delhi. He did M.Sc. (Physics) from D.B.S. College, Dehra Dun (affiliated to H.N.B. Garhwal University) in 1995. After that he joined Inter University Accelerator Centre (formerly Nuclear Science Centre), New Delhi for Ph.D. His Ph.D. work was related to the study of the effect of swift heavy ion irradiation on electrical properties of Si and GaAs. He completed his Ph.D. in 2001 with degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He then joined Walter Schottky Institute (WSI), Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany as a post doctoral fellow. There he worked on the design, fabrication and characterization of InP-based heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs). He extensively used Class 100 Cleanroom facilities at WSI working on various processing tools such as photolithography, wet etching, reactive ion etching, UHV metallization and rapid thermal annealing. In January 2004 he joined the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Halle, Germany as a post doctoral fellow. There he worked in the area of direct wafer bonding and layer splitting of semiconductors for the fabrication of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and strained silicon-on-insulator (sSOI). He worked in a Class 10 Cleanroom facility at MPI Halle using processing tools such as wet benches, wafer bonding system, plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) and annealing furnaces.
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  Game-Theoretic Analysis of Smart Grid Markets: From Retail to Wholesale

  Khaled Alshehri, Assistant Professor, KFUPM

  Jun 4, 13:00 - 14:00

  KAUST

  game theory energy

  As end-consumers of electricity become more proactive and as many countries around the world push for a deeper penetration of renewable resources into the power grid, critical issues and challenges arise to the design and operation of deregulated electricity markets. In this presentation, we show how one can exploit tools from game theory to address some of these critical issues. Firstly, wholesale and retail markets are becoming more integrated due to the increasing adoption of distributed energy resources, creating a large gap in the current understanding of the impact of such small-scale energy resources on the larger power system operation and electricity market outcomes. This motivates us to develop a metric, called the Price of Aggregation, which quantifies the impact of integrating distributed energy resources in the retail-level on wholesale market efficiency. Secondly, evidence from real markets indicate that large-scale adoption of wind energy in the transmission system leads to significantly higher price volatility in wholesale markets. To mitigate the effects of price volatility, we propose an add-on centralized clearing mechanism that is applicable to any wholesale market, with the aim of allowing any market participant to hedge against profit volatilities, without changing the existing market operations. Finally, we develop a multiperiod-multicompany demand response framework in retail markets, which captures the behavior of competing companies and their price-responsive end-consumers. Using real-life data, we demonstrate potential savings that can exceed 30% for end-consumers, in addition to revealing desirable mathematical properties and deep insights.

May 24 - May 30, 2020

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  Semi-Talk: III-Nitride Nanowire Light-Emitting Diodes on Silicon and Patterned Substrates

  Prof Hieu Nguyen, Electrical and Computer Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology

  May 29, 18:00 - 19:00

  KAUST

  Prof. Hieu Nguyen received the B.S. degree in Physics from Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2005), the M.S. degree in Electronics Engineering from Ajou University, South Korea (2009), and the PhD. degree in Electrical Engineering from McGill University, Canada (2012). In September 2014, he joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, New Jersey Institute of Technology. He has authored/co-authored 1 book chapter, 1 patent, 48 journal articles, and more than 70 conference presentations.
• 

  Indoor 3D Scene Understanding Using Depth Sensors

  Jean Lahoud, Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering

  May 28, 16:00 - 18:00

  KAUST

  Computer Vision 3D object detection Deep learning

  One of the main goals in computer vision is to achieve a human-like understanding of images. This understanding has been recently represented in various forms, including image classification, object detection, semantic segmentation, among many others. Nevertheless, image understanding has been mainly studied in the 2D image frame, so more information is needed to relate them to the 3D world. With the emergence of 3D sensors (e.g. the Microsoft Kinect), which provide depth along with color information, the task of propagating 2D knowledge into 3D becomes more attainable and enables interaction between a machine (e.g. robot) and its environment. This dissertation focuses on three aspects of indoor 3D scene understanding: (1) 2D-driven 3D object detection for single frame scenes with inherent 2D information, (2) 3D object instance segmentation for 3D reconstructed scenes, and (3) using room and floor orientation for automatic labeling of indoor scenes that could be used for self-supervised object segmentation. These methods allow capturing of physical extents of 3D objects, such as their sizes and actual locations within a scene.

May 17 - May 23, 2020

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  Semi-Talk: Role of 3D chemical imaging in advancing wide band gap technology

  Prof. Baishakhi Mazumder, Department of Materials Design and Innovation, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University at Buffalo

  May 22, 16:00 - 17:00

  KAUST

  No summary is available.

May 10 - May 16, 2020

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  Semi-Talk: III-Nitride Semiconductor Photonics and Nanoelectronics

  Prof. Jing Zhang, Electrical and Microelectronic Engineering, Rochester Institute of Technology

  May 15, 21:00 - 22:00

  KAUST

  Dr. Jing Zhang is currently the Kate Gleason Endowed Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Microelectronic Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology. She obtained B.S. degree in Electronic Science and Technology from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (2009), and Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Lehigh University (2013). Dr. Zhang’s research focuses on developing highly efficient III-Nitride and GaO semiconductor based photonic, optoelectronic, and electronic devices. Her research group is working on the development of novel quantum well active regions and substrates for enabling high-performance ultraviolet and visible LEDs/ lasers, as well as engineering of advanced device concepts for nanoelectronics.

May 3 - May 9, 2020

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  6G: Super-connecting the connected and connecting the unconnected

  Mohamed-Slim Alouini, Al-Khawarzmi Distinguished Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  May 3, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  6G

  This talk aims to 1) provide an envisioned picture of 6G, 2) serve as a research guideline in the beyond 5G era, and 3) go over the recently proposed solutions to provide high-speed connectivity in under-covered areas to serve and contribute to the development of far-flung regions. The role of Internet and Communication Technology (ICT) in bringing about a revolution in almost all aspects of human life needs no introduction. It is indeed a well-known fact that the transmission of the information at a rapid pace has transformed all spheres of human life such as economy, education, and health to name a few. In this context, and as the standardization of the fifth generation (5G) of wireless communication systems (WCSs) has been completed, and 5G networks are in their early stage of deployment, the research visioning and planning of the sixth generation (6G) of WCSs are being initiated. 6G is expected to be the next focus in wireless communication and networking and aim to provide new superior communication services to meet the future hyper-connectivity demands in the 2030s.

Apr 26 - May 2, 2020

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  Semi-Talk: Multifunctional Flexible Semiconductor Materials and Devices for Photonic, Electronic, Energy, and Sensing Applications

  Prof. Jae-Hyun Ryou, Mechanical Engineering, Texas Center for Superconducitity

  May 1, 16:00 - 17:00

  KAUST

  Brief Biography Prof. Jae-Hyun Ryou is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Also affiliate with Materials Science and Engineering Program, Texas Center for Superconducitity (TcSUH), and Advanced Manufacturing Institute (AMI) Education and experience: Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering, University of Texas at Austin M.S. and B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea Honeywell Technology Center Center for Compound Semiconductors at Georgia Institute of Technology Research: Current research interests: semiconductor materials, devices, and
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  On Optimal Regularization in Estimation, Detection, and Classification

  Tareq Al-Naffouri, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Apr 30, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  linear systems computational Complexity Convex Gaussian Min-max theorem

  In many problems in statistical signal processing, regularization is employed to deal with uncertainty, ill-posedness, and insufficiency of training data. It is possible to tune these regularizers optimally asymptotically, i.e. when the dimension of the problem becomes very large, by using tools from random matrix theory and Gauss Process Theory. In this talk, we demonstrate the optimal turning of regularization for three problems : i) Regularized least squares for solving ill-posed and/or uncertain linear systems, 2) Regularized least squares for signal detection in multiple antenna communication systems and 3) Regularized linear and quadratic discriminant binary classifiers.
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  Distributed Robotics

  Apr 26, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  robotics distributed systems

  This talk presents an overview of challenges, state-of the-art, and applications for distributed robotic systems. In distributed robotic systems, there is a group of robots that seek to achieve a collective task. Applications include environmental monitoring, search and rescue, and programmable self-assembly. Settings can range from a small team of cooperative robots to a swarm of many interacting agents. An essential feature of such systems is that individual robots make decisions based on available local information as well as limited communications with other robots. The challenge is to design local protocols that result in desired global outcomes. In contrast to a traditional centralized paradigm, both measurements and decisions are distributed among multiple actors.

Apr 19 - Apr 25, 2020

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  Nanomaterials and Nanostructure Based Energy Efficient In-Memory Sensing

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

  Apr 20, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  nanomaterials Nanostructure energy efficiency

  In this talk, I will present the potential of nano-islands grown by the atomic layer deposition (ALD) in addition to novel material combinations in scaled memory devices. Moreover, in order to relax the scalability requirement, I will introduce an integrated potential single device solution by infusing memory device which can monitor and remember our actions and the surrounding environment. Such a device performs the roles of both a MEMory and a senSOR at once and is referred to as a MEMSOR. The MEMSOR is directly programmed by external physical stimuli rather than an applied electric potential as in conventional devices. As a result, the MEMSOR leads to faster data analysis, lower footprint area, energy consumption, and ideally, the cost of the system. Finally, the MEMSOR device will be based on a MOSFET architecture with a mature manufacturing process, and thus it can be integrated with conventional Flash devices on the same silicon wafer with minimal additional process steps.
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  Near Field Wireless Power Transfer: Circuits and Application

  Shehab Ahmed, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Apr 19, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Near Field wireless Power Transfer

  Recently, wireless power transfer has been used in mobile phones, electric vehicles, medical implants, wireless sensor networks, unmanned aerial vehicles, and so on. In this seminar, we will walk through circuit theory and simulations that illustrate the nature and constraints of the technology. We will also address contemporary topics related to application of wireless power transfer in electric vehicle applications.

Apr 12 - Apr 18, 2020

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  Economic Model Predictive Control Strategies for Nonlinear Systems

  Fahad Albalawi , Research Scientist, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Apr 16, 16:00 - 17:30

  KAUST

  Model Predictive Control neural network nonlinear control systems

  The first part of this talk provides a brief introduction of the EMPC (motivation, challenges, and solutions). The second part of this talk proposes a regret-based robust EMPC paradigm for nonlinear systems subject to unknown but bounded disturbance. The main motivation of the proposed work is the possible improvement of the economic performance when one considers the regret function as the objective function for the robust EMPC algorithm instead of the worst cost. The third part of this talk introduces an integrated framework that combines a Neural Network (NN) algorithm with an MPC scheme that can guarantee closed-loop stability in the presence of deception cyberattacks (e.g., min-max cyberattack). Both discrete-time and continuous-time nonlinear systems will be utilized throughout the talk to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed control methods. Finally, future research directions will be presented at the end of the talk.
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  Evolutionary science via nonlinear orthography

  Andrea Fratalocchi, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Apr 12, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Evolutionary science nonlinear orthography

  The goal of our research is to understand the physical origin of these behaviors and trasform them into sustainable technologies that tackle contemporary problem of global interest, ranging from energy harvesting to clean water production, design of smart materials, biomedical applications, information security, artificial intelligence, global warming, and so on. Creating technologies from complex natural systems is a modern interdisciplinary research field that permeates many different scientific areas, ranging from physics to mathematics, to engineering and the theory of linguistics. This is a very challenging, yet very promising research. It involves the understanding of what we consider complex, which translates as something “involved, intricate, complicated, not easily understood or analyzed”. This sets the challenge of being able to understand the mechanisms of these systems and cross many different disciplines in order to constructively harness their properties into reproducible applications.

Apr 5 - Apr 11, 2020

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  Blue LED material extended to Green, Yellow, and now Red

  Kazuhiro Ohkawa, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Apr 5, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  electrical engineering energy LED OLEDs MOCVD

  In this seminar, the science of MOCVD, the material science of InGaN, and the new-born InGaN-based red LED performance will be discussed. The three primary colors in light are RGB. Green and blue LEDs have been realized by using InGaN active region. The current red LEDs are based on AlGaAs or InGaP as the active region. If we can realize red LEDs by InGaN, it is possible to integrate RGB LEDs in a wafer. Such RGB integration is a breakthrough to develop the next displays, so-called, micro-LED displays that are the next after the OLED displays, and functional LED lightings.

Mar 29 - Apr 4, 2020

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  Fabrication and Characterization of GaN-Based Superluminescent Diode for Solid-State Lighting and Visible Light Communication

  Abdullah A. Alatawi, Ph.D. Student, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Apr 2, 16:00 - 18:00

  KAUST

  Fabrication and Characterization solid-state lighting Visible light communications

  This dissertation is devoted to the fabrication and electrical and optical characterization of a new class of III-nitride light-emitter known as superluminescent diode (SLD). SLD works in an amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) regime, and it combines several advantages from both LD and LED, such as droop-free, speckle-free, low-spatial coherence, broader emission, high-optical power, and directional beam. Here, SLDs were fabricated by a focused ion beam by tilting the front facet of the waveguide to suppress the lasing mode. They showed a high-power of 474 mW on c-plane GaN-substrate with a large spectral bandwidth of 6.5 nm at an optical power of 105 mW. To generate SLD-based white light, a YAG-phosphor-plate was integrated, and a CRI of 85.1 and CCT of 3392 K were measured. For the VLC link, SLD showed record high-data rates of 1.45 Gbps and 3.4 Gbps by OOK and DMT modulation schemes, respectively. Additionally, a widely single- and dual-wavelength tunability were designed using SLD-based external cavity (SLD-EC) configuration for a tunable blue laser source.
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  Efficient and Accurate Numerical Techniques for Sparse Electromagnetic Imaging

  Ali Imran Sandhu, Ph.D. Student, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Apr 1, 15:30 - 17:30

  KAUST

  computational electromagnetics inverse scattering

  In this thesis, efficient solutions are sought out to fundamental problems in Electromagnetic (EM) imaging that determines the shape, location, and material properties of an (unknown) object of interest in an investigation domain from the scattered field measured away from it. The solution of an EM inverse scattering problem inherently poses two main challenges: (i) non-linearity, since the scattered field is a non-linear function of the material properties and (ii) ill-posedness, since the integral operator has a smoothing effect and the number of measurements is finite in dimension and they are contaminated with noise. The non-linearity is tackled incorporating a multitude of techniques (ranging from Born approximation (linear), inexact Newton (linearized) to complete non-linear iterative Landweber schemes) that can account for weak to strong scattering problems. The ill-posedness of the EM inverse scattering problem is circumvented by formulating the above methods into a minimization problem with a sparsity constraint, which assumes that the dimension of the unknown object relative to the investigation domain is much smaller. Numerical experiments, which are carried out using synthetically generated measurements, show that the images recovered by these sparsity-regularized methods are sharper and more accurate than those produced by existing methods. The methods developed in this work have potential application areas ranging from oil/gas reservoir engineering to biological imaging where sparse domains naturally exist.
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  Ultraviolet band based underwater wireless optical communication

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

  Apr 1, 10:00 - 12:00

  KAUST

  Optical communications optical wireless communicaitons communication networks photonics

  Underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) has attracted increasing interest for data transfer in various underwater activities, due to its order-of-magnitude higher bandwidth compared to conventional acoustic and radio-frequency (RF) technologies. Our studies pave the way for eventual applications of UWOC by relieving the strict requirements on PAT using UV-based NLOS. Such modality is much sought-after for implementing robust, secure, and high-speed UWOC links in harsh oceanic environments. This work was first started with the investigation of proper NLOS configurations. Path loss (PL) was chosen as a figure-of-merit for link performance. The effects of NLOS geometries, water turbidity, and transmission wavelength are evaluated by measuring the corresponding PL. The experimental results suggest that NLOS UWOC links are favorable for smaller azimuth angles, stronger water turbidity, and shorter transmission wavelength, as exemplified by the use of 375-nm wavelength. With the understanding of favorable NLOS UWOC configurations, we established a NLOS link consisting of an ultraviolet (UV) laser as the transmitter for enhanced light scattering and high sensitivity photomultiplier tube (PMT) as the receiver. A high data rate of 85 Mbit/s using on-off keying (OOK) in a 30-cm emulated highly turbid harbor water is demonstrated. Besides the underwater communication links, UV-based NLOS is also appealing to be the signal carrier for direct communication across wavy water-air interface. The trial results indicate link stability, which alleviates the issues brought about by the misalignment and mobility in harsh environments, paving the way towards real applications.
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  Understanding a Block of Layers in Deep Neural Networks: Optimization, Probabilistic and Tropical Geometric Perspectives

  Adel Bibi, Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Mar 30, 18:00 - 20:00

  KAUST

  Computer Vision machine learning optimization

  In this dissertation, we aim at theoretically studying and analyzing deep learning models. Since deep models substantially vary in their shapes and sizes, in this dissertation, we restrict our work to a single fundamental block of layers that is common in almost all architectures. The block of layers of interest is the composition of an affine layer followed by a nonlinear activation function and then lastly followed by another affine layer. We study this block of layers from three different perspectives. (i) An Optimization Perspective. We try addressing the following question: Is it possible that the output of the forward pass through the block of layers highlighted above is an optimal solution to a certain convex optimization problem? As a result, we show an equivalency between the forward pass through this block of layers and a single iteration of certain types of deterministic and stochastic algorithms solving a particular class of tensor formulated convex optimization problems.
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  Exact Backstepping Control for Systems in Pure Feedback Form

  Prof. Johann Reger, Computer Science and Automation Faculty, TU Ilmenau, Germany

  Mar 29, 14:00 - 15:00

  KAUST

  Backstepping Lyapunov Theory non-linear feedback TU Ilmenau

  Traditional backstepping approaches may struggle to asymptotically stabilize systems in pure feedback form, due to its inherent implicit equations. Approximation based designs only have a limited domain of validity and turn out sensitive to model uncertainty and disturbances. We propose a new design that circumvents the necessity of solving implicit algebraic equations by introducing new state variables. Additional augmentations to the backstepping Lyapunov design lead to explicit expressions for the associated differential equations. The result is a dynamic state feedback, capable of asymptotically stabilizing the origin of a general class of nonlinear systems, based on just standard assumptions.
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  EE+CS Graduate Seminar: Deep Graph Convolutional Networks

  Bernard Ghanem, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Mar 29, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Deep learning GCN

  In this talk, I will present a line of work done at the Image and Video Understanding Lab (IVUL), which focuses on developing deep graph convolutional networks (DeepGCNs). A GCN is a deep learning network that processes generic graph inputs, thus extending the impact of deep learning to irregular grid data including 3D point clouds and meshes, social graphs, protein interaction graphs, etc. By adapting architectural operations from the CNN realm and reformulating them for graphs, we were the first to show that GCNs can go as deep as CNNs. Developing such a high capacity deep learning platform for generic graphs opens up many opportunities for exciting research, which spans applications in the field of computer vision and beyond, architecture design, and theory. In this talk, I will showcase some of the GCN research done at IVUL and highlight some interesting research questions for future work.

Mar 15 - Mar 21, 2020

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  Part 2 - Introduction to backstepping control

  Prof. Johann Reger, Computer Science and Automation Faculty, TU Ilmenau, Germany.

  Mar 16, 09:00 - 11:30

  KAUST

  Backstepping TU Ilmenau Lyapunov Theory

  Backstepping is a widely applicable control technique based on Lyapunov theory that under rather mild assumptions leads to families of control laws for a large class of nonlinear systems. Focusing on systems of ordinary differential equations, we introduce the basic concept (integrator backstepping), generalize it, among others, to systems in strict feedback form and pure feedback form, which all enjoy an inherent controllability property, captured in the system structure. The course ends with extending the setting to the adaptive backstepping case, resorting to the certainty equivalence principle and Barbalat's lemma. The course is furnished by a series of exercises to let the students gather experience on tailored examples.
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  Light management in non-Hermitian media

  Dr. Waqas Ahmed, Electrical Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

  Mar 15, 12:00 - 13:00

  KAUST

  Non-Hermitian Optics nanophotonics Artificial Structured Materials laser physics metamaterials

  Structured media provide the momentum compensation for the scattering of waves. It is well-known that nano-scale modulations of the refractive index may lead to a temporal and spatial control over light propagation. Yet, also engineering the gain and loss profile uncovers analogous shaping effects. However, only the interplay between both the refractive index and gain and loss modulations introduces unidirectionality in light management. Thus, non-Hermitian optics has become one of the most fertile grounds in optics. A generalized Hilbert transform allows tailoring the two quadratures of the complex permittivity to design periodic or disordered non-Hermitian media, holding either global or local unidirectionality following arbitrary vector fields to tailor the flow of light. The method allows restricting the permittivity within realistic values rendering it suitable for applications.

Mar 8 - Mar 14, 2020

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  Sensing, Localization, and Communications to Enable Future IoT Systems

  Tareq Al-Naffouri, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Mar 12, 16:00 - 17:00

  KAUST

  IoT Sensor array processing

  In this talk, Tareq will present his research contributions and future directions to advance some critical IoT-enabling technologies: sensing, localization, and communications. He will demonstrate how we take advantage of structure in sensed-data and sensor arrays. This structure can help mitigate sensing uncertainties, improve localization accuracy, and enhance the performance of communication systems, all while reducing the computational overhead. The Internet of Things (IoT) has ushered a new era in many fields including retail, medicine, agriculture, and the automotive industry. In fact, it is projected that by 2025, one trillion IoT devices will be deployed worldwide: the equivalent of 1000 devices per person. To reach such a scale, major advancements are needed in various IoT-enabling technologies.
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  Part 1 - Introduction to backstepping control

  Prof. Johann Reger, Computer Science and Automation Faculty, TU Ilmenau, Germany.

  Mar 12, 09:00 - 11:30

  KAUST

  Backstepping TU Ilmenau

  Backstepping is a widely applicable control technique based on Lyapunov theory that under rather mild assumptions leads to families of control laws for a large class of nonlinear systems. Focusing on systems of ordinary differential equations, we introduce the basic concept (integrator backstepping), generalize it, among others, to systems in strict feedback form and pure feedback form, which all enjoy an inherent controllability property, captured in the system structure. The course ends with extending the setting to the adaptive backstepping case, resorting to the certainty equivalence principle and Barbalat's lemma. The course is furnished by a series of exercises to let the students gather experience on tailored examples.
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  Radio Frequency Sensing in Healthcare: Detection of Falls, Gait Abnormality and Vital Signs

  Moeness Amin, Professor and Director of the Center for Advanced Communications, Villanova University, USA

  Mar 8, 12:00 - 13:00

  B9 L2 H1

  Radio frequency devices sensor healthcare

  In this talk, we represent recent advances of radio frequency (RF) sensing technology for healthcare, specifically in monitoring human activities inside homes, retirement facilities, and hospitals. Sensing technologies and data analytics are considered powerful tools in efficient indoor monitoring of human activities. Monitoring of activities of daily living (ADL) can identify falls, which are considered as the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries for people aged 65 and over. It can also detect variants in activity patterns and changes in routines and lifestyle as well as the state of physical, cognitive, and psychological health of the person. In addition to monitoring ADL, RF-based gesture recognition using hands and arms is shown to be an important contactless technology for Man-Machine-Interface (MMI). Adding to the indoor applications, RF-based vital sign monitoring has vast medical use, as respiration and heartbeats are essential diagnostic barometers for many health problems. More recently, RF sensors have also been proposed for gait analysis for rehabilitation and timely diagnosis of many neurological, orthopedic and medical conditions. Changes in gait patterns can also be precursors of falls. In this talk, we present successful examples in each of the above application areas and discuss pertinent open problems worthy of investigations.

Mar 1 - Mar 7, 2020

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  Dual Function Radar Communication Systems: Towards RF Convergence

  Moeness Amin , Professor and Director of the Center for Advanced Communications, Villanova University, USA

  Mar 2, 14:00 - 17:00

  B1 L3 R3119

  radar

  This tutorial establishes and promotes the area of dual system functionality, allowing the radar to house voice and data transmission, leading to technological advances in radar and communications systems. The tutorial develops novel signaling schemes for embedding information into the radar pulsed emissions which, in most cases, is blind to the primary radar operation and radar ambiguity function. It considers different antenna configurations, including multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radars and shows how to achieve high data rate communications by combining amplitude-shift keying, phase-shift keying, and code shift keying modulations with waveform-diversity and spatial degrees of freedom.
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  Engineering Organic Electronics for Biology - 2020-03-01

  Sahika Inal, Assistant Professor, Bioengineering, KAUST

  Mar 1, 12:00 - 13:00

  B9 L2 H1 R2322

  bioelectronics

  The field of bioelectronics combines the worlds of electronics and biology with the aim of developing new tools for biomedical research and healthcare. The majority of implantable devices are mechanically stiff and the mechanical properties mismatch with soft tissue causes an immune response which results in their rejection from the body. Another limitation is associated with the fact that most devices utilize metal electrodes to record from/stimulate tissue. These electrodes offer limited coupling with ion fluxes used by cells to communicate with each other, resulting in low efficiency. Such challenges can be overcome with the integration of soft, conducting polymers displaying mixed (ionic and electronic) conduction. In this talk, I will present approaches that leverage the properties of organic conducting materials in order to develop bioelectronic devices interfacing with the body. These devices include organic electrochemical transistors for measuring metabolites, neural activity and integrity of cellular layers.

Feb 23 - Feb 29, 2020

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  Recent Advances in Sparse Array Design

  Moeness Amin , Professor and Director of the Center for Advanced Communications, Villanova University, USA

  Feb 27, 14:00 - 17:00

  B1 L3 R3119

  sparse array

  In this tutorial, we review sparse arrays from the coarray perspective that strives for full augment ability, i.e., maximizing the number of spatial autocorrelation lags. In this respect, we discuss sparse array performance for direction finding and also address the passive and active arrays for stationary and moving platforms. We then contrast these configurations with sparse arrays that achieve MaxSINR for both narrowband and wideband sources operating in an interference-active environment. The tutorial also considers both single point source and multiple point sources. We cover the two important cases where the array aperture size is constrained and unconstrained and demonstrate optimum performance in both cases. For the former, and with a limited aperture, we introduce a hybrid design that seeks a full augmentable array which at the same time optimizes beamformer performance. The problem is formulated as a quadratically constraint quadratic program, with the cost function penalized with weighted l1-norm squared of the beamformer weight vector. The wideband problem is tackled by two different approaches, one includes a delay line filter implementation and the other one is the DFT approach.
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  Towards Collaboration of Multiple Intelligent Robots and Human Supervision

  Dr. Inmo Jang, Postdoctoral Researcher, Robotics for Extreme Environment Group at the University of Manchester

  Feb 27, 10:00 - 11:00

  B2 L5 R5209

  robotics game theory algorithms

  As autonomy in individual robots becomes advanced, one of the next challenges is to coordinate multiple of such intelligent robots, which are then expected to innovatively transform legacy industries (e.g., warehouse automation, connected-vehicle management, etc.). Towards collaboration of multiple robots, this talk will particularly introduce a game-theoretical framework for clustering a large number of multiple robots and assigning the robot teams to given tasks, where the network of the robots is strongly connected and the individuals are asynchronous. The proposed decentralised algorithm guarantees convergence of selfish agents having social inhibition towards a Nash stable partition (i.e., social agreement) within polynomial time.
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  Manipulating Magnetization with Acoustic Waves

  Pallavi Dhagat, Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Oregon State University, USA

  Feb 23, 12:00 - 13:00

  B9 L2 H1

  magnetization acoustic waves

  In this seminar, I will present our work on manipulating magnetization with acoustic waves. The temporally and spatially varying strain in acoustic waves produces a corresponding change in the local anisotropy of magnetostrictive materials through the Villari effect. This magneto-acoustic coupling may be used for patterning magnetic films and for nonlinear signal processing such as amplification and correlation of spin waves. I will discuss our experiments and results towards these application possibilities, and also present the techniques we have developed to characterize magnetostriction.

Feb 16 - Feb 22, 2020

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  Distributed Multi-parameter Sensing Using a Multimode Fiber

  Islam Ashry, Senior Research Scientist, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  Feb 16, 12:30 - 13:00

  B9 L2 H1 R2322

  Graduate Seminar Part 2. Fiber-optic distributed acoustic sensor (DAS) and distributed temperature sensor (DTS) are considered important for many applications. It is challenging to design a hybrid DAS-DTS system using the same optical fiber because the operation principles of the two sensors are different. In this talk, we summarize the concept of using the widespread standard multimode fiber (MMF) for simultaneous distributed acoustic and temperature sensing. In particular, we operate the MMF in a quasi-single-mode (QSM) state to simultaneously fulfill the functional requirements of the DAS and DTS. This technique is significant for many industrial applications because it efficiently tackles a long-standing issue in practical implementation.
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  Epitaxial growth of group-III nitride semiconductors on amorphous fused silica glass and its heterogeneous integration for optoelectronic devices

  Jung-Wook Min, Research Scientist, Photonics Laboratory

  Feb 16, 12:00 - 12:30

  B9 L2 H1 R2322

  Graduate Seminar Part 1. In this talk, catalyst- and mask-free GaN nanowires ensemble were grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PA-MBE) under nitrogen-rich condition. Prior to optoelectronic device realization, we conducted fundamental studies including diffusion-induced growth mechanisms on various substrates. On bare fused silica substrate, without any buffer layer, hundreds-of-nanometer scale grains of GaN nanowires were examined by SEM and interfaces were investigated by TEM. Despite the poly-crystalline properties of the coalescent columnar GaN layer, each grain showed the preferential orientation along the c-axis growth direction. To provide conductivity and transparency on amorphous fused silica as a thermally durable substrate, transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layers were deposited by RF magnetron sputtering method on a fused silica glass substrate. Next, for the heterogeneous integration toward solar cell application, we introduced n-GaN nanowires as an electron transport layer (ETL) for methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) perovskite solar cells (PSCs). n-GaN nanowires showed high electron mobility and UV blocking characteristics with MAPbI3. Moreover, finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation confirmed that the roughened interfaces of GaN nanowire arrays are helpful for photon recycling. These achievements can open a new pathway for the heterogeneous integration of group-III nitride and perovskite semiconductors and substrate-independent epitaxy.

Feb 9 - Feb 15, 2020

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  A robust HOSM control method for robotic systems

  Fatma Abdelhedi, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering department, at the College of Engineering, King Abdulaziz University

  Feb 12, 14:00 - 15:00

  B3 L5 R5209

  Robotics is set to play an ever increasingly important role in society, due to its influence in every aspect of life, including medicine and healthcare, manufacturing, services..etc
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  Toward Satellite-Air-Ground-Ocean Optical Wireless Communication for Internet of Things

  Meiwei Kong, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Photonics Laboratory

  Feb 9, 12:00 - 13:00

  B9 L2 H1

  Satellite-Air-Ground-Ocean Optical Wireless Communication for Internet

  With the advent of Internet-of-Things (IoT), the conventional radio frequency (RF) communication technology with a congested spectrum of 300 GHz cannot meet the ever-increasing demand for broadband transmission. By exploiting an unlicensed spectrum of ~ 30 PHz, optical wireless communication (OWC) technology is supposed to significantly relieve the load of RF spectrum to support the massive connectivity of IoT devices in the era of fifth-generation networks and beyond. Up to now, continuous breakthroughs in the field of free-space optical communication, visible light communication, and underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) are laying a solid foundation for the realization of OWC across satellite-air-ground-ocean (SAGO) boundaries, which is expected to considerably accelerate the pace of realizing globally-connected IoT. In this talk, we will briefly introduce the current progress of UWOC research and development toward applications in SAGO OWC.

Feb 2 - Feb 8, 2020

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  Influence of urban architecture features on the attenuation of a field strength levels of mobile communication

  Prof. Alisher Shakhobiddinvos, Dean, TV and Broadcasting System Department, Tashkent University of Information Technologies

  Feb 6, 13:30 - 14:30

  B1 L4 R4214

  Tashkent University effective conductivity base stations urban architecture

  In this speech, In this speech, Okumura-Hata expressions will be presented for calculating the attenuation of the field strength of mobile communication stations in the megapolis on the example of the capital of Uzbekistan - Tashkent in the frequency bands 900 and 1800 MHz. Expressions allow to take into account factors that affect the signal attenuation in detail. Knowing the levels of the distribution patterns of the field strength in urban environments can correctly determine the number of base stations required to provide high-quality mobile communication. High quality of mobile communications, in turn, creates the best conditions for a quick payback on the development of a mobile network.
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  Rate-splitting and Multi-Cloud Signal Processing in Cloud-Enabled Communication Networks

  Dr. Allaa Alameer Ahmad, Resarch Assistant, Institute of Digital Communication Systems, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany

  Feb 6, 11:00 - 12:30

  B1 L4 R4214

  Ruhr-University Bochum Germany

  Our talk will consider a cloud-enabled system, and will investigate ways of managing its performance through two particular interference mitigation techniques. In the first part of the talk, inspired by the classical information theoretical results on characterizing the interference channel achievable rate region, we will consider rate-splitting (RS) and common message decoding (CMD) schemes. The talk will shed light on ways of tackling two of the underlying optimization problems in this realm.
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  Nanomaterials and Nanostructure Based Energy Efficient Edge and Fluidic Computing for Internet of Things Applications

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

  Feb 2, 12:00 - 13:00

  B9 L2 H1

  nanomaterials Nanostructure Based Energy Efficient Edge Fluidic Computing KAUST IoT

  In this talk, I will address these questions with a focus on smart and multifunctional nanomaterial-based memory devices than can sense different physical qualities of the environment (Memsors) in addition to pressure-driven microfluidic logic gates which can process and analyze non-electronic media in an attempt to explore, enable and empower a wider range of IoT applications.

Jan 26 - Feb 1, 2020

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  An Egocentric Computer Vision-based Robotic Wheelchair

  Mohammed Kutbi, Assistant Professor at the department of Computer Science and a member of the Artificial Intelligence Unit at Saudi Electronic University (SEU)

  Jan 30, 11:00 - 12:00

  B3 L5 R5209

  robotics Computer Vision

  The emerging need to improve the quality of life for elderly and disabled individuals who rely on wheelchairs for mobility is our motivation for this work. Research on robotics wheelchair covers broad range from motion control, how to control the wheelchair movement, to complete autonomy.