Profiles

Sahar Ammar is a Ph.D. candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). She holds an M.S. In Electrical and Computer Engineering from KAUST and a Diplôme d'ingénieur from École Polytechnique de Tunisie, and was a visiting researcher at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF). She has contributed to several projects on intelligent and energy-efficient communication systems across maritime, aerial, and optical wireless networks.

Sahar research studies involve developing RL-based solutions for network optimization, mobility management, and resource orchestration in 5G/6G systems. Additionally, she has refined her expertise in optical wireless communication, gained through earlier work on Sun-Fi, a novel green solution for indoor environments based on sunlight modulation. She is also interested in interdisciplinary collaborations and excited by opportunities to tackle real-world challenges and advance global connectivity.

Sara Rojas Martinez is a Ph.D. student in the KAUST Image and Video Understanding Lab (IVUL) under the supervision of Professor Bernard Ghanem. Before joining KAUST, Sara obtained a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia. 

Sara completed a research internship at Naver Labs Europe, where she worked on extending MAST3R to better understand humans in-the-wild. Her advisors were Gregory Rogez, Matthieu Armando, and Vincent Leroy.

Prior to that, Sara interned at Adobe Research, where she worked under the guidance of Kalyan Sunkavalli. She also collaborated with Reality Labs at Meta in Zurich, mentored by Albert Pumarola and Ali Thabet. Earlier, she conducted research at the University of Southern California with Autumn Kulaga.

Sara is interested in topics related to the investigation in Artificial Intelligence, 3D computer vision, deep learning, generative AI, and image processing. She has also worked on 3D reconstruction.

Sebastian Celis Sierra received the B.Eng. degrees in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, in 2018, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, in 2020 and 2026, respectively. He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at KAUST under the supervision of Hakan Bagci. His research interests include computational electromagnetics, specifically time-domain integral equation solvers, bianisotropic structures, and the characterization of 2D materials like graphene.

Sebastian's research focuses on formulating and implementing surface and volume integral-equation methods in both the time and frequency domains to capture complex electromagnetic behavior in arbitrarily shaped metasurfaces. By coupling these formulations with generalized sheet transition conditions (GSTCs), he aims to achieve both numerical efficiency and physical fidelity. His work advances the theoretical foundations and practical computational tools necessary for the next generation of communication systems.

Research Scientist based in Cambridge (UK). Victor works at the Samsung AI Center, focusing on enhancing AI applications in creative and productivity domains. I earned my BSc and MSc in Electrical Engineering from Universidad del Norte, studying under the supervision of Ph.D Juan Carlos Niebles. Victor completed his PhD at KAUST under the mentorship of Prof. Bernard Ghanem, with a research focus on computer vision. My early career was marked by pioneering developments in efficient video and action understanding models. Once I joined industry, I am committed to developing advanced AI applications that empower human creativity and scale General AI, particularly in edge computing environments.

My research spans a wide array of AI disciplines, with a special focus on computer vision, efficient video understanding, and the development of AI agents with a strong interest for edge deployment. I am particularly passionate about build AI Agents to enhance human creativity and productivity. My ongoing projects aim to seamlessly integrate AI capabilities into user-centric applications, pushing the boundaries of what AI can achieve in real-world scenarios.

Vijith Varma Kotte is a Ph.D. candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia. He joined KAUST in 2020 under the supervision of Prof. Tareq Y. Al-Naffouri. He received his B.Tech. degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Amrita School of Engineering, Bengaluru, India, in 2015, and his M.Tech. degree from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) in 2018.

Prior to joining KAUST, Vijith worked as a Research Engineer at the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) in New Delhi from 2018 to 2019.

His research interests span signal and image processing, deep learning, and wireless communications, with a particular focus on radar signal processing for biomedical and automotive applications.

• MIMO Radar signal processing.
• Wireless communications..
• Deep Learning.

Dr. Xiaowen is a Postdoc Fellow at the Integrated Photonics Laboratory under the supervision of Prof. Yating Wan at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). Before joining KAUST, he received his B.E. degree in Material Science from South China University of Technology in 2013. He received the Ph.D. degree from the South China University of Technology in 2017 and completed 2-year postdoctoral research in Zhejiang University. He previously published 15 SCI journals (8 first author), including Nano Lett., Nano Res., Chem. Mater., etc. His current research focus towards the integration of 2D materials on silicon-photonics and the nonlinear optics of optical waveguides. His work aims to explore the unique properties of these materials and their potential applications in the field of integrated photonics.

Dr. Xiaowen’s research interests are 2D integrated silicon photonics, nonlinear optics.

Yingquan Li is an M.S./Ph.D. candidate in the KAUST Communication Theory Lab under the supervision of Professor Mohamed-Slim Alouini. Before joining KAUST, Yingquan earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.

Yingquan's research interests include advanced signal detecting and processing, hardware implementation of key communication technology and underwater optical wireless communication. Li is focusing in the area of digital signal processing, wireless optical communication and circuit design.

Yiyang Yu is a Ph.D. Candidate at Integrated Microwaves Packaging Antennas & Circuit Technology Research Group under the supervision of Professor Atif Shamim at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). His current research interests include on-chip antenna design and artificial magnetic conduction design for 6G mm-wave applications.

Yiyang's research interests include ​Electrically Small Antenna Design.

Yongqiang Zhang received the B.Sc. degree in communication engineering from Southwest University, Chongqing, China, in 2019, and the M.S. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, in 2021, where he is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree. 

His main research interests include the performance analysis and optimization of the integrated access and backhaul (IAB) networks.

• Nanofabrication of Semiconductors
• N/MEMS design and dynamics
• Control Theory
• Vibration
• Mechatronics

Yue Wang is a Ph.D. candidate at the Photonics Laboratory at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), under the mentorship of Prof. Boon S. Ooi. She earned her B.Eng. in Electronic Science and Technology from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) in 2020. She received her master's degree in Electrical Engineering from KAUST in 2021.

Yue Wang's research focuses on semiconductor optoelectronics, high-speed color-converting luminescent devices, and optical wireless communication. She specializes in characterizing color-converting materials, designing and fabricating luminescent optoelectronic devices, and developing optical wireless communication systems.

Yue Wang has explored emerging luminescent materials such as perovskites, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), and organic fluorophores, enabling Gb/s visible light communication and wavelength-division multiplexing with enhanced channel capacity. To relieve the stringent requirements of pointing, acquisition, and tracking in underwater optical wireless communication channels, she employed scintillating fibers and luminescent solar concentrators for wide field-of-view, high-speed photodetection. Her work also extends to optical amplification, where she has developed a high-gain visible-light amplifier based on perovskite quantum dots, potentially addressing the optical loss during long-distance optical data transmission.

Zhengying Lou is a Ph.D. student at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. She received her B.S. degree in Communication Engineering from University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in 2021. In 2022, she received her M.Sc. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from KAUST. Her current research interests include stochastic geometry and wireless networks.

Zhengying Lou's research interests include Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and Optimization.

Zhiyuan Liu earned his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in 2025. His doctoral research was conducted in the KAUST Advanced Semiconductor Laboratory under the supervision of Professor Xiaohang Li.

Liu’s work focuses on the design, fabrication and performance optimization of III-nitride optoelectronic devices, including micro-LEDs, deep ultraviolet LEDs and ultraviolet photodetectors. His research emphasizes device structural design, physical modeling, micro- and nanofabrication, and surface and interface engineering to improve efficiency, reliability and scalability.

During his time at KAUST, Liu developed an etching-free fabrication approach for ultra-small micro-LEDs based on selective thermal oxidation. This work was recognized with the International Solid State Lighting Alliance’s 2025 Global SSL Award of Innovations Top 100, highlighting its contribution to improving device efficiency, stability and manufacturability.

Liu has authored more than 30 SCI-indexed journal publications, including 10 first-author papers in leading journals such as Light: Science & Applications, Optics Letters and Journal of Materials Chemistry C.

He is currently a professor at the Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics (SINANO), Chinese Academy of Sciences, where he continues to advance research on micro-LED technologies and III-nitride optoelectronic devices.