News

December 2022

• 

  Gene detectives solve disease mysteries

  1 min read · Sun, Dec 18 2022

  News

  Prof. Arold and Gao presented their research at two high-profile conferences in Riyadh in November 2022; the International Conference on Genomic Medicine and the HIMSS22 Middle East Health Conference & Exhibition. Both researchers underline the importance of such events for discussions with clinicians, healthcare providers and policymakers to help connect their research with the healthcare needs of the country.
• 

  A catalyst for innovation and discovery  

  1 min read · Wed, Dec 14 2022

  News

  The KAUST ECCS workshop brought together a host of international, in-Kingdom and University experts to exchange their expertise. Workshop speakers covered future challenges in designing embedded and cyber-connected systems that can scale efficiently and operate securely and resiliently.
• 

  A new spin on bouncing sound waves

  1 min read · Tue, Dec 13 2022

  News

  Insight into the spinning-induced scattering of sound could help create next-generation acoustic devices using new phonon modes.
• 

  KAUST ECE students win IEEE ComSoc Student Competition prize

  1 min read · Sun, Dec 11 2022

  News

  Research work by KAUST electrical and computer engineering students Abeer Alamoudi and Qi Huang has been selected as the second-prize winner of the 2022 IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc) Student Competition "Communications Technology Changing the World."
• 

  KAUST Professor Boon S. Ooi named Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Fellow

  1 min read · Wed, Dec 7 2022

  News

  KAUST Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Boon S. Ooi was recently named as an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Fellow, effective January 1, 2023. Professor Ooi was elected for his "contributions to broadband light emitters and visible light communications," the IEEE stated.
• 

  Simple hardware to defend microgrid attacks

  1 min read · Mon, Dec 5 2022

  News

  cybersecurity hardware security

  An inexpensive piece of hardware integrated with solar panel controllers can protect isolated power networks from cyberattacks.
• 

  KAUST postdoctoral fellow receives Best Poster Award at the Abu Dhabi 6G Summit

  1 min read · Thu, Dec 1 2022

  Awards News

  Nour Kouzayha, a postdoctoral research fellow based in the KAUST Information Science Lab (ISL), recently won the Best Poster Award at the Technology Innovation Institute’s (TII) Abu Dhabi 6G Summit 2022. Dr. Kouzayha received the award for her poster titled "Coverage and Mobility Analysis of Aerial Users in Integrated HAPS-Ground Wireless Networks."

November 2022

• 

  Illuminating the twisting pathway to efficient wireless communications based on light

  1 min read · Wed, Nov 30 2022

  News

  Illuminating the twisting pathway to efficient wireless communications based on light.
• 

  Professor Kazuhiro Ohkawa receives JSAP Outstanding Paper Award

  1 min read · Mon, Nov 28 2022

  News

  KAUST Professor of Electrical Engineering Kazuhiro Ohkawa recently received the Japan Society of Applied Physics (JSAP) Outstanding Paper Award 2022. He will officially receive his award at the JSAP’s annual Spring Meeting in Tokyo in March 2023.
• 

  Professor Huser receives the Abdel El-Shaarawi Early Investigator Award 2022

  1 min read · Sun, Nov 20 2022

  Awards News

  KAUST Associate Professor of Statistics Raphaël Huser has been awarded the Abdel El-Shaarawi Early Investigator (AEEI) Award 2022 from The International Environmetrics Society (TIES), an association of the International Statistical Institute (ISI).
• 

  KAUST SENTRY team wins prestigious CSAW'22 embedded system hacking competition

  1 min read · Sun, Nov 20 2022

  Awards News

  KAUST Ph.D. students from the KAUST Secure Next Generation Resilient Systems (SENTRY) Lab recently won the CSAW Cybersecurity Games & Conference’s (CSAW'22) "Hack My Robot Challenge (HMR)."
• 

  Decision Trees with Hypotheses

  1 min read · Sun, Nov 20 2022

  News

  New book Decision Trees with Hypotheses by Mohammad Azad, Igor Chikalov, Shahid Hussain, Mikhail Moshkov, and Beata Zielosko has been published online.
• 

  Professor Gianluca Setti appointed as the new Dean of the CEMSE Division

  1 min read · Sun, Nov 13 2022

  News Spotlight

  Professor Gianluca Setti, the internationally recognized scientist and Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), has been appointed as the new Dean of the Computer, Electrical, Mathematical Science and Engineering (CEMSE) Division.
• 

  Dedicating cellular infrastructure for aerial users

  1 min read · Thu, Nov 10 2022

  News

  In recent years, aerial transportation has seen unprecedented advances since the terrestrial traffic congestion and the constraints of public transportation infrastructure. To become a reality, it is important to provide a strong and reliable connection for aerial users. However, the current cellular infrastructure is primarily designed to serve ground users with down-tilted antennas. CTL researchers proposed to convert a part of the down-tilted BSs into up-tilted BSs to ensure the coverage of aerial users. The analysis and simulation results evaluated the effectiveness of this novel proposal
• 

  A skewed model for imbalanced health data

  1 min read · Thu, Nov 10 2022

  News

  An asymmetric statistical model provides a better fit for imbalanced data with rare "positives," such as longitudinal health datasets.
• 

  Deep neural networks that “get” spatial dependence

  1 min read · Mon, Nov 7 2022

  News

  A deep-learning technique could offer accurate large-scale predictions in the field of geospatial statistics.
• 

  Professor Wan receives 2022 Rising Stars of Light Award

  1 min read · Sun, Nov 6 2022

  Awards News

  KAUST Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Yating Wan recently received the 2022 Rising Stars of Light Faculty & Postdoc Track - Popescu Winner Award from Light: Science & Applications (LSA).
• 

  Enlightened route to wireless communications

  1 min read · Thu, Nov 3 2022

  Spotlight News

  Smart windows that can polarize sunlight could offer a low energy alternative to Wi-Fi.

October 2022

• 

  KAUST student Zhiyuan Liu wins best poster award at IWN 2022

  1 min read · Mon, Oct 31 2022

  Awards News

  Zhiyuan Liu, a M.S./Ph.D. candidate in the KAUST Advanced Semiconductor Laboratory (ASL) under the supervision of Professor Xiaohang Li, was named a best poster award winner at last month’s International Workshop on Nitride Semiconductors (IWN) 2022.
• 

  Metalens offers superior off-axis focus

  1 min read · Sun, Oct 30 2022

  News

  A flat all-dielectric reflector metalens design could benefit optical imaging, manipulation and communications.
• 

  Becoming a powerhouse of semiconductor expertise

  1 min read · Tue, Oct 25 2022

  News

  advanced semiconductors

  KAUST Compound Semiconductor Weekend brought together a diverse group of experts to discuss the most important research areas of semiconductor technology and the substantial compound semiconductor work done in Saudi Arabia and India.
• 

  A predictive eye on the prize

  1 min read · Sun, Oct 16 2022

  Awards News

  A global weather prediction model built by KAUST researchers has been nominated for the Gordon Bell Prize for outstanding achievements in high-performance computing. The award honors innovative computing in science, engineering and large-scale data analytics, which is used in environmental modeling. “Climate prediction models require the fastest computers in the world,” says Rabab Alomairy, a specialist in optimizing computer models for scientific applications. As part of her Ph.D. at KAUST, she joined a multidisciplinary team led by KAUST faculty David Keyes, which has built ExoGeoStat, a
• 

  BORG team win at the KAUST-NVIDIA GPU Hackathon 2022

  1 min read · Sun, Oct 16 2022

  News

  machine learning ontology artificial intelligence GPU

  Congratulations to Senay Kafkas, Maxat Kulmanov and Fernando Zhapa Camacho of the Bio-Ontology Research Group (BORG) on winning at the KAUST-NVIDIA GPU Hackathon 2022. The 8th edition of the Hackathon on Accelerating Scientific Applications using Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) was held at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), twelve teams of students and researchers enjoyed the opportunity to accelerate their codes in GPU’s under the guidance of expert mentors of NVIDIA, Codee, KAUST Supercomputing Lab (KSL) and KAUST core labs.
• 

  Professor Feron receives two best paper awards at DASC 2022

  1 min read · Tue, Oct 11 2022

  Awards News

  KAUST Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Eric Feron received two best paper awards at this year’s 41st American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)/Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC 2022).
• 

  Appointment of Prof. Xin Gao as Interim Director and Prof. Robert Hoehndorf as Interim Associate Director of CBRC

  1 min read · Mon, Oct 3 2022

  News

  The Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC) is pleased to announce that Professor Xin Gao has assumed the position of Interim Director and Professor Robert Hoehndorf as Interim Associate Director of the CBRC. Both professors assumed their roles on September 15, 2022.
• 

  KAUST M.S./Ph.D. student receives the IEEE Communications Society’s 2022 Andrea Goldsmith Young Scholars Award

  1 min read · Sun, Oct 2 2022

  Awards News Spotlight

  Jia Ye, a M.S./Ph.D. student in the KAUST Communication Theory Lab (CTL) receives the 2022 Andrea Goldsmith Young Scholars Award from the IEEE Communications Society in recognition of her high level of research aptitude in communication theory and engagement in the professional community.

September 2022

• 

  Steering Customized AI Architectures for HPC Scientific Workloads: A Bird of Feather at SC22!

  1 min read · Thu, Sep 15 2022

  News

  machine learning HPC numerical linear algebra artificial intelligence

  Abstract: We explore the possibilities of a hybrid system capable of solving both HPC and AI scientific problems. Such a hybrid architecture combines the synergism between classical HPC platforms and dedicated AI chip systems, which is important due to the computational challenges brought to the fore by massively parallel Exascale systems. We discuss the system functionality, the algorithmic software adaptations, and performance considerations. We present efforts in supporting AI/ML applications in addition to seismic imaging, climate/weather prediction, and computational astronomy on hybrid
• 

  Mixed Feelings About Mixed Precisions: Birds of a Feather at SC22!

  1 min read · Tue, Sep 13 2022

  News

  Mixed Precisions HPC GPU Computing

  Abstract: Come and share your experiences with the state-of-the-art of mixed-precision techniques! By wisely trading off accuracy, we can mitigate data movement overheads and increase performance of applications, including real-time adaptive optics simulations on ground-based telescopes and genome-wide association study for agricultural genomics. No free lunch, however: these optimizations require support from the software/hardware ecosystem and strong numerical validation. For instance, the tile Cholesky factorization is a fundamental matrix algorithm in solving covariance problems that
• 

  CBRC alumnus Dr. Tanvir Alam awarded "The Early Career Researcher Award" by HBKU

  1 min read · Sun, Sep 11 2022

  News

  CBRC's Alumni Dr. Tanvir Alam recently received The Early Career Researcher Award from Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Doha on its first annual Research Day on September 7, 2022. Research Day was an opportunity for HBKU to recognize and honor the accomplishments of faculty and scientists, early-career researchers, and students, with the presentation of research awards in different categories.
• 

  How much do model organism phenotypes contribute to the computational identification of human disease genes?

  1 min read · Sun, Sep 4 2022

  News

  Ontologies phenotype ontologies gene-disease associations

  PhD Student Sarah M Alghamdi from the Bio-Ontology Research Group (BORG) explains how phenotype ontologies help in identifying disease genes through phenotype comparison. Her research was picked as a highlight in the July 2022 issue of Disease Models and Mechanisms Journal.

August 2022

• 

  The ten-year road from Thuwal to KAUST

  1 min read · Sun, Aug 28 2022

  News Spotlight

  A boy from Thuwal, who remembers vividly the construction of KAUST and how it influenced the local people, is now a student at CEMSE. This is his story and how his story made history.
• 

  Better health from better data

  1 min read · Tue, Aug 23 2022

  News

  statistics geospatial statistics health surveillance

  The fast-developing science of geospatial statistics offers new insights into diverse health challenges, from cancer hotspots to problems of air pollution and the spread of COVID-19. Three new projects should yield a better understanding of what causes disease in Saudi Arabia and how to fight it. KAUST also stands to make a real contribution to the region by improving health in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The field of geospatial statistics and health surveillance, known as GeoHealth, uses data from multiple sources to create disease maps of geographical areas. When information is
• 

  A model for millions of locations

  1 min read · Tue, Aug 23 2022

  News

  climate change Environmental Statistics modeling statistics

  CEMSE statisticians developed a framework which enables modeling of a range of meteorological and environmental datasets from up to 2 million locations globally.
• Watching viscous flow, but faster

  1 min read · Tue, Aug 23 2022

  News

  modeling Computer science

  A state-of-the-art method for modeling the behavior of liquids described by the Computational Sciences Group represents a breakthrough in computational speed for viscous liquids.
• 

  KAUST students' research wins first place at IEEE AP-S/URSI 2022

  1 min read · Mon, Aug 22 2022

  Awards News

  RFICs sensors Antennas

  Hanguang Liao and Yiming Yang from the KAUST IMPACT Lab won first place in the 2022 IEEE AP-S Student Design Contest at the 2022 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI Radio Science Meeting (IEEE AP-S/URSI 2022), held in July in Denver.
• 

  Stochastic geometry-based low latency routing in LEO satellite networks

  1 min read · Mon, Aug 22 2022

  News

  In recent years, we have witnessed the booming development of low earth orbit (LEO) satellite networks. In terms of low latency and ultra-long distance communication, the LEO satellite network has excellent advantages over ground networks and high orbit satellite networks. In ultra-long distance communication, multiple satellites are used as relays to complete multi-hop routing. How to select the relay satellite to achieve the minimum latency routing becomes one of the challenges. CTL researchers studied the routing in massive low earth orbit (LEO) satellites. They proposed a nearest-neighbor
• 

  KAUST Ph.D. candidate wins ISBA-BayesComp poster award at the International Society for Bayesian Analysis 2022

  1 min read · Sun, Aug 21 2022

  News

  Bayesian computational statistics

  Esmail Abdul Fattah, a KAUST Ph.D. candidate in statistics, won a poster award in the "junior-BayesComp-ISBA" category at the 30th meeting of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA 2022) held from June 26 to July 1 in Montreal, Canada.

July 2022

• 

  Professor Markowich elected to the European Academy of Sciences and Arts

  1 min read · Thu, Jul 21 2022

  News

  Applied Partial Differential Equations diffusive phenomena generalized Sobolev inequalities inverse problems quantum mechanical kinetic theory mean-field games

  KAUST Distinguished Professor of Applied Mathematics and Computational Science Dr. Peter Markowich has been named a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA). He will officially be inducted as a member at the organization's annual inauguration ceremony in early 2023.
• 

  KAUST New Faculty: Yating Wan, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

  1 min read · Tue, Jul 19 2022

  News

  photonics Optical Wireless Communication Biosensors energy harvesting quantum information processing

  Yating Wan, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, joins KAUST as a member of the KAUST Photonics Laboratory from her most recent position as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), U.S.

June 2022

• 

  Bone formation comes down to the nanowire

  1 min read · Thu, Jun 30 2022

  News

  human health

  Jasmeen Merzaban, Jürgen Kosel and colleagues from their labs developed nanotechnology that accelerates the transition of stem cells into bone and could advance regenerative medicine.
• 

  KAUST ECE alumnus wins Design Automation Conference Under-40 Innovators Award

  1 min read · Thu, Jun 30 2022

  News

  automation microelectronics

  Former KAUST Sensors Lab researcher Hesham Omran (Ph.D. ’15) has been named as one of the four winners of the Design Automation Conference (DAC) 2022 Under-40 Innovators Award. The award recognizes the top young innovators who have made a significant impact in the field of design and automation of electronics.
• 

  The 20-year dash: Celebrating the accomplishments of our inspiring in-Kingdom and international female scientists

  1 min read · Mon, Jun 27 2022

  News

  The presence of women in scientific disciplines in the Kingdom has risen from almost zero to 32 percent in just 20 years. KAUST has contributed greatly to the positive trend as a platform for women from Saudi Arabia and all over the world to study and develop their ideas in a modern campus and research environment.
• 

  Extreme analysis of seizures

  1 min read · Mon, Jun 27 2022

  News

  neuroscience machine learning human health statistics

  CEMSE researchers Matheus Guerrero, Raphaël Huser and Hernando Ombao developed a new approach for analyzing seizures in epilepsy patients by applying extreme value theory to real EEG seizure data.
• 

  Professor Park receives O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award at the 2022 American Control Conference

  1 min read · Sun, Jun 26 2022

  News

  robotics intelligent systems

  Professor Shinkyu Park has been awarded the 2022 O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award (Theory) from the American Automatic Control Council (AACC) for his paper investigating a new mathematical framework to study decision making in multi-agent systems.
• 

  Workshop Stochastic Numerics and Statistical Learning: Theory and Applications - May 2022

  1 min read · Wed, Jun 22 2022

  News

  Between the 15th and 29th of May 2022, KAUST hosted the Workshop Stochastic Numerics and Statistical Learning: Theory and Application s, organized by Prof. Raul F. Tempone (Stochastic Numerics Research Group) and Prof. Ajay Jasra (Computational Probability Research Group). During these two weeks, 28 talks, two mini-courses, and two poster sessions were held, with the participation of renowned professors, researchers, and students. Over the two weeks, more than 150 people from many universities and research institutes participated, on-site or remotely. The first mini-course was Deep Neural
• 

  KAUST alumnus named in Forbes' “30 Under 30 Asia list” – Class of 2022

  1 min read · Sun, Jun 12 2022

  News

  healthcare technologies machine learning bioinformatics

  KAUST alumnus Yu Li (Ph.D. '20) was recently named amongst the Forbes' "30 Under 30 Asia list" – Class of 2022. Forbes recognized the current assistant professor of computer science and engineering at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) for his work developing algorithms to solve problems in biology and health care.

May 2022

• 

  Computer learns to write captions with feeling

  1 min read · Tue, May 31 2022

  News

  machine learning visual computing artificial intelligence Visual Art Computer science

  Mohamed Elhoseiny and his PhD student Youssef Mohamed are teaching AI to capture the full spectrum of human emotions when annotating artwork in order to reduce emotional bias in computer-generated captions.
• 

  Professor Athanasios Tzavaras elected Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences (EurASc)

  1 min read · Sun, May 29 2022

  News

  applied mathematics Applied Partial Differential Equations

  Athanasios (Thanos) Tzavaras has been elected Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences (EurASc). He was nominated for his contributions to the interface of nonlinear partial differential equations and applied mathematics in the physical sciences.
• 

  New database to "SpUR" on cancer research

  1 min read · Sun, May 29 2022

  News

  human health cancer Computer science

  Xin Gao's team developed an interactive web portal where cancer scientists can interrogate how RNA splicing in noncoding parts of genes fuels the growth of different types of tumors.
• 

  AI helps diagnose post-COVID lung problems

  1 min read · Sun, May 29 2022

  News

  human health Imaging machine learning Computer science

  A new AI diagnostic tool developed by KAUST scientists allows doctors to visualize lung damage caused by COVID-19 in more detail.