News

May 2021

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  NASA’s helicopter Ingenuity flies on Mars: the challenges behind the exploration of other planets

  5 min read · Mon, May 3 2021

  News

  On April 19, 2021, NASA flew the first helicopter in history on Mars. Ingenuity – the small, unmanned solar helicopter - rose 3 m over the ground and hovered in the thin Martian air for about 40 seconds. Ingenuity landed on Mars attached to the underside of the Perseverance rover on February 18, 2021. Before Ingenuity, the first flight on a planet beyond Earth was an unpowered balloon carried on Venus by the Soviet probe Vega 1, in 1985.

April 2021

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  KAUST Ph.D. candidate wins first place at IEEE SSD’21 PhD Students Contest

  2 min read · Sun, Apr 25 2021

  News

  electrical engineering Information Technology

  KAUST Ph.D. candidate Mohamed Abdelwaheb Bahloul recently won first place at the IEEE International Multi-Conference on Systems, Signals and Devices 2021 (SSD’21) PhD Students Contest. The contest provided a showcase for students’ original work related to electrical engineering and information technology.
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  Star light, star bright…as explained by math

  1 min read · Sun, Apr 25 2021

  News

  extreme statistics big data statistics

  The evolving periodicity of the brightness of certain types of stars can now be described mathematically.
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  Introducing "THE FANTASTATISTICS 4"

  1 min read · Thu, Apr 15 2021

  News

  Introducing KAUST’s very own "THE FANTASTATISTICS 4." Gaurav Agarwal, Jian Cao, Wanfang Chen, and Yuxiao Li are four Ph.D. alumni from the Statistics program at KAUST. The four students obtained their Ph.D.s last year under the supervision of Professor Ying Sun, Agarwal and Li, and Distinguished Professor Marc Genton, Cao and Chen, respectively.
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  KAUST-led research set to revolutionize communications privacy

  1 min read · Wed, Apr 14 2021

  News

  CMOS-compatible silicon chip communications privacy

  In our modern information-saturated society, data protection is a significant and ongoing challenge for both individuals and organizations. Every day we share public and business data over unsecured information channels, computer systems, and networks, be it through video calls, emails and text messaging. At any moment, the transmission of this sensitive, private communication can be intercepted and hacked to commit fraudulent acts such as stealing passwords, identity theft, and gaining access to bank accounts.
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  A brainwave from social networks

  1 min read · Wed, Apr 14 2021

  News

  neuroscience extreme computing statistics

  The statistics used to understand social networks reveal the diversity of functional connections in the brain.
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  Meet New KAUST Student: Juan C. Pérez

  2 min read · Tue, Apr 13 2021

  News

  Juan C. Pérez is a biomedical engineering graduate from Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia, who joined KAUST in January 2021. Juan first came to KAUST as an intern and was amazed by its excellent research atmosphere, environment, and resources. These factors served as an impetus in choosing KAUST as the destination to further his academic career.
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  Machine learning at speed

  1 min read · Mon, Apr 12 2021

  News

  machine learning artificial intelligence big data Computer science

  Optimizing network communication accelerates training in large-scale machine-learning models.
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  Predicting future hotspots in the Red Sea

  1 min read · Thu, Apr 8 2021

  News

  big data Red Sea climate science statistics

  Predicting areas of the Red Sea most susceptible to overheating by the end of the century could help conservation efforts to protect its precious coral reefs.
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  Meet KAUST New Student: Ruibo Wang

  1 min read · Wed, Apr 7 2021

  News

  Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

  Ruibo Wang is a communication engineering graduate from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, China, who joined KAUST in January 2021. Wang first came to KAUST as a visiting student and was instantly impressed by the University's excellent research atmosphere and high academic standards. This combination of factors piqued his interest in choosing KAUST to further his academic career.

March 2021

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  Meet KAUST New Student: Carlos Andrés Muñoz Moncayo

  2 min read · Wed, Mar 31 2021

  News

  Carlos Andrés Muñoz Moncayo is a mathematics graduate from Yachay Tech University, Ecuador, who joined KAUST in February 2021. Carlos believes that KAUST’s renowned faculty, unique facilities and diverse community make the University the best environment for him to develop high-quality and impactful research.
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  KAUST Research Conference of Robotics and Autonomy 2021

  1 min read · Wed, Mar 31 2021

  News

  research conference RobotoKAUST

  The KAUST Research Conference on Robotics and Autonomy 2021, #RobotoKAUST, brought together leading international and in-Kingdom robotics researchers and government and industry representatives from the robotics industry to discuss robotics and its applications. The online event was organized by Prof. E. Feron, Prof. B. Ghanem, Prof. X. Zhang and had six sessions on Marine Robotics, Human-Robot Interactions, Aerospace Robotics, Mobile Robotics, Wearable Robotics & Microrobotics, Assured Autonomy. Twenty-seven speakers (seven from KSA including three from KAUST, and three from industry)
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  Breaking records like baking bread

  1 min read · Tue, Mar 30 2021

  News

  materials science electrical engineering

  Researchers have made unparalleled ultrawide-bandgap semiconductors through temperature and timing, just like baking bread.
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  Getting the inside track on street design

  1 min read · Tue, Mar 30 2021

  News

  big data statistics

  Large-scale analysis of pedestrian data from three European cities examines how building density and street design influence pedestrian behavior.
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  Professor Bagci elevated to ACES Fellow

  3 min read · Thu, Mar 25 2021

  News

  Hakan Bagci, KAUST associate professor of electrical engineering, was recently elevated as an Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES) Fellow for his “exceptional achievements in computational electromagnetics, including ACES publications, and extensive service to ACES.”
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  Tethered drones have wireless data covered

  1 min read · Thu, Mar 25 2021

  News

  Flying drones connected by a cable tethered to a ground station could be a flexible solution for enhancing wireless connectivity in temporary hotspots.
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  The Arab World Prepares the Exascale Workforce

  1 min read · Tue, Mar 23 2021

  News

  High Performance Computing computational science and engineering

  The April 2021 Communications of the ACM special section on computing in the Arab world features an article by ECRC Director and KAUST founding dean David Keyes on preparing the exascale workforce. Keyes muses on the lure of hands-on opportunities to resolve today’s application-architecture tension with innovative algorithms for recruiting students, and he follows the placement of a dozen recent ECRC doctoral students from the MENA region in the US exascale computing project and Saudi industry. For them, “graduation” means an upgrade to a more powerful computer :-). Several have also seen
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  Meet KAUST New Student: Aniq Ur Rahman

  2 min read · Thu, Mar 18 2021

  News

  Aniq Ur Rahman joined KAUST in January 2021 as an M.S./Ph.D. candidate and member of the Communication Theory Lab under the supervision of Prof. Mohamed-Slim Alouini. He holds a bachelor's degree in electronics and communication engineering from the National Institute of Technology (NIT Durgapur), India.
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  KAUST New Student: Yasmine Marani

  2 min read · Thu, Mar 18 2021

  News

  Yasmine Marani is a control system engineering graduate from the National Polytechnic School of Algiers, Algeria. Yasmine aspires to engage in high-quality academic research and to participate in expanding her research field and its applications to real-world problems. She joined KAUST this spring as a Ph.D. candidate and member of the Estimation, Modeling, and Analysis Group under the supervision of Professor Taous-Meriem Laleg-Kirati.
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  Arabic Sentiment Analysis Challenge

  1 min read · Tue, Mar 16 2021

  News

  Participate now in the “Arabic Sentiment Analysis Challenge” and develop machine learning models that can determine the tone (positive, negative, and neutral) of the Arabic text! https://kaust.link/3Nqs
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  Meet KAUST New Student: Fares Fourati

  1 min read · Mon, Mar 15 2021

  News

  Fares Fourati holds a diploma in multidisciplinary engineering from Ecole Polytechnique de Tunisie, Tunisia. Fourati first joined KAUST as a visiting student and was instantly impressed with the University’s exceptional research atmosphere. He believes KAUST offers excellent research opportunities and is an ideal location to collaborate with leading international researchers.
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  Meet KAUST New Student: Fabio Credali

  1 min read · Mon, Mar 15 2021

  News

  Fabio Credali holds a bachelor's and master's degree in mathematics from the University of Pavia, Italy. Fabio joined KAUST in January 2021 as a Ph.D. candidate in the Applied Mathematics and Computational Sciences program under the supervision of Professor Daniele Boffi.
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  Pioneering KAUST research points to a promising future for gas-sensing applications

  4 min read · Sun, Mar 14 2021

  News

  Air pollution and its insidious effect on our environment remain a leading cause of health issues worldwide. Long-term and short-term exposure to air pollution’s detrimental effects can cause several illnesses, including pneumonia, heart disease, lung cancer and chronic respiratory diseases. According to the World Health Organization, air pollution (both ambient and indoor) accounts for an estimated seven million deaths worldwide each year.
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  First joint publication between KAUST and MBSC seeks to improve treatment options for chronic kidney disease in Saudi Arabia

  3 min read · Tue, Mar 9 2021

  News

  healthcare genomic data Biomedical Signal Processing organ transplantation kidney exchange program

  Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is among the most common causes of death in Saudi Arabia. According to the 2018 edition of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation’s annual Financing Global Health report, the prevalence of CKD among the Kingdom’s general population stands at 5.44% and accounts for a 4.04% mortality rate.
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  CEMSE New Faculty: Shinkyu Park, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

  2 min read · Mon, Mar 8 2021

  News

  KAUST Assistant Professor Shinkyu Park joined the University in January 2021 to take up his new role as the principal investigator of Distributed Robotics and Autonomy Group. Before joining KAUST, Park was an associate research scholar at Princeton University, U.S., where he engaged in cross-departmental robotics projects.
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  Meet KAUST New Student: Zhenwei Tang

  1 min read · Sun, Mar 7 2021

  News

  Zhenwei Tang, a telecommunications graduate from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China, joined KAUST in January 2021. Tang joined KAUST as a M.S./Ph.D. candidate and member of the Machine Intelligence & kNowledge Engineering (MINE) Lab under the supervision of Professor Xianglinag Zhang.
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  Meet KAUST New Student: Aijaz Lone

  2 min read · Sun, Mar 7 2021

  News

  nanoelectronic devices Neuromorphic Spintronics

  Aijaz Lone is a M.S. graduate in electrical and computer engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), India. Lone first came to KAUST as a visiting student in 2020 and was instantly impressed by the facilities he encountered. It was these very facilities that piqued his interest in joining the University as a Ph.D. student to pursue his research career.
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  KAUST RISC lab hosts Center of Excellence for Aeronautics and Astronautics(KACST)

  1 min read · Thu, Mar 4 2021

  News

  robotics drones

  KAUST Robotics, Intelligent Systems, and Control (RISC) Lab hosts a 3-day visit by personnel from the Center of Excellence for Aeronautics and Astronautics at King Abdulaziz City of Science and Technology ( https://ceaa.kacst.edu.sa/). During their visit, a team of ten, led by Dr. Hesham Shageer of KACST attended talks by RISC Profs. Eric Feron and Shinkyu Park on diverse aspects of robotics. The KACST team also visited FalconViz ( http://www.falconviz.com/) and Firnas ( https://www.firnas.aero/home.php)Two KAUST startups relying on drone technology to perform a variety of tasks, such as
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  Rue honored by Royal Statistical Society

  1 min read · Wed, Mar 3 2021

  Spotlight News

  ​KAUST Professor of Statistics Håvard Rue has been honored by the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) for his "substantial and significant contributions in the area of efficient and scalable computational techniques for the data analysts' toolbox."
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  This black is the new black, and light is its prisoner

  1 min read · Tue, Mar 2 2021

  News

  ​Originally published in Wired Black gold signals the future of energy in the Middle East—and, for once, that doesn't mean oil. At least this is the vision of Italy-born academic Andrea Fratalocchi, who in 2015 was recognized by Guinness World Records for co-creating the "blackest black"—the darkest human-made substance, which is actually fashioned from gold. The nanomaterial Fratalocchi's team invented absorbs more than 99 percent of visible light and over 98 percent of infrared. Think of it as a tiny, imperfect, terrestrial black hole, just sucking in light rays. While having joined Neil

February 2021

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  ECRC contributions to SIAM CSE21

  4 min read · Sat, Feb 27 2021

  News

  research conference HPC computational science and engineering

  ECRC @ SIAM CSE21! Follow us @KAUST_ECRC As in previous SIAM conferences on Parallel Processing (PP) and Computational Science and Engineering (CSE), ECRC members and their collaborators will have a strong presence at SIAM CSE21, nominally in Fort Worth, Texas, but held virtually due to the pandemic. ************************************************** SIAM CSE21 will run virtually with live sessions. ************************************************** Registration to SIAM CSE is required to gain access to the online platform and attend live sessions. Once registered, please use your personal
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  Tien Khee Ng recognized as IET and IOP Fellow

  3 min read · Tue, Feb 23 2021

  News

  Dr. Tien Khee Ng, principal research scientist, electrical and computer engineering, has been recently recognized as a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (IOP).
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  CovMT: Tracking virus mutations across the world

  1 min read · Sun, Feb 21 2021

  News

  human health pathogens computation bioscience

  An interactive platform helps users visualize where SARS-CoV-2 mutations start, how wide they spread and how infectious they are.
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  CEMSE New Faculty: Suhaib Fahmy, Associate Professor, Computer Science

  3 min read · Sun, Feb 21 2021

  News

  Suhaib Fahmy joins KAUST as an associate professor of computer science and the principal investigator of the KAUST Accelerated Connected Computing Laboratory (ACCL). Fahmy’s research explores novel ways to integrate accelerated computation and communication to achieve improved efficiency, latency, and security in computing systems — improvements he deems key considerations as computing continues to pervade all aspects of our lives.
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  CEMSE New Faculty: Di Wang, Assistant Professor of Computer Science

  2 min read · Wed, Feb 17 2021

  News

  Di Wang, assistant professor of computer science, joined KAUST in January 2021 to take up his new role as principal investigator of the KAUST Privacy-Awareness, Responsibility and Trustworthy (PART) Lab. Wang’s research interests include machine learning (ML), security, theoretical computer science, and data mining.
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  New Book of Postdoc Michal Mankowski and Professor Mikhail Moshkov is published by Springer

  1 min read · Tue, Feb 16 2021

  News

  New book "Dynamic Programming Multi-Objective Combinatorial Optimization" by Michal Mankowski and Mikhail Moshkov is published by Springer.
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  Cloud simulations get a dose of realism

  1 min read · Mon, Feb 15 2021

  News

  big data visual computing computation Computer science

  A focus on the fundamental physics of cloud formation leads to highly realistic simulations of different types of clouds.
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  KAUST Ph.D. Student Gaurav Agarwal wins ASA SCSG and ENAR Student Paper Awards

  2 min read · Sun, Feb 14 2021

  Awards News Spotlight

  Gaurav Agarwal, a Ph.D. candidate in statistics and member of KAUST Associate Professor Ying Sun's Environmental Statistics (ES) research group, recently won an American Statistical Association (ASA) Student Paper Award sponsored by the Sections on Computing and Graphics (SCSG). In addition to his ASA SCSG award, Agarwal has also been selected a Distinguished Student Paper Award winner by the Eastern North American Region (ENAR) of the International Biometric Society for his paper titled "Flexible Quantile Contour Estimation for Multivariate Functional Data: Beyond Convexity."
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  KAUST ECE researcher named among MIT Technology Review Arabia’s "MENA Innovators Under 35" for 2020

  3 min read · Tue, Feb 2 2021

  News Spotlight

  Nazek El-Atab, a research scientist based in the KAUST MMH Labs, was recently named amongst the MIT Technology Review Arabia’s "MENA Innovators Under 35 (IU35)" for 2020. Together with nine other trailblazers, El-Atab was acknowledged by a leading panel of academic and industry experts as being among the young innovators “who are advancing science and technology” in the MENA region.
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  KAUST ECE alumnus receives prestigious Egyptian State Encouragement Award in Engineering Sciences

  2 min read · Tue, Feb 2 2021

  News Spotlight

  Former KAUST Sensors Lab researcher Hesham Omran (Ph.D. ’15) has received the prestigious Egyptian State Encouragement Award in Engineering Sciences. Omran was honored by Egypt's Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (ASRT) for his scientific contributions and achievements for a “distinguished scholar younger than 40.”

January 2021

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  First 3D Visualizations of SARS-CoV-2 Cryo-EM Tomography Data

  1 min read · Sun, Jan 31 2021

  News

  visual computing Computer science

  Together with our partners from Tsinghua University and Nanographics, our group has succeeded in depicting the first 3D visualizations of Cryo-EM microscopy tomography directly from the data. We are advancing the technology to allow for clear, noise-free visualization of this challenging data modality. Once we succeed with that our next challenge is to integrate such 3D visualization into the structural modeling process. Stay tuned!
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  Asrar Damdam selected as L'Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science Award winner

  2 min read · Sun, Jan 31 2021

  News

  L’Oréal UNESCO award

  KAUST Ph.D. student Asrar Damdam has been selected as one of the six winners of the 7th L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Middle East Regional Young Talents Program. Damdam received the prestigious award for her design and fabrication of a reconfigurable silicon-based electronic platform specifically designed for a heart-assistive device. The platform was designed to comply with the heart’s shape and its rhythmic expansions and contractions during the cardiac cycle.
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  Norway's electric vehicle revolution and KAUST researchers' exploration of wireless charging roads

  1 min read · Mon, Jan 18 2021

  News

  In 2020, electric car sales in Norway surpassed those of petrol, diesel, and hybrid vehicles, with Volkswagen outpacing Tesla as the top battery-vehicle producer. Battery electric vehicles (BEV) accounted for 54.3% of new cars sold in Norway, up from 42.4% in 2019. The country aims to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2025, offering tax exemptions to fully electric vehicles, making Norway a testing ground for automakers transitioning from internal combustion engines. Researchers at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, i.e., postdoctoral fellow
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  Simulating evolution to understand a hidden switch

  1 min read · Sun, Jan 17 2021

  News

  genomics Computer science computation epigenetics

  Some organisms evolve an internal switch that can remain hidden for generations until stress flicks it on.
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  CEMSE New Faculty: Paulo Esteves-Veríssimo, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering

  3 min read · Sun, Jan 17 2021

  News

  Professor Paulo Esteves-Veríssimo joins KAUST from the University of Luxembourg (UNILU), where he served as FNR PEARL Chair of UNILU’s Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine and Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust. He joins KAUST as the director of the recently established KAUST Resilient Computing and Cybersecurity Center (RC3).
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  Broadening horizons for people with quadriplegia

  1 min read · Sun, Jan 17 2021

  News

  Wearable machine learning artificial intelligence electrical engineering

  An assistive technology uses magnetic skin to support freedom of movement for people with quadriplegia.
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  A living carbon pump in the ocean could help fight climate change

  1 min read · Tue, Jan 12 2021

  News

  ​It's a deep-sea mystery that has confounded ocean scientists for years: What causes the deeper zones of the ocean to sequester larger amounts of carbon than the lighter, more shallow regions?
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  Ferrofluid surface simulations go more than skin deep

  1 min read · Sun, Jan 10 2021

  News

  algorithms visual computing Computer science

  Computer models efficiently and accurately simulate the magnetic responses of ferrofluids by considering only the fluid’s surface.
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  Xin Gao promoted to rank of professor

  1 min read · Thu, Jan 7 2021

  News

  Computer science machine learning bioinformatics

  Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC) would like to congratulate Xin Gao for being promoted to the rank of Professor, effective January 1, 2021. Prof. Gao joined KAUST in October 2010 and became a CBRC PI in January 2013. He has since then produced tremendous work in the areas of computational biology, bioinformatics, machine learning, and algorithms. Dr. Xin Gao is also the Acting Associate Director of the Computational Bioscience Research Center and the lead of the Structural and Functional Bioinformatics Group at KAUST. Prior to joining KAUST, he was a Lane Fellow at Lane Center
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  CEMSE Student Research Excellence Awards and Student Academic Accomplishment Awards winners announced

  2 min read · Tue, Jan 5 2021

  News Spotlight

  student research excellence awards

  The annual CEMSE Student Research Excellence Awards and Student Academic Accomplishment Awards celebrate the talent and achievements of the Division's students. Awarded around the KAUST Commencement ceremony, the awards are presented in recognition of the academic accomplishments and research impact created by our leading students in the fields of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science (AMCS), Computer Science (CS), Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), and Statistics (STAT).