I chose KAUST because it is the best place to make a smooth transition of my research expertise and endeavors from North America to the Middle East. With its high research quality, aspirations, and high-profile professors, KAUST is the perfect place in this region of the world for talented students to start their research careers, and for motivated researchers to significantly expand on their research achievements. Moreover, KAUST professors provide the flexibility to postdoctoral fellows to grow in their own research areas and exert their own creativity as independent researchers.
Website
Current Position
Assistant Professor at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) since September 2013.
Research Interests
My research interests lie in the broad area of theory and applications of wireless networks, with special focus on network coding, indoor localizations, and vehicular/sensor/cognitive radio networks. The focus of my research at KAUST was on network coding and its applications to cognitive radio networks.
Research accomplishments at KAUST:
During my one year work at KAUST, I achieved the following accomplishments with the help of my two great advisors:
- I established the first mini-group in the Middle East (to the best of my knowledge) working on the core problems of futuristic technology in our research area (namely network coding).
- The group's two talented students have gained experience to do research in this important area, and have already submitted/published one journal paper, one letter, and two conference papers in less than six months. The project is still growing and we are expecting to submit many more publications soon.
- I have pursued my own independent research in this area, which resulted in the submission of two journal papers (one of them is close to acceptance by now), and the publishing of two conference papers.
- I established a collaboration with one of the best research groups in the world that is working in similar research areas within the network coding area, which resulted in my co-authorship of one journal and one conference paper.
How did KAUST help you to achieve your career objectives so far?
KAUST provides a very focused and professional environment that helped me in improving my research CV in order to pursue my goal to become a research-oriented professor in academia. It also helped me as a postdoctoral fellow to train and supervise two enthusiastic and qualified MS students who achieved great work and increased the University’s research productivity. Moreover, my advisors have encouraged me to maintain a continuous research relationship with KAUST even after my departure through research collaborations and joint grant proposals.
What do you think about the KAUST environment and social life?
I have to say without any exaggeration that the environment and social life in KAUST is so impressive. The social team and other groups in KAUST are very active in implementing many social events and sports programs throughout the year. There are also active online groups managed by the residents of KAUST to organize many different activities, such as tennis, basketball, photography, and diving. One can get almost all of his/her needs on campus, and free buses are provided daily to Jeddah, where one can purchase anything else required. The campus is also equipped with a wonderful school and a sports center providing many programs for both adults and kids. The KAUST campus also includes a beach, marina center, library, cinema, restaurants, and a golf course, all providing a wide variety of entertainment and activities to the residents.
To summarize, I would definitely say that staying in KAUST was a very wonderful experience for me and for my family, as well.
Selected Publications
- A. W. S. Au, C. Feng, S. Valaee, S. Sorour, S. Reyes, S. N. Markowitz, D. Gold, K. Gordon, and M. Eizenman, "Indoor tracking and navigation using Wi-Fi enabled handheld devices," To appear in IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing.
- C. Feng, S. Valaee, A. W. S. Au, S. Reyes, S. Sorour, S. N. Markowitz, D. Gold, K. Gordon, and M. Eizenman, "Anonymous indoor navigation system on handheld mobile devices for visually impaired," International Journal of Wireless Information Networks, Aug. 2012.
- S. Sorour, Y. Lostanlen, and S. Valaee, ''RSS-based indoor localization with limited deployment load,'' in Proc. of IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM 2012), Anaheim, CA, USA, Dec. 2012.
- S. Sorour and S. Valaee, "On densifying coding opportunities in instantly decodable network coding graphs," in Proc. of IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT 2012), Cambridge, MA, USA, Jul. 2012.
Publications
Education Profile
- Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada (September 2006 – December 2010).
- M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt (September 2002 – September 2006).
- B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt (September 1997 – June 2002).
Al-Khawarzmi Distinguished Professor,
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Assistant Professor,
Computer Science