Over 4000 exoplanets - planets beyond the Solar System - have been discovered since the first Nobel prize-winning exoplanet detection around a Sun-like star in 1995. The majority of these exoplanets have been detected by indirect methods, inferring the presence of the exoplanet by observing the star.

Antennas are integral part of wireless communication devices and traditionally have remained off the Integrated Circuits (ICs which are also commonly known as chips) resulting in large sized modules.

Robotic systems are well-known to be highly nonlinear processes due to their complex kinematics. The identification of the corresponding system dynamics plays an important role in obtaining an adequate model which is especially hard under changing parametric circumstances. Furthermore, precise knowledge of the state is crucial for a large variety of control tasks. Sparse sensor setups make these problems more challenging due to significant noise impact. For designing an efficient and robust algorithm, an integral transform approach is proposed exploiting the robotic system structure. Specifically, the Modulating Function Method is introduced in the context of multi-body systems for fixed-time parameter and state estimation. An adaptive observer structure is presented in order to give an impression of the general methodology and the related research questions.

In this talk an inversion-based control approach is presented for the generation and stabilization of a periodic orbit in a multi-link triple pendulum on a cart. To this end, a nominal trajectory is generated by formulating the posture transition problem as a two-point Boundary Value Problem (BVP) in an input-output representation. For solvability of the BVP, a setup function is introduced such that additional parameters are provided in the differential equation of the internal dynamics. Based on the linearized dynamics about the nominal trajectory, a linear-quadratic-Gaussian controller is implemented to compensate for measurement noise, model uncertainties, and external disturbances. This way we force a triple pendulum to move along a non-trivial periodic orbit and render it attractive. The high performance and accuracy of our approach is illustrated on an experimental setup.

After a quick overview of the ECE Graduate Seminar logistics, I will share the progression of our team’s work in the field of compact integrated on-board EV charging.

Highly integrated and customizable systems have been a principal focus of development for parenteral and oral drug administration. Extensive work has been done to optimize drug efficacy via localized delivery and dosage control providing new ways for accomplishing targeted therapeutic effects. However, many challenges and opportunities for advancement remain. One promising research path is introducing novel microfabrication methods or engineering discoveries in concept realization, making devices more versatile and effective.

Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) offers many benefits over established radio frequency-based communication links. In particular, high beam directivity generates efficient power usage and high-speed data services. Moreover, due to its ease of deployment, high transmission security, license-free operation, and insensitivity to interference, the OWC link is becoming an attractive solution for the next generation of communication systems.

High-accuracy indoor localization and tracking systems are essential for many modern applications and technologies. However, accurate location estimation of moving targets is challenging. This thesis addresses the challenges in indoor localization and tracking systems and proposes several solutions. A novel signal design, which we named Differential Zadoff-Chu, allows us to develop algorithms that accurately estimate the distances of static and moving targets even under random Doppler shifts. The results show that the proposed algorithms outperform the state-of-the-art in terms of both accuracy and complexity.

In this talk we will present the design and implementation of monolithic and hybrid sensors using integrated circuits.

The seminar is an overview on my research path and approach. I will start with my initial research on the concept of intrusion tolerance and present some of the results I had at the time. Then, I will show how this initial research had led me to other areas and related approaches: software security, trusted computing, intrusion detection, intrusion recovery, and blockchain interoperability. I will present with some detail very recent research on securely moving data between trusted execution environments (TEEs) in a non-interactive way, a problem that must be solved for digital id crypto wallets starting to appear in Europe and elsewhere.

Epitaxially grown quantum dot (QD) lasers are emerging as an economical approach to obtain on-chip light sources. Thanks to the three-dimensional confinement of carriers, QDs show greatly improved tolerance to defects and promise other advantages such as low transparency current density, high temperature operation, isolator-free operation, and enhanced four-wave-mixing.

This talk will introduce and motivate a percolation theoretic approach to characterize and thwart malware diffusion in dense wireless networks. First, a brief tutorial on percolation theory will be introduced. Then, the talk will explain the utilization of percolation theory to develop security countermeasures for malware epidemics in 5G and beyond networks. 

The electroencephalogram (EEG) is an important neuroimaging modality to measure neuronal activity of the human brain.

Abstract

Robotic flight is as old as aviation itself.

This talk will give an overview of research activity of engineering different types of complex systems into technological applications in energy harvesting, material science, artificial intelligence and bio-imaging.

This talk will give an overview of the research of the Secure Next Generation Resilient Systems (SENTRY) lab (sentry.kaust.edu.sa) at KAUST.

The paradigm of Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) is expected to enable various practical applications such as environmental monitoring, underwater exploration, and disaster prevention. Supporting the concept of IoUT requires robust underwater wireless communication infrastructure. Optical wireless communication has the superiority of wide bandwidth, low latency and high data capacity over its counterparts namely, acoustic and radio frequency.

Available as dedicated hardware components into several mobile and server-grade processors, and recently included in infrastructure-as-a-service commercial offerings by several cloud providers, TEEs allow applications with high privacy and confidentiality demands to be deployed and executed over untrusted environments, shielding data and code from compromised systems or powerful attackers. After an  introduction to basic concepts for TEEs, I will survey some of our most recent contributions exploiting TEEs, including as defensive tools in the context of Federated Learning, as support to build secure cache systems for edge networks, as protection mechanisms in a med-tech/e-health context,  shielding novel environments (ie, WebAssembly), and more. Finally, I will highlight some of the lessons learned and offer open perspectives, hopefully useful and inspirational to future researchers and practitioners entering this exciting area of research.

Optoelectronics in the deep-ultraviolet (DUV) regime is still a growing research field that requires significant effort to understand the material properties and optimize the device structures to realize highly efficient DUV devices. Of all the wide bandgap materials, AlGaN is perhaps the most studied semiconductor to replace the environmentally hazardous mercury lamps; however, the external quantum efficiency (EQE) of AlGaN based DUV devices is insufficient to replace the existing old-fashioned mercury UV lamps.

The limited overcrowded radio frequency spectrum compelled researchers to explore higher frequency ranges for wireless transmission such as optical frequency bands. In recent decades, visible light communications (VLC) have gained lots of research attention thanks to the abundant bandwidth they offer and the existing lighting infrastructure they utilize that consequently reduces deployment costs.

Semiconductor devices based on wide-bandgap materials exhibit a higher breakdown voltage, temperature tolerance, and device stability, and lower energy loss than devices based on low-bandgap materials. Several limitations challenge the use of III-nitrides and transition metal oxides as wide-bandgap materials. This thesis proposes novel methods to surmount these issues. 

Lyapunov's stability theory, which was formulated around 1892, presents itself as a watershed event in the study of dynamical systems.

Robot navigation typically comprises of decision making at two different levels - global planning to compute a viable trajectory to the robot's destination and strategic (local) interaction to elicit cooperation and resolve any conflicts with other robots/pedestrians that would arise while navigating along the trajectory. Robot navigation in crowded environments is particularly challenging as the robot needs to exhibit navigation behaviors that are conceived as socially compliant by human pedestrians or vehicles they maneuver at both of the levels. In this presentation, I will introduce some of relevant works from my research group.

Optical wireless communication, taking advantage of the unlicensed ultraviolet-to-visible wavelength region of the electromagnetic spectrum, had been coined as the next-generation wireless communication technology and holds promises to deliver a boundless, high-speed, reliable and secured broadband experience.

We live in the age of information where electronics play a critical role in our daily life. Moore’s Law: performance over cost has inspired innovation in complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology and enabled high performance, ultra-scaled CMOS electronics.