"You would not believe how many amazingly talented people there are in the world, but they often are just not exposed to opportunities," noted Muhammad Mustafa Hussain, KAUST professor of electrical engineering and currently a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He is determined to try and change this—one step at a time.
KAUST Ph.D. student Nasir Alfaraj was recently selected to represent KAUST and Saudi Arabia at the 2018 Chicago Forum on Global Cities in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. The event, which was held from June 5 to 7, was hosted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and The Financial Times. It brought together more than 80 speakers from 27 countries to discuss the influence of global cities and how attendees could solve pressing global challenges.

Stretchable plant wearables and smart tags dropped by drones aim to help give farming a big data makeover. The relatively cheap technologies for mass monitoring of individual plants across large greenhouses or crop fields could get field tests in three countries starting in 2019.

“The theme of our research is how we can empower humanity with technology,” said Muhammad Mustafa Hussain, professor of electrical engineering at KAUST. Using the skills from his time in industry, and the support he is granted by KAUST, Hussain creates flexible, wireless electronics to inexpensively turn everyday objects into smart devices.

Jhonathan Prieto Rojas joined KAUST in 2009 from the National University of Colombia in Bogota and completed both his master's degree (2010) and Ph.D. (2014) in electrical engineering at the University under the supervision of Professor Muhammad Mustafa Hussain. Prieto Rojas spent six years at KAUST before leaving the University in August of 2015 for his current role as assistant professor in the electrical engineering department at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) in Dhahran.