Profiles

• Optical wireless communication.
• Embedded systems.
• Hardware & software co-design.

Yuxuan Xie is a Ph.D. student at the Integrated Photonics Laboratory under the supervision of Prof. Yating Wan at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). Before joining KAUST, Yuxuan received a B.E. degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and spent a year-long exchange program in University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in 2022.  In the spring of 2023, he will begin his studies at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).

Silicon photonics, short-link optical communication, and high-performance optical sources such as quantum dot lasers are among Yuxuan's research interests.

Zahrah Alnasser obtained her bachelor's degree from Dammam College for Women and her master's degree in pure mathematics from the University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign.

Real analysis and applied PDEs.

Zhandos Zhakipov received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan, in 2022 and 2024, respectively. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the Communications and Computing Systems Laboratory (CCSL) at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), under the supervision of Prof. Ahmed Eltawil.

Zhandos Zhakipov's research interests include reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS), millimeter-wave (mmWave) communication, the Internet of Things (IoT), and digital twins for wireless communication systems.

Zhican Zhou is Ph.D. student at the Integrated Photonics Laboratory under the supervision of Prof. Yating Wan at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). Before joining KAUST, Zhican received his bachelor's degree (majoring in materials engineering) from Chongqing University (CQU) in 2019 and his master's degree (majoring in photonics) from the joint-cultivation program of Nankai University (NKU) and the National Center for Nanoscience (NCNST) in 2022. Zhican ranked in the top ~5% for both his undergraduate and postgraduate studies. He obtained numerous honors for his outstanding performance, including the First Price Scholarship, Outstanding Graduate of Chongqing University, and the Nankai University Freshman Scholarship. During his postgraduate studies, he mastered the skills of fabrication, modelling, and simulation for electronic devices. Zhican had published a total of 7 journals, 4 of which he was the first or co-first author. 

Zhican's research interests are in Silicon Photonics and novel heterogeneous computing hardware system development (including optical computing systems, memristor computing systems, etc.).

Zhiyuan Liu is a Ph.D. candidate in Electrical Engineering at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), under the supervision of Professor Xiaohang Li. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in 2020. His research focuses on the fabrication processes and performance optimization of III-nitride optoelectronic devices, covering areas such as micro-LEDs, deep ultraviolet (DUV) LEDs, and ultraviolet photodetectors. His work emphasizes device structural design, physical modeling, micro/nano-fabrication techniques, and advanced surface and interface engineering to enhance the efficiency and reliability of III-nitride devices. To date, Zhiyuan Liu has published over 30 SCI journal papers, including 10 first-author articles in leading international journals such as Light: Science & Applications, Optics Letters, and Journal of Materials Chemistry C.

Zichun earned his Bachelor's degree in Microelectronics Science and Engineering from Sun Yat-sen University in 2023 and is currently pursuing a Master of Philosophy degree in The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou). He has been honored with several prestigious awards that highlight his exceptional achievements, including the Excellent Graduation Thesis Award from SYSU (Top 5%), the Meijiayin Scholarship, and the Red Bird Full Postgraduate Scholarship at HKUST(GZ). 

During his postgraduate studies, Zichun has developed strong expertise in the modeling, design and testing of photonic integrated circuits and optoelectronic systems.

Zihang Xiang is a 4th-year Ph.D. candidate at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology(KAUST), advised by Di Wang. His current research is on privacy-preserving data analysis. He is interested in pushing the boundaries of differential privacy via principled approaches in broad machine learning applications.

Differential privacy

Zinan XIAO is a Ph.D. student at Photonics Laboratory at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). 
Before he joined the Photonics Laboratory, he worked as an optical hardware engineer in the industry, focusing on designing and testing optical splitters. 
He received his Master of Science degree at Imperial College London, UK. 
He obtained his bachelor's degree in optoelectronic information engineering at Chongqing University. 

Sensors, Photonics and optoelectronics

Bachelor's degree from Wuhan University.

Edge computing, federated learning, machine learning systems, and resilient computing.

• Developing Biosensors to detect biomarkers for cancer and other ailments.
• Studying electrochemical characteristics of various materials, polymers and films.
• Designing wearable, point-of-care, biotech medical devices.
• Utilizing machine learning to aid in sensing and data interpretation.

• Digital signal.
• Image processing.
• Machine learning
• Wireless communications

• Neuromorphic engineering
• spiking neural network