Wedyan Babatain

Biography

Wedyan Babatain is an Ibn Rushd Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and the principal investigator of the Integrated Interfaces (I²) Lab. Prior to joining KAUST, Babatain was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the MIT Media Lab, where she developed electrically driven actuators and integrated wearable electronics for applications across human-machine interfaces, reconfigurable electronics, and soft robotics. She received her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Delaware in 2017, and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from KAUST in 2019 and 2022, respectively.

Her research focuses on developing adaptive electronic interfaces that seamlessly sense, respond, and interact with people, machines, and the dynamically changing physical world. Her group develops sensors, actuators, and the fabrication and integration technologies required to realize next-generation electronic systems. By leveraging functional materials and physical phenomena, her research enables soft and compliant electronic interfaces for wearable technologies, human-machine interfaces, reconfigurable electronics, and soft robotic systems.

Babatain has published numerous papers in leading journals, including Advanced Materials, Advanced Science, Advanced Functional Materials, Science Robotics, and ACS Nano, and is an inventor on multiple U.S. patents in flexible electronics, liquid-metal electronics, wearable systems, and digital fabrication.

Her research has received international recognition through honors including the Forbes 30 Under 30 Middle East, MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 (MENA), UT Austin EECS Rising Stars, and the SXSW Innovation Awards Finalist.