Wajeeha Nafees defends her doctoral work on acquiring signals from spherical sources and novel techniques of representing them.

Working under the supervision of Dr. Zubair Khalid in SBASSE electrical engineering, Wajeeha has discovered amazing mathematical structures for applications in medical imaging, cosmology, computer vision and many others. We now know many new ways of listening and reconstructing signals emerging from spherical sources, thanks to this amazing body of work. Ideas from the work have been published in IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9052486), ICASSP 2018 and ICASSP 2019, flagship conferences on signal processing.

Final Defense Committee:

• Dr. Ali Arshad Nasir (EE, KFUPM) External Examiner
• Dr. Ali Ahmed (EE, ITU) External Examiner
• Dr. Ijaz Naqvi (EE, LUMS)
• Dr. Muhammad Tahir (EE, LUMS)
• Dr. Haniya Azam (Math, LUMS)
• Dr. Zubair Khalid (Supervisor)

The final copy of the thesis can be downloaded from the following link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qf27drk10x984sy/thesis-final-Wajeeha-Nafees.pdf?dl=0

Muhammad Farooq from MS Electrical Engineering will be presenting his thesis defense on the topic of Climate Informatics for the Water Energy Food Nexus: A System Dynamics Perspective on Dairy Farm Operations on Tuesday, January 26th, 2021 at 2:30pm. This is the second stage of his thesis.

His thesis will be evaluated by the following Evaluation Committee:

• Supervisor:                  Dr. Abubakr Muhammad 
• Co-supervisor:            Dr. Talha Manzoor 
• Evaluator:                    Dr. Naveed Ul Hassan 
• Evaluator:                    Dr. Nauman Zafar Butt 

Giacomo Cavalli studied Biology at the University of Parma. In 1991, he moved to Zürich at the University of Science and Technology (ETH) to do his PhD, where he worked on chromatin structure and function in yeast with Fritz Thoma and Theo Koller. In 1995, he started a postdoc in the laboratory of Prof. Renato Paro at the University of Heidelberg. In 1999, he moved to IGH in Montpellier, France, to set up a junior lab and stayed at IGH ever since. Giacomo Cavalli made seminal contributions in the field of epigenetics. Using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, he discovered that epigenetic inheritance of new phenotypes can occur independently on changes of the DNA sequence. His lab also discovered that the three-dimensional organization of chromosomes in the cell nucleus is a heritable trait that plays an important gene regulatory role.

The Cavalli lab identified 3D structural chromosomal domains dubbed Topologically Associating Domains or TADs. Finally, the Cavalli lab has shown that PcG proteins have tumor suppression activity in flies. Giacomo Cavalli has published more than 110 papers, cited over 13,000 times and many of which in top journals. He received numerous awards and distinctions, including an EMBO membership, the CNRS silver medal, the Allianz Foundation price, the Grand Prix 2020 of the Foundation pour la Recherché Médicale and two advanced ERC grants. He was director of the IGH Genome Dynamics department from 2007 to 2010 and IGH director from 2011 to 2014. He organized major international conferences and is appointed as members of several distinguished Institute- and Journal editorial boards.

Helge Grosshans is a senior research group leader at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI; a non-profit research organization affiliated with the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research) in Basel, Switzerland, and a Professor at the University of Basel. Following his studies of Biotechnology at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, he did his PhD with Prof. Ed Hurt at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, working on RNA biogenesis and nuclear export in brewer’s yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Subsequently, he joined Prof. Frank Slack’s lab at Yale University as an HFSP postdoctoral fellow, to study the developmental and molecular function of microRNAs (miRNAs) in C. elegans. His work led to the discovery of the let-7 miRNA as a tumor suppressor gene regulating RAS.

In 2005, he started his own group at the FMI. Supported by highly competitive ERC Starting and ERC Advanced Grants, Grosshans’ work has focused on miRNA function and mechanisms of developmental timing. Among other breakthroughs, his group was the first to demonstrate that animal microRNAs are themselves regulated through RNase-mediated degradation and discovered that, in a reversal of normal function, mRNAs can modulate the levels of the miRNAs that target them. They also showed that miRNAs can exert biological function through regulation of one single target and that miRNA target repertoires are dependent on physiological context rather than being merely hard-wired by sequence. Following their discovery of massive oscillatory gene expression, affecting ~20% of the transcriptome in C. elegans larvae, Grosshans now focuses on characterizing the underlying machinery by combining theoretical and quantitative experimental approaches.

Electrical Engineering Seminar – “Multi-timescale optimization with energy storage in smart distribution grids” by Dr. Raheel Zafar, PhD University of New South Wales, Australia

Friday, December 18th, 2020, 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm

About the speaker: Dr. Raheel Zafar received his PhD in Electrical Engineering with specialization in Power Systems in 2019 from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. His research focuses mainly on the technical challenges involved in the integration of renewable energy sources into distribution grids. His research has resulted in several publications in reputable journals and conferences including IEEE Transactions, Elsevier, and IEEE PES conferences. He completed his BSc Electrical Engineering in 2009 and MSc Electrical Engineering in 2011 from UET Lahore. He has worked in academia and industry for more than six years. He has worked as a Lecturer at UET Lahore. He has also served as an Assistant Professor at GIK Institute and UMT Lahore. His current research interests include convex relaxations, robust optimization, distribution system operation and control, multi-objective optimization, and smart distribution grids.

The speaker is a faculty candidate in electrical engineering department.

About the speaker: Usama Mehmood is a computer scientist investigating the verification of cyber-physical systems. He strives to develop practical formal methods that are both scalable and useful, which demands developing new theories, programming efficient tools, and building experimental systems. Some of the application areas he has worked on include multi-agent robotic systems and smart grids. 

Usama Mehmood received a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from LUMS in 2014, and a Master's degree in Computer Science from Stony Brook University in 2019. Currently, he is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Computer Science at Stony Brook University under the supervision of prof. Scott A. Smolka. He is the recipient of the Stony Brook CS Department Chair Fellowship award. He has worked at MathWorks during the summer of 2018 and Facebook during the summer of 2019.

This seminar by Dr. Usama Mehmood took place via Zoom on Monday, December 21 at 11:00 am.

About the speaker: Dr Tauseef ur Rehman is a graduate of College of Aeronautical Engineering Risalpur in Avionics Engineering. He did his PhD and Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering with specialization in High Performance Computer Vision and Controls Systems, respectively, both from Georgia Institute of Technology, USA in 2010. Dr Tauseef carries over 30 years of R&D experience which includes faculty assignments at NUST and Air University as well as key appointments in several R&D setups within Defense Sector of Pakistan. Presently, he is serving as Chief Technology Officer of National Aerospace Science and Technology.

This seminar took place online via Zoom on December 18th 2020, at 5pm PST

About the speaker: Dr. Saqib Ali completed PhD in Communication Systems from Lancaster University, UK in 2010. Since the start of his career he is closely attached with the field of communication systems and has a rich design experience of 18 years in this field. Being an algorithm designer along with development over SDRs, he is well familiar with communication system intrinsic and its issues. His core area is physical layer design.

December 17, 2020, 5:00 PM Pakistan Standard Time    

About the speaker: Imran Mehdi (BSEE 1985. MSEE 1986 and PhD 1990, University of Michigan) is a Senior Research Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. He joined JPL in 1990 and is currently a Technical Group Supervisor leading a team of around 20 scientists/technologists in the research and development of submillimeter wave technology for space applications. His responsibilities include developing THz components, technologies and subsystems for current and future NASA missions. These devices and components were implemented on the ozone-monitoring Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) instrument which is still operational as well as the (Microwave Instrument on Rosetta Orbiter) MIRO instrument which represents the first submillimeter wave receiver operational in deep-space. From 1999 he led the effort of developing broadband solid state sources from 200 to 2500 GHz for the Heterodyne Instrument for Far Infrared (HIFI) on the Herschel Space Observatory, a cornerstone European Space Agency mission. He is an IEEE Fellow and serves as the Editor in Chief for the IEEE Transactions on THz Science and Technology. He is recipient of a number of NASA awards including the NASA Exceptional Technology Achievement Medal for "outstanding innovation and expertise in development and implementation of the submillimeter-wave membrane-based Schottky diodes for the HIFI Spectrometer on Herschel." His current interests include millimeter and submillimeter wave devices and technology, nanotechnology, high-frequency instrumentation, 3D Submm-wave systems, and development of compact, low-power heterodyne receivers for deep-space missions.

About the speaker: Francesco Fioranelli received his Laurea (BEng, cum laude) and Laurea Specialistica (MEng, cum laude) degrees in telecommunication engineering from the University Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy, in 2007 and 2010, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from Durham University, UK, in 2014 with a thesis on through-wall radar imaging. He is currently Assistant Professor at TU Delft in the Netherlands in the Microwave Sensing Signals and Systems (MS3) group, and was an Assistant Professor at the University of Glasgow (2016-2019) and Research Associate at University College London with Prof Hugh Griffiths (2014-2016). Francesco's research interests include the development of radar systems and automatic classification for human signatures analysis in healthcare and security, drones and UAVs detection and classification, automotive radar, wind farm and sea clutter. He has authored over 85 publications between book chapters, journal, and conference papers; edited the book on "Micro-Doppler Radar and Its Applications" published by IET-SciTech in 2020; and received three best paper awards. Francesco is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a Chartered Engineer through the IET.

The online seminar took place via Zoom on October 27th 2020, at 05:00 PM PST

About the speaker: Dr Kashif Siddiq is the Founder & Managing Director of Oxford RF Solutions Ltd in the UK, where he is focusing on cutting edge commercial Radar technology solutions. He is the miner of the 2015 British Engineering Excellence Award for co-designing a Radar-based automatic incident detection (AID) system currently installed on the M25 in London. Dr Siddiq was featured in the March 2020 edition of the B4 Business Magazine, and was also nominated for the Business Leader of the Future Award by Innovate UK. Dr Siddiq has 20 publications to his name and holds a PhD in Electronics Engineering, with a focus on Commercial Radar Technology, from the University at Bath, UK, followed by business training at the University of Oxford and Ashom Hill Management College, UK. He is also the recipient of two gold medals during his earlier education in Pakistan.

This talk took place on December 16th 2020, at 5pm PST via Zoom.

Dr. Werner Wiesbeck is a Professor and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

Werner Wiesbeck (SM 87, F 94) received the Dipl.-Ing. (M.S.E.E.) and the Dr.-Ing. (Ph.D.E.E.) degrees from the Technical University Munich in 1969 and 1972, respectively. From 1972 to 1983 he was with product responsibility for mm-wave radars, receivers, direction finders and electronic warfare systems in industry. From 1983 to 2007 he was the Director of the Institut fur Hochstfrequenztechnik und Elektronik (IHE), University of Karlsruhe (TH) and he is now Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Research topics include antennas, wave propagation, Radar, remote sensing, wireless communication and Ultra Wideband. He is author and co-author of several books and of more than 900 publications, supervisor of more than 90 PhDs, and responsible supervisor of over 600 Diploma/Master theses and he holds over 60 patents. He was Chairman of the GRS-S Awards committee 1993-2017, Vice President IEEE GRS-S (1998-1999), President IEEE GRS-S (2000-2001). He has been General Chairman of several conferences. He received a number of awards, lately the IEEE Millennium Award, the IEEE GRS Distinguished Achievement Award, the Honorary Doctorate (Dr. h. c.) from the University Budapest Hungary, the Honorary Doctorate (Dr.-Ing. E.h.) from the University Duisburg/D, the Honorary Doctorate (Dr.-Ing. E.h.) from the Technische Universitat Ilmenau/D and the IEEE Electromagnetics Award 2008. He is a Life Fellow of IEEE, an Honorary Life Member of IEEE GRS-S, a Member of the Heidelberger Academy of Sciences and Humanities and a Member of the German Academy of Engineering and Technology (acatech).