KAUST Professor J. Carlos Santamarina and postdoctoral fellow Junghee Park received the 2019 Tarek Al-Kasabi Award for Excellence in Civil Engineering in Saudi Arabia. The award, administered by King Saud University, recognizes outstanding contributions to civil engineering within the Kingdom. Santamarina and Park were nominated by Dr. Abdullah Almajed from King Saud University and received a plaque, certificate, and a cash prize of SAR 100,000. Why it matters: Recognition of KAUST faculty highlights the university's contribution to civil engineering research and development in Saudi Arabia.
KAUST Ph.D. graduate Tariq Alturkestani won the best paper award at Euro-Par 2020 for his doctoral thesis on overlapping I/O and compute in large-scale scientific computation using multilayered buffering mechanisms. His work re-evaluates the Reverse Time Migration (RTM) method used by geoscientists for oil and gas explorations, utilizing emerging storage technologies. The paper was co-authored with Professor David Keyes and Dr. Hatem Ltaief from the KAUST Extreme Computing Research Center (ECRC). Why it matters: This award highlights KAUST's growing prominence as a hub for Saudi talent and research in supercomputing and extreme computing, particularly in applications relevant to the region's energy sector.
KAUST Ph.D. student Mohamed Bahloul received a best paper award at the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC ‘18) for the Africa and Middle East region. Bahloul's paper presented a three-element fractional-order viscoelastic Windkessel model developed in the EMAN group at KAUST. The model incorporates a fractional-order capacitor, potentially enabling earlier prediction of cardiovascular diseases. Why it matters: The award recognizes impactful research in biomedical engineering at KAUST and highlights the potential for advanced modeling techniques to improve healthcare in the region.
Dalal Alezi, a Ph.D. student in KAUST's Physical Science and Engineering Division, has received the inaugural PSE Division Student Award. Alezi is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate. The award recognizes outstanding Ph.D. candidates within the division. Why it matters: The award highlights KAUST's commitment to recognizing and supporting exceptional talent in science and engineering.
Dr. Mohamed Ferrag, a Lead Researcher at AIDRC, received the "Algeria Scopus Award" from Algeria's Ministry of Education and Higher Research for his contributions to computer science. Dr. Ferrag is an IEEE Senior Member and has authored many scientific papers and books. He was also ranked among the World's Top 2% Scientists from Stanford University in 2020-2022. Why it matters: This award recognizes and encourages scientific research and talent within the Algerian AI and computer science community.
KAUST Ph.D. student Mohammed Aljahdali received the Best Paper award at the International Conference on Federated Learning Technologies and Applications (FLTA) 2025 for his research on federated learning. His paper, "Flashback: Understanding and Mitigating Forgetting in Federated Learning," introduces an algorithm to help AI systems retain knowledge across diverse datasets while preserving privacy. Aljahdali's research, supervised by Professor Marco Canini, focuses on training machine learning models directly on user devices. Why it matters: This award recognizes the growing talent and impactful research emerging from Saudi universities in the field of privacy-preserving AI.
KAUST Ph.D. student Jinhui Xiong won the best paper award at the 24th International Symposium on Vision, Modeling, and Visualization in Germany for his paper "Stochastic Convolutional Sparse Coding". The paper, co-authored with KAUST Professors Peter Richtárik and Wolfgang Heidrich, introduces a novel stochastic spatial-domain solver for Convolutional Sparse Coding (CSC). The proposed algorithm outperforms state-of-the-art solutions in terms of execution time and offers an improved representation for learning dictionaries from sample images. Why it matters: This award recognizes significant research in efficient image representation and dictionary learning, contributing to advancements in visual computing and AI at KAUST.
KAUST Ph.D. student Mohammad Shaqura was a finalist for the Best Student Paper Award at the IEEE International Conference. The award is from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The conference and award recognize outstanding contributions from student researchers in electrical and electronics engineering. Why it matters: This recognition highlights the growing talent pool and research capabilities in engineering fields at KAUST.