News

November 2022

• 

  Deep neural networks that “get” spatial dependence

  2 min read · Mon, Nov 7 2022

  News

  A deep-learning technique could offer accurate large-scale predictions in the field of geospatial statistics.

August 2022

• 

  Better health from better data

  1 min read · Tue, Aug 23 2022

  News

  statistics geospatial statistics health surveillance

  The fast-developing science of geospatial statistics offers new insights into diverse health challenges, from cancer hotspots to problems of air pollution and the spread of COVID-19. Three new projects should yield a better understanding of what causes disease in Saudi Arabia and how to fight it. KAUST also stands to make a real contribution to the region by improving health in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The field of geospatial statistics and health surveillance, known as GeoHealth, uses data from multiple sources to create disease maps of geographical areas. When information is
• 

  A model for millions of locations

  1 min read · Tue, Aug 23 2022

  News

  climate change Environmental Statistics modeling statistics

  CEMSE statisticians developed a framework which enables modeling of a range of meteorological and environmental datasets from up to 2 million locations globally.
• 

  KAUST Ph.D. candidate wins ISBA-BayesComp poster award at the International Society for Bayesian Analysis 2022

  2 min read · Sun, Aug 21 2022

  News

  Bayesian computational statistics

  Esmail Abdul Fattah, a KAUST Ph.D. candidate in statistics, won a poster award in the "junior-BayesComp-ISBA" category at the 30th meeting of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA 2022) held from June 26 to July 1 in Montreal, Canada.

June 2022

• 

  Extreme analysis of seizures

  1 min read · Mon, Jun 27 2022

  News

  neuroscience machine learning human health statistics

  CEMSE researchers Matheus Guerrero, Raphaël Huser and Hernando Ombao developed a new approach for analyzing seizures in epilepsy patients by applying extreme value theory to real EEG seizure data.

May 2022

• 

  New database to "SpUR" on cancer research

  1 min read · Sun, May 29 2022

  News

  human health cancer Computer science

  Xin Gao's team developed an interactive web portal where cancer scientists can interrogate how RNA splicing in noncoding parts of genes fuels the growth of different types of tumors.
• 

  AI helps diagnose post-COVID lung problems

  1 min read · Sun, May 29 2022

  News

  human health Imaging machine learning Computer science

  A new AI diagnostic tool developed by KAUST scientists allows doctors to visualize lung damage caused by COVID-19 in more detail.
• 

  Professor Bolin earns American Statistical Association Section on Statistics and the Environment Early Investigator Award

  2 min read · Thu, May 26 2022

  News

  award statistics environment

  Prof. David Bolin has been selected for the American Statistical Association Section on Statistics and the Environment Early Investigator (ENVR) Award for his outstanding contributions to environmental statistics.

April 2022

• 

  Finding Terra Incognita

  1 min read · Thu, Apr 28 2022

  News

  extreme weather modeling modeling climate science statistics

  A new study addresses the difficulty in modeling atmospheric turbulence at sub-kilometer resolution, which is challenging due to atmospheric variability, meteorology and changeable terrain such as mountains and cities.
• 

  Can machine learning help predict disease spread?

  1 min read · Sun, Apr 17 2022

  News

  human health machine learning statistics

  Machine learning techniques can provide accurate forecasting of the spread of viruses during pandemics. Under the supervision of Ying Sun and Fouzi Harrou, Yasminah Alali developed an approach that removes human bias and assumptions, predicting pandemic evolution more accurately.
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  Getting the tail straight

  1 min read · Sun, Apr 3 2022

  News

  Environmental Statistics big data modeling statistics

  KAUST’s Extreme Statistics Group has developed an improved statistical model for analyzing environmental data of extreme events, such as heavy rainfall or strong wind data.

March 2022

• 

  SRSI student success story at Ibdaa 2022

  2 min read · Sun, Mar 20 2022

  Awards News

  environmental applications data analysis computational methods

  Faisal Fadi Hasan Almulla, who worked last year under the mentorship of Dr. Fouzi Harrou and Professor Ying Sun as part of the annual KAUST Saudi Research Science Institute (SRSI) summer program, won two awards at the National Olympiad for Scientific Creativity — Ibdaa 2022.
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  KAUST research wins Radar Challenge at the IEEE Radar Conference

  2 min read · Sun, Mar 6 2022

  News

  KAUST M.S. Graduate Rudi Coppola, KAUST Research Scientist Dr. Sajid Ahmed, and KAUST Distinguished Professor Dr. Mohamed-Slim Alouini won first prize at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Radar Challenge 2021. Their work titled "Road Users Classification Based on Bi-Frame Micro-Doppler with 24-GHz FMCW Radar," presents a case study for a 24 Gigahertz (GHz) frequency modulated continuous wave radar module.
• 

  Decrypting the interdependence of cryptocurrencies

  1 min read · Tue, Mar 1 2022

  News

  big data modeling statistics

  A team of KAUST statisticians has analyzed the price movements of the top five cryptocurrencies to further understand their market behavior. Their model will help investors assess the risks of investing in cryptocurrencies.

January 2022

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  Competition sheds light on approximation methods for large spatial datasets

  1 min read · Thu, Jan 20 2022

  News

  extreme statistics modeling big data statistics

  Marc Genton, Huang Huang and colleagues from KAUST organized a global competition with 21 competing teams to compare different approximation methods for analyzing large spatial datasets.
• 

  Getting to the bottom of deadly weather

  1 min read · Sun, Jan 9 2022

  News

  human health Environmental Statistics climate change statistics

  Cold still causes far more deaths than heat in India. A study of the correlation between temperature and mortality in the Indian city of Pune has found that cold, rather than heat, is by far the bigger killer.

December 2021

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  Finding true protein hotspots in cancer research

  1 min read · Wed, Dec 8 2021

  News

  proteins statistics cancer human health

  Novel statistical methods help tell the difference between "false positives" and true detections of protein domain hotspots that could be linked to cancer.

November 2021

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  KAUST-KFUPM collaboration wins top honors at STC AIoT Hackathon

  3 min read · Mon, Nov 29 2021

  News

  IoT agriculture artificial intelligence drones

  A team composed of KAUST and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) students was one of three winning teams of this year’s Saudi Telecom Company (STC) AIoT (AI & IoT) Hackathon. The KAUST entry, AgriDoctor, a proposed autonomous, sustainable, intelligent agriculture system, was a standout pick for the competition judges from a pool of 110 project submissions and 350 participants.
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  Deeper defense against cyber attacks

  1 min read · Sun, Nov 28 2021

  News

  cybersecurity machine learning Deep learning statistics

  To address the growing threat of cyberattacks on industrial control systems, a KAUST team including Fouzi Harrou, Wu Wang and led by Ying Sun has developed an improved method for detecting malicious intrusions.

October 2021

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  Progressive KAUST communications study awarded at the IEEE SusTech 2021 student poster contest

  1 min read · Wed, Oct 13 2021

  News

  The progressive telecommunications research of KAUST Ph.D. candidate Maurilio Matracia, supervised by postdoctoral fellow Mustafa Kishk and Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Mohamed-Slim Alouini, has been recently awarded the second-place prize at the IEEE SusTech 2021 student poster contest.
• 

  Meet KAUST new student: Qilong Pan

  1 min read · Wed, Oct 13 2021

  News

  spatio-temporal statistics Deep learning

  Qilong Pan is a statistics graduate who joined KAUST in June 2021 from the Wuhan University of Technology, China. Pan is a M.S./Ph.D. student and member of the Environmental Statistics research group under the supervision of Professor Ying Sun.
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  KAUST paper wins 2020 Computational Optimization and Applications Best Paper Award

  1 min read · Tue, Oct 12 2021

  News

  stochastic gradient descent machine learning

  KAUST Professor of Computer Science Peter Richtárik and his former student Nicolas Loizou, currently a postdoctoral researcher at Mila - Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute and soon to take up an assistant professorship position at Johns Hopkins University, recently received the 2020 Computational Optimization and Applications (COAP) Best Paper Award.

September 2021

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  Shaping a 6G future

  4 min read · Sun, Sep 26 2021

  News

  wireless networks 6G Wireless Communications global connectivity

  This coming decade promises to be yet another revolutionary one in how we communicate. In a world that is only beginning to embrace 5G technology, several scientific institutions, governments, telecom companies, and phone manufacturers worldwide are beginning to research the development possibilities of its successor—6G technology.
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  Heatwave model shows it is hotter in more places, more often

  1 min read · Sun, Sep 12 2021

  News

  extreme weather climate change statistics

  New modeling shows that heatwaves across Europe have increased in both frequency and spatial extent over the past century.
• 

  Meet KAUST new student: Daniel Osorio Barreto

  1 min read · Wed, Sep 1 2021

  News

  Biostatistics macroeconomics

  Daniel Osorio Barreto, is an economics graduate who joined KAUST this fall from Universidad Autónoma de Manizales, Colombia. He is as a Ph.D. student and member of the KAUST Biostatistics Group under the supervision of Professor Hernando Ombao.

August 2021

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  Beating the curse of dimensionality

  1 min read · Wed, Aug 18 2021

  News

  Environmental Statistics big data statistics

  By scanning past data for both partial and complete matches to current observations, a KAUST-led research team has developed a prediction scheme that can more reliably forecast the future trajectory of environmental parameters. The collection of data at regular intervals over time is common in many fields but particularly so in environmental, transportation and biological research. Such data are used to monitor and record the current state and also to help predict what might come in the future. A typical approach is to look for previous patterns or trajectories in the data that match the
• 

  Trio of tuning tools for modeling large spatial datasets

  1 min read · Thu, Aug 12 2021

  News

  big data Environmental Statistics statistics

  Statistical tools help fine-tune the parameters and approximations of models used to make sense of large spatial datasets.
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  Dr. Harrou receives two IEEE ECBIOS 2021 best paper awards

  2 min read · Tue, Aug 10 2021

  News

  renewable energy systems Deep learning

  Dr. Fouzi Harrou, a research scientist in the KAUST Environmental Statistics (ES) group, recently received two IEEE Eurasia Conference on Biomedical Engineering, Healthcare and Sustainability 2021 (IEEE ECBIOS 2021) best paper awards.

July 2021

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  Training an AI eye on the Moon

  1 min read · Mon, Jul 12 2021

  News

  machine learning algorithm modeling Computer science

  Machine learning accelerates the search for promising Moon sites for energy and mineral resources.

June 2021

• 

  KAUST research group win inaugural MCIT Digital Innovation Award

  3 min read · Mon, Jun 28 2021

  News

  digital innovation award smart tap artificial intelligence

  A team of KAUST researchers have won first place in the Digital Research track at the inaugural Digital Innovation Awards held on Sunday, April 25, 2021. Launched by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), the awards aim to “enhance the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in digital research and development” in Saudi Arabia.
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  The IEEE CS Global Student Challenge seeks top KAUST CS talent

  2 min read · Wed, Jun 9 2021

  News

  big data Computer science

  The annual IEEE Computer Society Global Student Challenge provides an avenue for students worldwide to create innovative solutions to big data problems. This year’s competition, IEEE CS GSC 2021, encourages each individual or team (max three students) to present solutions to pre-determined problem/issue statement of relevance in CS today.

May 2021

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  KAUST Prof. Mohamed Slim Alouini and Prof. Ibrahim Hoteit have been awarded the 2020 Kuwait prize

  2 min read · Thu, May 27 2021

  News

  Dr Hoteit is recognized for his pioneering research in ocean modelling, remote sensing, Red Sea eddy dynamics, and the development of new techniques in data assimilation and modelling that have environmental applications of global significance. In the Field of Applied Sciences (area of Engineering Sciences), the Prize is awarded to Dr. Mohamed-Slim Alouini, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at King Abdulla University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, for his groundbreaking research in the area of wireless , optical and vehicular communications, including low-power communications for the internet of things, as well as his valuable contribution to the development of the 3G, 4G and satellite systems.
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  Forging a career through interdisciplinarity

  1 min read · Tue, May 4 2021

  News

  The foundation of building a successful academic career is generally thought to be the pursuit of excellence through specialization. Of course, the cross-disciplinary quest has its important place, but it's often thought of primarily as the fruitful collaboration between specialized entities or experts in particular fields.

April 2021

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  Star light, star bright…as explained by math

  1 min read · Sun, Apr 25 2021

  News

  extreme statistics big data statistics

  The evolving periodicity of the brightness of certain types of stars can now be described mathematically.
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  Introducing "THE FANTASTATISTICS 4"

  1 min read · Thu, Apr 15 2021

  News

  Introducing KAUST’s very own "THE FANTASTATISTICS 4." Gaurav Agarwal, Jian Cao, Wanfang Chen, and Yuxiao Li are four Ph.D. alumni from the Statistics program at KAUST. The four students obtained their Ph.D.s last year under the supervision of Professor Ying Sun, Agarwal and Li, and Distinguished Professor Marc Genton, Cao and Chen, respectively.
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  A brainwave from social networks

  1 min read · Wed, Apr 14 2021

  News

  neuroscience extreme computing statistics

  The statistics used to understand social networks reveal the diversity of functional connections in the brain.
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  Predicting future hotspots in the Red Sea

  1 min read · Thu, Apr 8 2021

  News

  big data Red Sea climate science statistics

  Predicting areas of the Red Sea most susceptible to overheating by the end of the century could help conservation efforts to protect its precious coral reefs.

March 2021

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  Getting the inside track on street design

  1 min read · Tue, Mar 30 2021

  News

  big data statistics

  Large-scale analysis of pedestrian data from three European cities examines how building density and street design influence pedestrian behavior.
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  Rue honored by Royal Statistical Society

  1 min read · Wed, Mar 3 2021

  Spotlight News

  ​KAUST Professor of Statistics Håvard Rue has been honored by the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) for his "substantial and significant contributions in the area of efficient and scalable computational techniques for the data analysts' toolbox."

February 2021

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  KAUST Ph.D. Student Gaurav Agarwal wins ASA SCSG and ENAR Student Paper Awards

  2 min read · Sun, Feb 14 2021

  Awards News Spotlight

  Gaurav Agarwal, a Ph.D. candidate in statistics and member of KAUST Associate Professor Ying Sun's Environmental Statistics (ES) research group, recently won an American Statistical Association (ASA) Student Paper Award sponsored by the Sections on Computing and Graphics (SCSG). In addition to his ASA SCSG award, Agarwal has also been selected a Distinguished Student Paper Award winner by the Eastern North American Region (ENAR) of the International Biometric Society for his paper titled "Flexible Quantile Contour Estimation for Multivariate Functional Data: Beyond Convexity."

January 2021

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  CEMSE Student Research Excellence Awards and Student Academic Accomplishment Awards winners announced

  2 min read · Tue, Jan 5 2021

  News Spotlight

  student research excellence awards

  The annual CEMSE Student Research Excellence Awards and Student Academic Accomplishment Awards celebrate the talent and achievements of the Division's students. Awarded around the KAUST Commencement ceremony, the awards are presented in recognition of the academic accomplishments and research impact created by our leading students in the fields of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science (AMCS), Computer Science (CS), Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), and Statistics (STAT).

December 2020

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  KAUST researchers rank in top 1% of cited work worldwide

  1 min read · Wed, Dec 23 2020

  News

  Fifteen KAUST faculty members and one postdoctoral researcher rank among the 2020 Highly Cited Researchers from around the world, according to Clarivate Web of Science Group, a global leader of academic research analytics. The list names individuals whose work accounts for the top 1% of research cited worldwide.
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  Modeling rainfall drop by drop

  1 min read · Sun, Dec 20 2020

  News

  water security Environmental Statistics statistics

  A high-frequency model developed using data from new high-precision rain gauges gives fresh insight into the dynamics of rain and runoff events.
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  Modeling the neighborhood boosts landslide prediction

  1 min read · Sun, Dec 13 2020

  News

  statistics extreme statistics

  A prediction model that considers multiple landslides over time in a given region may improve the accuracy of early warning systems.
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  KAUST STAT students come together for second ASA chapter meeting

  2 min read · Thu, Dec 3 2020

  News

  statistics data science

  Members of the KAUST American Statistical Association (ASA) student chapter recently came together for the group’s second online meeting held on Tuesday, November 10, 2020. The meeting served as an orientation exercise for new KAUST Statistics (STAT) Program students while also highlighting the shared experience of STAT Ph.D. candidates: Jian Cao, Wanfang Chen, Yuxiao Li, and Gaurav Agarwal.
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  Professor Ghanem wins 2020 Abdul Hameed Shoman Award for Arab Researchers

  3 min read · Wed, Dec 2 2020

  Awards Spotlight News

  machine learning big data

  Bernard Ghanem, KAUST associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and computer science, recently received the 2020 Abdul Hameed Shoman Award for Arab Researchers for ''Machine Learning and Big Data.''
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  KAUST Distinguished Professor Mohamed-Slim Alouini honored with IEEE accolades

  3 min read · Tue, Dec 1 2020

  News

  Wireless Communications IEEE award

  Professor Mohamed-Slim Alouini has been awarded both the 2019 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Communication Society Communication Theory Technical Committee (CCTC) Technical Achievement Award, and the 2020 IEEE Vehicular Technology Society James Evans Avant Garde Award. The CEMSE Division founding faculty member received the awards for his contributions in the modeling, design, performance evaluation, and optimization of wireless communication systems and networks.
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  Mohamed-Slim Alouini elected as 2021 OSA Fellow

  1 min read · Tue, Dec 1 2020

  Spotlight News

  ​KAUST Distinguished Professor Mohamed-Slim Alouini was recently elected as a 2021 Fellow of the Optical Society (OSA). The prestigious recognition highlights members who have served with distinction in the advancement of optics and photonics. This year's cohort comprises 118 newly elected members from 24 countries. The new Fellows will be honored at OSA conferences and meetings throughout 2021.

November 2020

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  Deep learning in the emergency department

  1 min read · Sun, Nov 22 2020

  News

  machine learning artificial intelligence statistics human health

  Harnessing the power of deep learning leads to better predictions of patient admissions and flow in emergency departments.
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  Connecting the Unconnected at the KAUST 6G Summit

  2 min read · Sun, Nov 1 2020

  News

  6G Wireless Communications communication technology

  The inaugural 6G Summit on "Connecting the Unconnected" took place on Tuesday, October 27, and featured a host of international researchers and experts in the areas of Internet and Communication Technology (ICT) and Wireless Communications System (WCS).