Information to Prospective Students

KFUPM is a leading school of science and engineering in the Middle East. The Electrical Engineering Department at KFUPM is the biggest department in the Gulf Region and among the best in the Middle East. It has over 50 faculty with recent recruits from top schools in the US and Canada (including Stanford University, Georgia Tech, Michigan Ann Arbor, Virginia Tech, University of Minnesota). The Department offers courses and graduate degrees in most of Electrical Engineering disciplines (including Communications, Control, Electromagnetics, Power, and Signal Processing). The communication and signal processing groups are among the largest groups in the department.

Advantages of Joining the Electrical Engineering Dept. at KFUPM

1. Getting your education from a leading school in the Middle East
2. Scholarship for the duration of the M.S. or P.h.D study that includes tuition waver, stipend, and housing.
3. Quality students have a good chance of being part of research projects which gives good experience and the chance to supplement their salaries. 
4. Getting exposed to Faculty with excellent educational background, teaching quality, and research level.

Why a Master Thesis is a Good Thing?

If you decide to join KFUPM for your MS, then you need to write a master thesis. Some might consider a master thesis to be a waste of time. I think the opposite is true regardless of whether you intend to go for PhD or not. If you are not planning to go for PhD, then a master thesis would be a chance for you to get the feel and skill of doing research.  For the skill to conduct research and write a master thesis could be very useful in any profession you end up pursuing. At the end, either of two possibilities would happen. The first possibility is that you would fall in love with research and change your mind about not going for a PhD. Alternatively, your decision not to go for a PhD would be based on stronger grounds.

If you actually plan to go for a PhD, then there are even stronger reasons to do a master thesis:

1. Most undergrads are not trained to deal with open-ended problems and writing a thesis would be their first chance to do so. It is rare that we would do a good job in anything we do for the first time. By writing a master thesis, you get the chance to learn the skills of doing research, and thus are prepared to do a much better job in your PhD thesis.
2. If you don’t like your master thesis research topic, you get to chance to have a better pick for your PhD.
3. I am a strong advocate for targeting top schools for your PhD.  Top schools are very selective in their graduate programs and the chance of getting accepted there (even if you are the top in your class) is small. This is especially so if you are coming from an average school. By doing a master thesis, and submitting your work to reputable conferences and journals, you get recognition that top graduate programs can not ignore.      

I am interested in responsible, disciplined, and self-driven students who are willing to work hard. They need also to be comfortable with mathematics as many of my research problems tend to be mathematically oriented.