Education

 

October 2003-June 2006

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Electrical Engineering, School of Electronic & Electrical Engineering, The University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom, sponsored by Schlumberger Dhahran Center for Carbonate Research, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Title of thesis: "Design and Implementation of Complex-Valued FIR Digital Filters with Application to Migration of Seismic Data", Ph.D. Supervisors names: Professor Said Boussakta and Dr. Desmond McLernon.

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Spring 2001-Spring 2002

Master of Sciences (M.Sc.) in Electrical Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Thesis title "Entropy-constrained Reflected Residual Vector Quantization with Application to Image Coding", M.Sc. Supervisor name: Dr. Omar A. Al-Suwailem

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1998-fall 2001

Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Mathematics (Double Major) with honors, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

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1996-summer 2000

B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering with honors, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

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Employment 

 

• June 2021-present: Professor, Electrical Engineering Department, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• May 2013-June 2021: Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering Department, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• August 2012-May 2013: Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering Department, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• Feb. 2011-August. 2012: Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering Department, Umm Al-Qura University (UQU), Makkah, Saudi Arabia

• March 2009-Feb. 2011: Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering Department, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• Sept. 2003-March 2009: Research Scientist, Schlumberger Dhahran Center for Carbonate Research, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• July 2003-Auguest 2003: Lecturer at the EE department, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• Fall 2000-Spring 2002: Graduate Assistant at the EE department, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

 

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Experience

• August 2016-present: Founding Dean, Entrepreneurship Institute, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia: I was appointed in August 2016 by the Minister of Education (formally Higher Education) with the recommendation of the University Rector as the founding Dean of the Entrepreneurship Institute, KFUPM. My charge is to continue and advance my efforts to establish a premier national model for entrepreneurship education that could be emulated within our Saudi ecosystem. The work I have undertaken during my previous two positions has placed our university as the number one growing ecosystem for entrepreneurial activities and education in the country. I continue to lead efforts to sustain the Entrepreneurship Institute by developing endowed funding, as well as gifting opportunities and programs.

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  I have engaged my entire team, as well as 17 other university leaders, in developing the Institute"s Strategic Plan 2020"designed to advance not only the institution"s role in Entrepreneurship, but also, to advance the ecosystem within the Kingdom.  I have secured SAR 2M (USD 0.53K) as an endowed fund and SAR 1M (USD 2.67K) as a student grant to validate their startups business assumptions. I have hired two additional staff, two faculty members and a full-time researcher. I am empowering them to teach, train, research, and engage with the business and industrial community, as well as leverage learning opportunities to develop new skills. We also managed to run our fourth Entrepreneurship forum with a theme on Developing Energy Ventures for Saudi Vision 2030 with 12 local and internal speakers including, for the first time, major energy companies in Saudi such as Aramco and SABIC. All of these efforts have resulted in receiving multiple invitations to speak at various Saudi universities. Frequently, the institute receives requests to support the establishment of university Centers and Institutes of Entrepreneurship and business incubators in the country. We have been recognized by the Saudi Small & Medium Enterprises (SME) Authority Governor, and his team, to grant the University three major projects that supports the growth of Saudi Arabia Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in large. The projects are worth about SAR 9.2 M (USD 2.45M). I have led the EI team, by which KFUPM received the 2017 inaugural award from the SME Authority of the Best University in the Kingdom that Supports Entrepreneurs & SMEs in the Kingdom. Finally, I have convinced the Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Cooperation (SABIC), a Saudi diversified manufacturing company, to establish a program called KFUPM-SABIC entrepreneurial challenge. The program aims to empower Saudis to build the necessary entrepreneurial and technical skills to establish their own industrial SMEs by the end of the program with the full technical and financial support of SABIC. The contract is about SAR 4M (USD 1.06M) for one fiscal year starting on January 2018.

• August 2016-May 2018: Assistant Director, Academic Leadership Center (ALC), Ministry of Education, formerly, Ministry of Higher Education: Since the establishment of the ALC 8 years ago, I have been involved in organizing national workshops for Saudi University Rectors, Vice Rectors, Deans and Chairmen. So far, the ALC managed to organize more than 300 workshops and activities, where about 8,000 males and females have participated on topics related to Academic Leadership in all Saudi universities. I have managed to contribute with colleagues from the USA two important initiatives: (a) developing local higher education leadership case studies and (b) a mentorship program for Saudi Higher Education leaders. I was an inaugural appointee to the Center and was responsible, with other colleagues, for its establishment.

• August 2014-August 2016: Assistant Dean, Entrepreneurship Institute, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) , Dhahran, Saudi Arabia: Appointed by the Rector as the first ever Assistant Dean (2014-2016) of the Entrepreneurship Institute, KFUPM. My charge was to continue creating a premier national model for entrepreneurship education that included university-based business incubators/accelerators and to build a structure and a team for the Entrepreneurship Institute.

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  In this position, I established three centers under the institute, namely, the Center of Entrepreneurship Education, the Center of Business Incubation and the Center of Entrepreneurial Studies. Also, I managed to hire and lead 5 team members to engage, on one hand, with KFUPM faculty and students in various entrepreneurship activities, and, at the other hand, with the business community. For students, the activities evolved into a certificate program called the Emerging Entrepreneurial Leaders (EEL) with 49 learning contact hours over an academic semester and intensive mentoring with business experts. The EEL takes student entrepreneurial teams through 5 modules from the ideation stage until they develop their business plans, and finally, entrepreneurial leadership. Also, the incubation program evolved into a 12-week acceleration program over an academic semester preparing the graduates of EEL to build an investible story ending by pitching in a demo day to investors. Our gained experience with the ongoing activities has resulted in offering various learning opportunities (Training the Trainers and Executive Education) for faculty, the business community and engineers from companies. The list of training and education opportunities includes Building Your Startup Communities, Entrepreneurial Leadership, Establishing Business Incubator Programs, Principles of Design Thinking, etc. We also managed to run our third entrepreneurship forum focusing the university entrepreneurial mindset with 8 local and internal speakers including, for the first time, entrepreneurial teams coming from within our ecosystem.  A very important point to mention is that I started raising funds (about SAR 0.5M ~ USD 133K) for a student scholarship program called "2030 Entrepreneurs" that I proposed to the University. This program enables Saudi graduates of other universities, and graduates of the King Scholarship Program, to enroll with KFUPM students in the EEL program followed by the accelerator program, live on campus, receive a descent stipend and a cubical office within the Institute incubation space. Due to my contributions to establish the entrepreneurship ecosystem within the University, Purdue University invited me to serve as a panel judge in the 28^th and 29^th Annual Burton D. Morgan Business Plan Competition, Purdue University, USA. The Burton D. Morgan Business Plan Competition was created in 1987 and is the third oldest business plan competition in the USA. .

• Sept. 2012-August 2014: Director for the Center of Business Incubators, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) , Dhahran, Saudi Arabia: Appointed by the Rector (2012-2014) as the Director for the Center of Business Incubators, KFUPM. My charge was to create a premier national model for business incubators/accelerators in the region in order to help promote the nation's vision in transforming our system into a knowledge-based economy.

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  During that period, I put in place a vision for the Entrepreneurship Institute and convinced the University of the importance of taking the business incubator center to become the Entrepreneurship Institute. At that time, I started launching student programs such as a business plan competition and business model generations. Such programs were engaging faculty from the business and engineering schools at KFUPM. I have managed to run two Entrepreneurship forums in 2013 and 2014, where both engaged about 300 participants with 35 local and international speakers debating what universities should do to promote entrepreneurial activities and mindset across disciplines, and between students and faculty. I have also convinced the University administration to establish a Global Advisory Board (GAB) to meet twice a year. The GAB provides non-binding strategic advice to KFUPM on entrepreneurial thinking and University-based programming to promote an entrepreneurial mindset. It further offers insight, support in planning and feedback on performance for KFUPM's entrepreneurial endeavors. The GAB chairman and members are professionals considered to be among some of the top entrepreneurship experts in global higher education today, mainly, from the USA.

• Feb. 2011-May 2011: Consultant Vice Presidency Department for Business & Innovation, Umm Al-Qura University (UQU), Makkah, Saudi Arabia: I helped establish UQU  endowments. Also, I helped write Umm Al-Qura's techno-valley proposal, as well as restructure its Local and International Collaboration office objectives and work. In this regards, my focus has been on developing programs related to knowledge-based economy in the Kingdom of Saudi higher education system.

• Feb 2010-Jan. 2011: Director, Business Development, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia: Appointed by the Rector as the first ever, for one year. In this role, I was focused on fund-raising for KFUPM's endowment project through its alumni. One outcome of my dedication in this position was the idea to develop and implement an alumni portal system, whereby alumni get to know more about KFUPM's recent achievements and events, and can contribute financially to its activities. The alumni portal system facilitates monetary transactions that are paid and tracked electronically.  This system was linked with on-line payment facilities like SADAD (the national Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment service provider for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia established by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency). A beta version of this alumni portal system for KFUPM has been recently launched to promote alumni interaction with the University and encourage donations to the endowments of KFUPM.

• Nov. 2009-August 2016: as a part-timer, working as a program coordinator for the Academic Leadership Center (ALC), Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE), Saudi Arabia

• Jan. 2003-April 2003: as a part-timer, joined the center for communication and computer research, Research Institute (RI), KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• Summer of 1999: A trainee at Bawazeer Factory for Tissues & Diapers, in industrial city, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

 

 

Additional Experience

• June 2017-Nov. 2017: representing KFUPM as a board member of ASBAR World Forum, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (http://asbarworldforum.com/index.php/en/ )

• March 2017-present: A non-voting board member of the Keys of Goodness Grant Program, KFUPM Entrepreneurship Institute

• Since November 2011-present: Member of the organizing committee for the ALC MOHE workshops, Saudi Arabia

• 14-15 November 2011: Member of the organizing committee for the ALC MOHE workshop titled: "Rectors Workshop: Excellence in Undergraduate Education", Taif, Saudi Arabia

• March 2011- May 2011: Member of the Umm Al-Qura Investment Standing Committee headed by H.E. Umm Al-Qura University Rector

• 2-3 Nov. 2010: Member of the organizing committee for the ALC MOHE workshop titled: "Rectors Workshop: From A World Class University to A World Class University System", Yanbou, Saudi Arabia

• July 2010: Head of the KFUPM delegation to the graduation ceremony for the Saudi students in UK

• June 2010: Deputy head of the KFUPM delegation to the graduation ceremony for the Saudi students in USA   

• 18-19 May 2010: Member of the organizing committee & program coordinator for ALC MOHE workshop titled: "The Essential Academic Leader", held at Dammam University,  Dammam, Saudi Arabia

• May 2010: Head of the KFUPM delegation to the graduation ceremony for the Saudi students in Australia   

• 15 May 2010: Member of the organizing committee & program coordinator for MOHE's Discussion Forum on the Academic Leadership Center Roadmap, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

• April 2010: Member of the organizing committee & program coordinator for MOHE workshop titled: "Vice-Rectors Workshop", Madinah, Saudi Arabia

• Jan. 2010: Member of the organizing committee & program coordinator for ALC MOHE workshops titled: "Deans Workshop", held at Umm Al-Qura University,  Makkah, Saudi Arabia 

• 3-4 Nov. 2009: Member of the organizing committee & program coordinator for ALC MOHE workshop titled: "Rectors Workshop", Jubail, Saudi Arabia

• June 2009: Deputy head for the KFUPM student delegation to Spain. The delegation was composed of two professors, an administrator and 19 students.

• September 2008-Nov. 2009: Member of the Program Committee for the World Petroleum Council (WPC)- Youth Forum took place in Paris, November 2009. You can view activities on: http://www.energiseyourfuture.com/. Also, you will find a video interview regarding our contribution to youth on: http://www.energiseyourfuture.com/videos.html  

• July 2008-December 2011: Working as the chair of the World Petroleum Council (WPC)- Youth Committee (YC)

• October 2007- Feb. 2008: Member of the KFUPM-Saudi ARAMCO strategic Planning Committee on behalf of Schlumberger

• June 2007-December 2008: Loss Prevention Team Leader for SDCR & Site Security Officer

• Jan 2007-June 2008: working as the WPC-YC vice chair

• Nov. 2002-March 2003:  Member of the publication committee for the International Symposium on Wireless Systems and Networks Conference (ISWSN03), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia during March 24-26, 2003

• Since January 2003: Reviewer for various conference and journal papers

• July 2002: participated in the gifted summer scientific meeting in teaching MATLAB, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• 1999-2000: President of the EE Club at KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• 1998 (Hajj Season): Joined King Fahd Hajj Research Institute at Umm Al-Qura University (UQU), Makkah, Saudi Arabia, working as a research student, supplying questionnaires to pilgrims, collecting them and then gathering statistical data

• 1997 (Hajj Season): Joined King Fahd Hajj Research Institute at UQU, Makkah, Saudi Arabia, working as a research student, collecting statistical data from the pilgrims

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Training and Continuous Education

The following shows a list of my self-development skills related to various categories such as scientific and technical, academic leadership, and others.

Scientific and technical

• 14-15 September 2019: A Attended a course with certificate titled: "An Introduction to Migration and Velocity Model Building" by Ian Jones, Society of Exploration Geophysicists, San Antonio, TX, USA

• 17-18 October 2015: Attended a course with certificate titled: "Geophysical Applications of Time-Frequency Analysis" by Marcilio Matos, Society of Exploration Geophysicists, New Orleans, LA, USA

• 25-26 October 2014: Attended a course with certificate titled: "Digital Signal Analysis in Seismic Data Processing" by Enders Robinson & Osman Hassan, Society of Exploration Geophysicists, Denver, CO, USA

• 24 October 2014: Attended a Distinguished Instructor Short Course (DISC) titled: "Microseismic Imaging of Hydraulic Fracturing: Improved Engineering of Unconventional Shale Reservoirs" by Shawn Maxwell, Society of Exploration Geophysicists, Denver, CO, USA

• 12-13 November 2013: Attended a course with certificate titled: "Processing, Inversion of Reconstruction Seismic Data" by Mauricio Sacchi, Society of Exploration Geophysicists, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• 5-7 Jan. 2011: Attended two workshops on Advanced MATLAB programming, the 6^th IEEE Signal Processing Education Workshop, Sedona, Arizona, USA

• 13-14 March 2010: Attended two tutorials: "Biomedical Image Processing & Analysis Techniques" & "Sparse Signal Recovery: Theory, Applications & Algorithms", the 2010 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP) , Dallas, TX, USA

• November 2007: Attended the SEG/EAGE Distinguished Instructor Short Course 2007 titled: Concepts and Applications in 3D Seismic Imaging, Dhahran Geosciences Society, Bahrain

• 11 September 2005: Attended a tutorial on: "Algorithms for Biometric Recognition", the 12^th IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP2005), Genoa, Italy

• 4 September 2005: Attended a tutorial on: "Color Image processing", the 13^th EURASIP European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO"05), Antalya, Turkey

• Fall of 2002: Attended two tutorials: "Medical Image Compression" & "Principles of Digital Watermarking", the 9^th IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP2002), Rochester NY, USA

• November 1999: Attended four sessions (Fast Calculations, Solving Equations, The Design of Statistical Experiments & Error Correcting Codes) in a workshop on Algebra & Applications, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Academic leadership

• 15-27 July 2018: Institute of Educational Management (IEM),  Executive Education, School of Graduate Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

• 18-20 June 2018: Finance & Accounting for Non-Finance Executives, NYU Stern School of Business, New York University, New York City, NY, USA

• 2-14 June 2013: Management Development Program, Executive Education, School of Graduate Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

• 27-31 May 2013: The 32^nd Price-Babson Symposium for Entrepreneurship Educators, Executive Education, Babson College, Babson Park, MA, USA

• 14-15 November 2011: Attended the ALC MOHE workshop titled: "Rectors Workshop: Excellence in Undergraduate Education", Taif, Saudi Arabia

• 4 April 2011: Attended the discussion forum titled: "Trends in Higher Education", organized by the office of planning and quality, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• 2-3 November 2010: Attended the ALC MOHE workshop titled: "Rectors Workshop: From A World Class University to A World Class University System", Yanbou, Saudi Arabia

• 3-4 April 2010: Attended the ALC MOHE workshop titled: "Vice-Rectors Workshop", Madianh, Saudi Arabia

• Jan. 2010: Attended the ALC MOHE workshop titled: "Deans Workshop", Makkah, Saudi Arabia

• 3-4 Nov. 09: Attended the ALC MOHE workshop titled: "Rectors Workshop", Jubail, Saudi Arabia

• June 2009: Attended & participated in the workshop titled "Faculty Search", Deanship of Academic Development, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• June 2009: Attended & participated in the workshop titled "Emerging Leaders", Deanship of Academic Development, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Miscellaneous

• Nov. 2009: Participated in MAWHIBA's training workshop titled "Judges Outreach Strand", King Abdul-Aziz & his Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity, Al-Khobar Holiday Inn Hotel, Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia

• July 2006-March 2009: I have taken various Schlumberger based training in different countries. Some of which are technical and others are job related such as Loss Prevention and Safety. Other courses were taken on-line

• 29 September 2005: Attended workshop on "The insiders Guide to Getting Published in Research Journals", Graduate Training & Support Center, Staff & Departmental Development Unit (SDDU), Leeds University, Leeds, UK

• 28 September 2005: Attended workshop on "Communicating your Research to Non Specialists", Graduate Training & Support Center, SDDU, Leeds University, Leeds, UK

• 29 November 2004: Attended workshop on "Using Power Point to Produce Posters", Graduate Training & Support Center, SDDU, Leeds University, Leeds, UK

• 24 November 2004: Attended workshop on "Giving Presentations", Graduate Training & Support Center, SDDU, Leeds University, Leeds, UK

• 9 November 2004: Attended workshop on "Writing for Research Students in the Sciences", Graduate Training & Support Center, SDDU, Leeds University, Leeds, UK

• 20 October 2004: Attended workshop on "Starting your Research Degree", Graduate Training & Support Center, SDDU, Leeds University, Leeds, UK

• Fall of 1999: Attended a short Course on "Learning Advanced MATLAB Programming", with a certificate, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• 1995-1996: Intensive English Language Program, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

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Awards and Honors

• Since 2012: I have been always distinguished with an (A+) as per my annual performance evaluations.  

• June 2009: Received the Electrical Engineering Department Service Award, KFUPM, due to outstanding departmental services for the academic year 2008-2009

• October 2008: Awarded from the CEO of Schlumberger a letter of distinction for technical contributions to the company since joining after my Ph.D. The award includes 600 restricted Schlumberger stock units

• Nov. 2006: Was elected to represent Saudi Arabia in the World Petroleum Council (WPC)- Youth Committee (YC)

• September 2003: As the first Saudi, I received a Ph.D. scholarship award for 3 years from Schlumberger Dhahran Center for Carbonate Research, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• Spring 2001:  First prize of Al-Bassel Scientific Exhibition on simulating an Audio Scrambling System using MATLAB software, sponsored by the Saudi government, Damascus, Syria

• Fall 2001: First prize of the General 4^th Scientific Exhibition on simulating an Audio Scrambling System using MATLAB software, sponsored by the Saudi government, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

• Spring 2000: Received a certificate of distinction in recognition of my distinguished role in academic assistance to my fellow students during the academic year 1999-2000, sponsored by H.E. the Rector of KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• Spring of 1999: Second prize of the EE club "scientific invention IBTICAR 99" on developing a complete communication system program using MATLAB software, sponsored by Student Affairs, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• 1998: First prize in the competition of writing a paper on " How to be an Excellent Student at KFUPM", sponsored by Student Affairs, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• 1996: Invited to receive an award from the Kuwaiti National Committee for M. & POW"s Affairs

• Spring of 1996: One of the finalists in speech contest held at the prep year at KFUPM, sponsored by the Deanship of Educational Services, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, with talk title "The Lost People from Kuwait"

• 1995-2001: Dean"s list of honors at KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

 

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Certificates & Letters of Recognition

• January 2012: Letter of recognition from H.E. KFUPM Rector due to the acceptance of my paper in the IEEE Transactions on Education related to the course that I developed on Geo-Signal Processing.

• Jan. 2010: Certificate of appreciation for the valuable contribution and participation for the EE club and students affairs, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• July 2002: Certificate of appreciation for the valuable contribution and participation in the gifted summer scientific meeting, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• Spring 2002:  Certificate of appreciation for the valuable contribution and participation in the International Symposium on Wireless Systems & Networks (ISWSN" 03), sponsored by KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• Spring 2001: Certificate of appreciation and recognition for the outstanding contributions in assisting the organization committee of the IEEE Technical Exchange Meeting, sponsored by the IEEE Section of Saudi Arabia & KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• Spring 2000: Received a certificate of appreciation and recognition for being the president of the Electrical Engineering (EE) Club during 1999-2000, sponsored by Student Affairs, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• Spring 2000: Certificate of appreciation and recognition for the outstanding contributions in assisting the organization committee of the IEEE Technical Exchange Meeting, sponsored by the IEEE Section of Saudi Arabia & KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

• Fall 2000: Letter of appreciation for participating in the Electrical Engineering Open Day for the orientation students, sponsored by the EE department, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

 

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Professional Affiliations

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