CEN Research Hub

• Renewable Energy
• High Temperature PEM Fuel Cells
• Nano-composite membranes
• Solid Proton Conductors
• Solar Cells
• Implantable Electrodes

• Polymeric and liposomal drug delivery
• Ultrasound
• Surface modification
• Tissue culture
• Biomaterials

• Advanced control
• Modeling
• Simulation
• Optimization of petrochemical and environmental chemical processes
• Water desalination and wastewater treatment plants
• Drug delivery systems
• Heat integration processes
• Ionic liquids and its applications

• Vapor-liquid equilibria
• Computational thermodynamics and separation processes
• Refrigeration
• Modeling and Simulation of Chemical and Environmental Processes
• Water and Membrane Technology

• Ionic liquids technology for renewable energy and sustainable processing
• Nanomaterials processing
• Pharmaceutical process development
• Predictive modeling of liquid systems

• Interfacial fluid mechanics
• Boundary layer theory
• Entrance region problems
• Wetting and dewetting
• Oil spills hydrodynamics
• Sedimentation
• Blood flow dynamics
• Nanofluids
• Evaporation
• Chemical reaction engineering
• Natural gas liquids recovery
• Process synthesis and optimization

• Synthesis of Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs)
• Carbon Dioxide Adsorption by MOFs
• Drug Delivery
• Micro-pollutants Removal by MOFs

• Water Disinfection
• Microbial fuel cell
• Membrane bioreactor
• Biofuel/Bioenergy
• Adsorption of heavy metals, phenols and dyes using biological materials activated by different methods
• Effect of salt on vapor-liquid equilibria
• Effect of salt on liquid-liquid equilibria
• Sorptive storage of natural gas- Electroosmotic Dewatering
• Separation of azeotropic systems using adsorptive distillation

• Waste to energy via gasification and pyrolysis
• Computational fluid dynamic modeling of multiphase flow
• Hydrogen production
• Solar thermochemical conversion
• Production of biochar
• Applications of fluidized bed reactors
• Biofuels
• High value products from algae and adsorption/desorption processes

• Biofiltration
• Modeling of Chemical and Biological Reactors
• Air Pollution Control
• Hazardous Waste Management
• Waste to Energy Technologies

• 3D Concrete Printing
• Green Buildings
• High Performance Concrete Design & Applications in Harsh Environment
• Sustainability/Green Buildings Design
• Safety, Composite Materials

• Computational Solids and Structural Mechanics
• Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis
• Constitutive Modeling
• Damage Mechanics
• Impact
• Composites

• Computer-aided analysis and design of structures
• Earthquake engineering
• Structural dynamics and materials

• Geosynthetics behaviors and its applications in Geotechnical Engineering
• Static and seismic analysis of reinforced-soil retaining walls and embankments
• Static and dynamic tests for soil properties and behaviors
• Numerical and experimental modeling of Geomaterials and composites
• Analysis, behaviors and testing methods of saturated and unsaturated soils

• Water Distribution systems
• Water Treatment
• Recycling of Solid Waste Management
• Water Quality Management in Coastal Water
• Water Infrastructure Management

• Nonlinear Structural Dynamic Response Analysis and Modeling
• Passive Control and Supplemental Damping Devices
• Computer-Aided Design and Simulation
• Nonlinear Finite Element Methods
• Soil-Structure-Interaction
• Structural Optimization
• Experimental Analysis of Full-Scale Structures as well as Components and Materials
• Development of New Materials in Seismic Design and Retrofit
• Fiber-Reinforced Concrete

• Soil behavior
• Soil erosion
• Soil stabilization
• Expansive soil
• Soil testing

• Structural and Computational Mechanics
• Finite Element Analysis
• Seismic Analysis and Design of Hybrid Precast/Prestressed Concrete Frames and Walls
• Composite Structures
• Strengthening and Rehabilitation of Structures
• Structural Fire Resistance
• Nonlinear Thermal Stress Analysis and Fire Performance of Structural Members

• Best Practices for Sustainable Development
• Sustainable Construction
• Project Planning and Performance
• Project and Program Benchmarking
• Engineering Education and Leadership
• Women in STEM

• Construction & Project Management
• Project Time & Cost Control
• Construction Contracting

• Structural reliability
• Finite element modeling
• Bridge engineering
• Experimental testing of structural steel
• Reinforced concrete elements

• River engineering
• Catchment flood management plans
• Strategic Flood Risk Management
• Channel resistance
• Boundary shear stress distributions
• Overbank flow
• Flood hydraulics
• Sediment mechanics
• Hydraulic structures at high flow, e.g. bridges
• Environmental Hydrology and Modelling

• Behavior of reinforced and prestressed concrete
• Composite structures
• Special concrete
• Infrastructure management systems

• GIScience
• LiDAR Mapping
• Mobile and Internet-based GIS
• Coastal Mapping & GIS
• Applications of GIS/Remote Sensing in Environmental & Transportation Engineering
• Wide-Area GPS Networks
• Infrastructure Monitoring/Surveillance

• Embedded Systems
• Industrial Internet of Things
• Smart Grid
• Smart Manufacturing and industry 4.0
• Applications in Smart Cities and PLCs applications

• Power consumption in VLSI circuits
• Hardware description languages
• FPGAs applications
• Innovative uses of emerging technology

• Cyber Security
• Mobile Applications
• Smart Cities
• Design Optimization

• Parallel algorithms
• Distributed VoD
• High performance computing
• Biomedical signal compression

• Internet of Things
• Deep Learning
• Big Data
• Educational Analytics

• Testing of systems modeled as timed, untimed, and extended finite state machines
• Synthesis of distributed systems (Decomposition of Petri net services, Solving automata equations)
• Optimization with application to protocol synthesis, testing, and cloud computing

• Cognitive Computing and Systems
• Adaptation and Learning
• Knowledge Discovery
• Nature-Inspired Computing
• Approximate Reasoning
• Decision Support
• Intelligent Robotics
• Autonomous Vehicles
• Sensor Fusion
• Medical Informatics
• Education

• Cloud Computing
• Mobile Cloud Computing
• Fog Computing
• Decentralized Scheduling
• Content-based networks
• Economic-based optimization models and approaches
• Privacy in distributed systems
• Smart Spaces

• Medical Imaging and Informatics
• Machine Learning
• Data Mining

• Digital video coding and transcoding
• Machine learning

• Applications of microprocessors for achieving improved protection and monitoring of power systems
• Design, implementation and testing of protective relays, modeling of power systems, applications of power electronics and signal processing in power systems
• Smart energy management systems

• Microwave Biomedical Imaging
• Computational Electromagnetics
• Optimization Algorithms
• Millimeter Wave Channel Characterization
• Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation

• DSP based Variable Speed Drives (VSDs)
• Hybrid and Electric Vehicle
• Solar and other Renewable Energy Systems
• Power Electronics
• Delivery of Design Experience in Engineering Education

• Neuroengineering
• Human emotions assessment and enhancement
• Brain source localization
• Assessment of spinal cord and brain injuries
• Biomedical devices and electronics

• Radar Systems
• Biomedical Signal Processing

• Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits and Architectures
• Low Power Chip Design
• Wireless Sensors
• Implantable Medical Devices
• Energy Harvesting Techniques
• Radar Systems
• CMOS and MMIC technologies

• Performance evaluation of wireless communication systems
• Cognitive radios
• Channel modeling
• Resource allocation in next generation systems
• Spectrum Co-existence
• 5G and beyond cellular systems

• Wireless communications
• Wired & wireless networking with emphasis on adaptive multimedia communications over these networks
• Cognitive radios
• Optimal resource allocation in next generation systems & performance evaluation
• QoS provisioning over wired and wireless networks
• Optical communications
• Electromagnetic shielding
• Demand response & smart grids
• Anti-static flooring

• Smart Grid
• Renewable DG
• Distribution System Planning
• Microgrids
• Electric Transportation
• Storage Systems
• Demand Side Management
• Bulk Power System Reliability

• Microwave Nondestructive testing and Imaging
• Energy Harvesting
• Ultrasound and microwave biological applications
• Materials Characterization

• Wireless transceivers design
• 5G RF circuits and systems
• Power amplifiers design
• Characterization and linearization
• Digital predistortion techniques
• Satellite transmitters
• Impairments compensation for wireless and satellite systems

• Servo and adjustable-speed drive systems
• Power electronics
• Field-oriented control of ac motor drives
• Control of electro-mechanical systems using linear
• Nonlinear and adaptive control methods
• Real time digital control
• DSP/Microcomputer-based controllers (hardware, software)

• Computer vision
• Image processing
• Machine learning
• Object recognition
• Object detection
• Face recognition
• Soft biometrics
• Sparse coding
• Deep learning

• Healthcare Management
• Supply Chain Management
• Scheduling
• Project Management
• Facilities Planning and Design
• Operations Research

• Statistical Process Optimization
• Medical and Health Informatics

• Six Sigma
• Fault Detection
• Reliability Engineering
• Reliability Centered Maintenance
• Quality Engineering

• Logistics and Distribution Management
• Network Design and Optimization
• Blockchain Applications
• Supply Chain Management
• Operations Management
• Operations Research
• Decisions Making

• Supply chain management
• Production planning and inventory control
• Risk management in product development
• Maintenance management

Inventory control

Production planning and scheduling

Supply chain management

Maintenance management

Project management

• Material modeling
• Predicting failure behavior using numerical or experimental techniques
• Tailoring performance through developing functionally graded/composite/nano materials
• Optimizing manufacturing process to minimize cost /enhance sustainability
• Using facility planning/simulation/automation tools to improve systems performance specifically manufacturing and traffic systems

• Mathematical modeling
• Closed loop supply chain
• Cross-docking operations

• Construction management and IT
• Sustainability
• BIM
• PPP/PFI
• Education
• Disaster & resilience management
• Performance management

• Supply Chain Management
• Production and Inventory Control
• Applied Operations Research
• Scheduling in Healthcare

• Advanced Material Processing & Engineering
• Friction Stir Welding and Processing
• Sustainable Manufacturing

• Metrology
• Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) of Material
• Structural Health Monitoring (SHM)

• Theory of Mechanisms and Machines
• Design and Analysis of Parallel Mechanisms
• Design and optimization of mechatronic systems
• Biomechanics

• Experimental and computational solid mechanics
• Fiber reinforced composites
• Dynamic behavior of materials (high-strain-rate response) failure and fatigue
• Time dependent materials (viscoelastic materials)
• Impact mitigation

• Stochastic estimation
• Navigation
• Control systems
• Real-time estimation and control
• Mechatronics
• Integration and applications of the Global Positioning System
• Inertial Navigation Sensors (GPS/INS systems)
• Fault detection and identification for control systems
• Dynamic analysis and synthesis of vehicle systems

• Nonlinear dynamics
• Modeling and simulation of micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS)
• Fluid-structure interactions
• Model reduction of large dynamic/energy systems
• Flow in porous media

• Hydrogen and fuel cell systems
• Renewable energy technologies
• Energy
• Exergy
• Exergoeconomy
• Sustainability analysis of advanced energy systems
• Energy management/savings
• Efficiency analysis

• Thermal management of gas turbine (jet impingement, blade cooling, film cooling and cross flow heat transfer)
• Electronics cooling (two phase material, loop heat pipe, heat pipes, porous fin and micro-channel heat sink)
• Energy (innovative fuel combustion and testing such as LPG, Hydrogen, methyl ester and water diesel emulsion)
• Renewable Energy (solar chimney, downdraft tower and solar-hydrogen hybrid system)
• Cooling technology (vortex tube and phase change)

• Intelligent systems
• Robotics
• Control
• Mechatronics/ Embedded control systems
• Sensor fusion and Fault diagnosis

• Advanced Materials Processing
• Sustainable Manufacturing
• Light-weighting
• Finite Element Modeling

• Microfluidics and its biological applications including biological sample processing
• Medical diagnostics
• Cellular mechanobiology
• Swimming behavior of sperm cells
• Liquid manipulation on the microscale including electrowetting, contact angle saturation, and digital microfluidics

• Nonlinear Dynamics
• Vibrations
• Buckling and post-buckling of structures
• Mechanics of composite structures
• Nano-mechanics
• Vibration energy harvesting

• Experimental solid mechanics
• High temperature Nickle based-superalloys
• Shape memory alloys
• Shape memory polymers
• Additive manufacturing

The fetal electrocardiogram (FECG) signal reflects the electrical activity of the fetal heart as it contains information on the health status of the fetus. Therefore, an early diagnosis of any cardiac defects before delivery increases the effectiveness of the appropriate treatment. In this project, we devised a novel technique for non-invasively extracting the FECG from abdominal and thoracic ECG recordings from the mother. The novel technique uses advanced pattern recognition and signal processing algorithms. The devised technique has been proven to yield superior results when compared with the existing state-of-the-art fetal ECG extraction methods. The technique has been patented in the USA and was published in leading journals and conferences.

This group focuses on machinability of difficult to cut materials like titanium alloys, machine tools dynamics, tool wear, process optimization, process automation, and development of sustainability metrics for machining processes.

In this project, we developed a set of solutions for automatic Arabic Sign Language (ArSL) recognition. These solutions are divided into two categories: sensor-based solutions and computer vision-based solutions. The sensor-based solutions use advanced mechatronics and signal processing techniques, while the computer vision-based solutions use advanced video and image processing algorithms with pattern recognition systems. We have published several articles on our ArSL recognition results in leading journals and conferences.

The proposed transformer health monitoring will provide assessment of the transformer health condition, which will be useful for maintenance, ensuring optimum transformer performance, increased efficiency and also increased expected life time. Several parameters can be monitored to assess the transformer health like partial discharge activities, oil and paper insulation quality.

Outdoor insulators are very important to the integrity of the power system grid. Recently, polymer insulators have been used in many countries including the United Arab Emirates. One of the major problems that face utility engineers is to evaluate the aging performance of those insulators. The proposed system automates the surface condition assessment system of polymer insulators developed by the Swedish Transmission Research Institute (STRI).

This research project proposes a technique for converting solid waste into a biofuel that can be utilized as a clean source of energy in many industrial and domestic applications. As such, this project has an advantage of managing the waste and producing a good source of alternative energy in order to minimize pollution.

This project studies and explores the electricity, desalination capacity and performance of microbial desalination cells (MDC) combined with microbial fuel cells (MFC). The aim of the project is to maximize fresh water from sea water by using electricity generated from MFC. The study covers waste water treatment as well.

This project proposes a process technology for biofilter development and testing for removal of air pollutants for industry and wastewater treatment stations. A mobile biofilter system was constructed and set up to treat H2S and waste gas. The H2S concentration in the exhaust from the stack was treated and reduced from 130ppm to 3ppm.

This research presents a comprehensive study and consistent methodology for the assessment of the nonlinear damage behavior of structural steel columns subjected to transverse impact. The intellectual merit for this proposal is to enhance the understanding of the ductile failure mechanism due to accumulation of plastic deformation that is needed to enable proper structural design and hence provide better serviceability.

The proposed RF MEMS switches in this research project are measured in micrometer scale and use a novel latching mechanism that exhibits high displacement to obtain superior RF performance in comparison with other RF MEMS switches. The switch will be designed such that it works under vacuum and can withstand low temperature conditions; such conditions do exist in the space environment. It also can stand high-power signals and temperature generated through them due to the high power up to 85˚C. Those circuits can be utilized in phase array system and triple stage switch matrices for satellite applications.

The project is aimed at determining the feasibility of recovering nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) from domestic wastewater in UAE in the form of a slow-release fertilizer. This study is a precursor to developing a sustainable process where we can consider wastewater as a resource rather than a waste/problem.

The aim of this proposal is to investigate experimentally the tensile mechanical properties of FRP sheets under elevated temperatures. The experimental matrix will be composed of CFRP, GFRP, Basalt (BFRP), and hybrid combination of GFRP/CFRP and BFRP/CFRP sheets. The specimens will be mechanically tested in tension at temperatures ranging from 25 to 250˚C. The parameters that will be considered to investigate the effectiveness of the sheets in elevated temperatures compared to room temperature include the modulus of elasticity, ultimate tensile strength, and strain at break, along with the corresponding stress-strain curves.

The paper discusses the design and implementation of a mobile application that uses the smart phone's sensors, e.g. microphone and built-in accelerometer, to record the snoring, breathing and movement patterns of users and get a sense of whether or not the user is likely to suffer from sleep apnea before continuing with more expensive and advanced sleep tests.