Applied electromagnetics and photonics

Dr. Slim Boumaiza is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo.

His research is focused on defining, conceptualizing, designing, and realizing high-performing microwave and millimeter wave circuits and systems for wireless communications (with applications in 4G, 5G and the Internet of Things). He directs the Emerging Radio System Research Group (EmRG), which conducts multidisciplinary research encompassing the semiconductor device, circuit, and system levels of radio hardware. Under his supervision, researchers investigate the areas of transistor modelling and characterization (at the semiconductor device level), ultra wideband and highly efficient power amplifiers (at the circuit level) and low power linearization schemes (at the system level).

He is passionately involved in communicating knowledge of radio systems through teaching, supervision, and youth outreach. He has taught several undergraduate and graduate courses covering basics of electrical engineering and advanced topics in microwave engineering. Over 100 highly qualified personnel (undergraduate, master's, and PhD students, post-doctoral fellows, and other research staff) have worked under his supervision to date. Many have gone on to secure highly sought-after positions in industry. Dr. Boumaiza and his team actively participate in university-led efforts to engage youth and minorities and promote their interest in engineering.

Dr. Bradley Hauer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a member of the Institute of Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo. He completed his PhD at the University of Alberta in 2019, after which he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Advanced Microwave Photonics group at NIST in Boulder, Colorado, USA.

Dr. Hauer's research focuses on studying cavity optomechanical systems and superconducting circuits, with applications in metrology, quantum information, and non-classical state preparation.

• experimental and theoretical physics
• optomechanics
• superconducting circuits
• quantum information
• nanomechanics

Dr. Na Young Kim is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. She is affiliated with the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) and the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) and holds cross-appointments in the Departments of Physics and Astronomy, and Chemistry.

As the leader of the Quantum Innovation (QuIN) Laboratory, Dr. Kim drives cutting-edge research to develop large-scale quantum processors using novel materials and advanced technologies. Her team is currently spearheading two major projects:

1. Semiconductor Quantum Processors – This project explores controllable optical and electrical domains, unveiling the properties of exotic materials and the fundamental nature of symmetries.
2. Multi-Functional Classical and Quantum Device Arrays – This initiative aims to establish a planar architecture integrating nano-scale devices with electrical, optical, thermal, and mechanical functionalities.

Before joining the University of Waterloo in 2016, Dr. Kim worked at Apple Inc., where she contributed to the development of small display products. She earned her BS in Physics from Seoul National University and completed her graduate studies at Stanford University’s Department of Applied Physics, focusing on mesoscopic transport properties in low-dimensional nanostructures. Her postgraduate research expanded into quantum optics and nanophotonics, encompassing both experimental and theoretical projects in collaboration with leading scholars.

Dr. John R. Long is a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo.  He received a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Calgary in 1984, and a M.Eng. and Ph.D. in Electronics from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, in 1992 and 1996, respectively. He was the Chair of the Electronics Research Laboratory at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. 

His research interests include high speed wireline and high frequency, low power and mobile transceiver circuits for integrated wireless communications systems.

• high speed wireline and high frequency
• low power and mobile transceiver circuits for integrated wireless communications systems
• advanced manufacturing

Dr. Amir Hamed Majedi is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, with a cross-appointment to the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He leads the Integrated Quantum Optoelectronics Lab (IQOL) within the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology.

Dr. Majedi’s research focuses on engineering quantum electrodynamics, with an emphasis on superconducting optoelectronics and quantum photonics. His key research areas include:

• Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors
• Single-photon sources based on nanowire quantum dots
• Superconducting plasmonic detectors and waveguides
• Superconducting-based quantum dot LEDs for single and entangled photon sources
• Graphene photonics

The IQOL conducts theoretical and experimental investigations into quantum and electromagnetic phenomena in superconducting micro- and nanoscale structures. The lab aims to advance technologies in optoelectronic, millimeter-wave/THz, and photonic devices and systems. Their research seeks to establish theoretical foundations, innovative design methodologies, and device/system-level synthesis and characterization techniques.

Through this work, the lab is driving the development of superconducting quantum devices for cutting-edge applications, including ultrafast communications, quantum information processing, and bio-nanotechnology.

Raafat Mansour is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He is a former holder of a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Micro-Nano Integrated RF Systems, and an NSERC Industrial Research Chair for two terms (2001-2005) and (2006-2010). Prior to joining Waterloo in January 2000, Dr. Mansour was with COM DEV Cambridge, Ontario from 1986-1999, where he held various technical and management positions in COM DEV’s Corporate R&D Department. Dr. Mansour holds 37 US and Canadian patents and has more than 380 refereed publications to his credit. He is a co-author of a 23-chapter book published by Wiley and has contributed 6 chapters to 4 other books.

Dr. Mansour founded the Centre for Integrated RF Engineering (CIRFE) at the University of Waterloo. It houses a clean room and a state-of-the-art RF test and characterization laboratory. He acted as a catalyst for ideas inspiring the next generation of Waterloo entrepreneurs to bring their work to market. From research carried out in his research lab at the University of Waterloo, he and his graduate students co-founded two companies: AdHawk Microsystems and Integrated Circuit Scanning Probe Instruments (ICSPI-Corp).

Dr. Mansour is a Fellow of the IEEE, the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and the Engineering Institute of Canada. He was the recipient of the 2014 Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) Engineering Medal for Research and Development and the 2019 IEEE Canada A.G.L. McNaughton Gold Medal Award.

Dr. Omar Ramahi is a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. 

His research interests include radiating systems, renewable energy technology, biomedical applications of electromagnetic waves and fields, electromagnetic compatibility and interference, metamaterials and its engineering applications, and material measurements. In addition to his research, he co-founded Applied Electromagnetic Technology, LLC., and Wave Intelligence Inc.

Dr. Ramahi has received numerous awards as a result of his extensive research and teaching capabilities. He was recognized for his graduate research work with the 2010 University of Waterloo Award for Excellence in Graduate Supervision. Additionally, he was awarded the IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility Society Technical Achievement Award in 2012. Dr. Ramahi is an elected IEEE Fellow.

He has written over 450 journal and conference papers on electromagnetic phenomena and computational techniques. EMI/EMC Computational Modeling Handbook is one of the notable books that Dr. Ramahi co-authored.

Simarjeet Saini is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He completed his doctorate at the University of Maryland, College Park in 2001 under the guidance of Professor Mario Dagenais. Professor Saini’s Ph.D. thesis was on design and development of a new platform technology for monolithic integration of photonic devices called Passive Active Resonant Coupler (PARC). The resulting technology led to the foundation of a start-up company called Covega Corporation in Jessup, Maryland. Dr. Saini worked as the Lead Optoelectronics Device Engineer at Covega, and later, as a Lead Applications Engineer. He led the design and development of Covega’s single angled facet chips, semiconductor optical amplifiers and high power lasers.

In August 2004, Dr. Saini co-founded Altanet Communications, a start-up company that focused on ethernet based metro area networks with less than 5 ms restoration time using intelligence in the optical domain.

Dr. Saini’s research interests include: optoelectronics components for datacom and telecom, high speed optical networks, tunable mid-IR lasers, nanophotonics chem-bio sensors, and microwave photonics. He holds 5 US patents and has 5 more in various stages of application, of which 3 have already been commercialized.

Professor Lan Wei received her B.S. in Microelectronics and Economics from Peking University, Beijing, China in 2005 and M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, Stanford, USA (with Professor H.–S. Philip Wong) in 2007 and 2010, respectively. Before joining University of Waterloo in 2014, she worked at Altera Corporation in San Jose, California, where her responsibilities included foundary technology evaluation, power management and Stratix X FPGA product development with Intel 14nm technology. She also worked as a post-doctoral associate in Microsystems Technology Laboratories, Massachusetts Institute of Technology under Professor Dimitri Antoniadis. Her research focuses on device-circuit interactive design and optimization, cryogenic CMOS electronics for quantum computing, error-resilient computation, and integrated electronic systems using emerging technologies including GaN, RRAM and low-dimensional materials.

Wei has served on the Technical Program Committee of several academic conferences including IEDM (2011-2012, 2021-2022), DATE (2021 - ), ICCAD (2019 - ), VLSI-TSA (2013 - ), GLSVLSI (2017 - ), ISQED (2019 - ) ISLPED (2013), etc, and was listed as one of the key contributors to the Process Integration, Devices, and Structures Chapter (PIDS) of International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) 2009 Edition. She is the co-developer of the MIT Virtual Source GaN HEMT (MVSG) Compact Model, which is an Industry Standard approved and supported by the Compact Model Coalition for GaN HEMT compact model.

Dr. George Shaker is an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Waterloo. He also oversees wireless activities in the sensors and devices lab at the UW-Schlegel Research Institute for Aging. Previously, he was with Research in Motion (BlackBerry). He was also with Georgia Institute of Technology. He has been the Principal Scientist and Head of Research at Spark Technology Labs (STL), since its founding in 2011. In 2017, George was selected by the office of the president of NSERC among a group of ten Canadian professors to discuss Canadian research advancement in the Internet of Things (IoT) area at the special NSERC-NRC-MOST meeting in Ottawa. In addition, prof. Shaker serves on the organizational committee of the French-Canadian Bioengineering School.

With more than fifteen years of industrial experience in technology, and about eight years as an adjunct faculty member leading projects related to the application of wireless sensor systems for healthcare, automotives, and unmanned aerial vehicles, Prof. Shaker has many design contributions in commercial products available from startups and established companies alike. A sample list includes: COM DEV \, Blackberry, Google, Spark Tech Labs, Bionym, Lyngsoe Systems, ON Semiconductors, Ecobee, Medella Health, NERV Technologies, Novella, Thalmic Labs (North), General Dynamics Land Systems, and Omron Technologies.

George has received multiple recognitions and awards, including the NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship (sole winner in the area of Electromagnetics across Canada, 2007-10, first UW student to receive the scholarship in EM), the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2007, 2010), the European School of Antennas Grant at IMST-GmbH (2007), the IEEE AP-S Best Paper Award (2009, 3, first @ UW), the IEEE AP-S Honorable Mention Paper Award (Twice, 2008, 2011), the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Graduate Research Award (2008/2009, first @ UW), NSERC CGS-FSS (2009/2010, sole winner from UW Engineering), the IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship (2009, first UW student to receive the fellowship), and the Electronic Components and Technology Best of Session Paper Award (2010). Two paper he co-authored in IEEE Sensors were among the top 25 downloaded papers on IEEEXplore for several consecutive months (2012/2017). He was the supervisor of the team winning the third best design at IEEE APS 2016, APS 2017 HM paper award, 2018 CVS Best Paper, and two IEEE APS Research Awards.