Inside views

The future of air travel depends not only on fuel and engines, but also on what aircraft are made of. For three decades, Professor Wesley Cantwell has been honing his expertise in aeronautical engineering, designing lightweight, resilient and even ‘self-aware’ materials that are transforming the ways planes are built, fly and stay safe.

Long fascinated by technology and how it can transform lives, Ameena Al-Sumaiti leads the Smart Operations Lab at Khalifa University. A recognized thought leader in sustainable energy systems, she focuses on research that translates into actionable policy and commercially viable sustainable energy solutions for a cleaner and more resilient United Arab Emirates. 

From the Stone Age until today, every human leap has been driven by advances in materials. Captivated by this link between materials and progress, Akram AlFantazi has dedicated his career to exploring the potential of new materials. Now, he’s channeling his broad scientific expertise into research on materials for nuclear power plants.  

What if the answers to our most pressing challenges, from clean energy to advanced technology, were hidden in a world too small to see? For Dalaver Anjum, that world is his laboratory. 

Aligning heritage with science, Prof. Fawzi Banat aims to foster multidisciplinary collaboration and ensure his team’s research contributes directly to the UAE’s National Food Security Strategy 2051. 

At the forefront of research into embodied intelligence, Irfan Hussain's work spans a remarkable breadth of real-life applications as he fuses physical and cognitive intelligence into wearable and field-based robotic systems.

Dr. Emad Walid Al Shalabi, Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering and a member of the Research and Innovation Center on CO2 and Hydrogen at Khalifa University.

Naoufel Werghi, Professor of Computer Science at the Centre for Cyber-Physical Systems, Khalifa University.

Merouane Debbah, Professor at Khalifa University’s Department of Computer and Information Engineering, Director of the 6G Research Center, and Ambassador for KU’s Digital Future strategy.