Rawan Alghamdi, Ph.D.

I'm a postdoctoral research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), working in the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) with Prof. Muriel Médard. I obtained my Ph.D in electrical and computer engineering from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), advised jointly by Prof. Mohamed-Slim Alouini and Prof. Tareq Y. Al-Naffouri.

My research aims to enable reliable wireless connectivity in challenging environments where conventional systems face fundamental limitations. I am particularly motivated by the connectivity barriers that disproportionately affect rural and underprivileged communities. My research aims to develop solutions that improve the coverage and robustness of telecommunication technologies while reducing their complexity and cost, making the benefits of digital connectivity more accessible to all.

My work focuses primarily on the physical layer of communication systems. I use tools from signal processing, optimization, information theory, and machine learning to model and mitigate the effects of complex propagation, interference, mobility, and asynchronism. Building on these foundations, I design transmission schemes, waveforms, and algorithms that improve spectral efficiency and reliability in interference-limited, complex-propagation communication channels. My current research explores coding and decoding algorithms for integrated sensing and communications (ISAC).