Members

Matthias Pätzold was born in Engelsbach, Germany, in 1958. He received the Dipl.-Ing. and Dr Ing. degrees from Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany, in 1985 and 1989, respectively, all in electrical engineering. In 1998, he received the habilitation degree in communications engineering from the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg, Hamburg, Germany. From 1990 to 1992, he worked at ANT Nachrichtentechnik GmbH, Backnang, Germany, where he was engaged in digital satellite communications. From 1992 to 2001, he was with the Department of Digital Networks at the Technical University Hamburg-Harburg. Since 2001, he has been a full professor of mobile communications and head of the Mobile Communications Group at the University of Agder, Grimstad, Norway.

He is the author of more than 350 technical papers and 3 books, 2 of which have been translated into Chinese. His publications have received 15 best paper awards. He has actively participated in more than 50 conferences, serving as a chair and member of technical program committees. From 2010 to 2020, he served first as an Associate Editor and then as Senior Editor for IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine. He has been a guest editor for 5 special issues in the areas of mobile radio communications and mobile radio channel modelling. He has more than 25 years of experience in the field of radio frequency (RF) techniques and sensing.

His current research interests include mobile radio communications, propagation and channel modelling, RF sensing, mmWave techniques, radar techniques, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, cooperative communication systems, vehicular-to-vehicular communications, underwater acoustic communications, signal processing, and human activity recognition.

Muhammad Muaaz received the M.Sc. degree in information and communication systems security from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, and the Ph.D. degree in computer science from Johannes Kepler University, Austria. He is currently working as a scientist (forsker) at the University of Agder, Norway. From 2018–2020, he held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Agder and at the Johannes Kepler University.

His research interests include design & development of secure intelligent systems, information & communication systems security, data science, machine (deep) learning, mobile computing, and physiological & behavioral biometrics.

Nurilla Avazov received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in telecommunications from Tashkent University of Information Technologies, Uzbekistan, in 2005 and 2007, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in telecommunications engineering from the University of Agder, Norway, in 2015. From 2016 to 2017, he was with the UWB Wireless Communications Research Center, Inha University, as a Postdoctoral Researcher. From 2017 to 2020, he was with the School of Computer Science, The University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is currently working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the University of Agder. He has authored and co-authored numerous technical papers in various journals and conferences.

His research interests include wireless communications, stochastic and deterministic channel modelling, machine learning, time series data analysis, and applications of machine learning in wireless communications and services.

Rym Hicheri was born in Tunis, Tunisia, in 1988. She received the D.P.C.U. degree from the Institut Préparatoire Aux Etudes d’Ingénieurs d’El Manar, in 2009, and the Eng. degree in telecommunications and the Ph.D. degree in information and communication technology from the Ecole Supérieure des Communications de Tunis, Tunisia, in 2012 and 2017, respectively. From 2017 to 2020, she held a postdoctoral fellowship with the University of Agder, Norway, where she is currently working as a researcher.

Her current research interests include channel modeling, wireless and mobile radio communications, estimation and optimization methods, RF sensing, indoor positioning and localization, and performance analysis of multiple-antenna systems.

Sahil Waqar received his bachelor’s degree with distinction in electrical engineering from the University of Technology (UET) Taxila, Pakistan in 2010. In 2013, he received his master’s degree in electrical engineering with a presidential gold medal award from the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Pakistan. His master’s research was related to the probabilistic data association adaptive filters. From 2012 to 2020, he worked on the design and development of digital communication systems, signal processors, radar systems, and embedded systems. Since October 2020, he is working on the CareWell project as a PhD research fellow under the supervision of Professor Matthias Pätzold at the University of Agder, Grimstad, Norway.

His research interests and background include communication systems, MIMO radar systems, signal processing, machine learning, deep learning, and embedded systems.

Hasan Najjar received his bachelor’s degree in telecommunication engineers from the Higher Institute of Applied Science and Technology (HIAST), Damascus, Syria in 2013. In 2020, he received his master’s degree in communications technology from Ulm University, Ulm, Germany. His master’s research was focused on dielectric material characterization. From 2014 to 2017, he worked on planning mobile communication systems. Since September 2020, he is working on the CareWell project as a PhD research fellow under the supervision of Professor Matthias Pätzold at the University of Agder, Grimstad, Norway.

His research interests and background include communication systems, signal processing, mobile channel modelling, machine learning, and deep learning.