I am an Associate Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC). Before joining UCSC in July 2020, I have been an Assistant Professor at the University of Idaho (August 2016 - June 2020). I received my PhD from University of Montreal, Polytechnique Engineering School in 2008. My thesis was nominated for ``Best Thesis of the Year''. I am a 2020 (2021 - 2026) NSF CAREER Awardee. During my appointment at UBC, I received the ``Fonds Quebecois de la recherche sur la nature et les technologies'' Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Grant for research on Cognitive Radio Networks. I am a Senior Member of IEEE (2013 - present). I have been an Editor of IEEE Wireless Communications Letters (2014 - 2017) and  served as a Symposium Chair/Co-Chair of many IEEE flagship conferences in communication, signal processing, and networking. My current research covers security and privacy of data networks, Machine-Learning-Based Design of communication, classification and forecasting systems and quantum secret key sharing.

Xinyi Wu earned her MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 2020. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research interests include heart disease identification, deep learning, biology signal processing, and healthcare device monitoring.

Dr. Abdelrahman ELFikky earned his PhD December 2024 at university of California Santa Cruz.   He also earned his Master of Science degree in the Electronics and Communications Department in 2020 with a GPA of 4.0. His focus was on radio and transmission networks for wireless communications. Subsequently, he was a senior engineer with prominent international wireless telecommunication firms in Egypt. Beginning in January 2021, he is pursuing a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His research has yielded multiple publications covering various areas, including Free Space Optics, Visible Light Communications, Dynamic Channel Modeling, and Deep Learning in Space Optical Communications. Additionally, he is actively cooperating with the undergraduate research team focusing on security in wireless communications and intelligent reflecting surfaces.

Archana Singh is a PhD student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of California, Santa Cruz. She formerly worked as a pre-silicon verification engineer at Intel Corporation, Bangalore, India. She received her Master's degree from the National Institute of Technology, India. Her research interests include Quantum Key Distribution and Quantum Information Theory.

Adam Rammaha joined the master of Science program at UCSC in the fall of 2024. He graduated in 2023 from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His research focuses on the intersection of error-correcting codes and deep learning within space optical communications, specifically image transmission. Notably, his work strongly emphasizes enhancing the security of deep learning models and ensuring the robustness and reliability of state-of-the-art technologies in the field. Adam will join the master's program in Fall 2024, working with Abdelrahman ELFikky and Professor Rezki in security in wireless communications.

Azayzel joined the master of science program at UCSC in 2024, working with Abdelrhaman and Professor Rezki on reconfigurable intelligent surfaces and free space optics. Victor graduated from an applied physics major with a minor in electrical engineering in spring 2023. During his tenure in physics, he worked with terrestrial gamma-ray flash simulations and on Dr. Smith's IRIS project.  

 Shams Abdulhameed earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Network Engineering with a minor in Computer Science from the University of California, Santa Cruz in June 2024. She recently enrolled in the Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering program at UC Santa Cruz for the 2025–2026 academic year. Her research interests include energy-efficient wireless communications, network security, cloud-integrated device automation, and embedded Internet of Things (IoT) systems. Since 2021, Shams has served as a peer tutor at Monterey Peninsula College, assisting students with foundational concepts in mathematics and computer networking. She is also an active member of The National Society for Leadership and Success (NSLS), where she held the role of network coordinator and earned both executive and advanced leadership certificates. Her future research will focus on wireless communications under the supervision of Dr. Abdelrahman El-Feki and Professor Zouheir Rezki.

Jorge is a senior undergraduate research intern working with Abdelrahman ELFikky and Professor Zouheir Rezki in the Advanced Learning Frameworks for Space Optical Communications team and collaborated on a hardware deployment project using the Raspberry Pi 4. He is an Electrical Engineering major, and after he graduates in June 2024, he will continue research in the group and apply for the Electrical and Computer Engineering Master's program at UCSC.

Anne is a senior high school intern who is working with Abdelrahman Elfikky and Professor Zouheir Rezki on secure wiretap channels using autoencoders. Prior to joining Rezki's research group, she graduated from the science internship program (SIP) at UCSC under Abdelrahman. In SIP, Anne applied several machine learning projects during Summer 2023 and then continued research with Abdelrahman. She will join Cornell University by Fall 2024.