Motaz Alfarraj, a Ph.D. student in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), was selected for the Center for Signal and Information Processing (CSIP) Outstanding Service Award for spring semester 2018. All CSIP students are eligible for this award based on their service activities, and after all nominations are considered, the recipient is determined by a vote of the CSIP faculty. 

Alfarraj joined the CSIP Student Activity Council in 2017. He organized and participated in many of the center’s activities, such as the CSIP weekly seminars and the weekly Donuts, Coffee, and Tea (DCT) event. Alfarraj coordinated student engagement with activities such as the CSIP Holiday Party and ECE Professor Emeritus Mark Clements’ retirement celebration this past academic year, and with almost anything where student assistance might be needed. He also handled administrative tasks such as website management, speaker invitations, and mailing list maintenance. 

Alfarraj is a Ph.D. student from Saudi Arabia working in the Omni Lab for Intelligent Visual Engineering and Science, led by ECE Professor Ghassan AlRegib. Alfarraj is also a member of the Center for Energy and Geo Processing (CeGP), a research center at Georgia Tech and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) that is also led by AlRegib. After obtaining his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from KFUPM with highest honors, he then joined a KFUPM faculty preparation program and received a scholarship to pursue his M.S. and Ph.D. degree from Georgia Tech. 

Alfarraj’s research focus is on applications of digital signal processing, machine learning, and texture analysis for computational seismic interpretation (CSI). He authored and co-authored articles in international journals and conference proceedings in the fields of signal processing, image processing, and geophysics. Alfarraj has also been recognized for his excellent teaching, receiving both the ECE Graduate Teaching Assistant Excellence Award at the 2017 Roger P. Webb Awards Program and an ECE Outstanding GTA Award at the Eta Kappa Nu Spring Picnic in 2016.