Ahmed Kamal

How I Got Here

I grew up in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in a family of academics — my mother teaches mathematics, and my uncles and aunt are professors of engineering, mathematics, and chemistry. Conversations at home tended to drift into topics like density functional theory or abstract algebra, which is how I ended up curious about scientific research long before I really understood any of it.

That curiosity sharpened in high school, where I started doing electrochemistry research on green hydrogen production and, later, reinforcement learning for green ammonia synthesis. The pattern that kept showing up was that the problems I cared about lived in two places at once — in chemistry and in code — and the most interesting work happened when those two worlds met.

Studying ECE at the University of Washington is the next step. I'm planning to focus on the computer engineering side of the degree — embedded systems, machine learning, and the hardware that runs both — and to keep working at that same intersection of clean energy and computing.

Honors & Awards

A selection of recognitions from the research and competition work I've been most proud of.

• 2024

  IAEA Special Award

  International Atomic Energy Agency · Ibdaa Science Fair

• 2024

  Aramco Special Award

  Saudi Aramco · Ibdaa Science Fair

• 2022 — 2024

  Three-Time Ibdaa Finalist

  King Abdulaziz & His Companions Foundation for Giftedness & Creativity

• 2024

  ITEX Recognition

  International Invention & Innovation Exhibition

• 2024

  Saudi Royal Family Recognition

  For research and innovation contributions

Outside of Work

When I'm not in the lab or behind a terminal, I'm usually [edit this — e.g. reading, training, tinkering with robots, traveling, etc.]. I think the best engineers are the ones who carry curiosity across domains, so I try to stay interested in things that have nothing to do with engineering too.