First steps of our ESRs: Faisal Ahmed.

Hello, I’m Faisal Ahmed from the town of Qazi Ahmed, Nawab Shah district, in the center of Sindh province in Southwestern Pakistan. I completed my Bachelor’s and Master’s in Telecommunication Engineering in the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology.

Currently, I am working as an Early Stage Researcher (ESR) and conducting my PhD studies at the Center for Sensor System (ZESS) of the University of Siegen, Germany. My research focuses on Time-of-Flight (ToF) passive indoor 3D sensing leveraging Visible Light Communication (VLC). Existing ToF sensing solutions require an active light source that leads to high power consumption demands. This may represent a relevant problem for smart devices as such devices have a limited battery lifetime. My project will address these issues aiming to bring this technology to the market in the near future.

The word PhD stands for “Doctor of Philosophy’ which is taken from the latin language and abbreviated as (Ph)ilosphiae (D)octor. ‘Philosophy’ is divided into two parts: Philo (friend or lover of) and Sophia (wisdom), this means wisdom lover. From my perspective, “PhD” stands for “Provide healthy Directions” in the knowledge of your research field.

The new phase of my life began in November 2020, when I joined the University of Siegen. Due to the pandemic, the beginning was quite challenging: unpredictable lockdown patterns, fears and a very confusing situation away from home. Initially, it was difficult to unravel everything, including accommodation, food markets, climate change and the environment. However, the Pakistani community in Siegen was really helpful to me and I also received the full support of my supervisors and the International Office of the University. Siegen is a small and beautiful city of Germany. When you come to food, anyone can find halal food markets such as Turkish stores, where halal chicken and meat are available, and many restaurants where you can easily eat halal food as well.

Things are now getting much better. Although the topic of my research did not entirely match my background, some of the basics clearly relate to my previous experiences and I get used to read about the basics and literature of my PhD topic over time. I am now embarking on a new field of research, a new adventure, for the next three years of my life. Honestly, I was afraid of the subject at the beginning. However, after spending the last few months reviewing literature and attending training courses that helped me to understand and reframe my mind, I am now trully enjoying the research topic and skill-building in the field of optics, signal processing and applied mathematics. I was really excited to commence my doctoral studies and contribute with something to my field that also would bring to me an opportunity to learn and explore new things.

Finally, I will refer the following lines as a motivation to move forward: “Progress, not Perfection. We are mistaken to become perfectionists, but that is not the case; this violates nature and the perfectionist is only the one who creates us”.