Dr Sara Khalifa

Biography

Dr Sara Khalifa is an associate professor at Queensland University of Technology. Her research revolves around the broad aspects of ubiquitous sensing and edge computing for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Specifically, she focuses on enhancing the energy efficiency of mobile sensing systems and developing  lightweight machine learning techniques for resource-constrained sensing devices. From 2016-2023, she was with CSIRO’s Data61 establishing the foundational research area of “Energy Harvesting Sensing (EHS)” as a core research focus developing a new paradigm for energy-efficient sensing and context recognition, opening up a multitude of new applications, generating IP, and attracting significant funding and commercial interest.

She obtained a PhD in Computer Science and Engineering from UNSW (Sydney, Australia). Her PhD dissertation received the 2017 John Makepeace Bennett Award which is awarded by CORE (Computing Research and Education Association of Australasia) to the best PhD dissertation of the year within Australia and New Zealand in the field of Computer Science. Her research has been also recognised by multiple iAwards including 2017 NSW Mobility Innovation of the year, 2017 NSW R&D Innovation of the year, National Merit R&D Innovation of the year, and the Merit R&D award at the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards, commonly known as the "Oscar" of the ICT industry in the Asia Pacific, among others.