Five Questions with Faisal Bashir Wani

Tell us a little bit about your educational/research background?
I completed my M.S in Physics Photonics and Nanotechnology from the UBFC, France in 2021 and worked for my M.S. thesis on Single Photon Avalanche Diodes at the Advanced Quantum Architecture Lab, EPFL, Switzerland.

How did you get into engineering? 
I was a Geology major in my bachelor’s and the subject was really interesting, but I felt disconnected from the world being a passive user and not an active creator of these latest technologies. I then decided to go for Photonics to pursue my interest and create amazing technologies and be part of the changing world. It is an interdisciplinary field of Physics and Engineering that mesmerizes me every single day.

What’s the coolest thing you’re working on right now?
The world is excited about the 5G, but I am already working on the technology called beyond 6G. As the demand for data usage is increasing exponentially, we need to have higher bandwidths to swiftly transfer the data volumes that meet the huge demand, which the contemporary technologies are not able to keep up with. As straightforward as it might seem, but there are a lot of challenges offered by Physics and Engineering of these devices and I am working on to solve some of them.

What/who inspires you, and why?
Working with challenging research projections in immersive media.

What are you passionate about outside of work?
I like to cook delicious food and travel whenever I get some time to. Although the international travel situation has not been good due to COVID, I managed to visit a few beautiful places like London, Paris, Switzerland, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Budapest, etc.