Our Open Call Scholar, Sami Marouf, has had many achievements in his four years studying for a Bachelor's degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial College London. He arrived from Damascus in Fall 2023 and is expected to graduate in Fall 2026. In the time between, he has built underwater robots, led navigation and communications systems for an international space rover competition, and taught robotics to children. He is also, in his spare time, building a drone and likes to develop mobile games and power boards for cars.
One of his most notable achievements to date was receiving a certificate from the European Space Foundation in recognition of his role in leading the Navigation, Electronics, Control, and RF/Communication subsystems of Imperial’s European Rover Challenge 2025 team. He has also represented the university in the Formula Student competition, the world's largest university-level engineering competition.
As part of this work, he contributed to building a fully autonomous drone, and the team achieved 16th place out of 126 teams globally, which is a highly competitive international result and reflects strong leadership and technical capability.
Inside the Lab
Sami's most formative experience at Imperial so far has been a paid undergraduate research internship in the university's robotics lab, Sense Robotics Lab, where he worked on building and programming an autonomous underwater robot, titled: "Development of a Semi-Autonomous Underwater Robotic System with Modular Sensing, Imaging, and Dynamic Motor Positioning." The work covered control algorithms, power distribution, robot simulation, and experimental testing under real-world conditions — the kind of hands-on applied research that moves engineering from theory into practice.
His favorite course of the semester was Robotic Manipulation, which he described as particularly impactful for its focus on how robots perceive, plan, and control physical interactions with objects. Kinematics, dynamics, and motion planning — the fundamentals that underpin how a robot understands and moves through the world — are the areas where his interest runs deepest.
Paying it Forward
Alongside his studies and research, Sami has worked as a Lead Robotics and Programming Teacher at BlueShift Education, where he taught robotics and programming to children and teenagers, developed lesson materials, and led a small team of instructors. It is a role that reflects something beyond technical ability — the capacity to break down complex engineering concepts for a non-expert audience and take on responsibility in a team setting.
Sami is set to graduate in the fall semester this year, to what will most likely be a fruitful and productive career.
