Photograph of Prof. Mohammad Belal
Group
Marine Geoscience
Site
Southampton
Email
mob at noc.ac.uk
Biography
I am an atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physicist with broad research experience in experimental soft condensed matter, optoelectronics, high-power fiber lasers, optical-atomic-molecular spectroscopy, coherent atomic control, and quantum technologies. At NOC, I apply this expertise to develop next-generation intelligent monitoring systems for complex environments, including oceans, glaciers, cities, and terrestrial landscapes.

These distributed platforms operate in real time, autonomously collecting data, tracking and locating events, and even forecasting environmental changes. They also evaluate critical infrastructure such as energy and telecommunication cables, renewable turbines, and other civil structures. The intelligence of these systems comes from custom machine learning and AI algorithms, developed through cross-disciplinary collaboration to efficiently analyze large, multi-dimensional datasets. High-performance computing is used extensively, with plans to incorporate quantum computing to overcome challenges in processing extremely complex data.

My work combines physics, engineering, and data science to provide high-resolution, wide-area insights, transforming complex measurements into clear visualizations and actionable information. Ultimately, these efforts aim to understand, manage, and respond to changes in marine, maritime, glacial, and urban environments, helping to quantify and protect our planet’s critical natural and built systems.
 I lead research on designing and building intelligent, distributed monitoring systems that can operate in real time across diverse and complex environments, including oceans, glaciers, cities, and terrestrial landscapes. These systems autonomously collect data, track and locate events, and even help forecast changes, while also monitoring critical infrastructure like energy and telecommunication cables, renewable turbines, and other civil structures. The intelligence of these platforms comes from custom signal processing pipelines built in combination with machine learning and AI algorithms, allowing us to efficiently analyze large, complex, multi-parameter datasets. We use high-performance computing extensively and are exploring quantum compute to overcome challenges in processing extremely complex data. 

Ongoing PhD project:

  1. https://www.mindscdt.southampton.ac.uk/Project23
  2. https://www.mindscdt.southampton.ac.uk/Project%2029
  3. Physical sciences PhD projects | The University of Edinburgh

Funded (ongoing and upcoming) projects:

  1. SBRI-2020 (PI): Submarine High-fidelity Active-monitoring of Renewable energy Cables (SHARC)
  2. Trans National Access' 2021-A (PI): Fibre-optic Intelligent Submarine High-fidelity Environmental Sensing (FISHES)
  3. Trans National Access' 2021-B(PI): Sea-floor High-fidelity Optic-fibre-based Renewables-infrastructure Sensing and Evaluation (SeaHORSE)
  4. Progeny-Phase1 2022 (PI): Next Generation Underwater Sensing
  5. PycnoGen 2022-2027 (EP/X025136/1; Co-I): Generation of the global ocean internal pycnocline in the ice-covered Southern Ocean
  6. Progeny-Phase2 2023 (Co-I): Next Generation Underwater Communications
  7. NSF-NERC 2024-2027 (NE/Z000408/1; UK-PI): Collaborative Research: Direct comparison of ocean temperature and velocity structure from in-situ measurements and distributed optical fiber sensing
  8. GSRF 2024 - 2026 (NE/Y003365/1; PI)& Wide-area low-cost sustainable ocean temperature and velocity structure extraction using distributed fibre optic sensing within legacy seafloor cables
  9. Emso-Eric 2024 - 2026 (PI): Submarine noise-Evaluation and Analytics using Low-cost Sustainable -sensing (SEALS)
  10. MoD/QQ 2024 (4 months; PI): Geospatial Acoustic Underwater Smart Sensing (GAUSS)
  11. Xlinks 2024 (PI): Monitoring system evaluation
  12. SOUNDSCALE 2025 - 2027 (MR/Z505845/1; Co-I): Sensing On Urban Noise: Distributed Sensing For Collaborative And Sustainable Cityscapes And Living Environments
  13. FULL-OCEAN-FIBRE 2025 - 2028 (ARIA: Forecasting Tipping Points)