Annual Research Poster Day: A Draw At Second place?! ■ The annual research poster day was held on the 11th of May 2011 at Alfaisal University. The event included twenty-one research teams with each team presenting its respective poster to a panel of judges. The theme for this year’s poster day was “Human Capacity Building”. One might wonder what research posters have to do with human capacity building. Well, through learning experience, one can spread knowledge and by that build the learning competence of humanity. The event was a huge success; it included elating posters from the College of Medicine, Science, and Engineering. The top three posters were awarded at the closing ceremony. The winning poster, which interestingly was from the College of Engineering, was entitled “Intelligent Water Level Indicator Device.” This miniinvention was completed by Muhammad Alrazaz and Naif Ghazal.
Too bad, a medical research team could not grab first place this time. The remaining winning posters were “Alfaisal University & Stress Levels: A Comparative Study” led by Abdallah Al-Ahaideb and “Bokhour: An Evolution of a Prestigious Saudi Custom”, led by Abdulaziz Al-Kattan, which both came in second place. Having a draw in second place shows how competitive medical students are; they gave the judges a hard time to decide which poster deserves a better place. "It was a very joyful experience. We worked hard in those days, and thankfully, it was rendered successful. I express my gratitude to the Alfaisal Research Office for opening these opportunities to students to let them participate their faculty of imagination through innovative ideas in research and science." —Abdallah Mohammed Al-Ahaideb
There was a lot of variety in the posters; there were study-based post"After our victory me and Naif were very ers, lab-based posters, and posters proud with the results, not because our which merely outlined the basics of a poster had won the contest, but rather certain area of interest. There were a lot because our College of Engineering re- of interesting posters that impressed ceived first place for this year’s event. I the panel of judges. All participants were awarded with certificates at the would really like to thank Dr. Kamal end of the ceremony. ■ Haddad for his unlimited support” Reported by: Mohammed AlHamed —Muhammad Husam Alrazaz
Ahmed AbuZaid, A'man Inayah, Naser Ahmed, Azhar Farooqui presenting their poster about decoding heart proteins
Eyad Marashli, Nouruadeen Ashaaer, Qais Saleh, Mohammed Diya & Adel Helmi presenting their poster titled: Body Dysmorphic Disorder.
Naif M Ghazal preparing to hang his poster titled: Intelligent Water Level Indicator Device
Osama Abusaleh, Mohammed Bakro, and Bilal Alturkmani
Research @ Alfaisal University: An Up-To-Date Students’ Perspective
■ Around two years ago, with enormous support from Alfaisal faculty and administration, the Alfaisal Medical Student Association (MSA) was able to lay the foundation of SPIRIT, the Alfaisal Summer Program for International Research Internship & Training. Many students undoubtedly benefited and continue to do so from this program, as it allows students to participate in courses of basic and clinical research techniques taking place at renowned medical institutions worldwide. So what kind of research activities are expected of the College of Medicine? “Research lab for neuroscience, physiology and animal facilities”, answers Afsan Bin Farid, a second year medical student at Alfaisal. When asked to comment on what he thinks are the potential obstacles, if any, in the development of this program, he said, “More money and effort is spent on advertising the college, and less on developing it”. Mr. Fahmi Abu Owaimer, Lab Specialist at Alfaisal University said that, “Lab space required for the establishment of a research lab may be a significant obstacle in this case, however, once the university’s infrastructure has been completed, this particular issue of “space” shall be resolved”. When asked regarding students participation in future research projects, he replied, “Of course students will have the opportunity to take part in research at Alfaisal, and this makes our university unique in our region”. “It has only been 3 years since the inauguration of the university. It’s still in its crawling phase. Definitely, our college’s first priority is to provide a high class education which shall then be followed by research training and hands on experience in this field”, said Omair Choudhary, first year medical student at Alfaisal University. Eyad Marashli , a second year student, says, “A funding system for the research projects should be made clear based on set criteria for the acceptance of scientific proposals”, this shall allow, “Alfaisal students' ideas to become realistic, perfected and enhanced by our honourable faculty’s past research experience!”. Alfaisal University has also set up collaborations with King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre which allows Alfaisal medical students to take part in research projects carried out at the institution. Currently, many students from the third and second year medicine are participating in various research activities at the centre. ■ Reported by: Azhar Farooqui