University of Sharjah News Magazine
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The University of Sharjah hosted an astrolabe workshop in which western scientists showed participants how an astronomical instrument made by an ancient Muslim scholar nearly 1,000 years ago measured the altitude of the sun throughout the twelve zodiacal signs and told local time through the position of the sun in the ecliptic on a given day.
The workshop was an opportunity to train a host of Arab and Muslim academics on how their forefathers constructed their own astronomical instruments and the methods they used in those ancient days for timekeeping, scheduling of the five different times of Muslim prayers, and determining altitudes and positions of the brightest stars in the sky and at different times of the year.
The workshop was part of a one-day forum held late in November, showcasing a 10th century astrolabe constructed by an Arab and Muslim astronomer known in Western astronomy circles by the surname al-Khujandi. His full name in Arabic is Abu Maḥmud Ḥamid ibn al‐Khiḍr al‐Khujandi.
In the ninth century, Muhammad ibn Musa Al‐Khwarizmi, the famous Muslim astronomer, better known simply as Al‐Khwarizmi, whose name survives in the word algorithm, added geometrical methods of drawing azimuth circles, and al‐Khujandi was one of the first astrolabe makers who actually constructed such azimuthal circles in practice.
Al‐Khujandi’s original astrolabe, considered to be one of the most important surviving astronomical instruments in the world, is part of the prized artifacts of the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar.
In a plenary presentation, Dutch mathematician and historian of science, Jan Pieter Hogendijk, elaborated on the astrolabe as a precision instrument and a structure governed to a large extent by mathematical laws.
“As far as we know, al‐Khujandi was the first Islamic instrument builder who fully obeyed the mathematical laws and at the same time introduced artistic elements in the construction of the astrolabe,” said Prof. Hogendijk, who is also member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
“He (al-Khujandi) stands at the beginning of the Islamic tradition of extreme beauty in astrolabe construction. Also interesting is the fact that he was a theoretical scholar and a practical instrument maker at the same time.”
Believed to have been invented in ancient Greece at the end of the 3rd century CE, the astrolabe was developed and refined by Arab and Muslim scholars in the Middle East. It was the Arabic astrolabe that reached medieval Europe around the 12th century, as did the globe, another highly practical and useful Arab navigational instrument. Some extant European medieval manuscripts show astrolabe drawings in both Arabic and Latin.
The names of the brightest stars in the sky are designated letters of the Greek alphabet in European languages, but in reality, most of them are transcriptions derived from the Arabic alphabet. Scientists list more than 200 names of the brightest and most visible stars to have been adopted in Europe without translation from the pronunciation of the Arabic names Arab astronomers gave to them.
Prof. Hogendijk’s interest in Islamic astrolabes goes back to 1988 when he started holding “interactive astrolabe workshops. I chose an old Islamic astrolabe, for example, a Yemeni astrolabe from the 12th century, and drew by hand a somewhat simplified model of two parts of the instrument on paper. These two drawings I copied on paper and plastic, paying close attention to the size, and then I put the paper and plastic parts together.”
To generate academic and popular interest in the Islamic astrolabe, Prof. Hogendijk started holding workshops in numerous Islamic countries. The original astrolabes discovered so far are unaffordable and inaccessible as they are among the priceless possessions of world museums.
To supplement his teaching, Prof. Hogendijk produced an affordable model of an Islamic astrolabe to use in his workshops. The model was constructed of paper and plastic with a pin rotating over the paper part.
“I often taught astrolabe workshops in Islamic countries and then prepared and took with me 200 models (the cost of 50 euros was easy to manage) - so I could teach the workshop ten times to audiences of 20 people at most.
“I gave an astrolabe model to each participant, let them solve exercises with it, and then let each participant take the models home and show them to their friends. This generated much enthusiasm for the astrolabe and for Islamic science in general.”
In 1995, when research for first time threw ample light on al‐Khujandi’s astrolabe, Prof. Hogendijk decided to discard his old hand-drawn astrolabe models. “I decided to draw by hand a new model based on al-Khujandi’s astrolabe. This was really an exercise in humility - if you try to draw the astrolabe parts yourself by hand, you start to realize and admire the incredible expertise of the old masters.”
In 2005, Wilfred de Graaf, Education Coordinator at Utrecht University, programmed for the first time a computer‐drawn model that closely resembled al-Khujandi’s astrolabe. The computerized model could be easily adapted to the geographical altitude of any city in today’s world.
Since then, Prof Hogendijk and de Graaf have collaborated on these workshops, using the computer‐programmed model. “For didactic reasons, the computer‐drawn model is simpler than al‐Khujandi’s astrolabe itself,” he goes on.
Al‐Khujandi’s astrolabe is essentially a clock, notes Prof. Hogendijk, with a 24‐hour dial, using the sun instead of the modern hand. “The sun shows the time as the hand in the modern clock. The time is local true solar time, noon is exactly 12 hours.”
With al‐Khujandi the astrolabe became mathematical art, maintained Prof. Hogendijk, exhibiting “a spider with ecliptic (with the 12 signs) and precisely computed stars and star names, just as in other astrolabes. Some star pointers are heads of birds, other star pointers are leaves.” Besides its ability to provide precise measurements of altitude, exact local time, and position of shining stars,
al‐Khujandi’s astrolabe is of astounding beauty, adds Prof. Hogendijk, with its decorative throne (top of the astrolabe), fascinating Arabic script, two lion’s heads and a horse to fix the spider into the plate.
de Graaf gave a presentation of his computer‐designed model of al-Khujandi’s astrolabe and demonstrated how easily it could function as a kind of a rudimentary analogue computer with the ability to measure the altitude of heavenly bodies and locate the position of the sun and the brightest stars in relation to the meridian and the horizon. Besides, he said, the astrolabe was as a clock to measure time.
He emphasized that al-Khujandi’s astrolabe “is one of the oldest and beautifully decorated instruments extant today.” In numerous exercises on his computerized model of al-Khujandi’s astrolabe, he showed how the instrument could determine the length of day and night and the local time, locate stars and their movements, or measure the altitude of the sun by “using the alidade on the back side of the astrolabe.”
Mesut Idriz, Sharjah University’s Professor of Islamic civilization,
and the organizer, said the forum’s presentations and workshop “provided a link between the artistic and scientific traditions in Islamic civilization. Similar connections can be seen in, for example, artistic pictures of stellar constellations, plants and animals in Arabic manuscripts; and also in Islamic geometric decorations on historic buildings such as mosques and palaces.”
Al‐Khujandi is not known to have used statistics, however, Prof. Idriz said “his scientific methodology looks very modern because of his care in deriving scientific conclusions from incomplete data. For example, he could make an accurate observation of the altitude of the sun above the horizon only once a day, when it was exactly at noon.
“Nonetheless, he was able to use these observations in order to find the maximum distance of the sun to the equator which could happen any time of day. He was also able to deal with the fact that on some days, astronomical observations are impossible because the sky is clouded.”
Nanofluids and turbulators have enormous potential to boost thermal conductivity, increase heat transfer efficiency, cut energy costs, and reduce reliance on fossil fuels, scientists say.
Nanofluids, also called nanoparticles, are fluids containing nanometer‐sized particles, while turbulators, which are typically made of stainless steel, consist of small metal baffles or coiled wire.
Nanofluids and turbulators have recently emerged as new techniques to boost cooling systems, maximize heat transfer rates and enhance renewable energy.
The scientists’ most outstanding finding reveals that substantial benefits in terms of energy transfer, cooling, and heating can be obtained when nanofluids and turbulators are combined to develop techniques that will maximize their functions.
Heating and cooling consume nearly half of the global energy and are responsible for more than 40% of carbon dioxide emissions related to energy. Conditions are expected to aggravate with the demand for airconditioning slated to surge by 45% in 2050.
For the scientists, it is an urgent matter for the world “to turn to the broader utilization of renewable energies instead of fossil fuels to effectively tackle this widely recognized challenge of transition to sustainable energy.”
They furnish their study “with the design of a roadmap that integrates advanced (nanofluid and turbulator‐based) technologies into sustainable energy systems.”
The authors identify “huge potential in these technologies to make considerable contributions towards the global transition towards renewable energy sources.”
The details and findings of the research are published in the journal Applied Thermal Engineering, and the scientists maintain that there is growing interest in their work and similar types of research from industries like automotive, aerospace, and renewable energy.
The research is the product of collaboration and partnership among five universities in different parts of the world. The authors originate from the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, U.K.’s Lancaster University, Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Greece’s National Technical University of Athens, and Malaysia’s Sunway University.
The research attends to the need for sustainable energy solutions, helping point the way towards better performance of energy systems with reduced environmental impacts, according to lead author Dr. Zafar Said, an associate professor at University of Sharjah’s College of Engineering.
“This can notably improve the efficiency of renewable energy technologies, besides contributing to a shift away from fossil fuel economies,” Dr. Said goes on. “New materials, such as phase‐change materials and hybrid nanofluids, were introduced, holding much promise for more efficient energy storage and transportation.”
Dr. Said, whose research centers on nanofluids, heat transfer and sustainable energy, says he and his colleagues develop new technologies which, if utilized, would “enhance the heat transfer processes which are crucial in energy applications, focusing on nanofluids, turbulators, and new working fluids to investigate their potential and efficiency improvement in solar collectors and heat exchangers.
“Our research emphasizes environmental sustainability, answering the modern goals for clean energy and low carbon emissions. It looks at how these advanced technologies would be incorporated into large-scale
applications and points toward a roadmap for transition toward renewable energy systems.”
In the meantime, the authors admit that the technique, as presented in their study, still “requires careful consideration of potential drawbacks, such as increased nanoparticle deposition, which may reduce system efficiency. This holistic approach considers economic, environmental, and social factors, ensuring compliance with global sustainability benchmarks and contributing to energy system sustainability research.”
However, Dr. Said is upbeat as he endows turbulators and nanofluids with higher thermal conductivity and efficiency, as well as significant potential in cooling systems and renewable energy devices.
“Our research highlights the transformative potential of nanofluids and turbulators in shaping the future of energy systems. Integrating these advanced materials into everyday applications can bridge the gap between energy efficiency and environmental sustainability,” he notes.
While the scientists demonstrate how the integration of nanofluids and turbulators can achieve maximum efficiency of cooling and heating devices in terms of environment, volume, and cost, they at the same time underscore certain challenges ahead, particularly in relation to stability and scalability.
“These practical techniques thus illustrate that modern heat transfer systems can be feasible and usable in reality. Translating theory into practice becomes easier in this respect,” they write.
Dr. Said points out that the research’s findings “directly apply to efficient systems design in HVAC, transportation, and renewable energy industries, further showing the scalability and systems economics at larger sizes.”
HVAC, an acronym for Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning, is a system operating various technologies that can comfortably and sustainably control humidity, temperature, and purity of the air in enclosed spaces.
The authors note, “The future energy systems are going to be designed based on the principles of efficiency and the usage of new materials. Some of the major challenges in research involve developing new materials and combinations to achieve cost reductions and enhancement of heat transfer using turbulators and special fluids.
“This paper has highlighted the importance of efficient energy consumption by combining different new methods with renewable and alternative energy sources. It is urgent to turn to the broader utilization of renewable energies instead of fossil fuels to effectively tackle this widely recognized challenge of transition to sustainable energy.”
The authors describe their research as “visionary” as it outlines “key hurdles to be conquered if such technologies significantly impact future sustainable energy systems.” They provide a guideline on how to address the remaining technological obstacles.
“These are inclusively outlined as novel material development, performance enhancement, long‐term stability, life cycle methodology, and cost reduction in implementing innovative technologies into large‐scale industrial applications.”
Other obstacles for future research to tackle, according to the authors, include attaining industrial‐scale technologies, reducing costs further and reaching a sustainable level of scalability and material compatibility.
“The realization of the technology, cost, scalability, and material compatibility are key factors to consider. These technologies can also be applied to many disciplines, like those concerned with automotive and aerospace
Credit: jdturbulators.com
engineering, where the control of heat is very much an issue.”
Despite obstacles, the authors assert that the future holds bright prospects for “nanofluids, turbulators, and new working fluids [which] are expected to become the keys to revolutionizing heat transfer. Advancements in these fields will have an impact on automotive and aerospace engineering, which would greatly benefit from improved thermal management.
“Moreover, applying heat transfer enhancement techniques can lead to a higher pressure drop in the flow, which increases the unit’s operational cost, especially in the cases with turbulators. However, the proper design of the enhanced units can minimize the increase in the pumping work demand, and finally, the overall designs can effectively enhance the global system performance.”
They stress that additional research is necessary to bridge the chasm between theory and practice in the use cases involving nanofluids, turbulators, and new working fluids, and also to improve aeronautical and automotive cooling systems.
“Nanofluids can be used to enhance the heat transfer inside car cooling systems. This will provide improved performance and better fuel economy for automobiles. Specific case studies can be done on this,” the authors highlight in their study.
They also urge scientists to introduce machine learning in their research to optimize their technologies and devices using nanofluids and turbulators. This approach “leverages AI and machine learning to tune a system to the most optimal configuration for business. It greatly reduces experimentation and accelerates the dissemination of technologies.”
The world has the potential today to sustainably manage nearly one billion tons of ash waste it produces every year and turn it into a useful material for water treatment applications, according to a study by scientists from the University of Sharjah published in the journal Separation and Purification Technology.
Ash waste or toxic ash is called in scientific jargon “fly ash.” It has emerged as an environmental hazard across the globe since it has been found to contain poisonous substances, organic pollutants, as well as soluble metal oxides which can cause serious chemical burns when touching the skin.
“Transportation across continents increases and rapid industrialization continues, leading to a surge in energy consumption. Unfortunately, this has given rise to environmental concerns, with waste fly ash being discarded in alarming quantities—up to 1 billion tons annually,” the scientists write.
The study is essentially a review of the literature on fly ash and how the pollutant produced in massive volumes every year can be rendered unharmful to the environment, but more importantly, it is of practical industrial, economic and livelihood applications to mankind.
The scientists’ reading of the literature confirms that waste ash, which is “a particulate byproduct of burning various waste materials, is a pressing issue due to its environmental impact on soil, water, and air.”
However, their review produces evidence that “this waste can be repurposed for water treatment applications, offering a sustainable solution to waste management and water quality control.”
For long, the authors maintain, scientists and industries have been seeking materials that are low‐cost, lightweight, and strong, at the same time, to be used as alternatives to current conventional options for water treatment applications.
“Among these materials, fly ash stands out as a notable contributor to this field. Fly ash consists of fine particles expelled from the boiler with flue gases during combustion of coal, wood, rice husk, bagasse, or other combustible materials,” the scientists note.
The authors highlight that their “comprehensive review” is to fill in what they describe as “a significant need in the field, as there has been limited exploration of the potential of different fly ash sources for water treatment purposes.”
Water scarcity is a big challenge around the globe with more than one billion people lacking access to fresh water. The scarcity is worsened, according to the authors, “by the discharge of inadequately treated wastewater from industries and the contamination of groundwater sources.”
The world is facing an unprecedented water crisis with demand for fresh water predicted to exceed supply by 40 percent by 2030. The authors say this pressing need for fresh water “has fueled the quest for effective and affordable water treatment solutions, leading to a growing interest in repurposing waste fly ash.”
The review focuses on literature from 2015 to 2023, with emphasis placed on research published in highimpact academic journals.
The authors “critically review the utilization of fly ash materials in water purification applications … exploring the current trends and prospects of using fly ash materials in water treatment applications … to provide insights into sustainable waste management and water quality control.”
The authors claim that their “systematic approach” is to provide the most recent and relevant findings by scientists engaged with how to make fly ash sustainable, friendly to the environment and useful to mankind.
“Our review presents … valuable insights into the efficacy and feasibility of utilizing fly ash in various water treatment processes,” the authors go on, adding that they have also identified gaps in extant research and provided recommendations on remaining aspects to be covered by future research.
The statistics the authors provide underscore considerable production of fly ash in the world and from diverse regions, “with notable contributors being coal in China at the forefront with 46%, sugarcane bagasse in Brazil holding a significant share at 41%, rice husk in China (29%) and India (21%), and wood pulp in the United States (27%) and Brazil (15%).”
The authors demonstrate that the literature reveals “remarkable potential” for the utilization of toxic ashes in water treatment applications.” The studies they have reviewed show that environmental concerns associated with fly ash are solvable, and moreover, it can significantly contribute to boosting the current expansive field of water treatment.
Exploring the versatile roles of waste ash as a byproduct of various combustible energy materials, the authors show that the application of fly ash “in crafting ceramic membranes emerges as a fruitful avenue, yielding low‐cost, hydrophilic, high permeability, low sintering temperature membranes with a long lifespan and exceptional efficiency in treating industrial wastewater.
“Furthermore, fly ash serves as an economical alternative in photocatalysis, Fenton processes, and as support materials for membranes and electrodes, aligning with environmentally friendly practices and showcasing high reusability.”
However, and despite the notable advancements identified in their review of the literature, the authors mention a plethora of research opportunities in need of investigation if the world wants to see fly ash no longer constituting an environmental hazard and significantly contributing to the expansion of water treatment applications.
“Addressing these gaps will contribute to the practical application of fly ash materials, paving the way for a more sustainable and effective approach to water treatment,” they conclude.
Schematic diagram illustrating pollutant removal mechanisms in fly ash-based membranes for water treatment. Credit: Separation and Purification Technology (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.seppur.2024.129104
The University of Sharjah has had a patent approved for the invention of a new device which can use sand containers to dissipate seismic attacks and protect buildings from harm in the event of an earthquake.
Seismic energy dissipation devices are not new, but the patent document describes the invention as unique since it merely relies on containers filled with sand or other granular material to protect a building’s structure from damage or failure during an earthquake.
Dissipation devices hitherto rely on steel and its yielding properties to help buildings withstand the power of seismic energy accompanying earthquakes. But the patent, according to its inventors, introduces what they describe as “an innovative energy dissipation device designed for seismic‐resistant structures.”
The patent owners, Prof. Moussa Leblouba and Prof. Mostafa Zahri, have dubbed their discovery “Particle‐Based Energy Dissipation Device.” It employs natural granular materials like sand to mitigate the force of vibrations and dynamic seismic attacks earthquakes cause to buildings.
“Our work demonstrates the untapped potential of natural granular materials to provide an economical and reliable solution for seismic resistance,” said Prof. Leblouba, who filed the patent along with co‐inventor Prof. Zahri. “Unlike conventional systems, it requires no external power and is highly cost‐effective.”
According to the invention document, the device includes “a container, at least one movable plate, a slot, at least two holes, and at least two rods …The container includes a top plate that is horizontally slotted on the container. The container is made of a welded thick steel plate.”
“Further, the container is filled with a granular material that is any one of a particle, sand, aggregates of different sizes, or steel balls with specific diameters. The container is of any size and shape that is anyone of a rectangular shape, a cuboid shape, among others.”
The device, according to the document, operates by absorbing and dissipating seismic energy through a specially designed container filled with granular material, namely sand. The natural properties of sand—or other granular materials—allow it to shift and compress under stress, effectively reducing vibrations.
“Through experimental studies, we demonstrated that the device improves energy dissipation efficiency and structural stability, making it an accessible solution for low‐budget and retrofitted construction projects,” Prof. Leblouba added.
Drawings show how the granular material-based damper exhibited robust “hysteresis” behavior, dissipating significant amounts of energy. “The effective damping ratio was estimated to be between 37% and 75%, which is higher than many expensive passive damping systems.”
“The dual configuration enhances stability and energy dissipation under medium‐to‐high loads. More silhouettes can, of course, be added to the device to achieve higher performance,” stressed Prof. Leblouba.
Hysteresis is a term which refers to a lag between input and output in a system once a change in direction occurs. In the event of an earthquake, vibrations trigger the device to spring into action and help buildings withstand the force of seismic attacks.
Dual configuration, in the context of the invention and related experiments, means the use of two silhouettes—that is, rectangular steel plates that push the particles back and forth, with the option of adding more silhouettes if the design requires it.
The patent document mentions numerous systems invented to help buildings withstand the seismic impact of earthquakes. “These systems are categorized as active and passive control systems,” the document notes.
However, the document describes the currently available devices as “costly and hard to manufacture at any workshop.”
The document illustrates how the invention provides “a feasible energy dissipation device that is easily configured to suit a wide array of applications. This device is cheap, easy to manufacture at any workshop, and its constituting parts may easily be obtained from any hardware shop.”
“Further, this device is capable of dissipating energy under small as well as large displacement amplitudes. Therefore, it is used for applications where small vibrations are anticipated (e.g., in buildings subjected to minor to moderate winds and man‐made vibrations, such as the case of train‐induced vibrations) as well as in the case of large vibrations (e.g., strong wind loads and strong earthquake ground motions).”
The document, according to Prof. Leblouba, sheds light on the invention’s economic feasibility, scalability, and simplicity. Leveraging inexpensive materials like sand “makes the device
a cost‐effective alternative to traditional seismic systems. Besides, the damper’s design is straightforward and suitable for both new and existing structures.”
The patent, granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, has not yet been publicized for the industry stakeholders to get engaged with its practical implications. However, Prof. Leblouba is upbeat about the device’s future, predicting potential collaboration with civil engineering firms, municipalities, and disaster management agencies.
He maintained that the device’s ease of installation and maintenance makes it highly practical for diverse applications. He enumerated two major cost‐effective and easy‐to‐do things, like protecting buildings from earthquakes and wind‐induced vibrations as well as retrofitting older structures in seismically active regions.
“This invention represents a significant leap forward in making earthquake protection accessible to communities worldwide, ensuring safety without compromising affordability.
“The results highlight the simplicity and effectiveness of using natural materials, proving that innovation doesn’t always have to come with a high price tag.”
Co‐inventor, Prof. Zahri, said the invention comes at a time of a critical need for devices with the ability to demonstrate resilience in an affordable and sustainable manner when earthquakes strike.
“Our invention provides a viable alternative to expensive seismic isolation systems, enabling wider adoption in regions with limited financial resources. The innovation not only enhances safety but also reduces maintenance costs, contributing to long‐term structural integrity.”
Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) algorithms can reduce road accidents through their ability to detect sleepy drivers and quickly warn them of the dangers their drowsiness may cause, a study has found.
The findings suggest that drowsiness, which causes drivers to become sleepy and lethargic, is still a severe issue, the solution of which has been defying scientists.
The research designs an algorithm-based scheme to help drivers avert drowsiness which contributes to thousands of “fatal incidents and injuries” every year, says Sharjah University’s professor of computer sciences, Saad Harous.
“Detecting driver drowsiness [has] become an important task that necessitates an automated system to detect and prevent these adverse outcomes early on.”
The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that drowsiness is behind about 100,000 road accidents every year, causing 1,500 deaths and 70,000 injuries.
The research authors, based in universities in both the United Arab Emirates and Algeria, have published their findings in the journal Biomedical Signal Processing Control.
The authors write, “Recently, different Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) models have been proposed to detect driver drowsiness. This study utilized a publicly accessible dataset containing 12 healthy participants.
“Reading numerous research papers, we determined no specific EEG‐based drowsiness preprocessing parameter values. Consequently, as a first step, and for the first time, to our knowledge in this field, we applied an optimization algorithm to determine the optimal preprocessing parameter values using a CNN model and accuracy as the objective function.”
EEG or electroencephalography is so far one of the most reliable means used to detect the onset of drowsiness and sleep while driving. CNN or conventional neural network is a type of deep learning algorithm which scientists normally use when analyzing visual data.
Prof. Harous acknowledges that previous research has proposed numerous physiological signals and indicators for detecting driver drowsiness.
“To detect and prevent driver drowsiness, numerous researchers have proposed and implemented various systems by using different techniques, including Machine Learning and Deep Learning algorithms.
“However, the electroencephalogram (EEG) signal, commonly known as the gold standard, is the most used due to its efficiency and reliability and its simplicity of acquisition. In our work we have proposed an architecture that can detect driver drowsiness with high accuracy and less time.”
Tuning Hyperparameters Process. Credit: Biomedical Signal Processing and Control (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.bspc.2024.106881
In the absence of specific EEG‐based drowsiness preprocessing parameter values, the authors focus first on selecting the optimal set of preprocessing parameters that can enhance the performance of the classification results using the random search optimization method.
The results of the study demonstrate the importance of selecting correct values. Once the correct values were picked up, the authors, according to Prof. Harous, found “the mean accuracy score edging to 95% from 91% with a notable reduction in the training time.
“We have used the Optuna Hyperparameter optimization framework to select the optimal CNN Hyperparameters, which increased the mean accuracy from 95% to 97%.
“Also, we have noticed that most previous works did not concentrate on how to choose the preprocessing parameter values or what are the appropriate values. We collected all values from many research papers and used an optimization algorithm to find the optimal set.”
“Finally, and most importantly, the use of CNN‐SVM classifier achieved the highest average accuracy of 99.9%, and the training time has been reduced to a shallow value.”
The authors attribute the success of their scheme to their proper utilization of the optimization technique to achieve the highest possible accuracy of detecting driver drowsiness based on machine learning and deep learning techniques.
Prof. Harous is upbeat about the practical implications of the study, saying that it “can have a big impact on society if the system is adopted by the transportation authority.”
Now that the results of their research have been substantiated by a peer‐reviewed scientific journal, the authors are considering how to put their logarithm-based scheme into practice.
Says Prof. Harous, “One (practical implication) we are thinking about is to have a camera/mobile on the car dashboard. The application will be installed on the camera/ mobile.
“But unfortunately, we have not yet received any emails or invitations from industries willing to invest in the project or requesting us to present our work, though we have achieved the highest accuracy in less time compared to other works.”
The authors employ random search optimization method in their attempt to select the optimal set of preprocessing parameters. They implement multiple CNN architectures and then select the optimal one based on the mean accuracy of the 10‐fold cross‐validation evaluation method. Moreover, they combine the CNN with ML classifiers (Deep Hybrid Learning). In so doing, they benefit from CNN’s power in automatically extracting EEG features and the advantages of the ML classifiers.
A traditional type of tobacco smoking locally known as midwakh is causing severe health problems and nicotine dependency among users in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), scientists from the University of Sharjah report in a study published in the European Journal of Public Health.
The research’s findings are based on a quasi‐experimental before‐and‐after study of 103 young male midwakh smokers in the UAE.
Midawkh is a traditional smoking practice involving a smoking pipe of Arabian origin and a mixture of tobacco from Iran. It is prevalent in the Arabian Peninsula, which includes the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.
The Iranian element is represented in an imported sifted loose tobacco mixture locally known as dokha or dizziness that contains bark herbs and aromatic leaves.
“Midwakh smoking is deeply ingrained in UAE tradition but poses significant adverse health outcomes and nicotine dependency,” the scientists write.
Compared to shisha pipe smoking, another Middle Eastern traditional smoking practice, which has migrated to many western countries, the midwakh is more intense and even stronger.
Prof. Basema Saddik, the study’s lead author, said while global smoking rates were declining, the Middle East faced unique challenges. “Population growth and a younger demographic in the Middle East are leading to sustained high numbers of smokers despite global declines in smoking prevalence.
“This is particularly critical for the UAE, where vaping, shisha, midwakh and other alternative tobacco products are becoming increasingly popular among youth, potentially leading to significant health issues later.”
Although the results of the study are confined to data collected in the UAE, Prof. Saddik said the findings were bound to reverberate in countries where midwakh is common among smoking populations.
“While the scope of this study is regional, its implications are significant and timely, especially as we continue to address nicotine dependence trends in this population.”
The research’s data collection included surveys featuring the Hooked‐on Nicotine checklist (HONC), clinical measurements, and pre/post‐smoking saliva samples. The scientists note, “Midwakh smoking adversely affects clinical measurements, with early start correlating with higher nicotine dependency, worsened by using multiple tobacco products.”
Prof. Saddik, who is director of Sharjah University’s Center of Excellence for Public Health, said the study’s findings showed that midwakh users “often develop early signs of nicotine dependence and reported various clinical issues, including elevated carbon monoxide and cotinine levels, which are indicators of harmful tobacco exposure.”
The authors’ preliminary findings pointed to severe health risks related to midwakh smoking, particularly the young generation in the UAE. The study reported that “33% of midwakh smokers were under 21 years, 68% had below undergrad education, and household incomes over 15,000 AED (approx. $4,000) monthly. Smoking initiation was as early as 10 years.
“Smoking habits revealed 37% exclusive midwakh, 54% midwakh with e‐cigarettes, 21% with shisha, and 34% with cigarettes.
Post‐smoking clinical measurements showed significant increases in blood pressure, heart, pulse and respiratory rates, and carbon monoxide levels.”
Prof. Saddik attributed the widespread use of midwakh in Arabia and specifically in the UAE to smokers mistakenly believing that the herbs and aromatic leaves in the tobacco—which lure many users—make it safer or less harmful than other cigarettes, leading to higher rates of initiation and dependence.
Research shows that a midwakh session, in terms of nicotine intake, can be the equivalent of smoking up to ten cigarettes, and in fact with much higher nicotine and tar levels. The diseases associated with midwakh smoking are no different from those caused by cigarette smoking, including coronary artery disease, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Prof. Saddik went on, “Clinical assessments also revealed negative health indicators, including elevated carbon monoxide levels which suggest that without intervention, a large portion of the UAE’s youth could face severe long‐term health consequences.”
“Addressing these issues now with targeted prevention programs and regulations on alternative tobacco products is essential to change these projected outcomes.”
Prof. Saddik describes the findings of the study as “a wake‐up call” for policy makers in the UAE and other countries with midwakh smokers to implement “strong smoking cessation policies and public education initiatives, particularly aimed at youth.
“The significance of our midwakh study lies in the immediate clinical impacts observed among users, with findings showing high nicotine dependency and harmful respiratory indicators.”
Prof. Saddik said the research had practical implications for health policy makers. The findings, she said, served as “a warning and a guide to protect future generations” in countries like the UAE “where alternative tobacco products are gaining popularity among youth.
“While alternative products like midwakh are often perceived as less addictive, our research reveals high nicotine levels and significant dependency among young users, ultimately impacting their health and future quality of life.”
“Midwakh smoking adversely affects clinical measurements, with early start correlating with higher nicotine dependency, worsened by using multiple tobacco products.” Credit: Shutterstock
Scientists from the University of Sharjah say they have good news for breast cancer patients, particularly those afflicted with the most aggressive types of the malignant tumor known as triple-negative breast cancer.
The study, published in the European Journal of Pharmacology, provides “new ways for the treatment of the special type of breast cancer called triple‐negative breast cancer,” said the research’s corresponding author, Prof. Raafat El‐Awady.
Triple‐negative breast cancers are more aggressive than other forms of breast cancer as they tend to grow and spread quickly, have limited treatment options and show resistance to available therapies.
“Our research has found that high HDAC6 levels lower the amount of progesterone receptors, making breast cancer
cells less responsive to hormonal therapies,” Prof. El‐Awady, a pharmacologist, adds.
“The implications of our research could extend beyond the lab, offering hope for more effective treatment options in the battle against aggressive breast cancer.”
HDAC6, or histone deacetylase 6, influences a broad range of signaling pathways and cellular processes in cancer cells involving response of cancer cells to therapeutics, and cancer metastasis, or development of malignant growth beyond the tumor’s primary site, while hormone receptors, like the estrogen and progesterone, cause the growth of only some types of breast cancers, which are hormone dependent.
But when these receptors do not function properly, according to Prof. El‐Awady, breast cancer patients often struggle to respond to common hormonal therapies, leaving them with limited treatment options.
Prof. El‐Awady described triple‐negative breast cancer as “a type (of cancer) that lacks these hormone receptors and is aggressive and hard to treat. Hormone receptors, like the estrogen and progesterone receptors, play a significant role in how breast cancer grows and responds to treatments.”
“When these receptors are not expressed or do not function properly, breast cancer patients often struggle to respond to common hormonal therapies, leaving them with limited treatment options.”
The main practical goal of the research is to identify a new therapeutic strategy to enhance the sensitivity of aggressive breast cancer cells to hormonal therapies, and the authors highlight HDAC6 as a potential therapeutic target, demonstrating how inhibiting this protein can restore progesterone receptor levels and potentially reverse resistance to hormonal treatments.
“By shedding light on the role of HDAC6, we aimed to provide insights that could pave the way for developing more effective treatments for patients, particularly those with challenging breast cancer subtypes that are difficult to treat,” says Prof. El‐Awady.
The scientists claim that one best way to combat triple‐negative cancer is by using a medicine with the ability to stop HDAC6, a process that can lead to a surge in the levels of progesterone receptors.
“By using a drug that blocks HDAC6, we were able to boost the levels of progesterone receptors in breast cancer that were previously lacked it. This change made the breast cancer cells more sensitive to common hormonal therapies.
“These findings suggest that targeting HDAC6 could enhance the effects of hormonal therapies, offering a new hope for patients, particularly those with aggressive types like triple‐negative breast cancer, which is typically aggressive and more difficult to treat,” Prof. El‐Awady added.
Statistics show that breast cancer is the most prevalent type of cancer among women worldwide, with 2,296,840 new cases of breast cancer in 2022.
Dr. Wafaa Ramadan, a molecular medicine specialist and the study’s first author, said the research stands out in its discovery that high levels of HDAC6 are linked to low amounts of the progesterone receptors in tissues of breast cancer patients.
“This indicates that the presence of active HDAC6 leads to a reduction or loss of the progesterone receptors with subsequent resistance to anti‐progesterone therapies.
“Most importantly, we found that by blocking HDAC6, breast cancer cells became more sensitive to hormonal therapies. This is especially important for types of breast cancer that are more challenging to treat, like triple‐negative breast cancer.”
The research, says Dr. Burcu Ilce, a specialist in bioinformatics and functional genomics and a co‐author, opens up new ways for breast cancer treatment strategies. “By understanding the role of HDAC6 in hormone receptor regulation, we can potentially develop targeted therapies that enhance the effectiveness of existing treatments.
“This approach is crucial for patients who may not respond to standard hormonal therapies, as it offers a new avenue for tackling their disease. Consequently, targeting HDAC6 could lead to better treatment outcomes, reduced resistance to therapies, and improved survival rates for patients with challenging forms of breast cancer,” Prof. Maha Saber‐Ayad, a Clinical Pharmacologist and a co‐author, adds.
The scientists say they hope for their findings to significantly advance personalized cancer therapy, offering new hopes for patients with limited treatment options.
“Given the growing focus on targeted cancer therapies and epigenetic drugs, it is likely that pharmaceutical companies and biotech firms could be interested in further exploring the development and clinical testing of HDAC6‐targeted therapies,” said Varsha Menon, a co‐author and research assistant.
“This interest could open the door to strategic partnerships that would accelerate the translation of our research into impactful therapies for breast cancer patients, particularly those with hormone receptor‐negative or resistant tumors.”
Prof. El‐Awady notes that once the research findings are translated into clinical practice by targeting HDAC6, “they could enhance treatment outcomes for patients with hormone receptor‐negative breast cancer.
“By restoring or increasing hormone receptor expression, this approach could provide new therapeutic options, improving treatment efficacy and potentially increasing survival rates for patients who currently have limited responses to conventional hormonal therapies,” added Prof. Iman Talaat, a clinical pathologist and a co‐author.
“We are excited about the possibility that our work related to targeting HDAC6 could lead to breakthroughs in how we treat breast cancer, giving hope to patients who may have limited treatment options.”
Scientists from the University of Sharjah have found that a naturally growing aromatic plant contains ingredients with the ability to treat colorectal cancer.
The plant is a common herb. It is scientifically known as Artemisia herba-alba. It grows naturally in North Africa and the Middle East, where the inhabitants have traditionally been using it as medicine to treat bronchitis, diarrhea, hypertension and diabetes.
Artemisia herba‐alba is popularly known by different appellations, like common wormwood, white wormwood, or simply herba alba.
The news that it can be an effective weapon to fight colorectal cancer is reported in a study published in the journal Food Science and Nutrition.
“These results suggest that Artemisia herba-alba has great potential as a new tool in fighting CRC (colorectal cancer),” says Dr. Lara Bou Malhab. “Artemisia herba-alba could be a promising natural ingredient for new cancer treatments based on (our study’s) findings.”
Dr. Bou Malhab, the study’s lead author, is a research associate at Sharjah University’s Research Institute for Medical and Health Sciences. The plant material for the study included aerial parts of Artemisia herba-alba that were collected from southern Jordan in May 2021.
“[Co‐author] Prof. M. Hudaib, an esteemed expert in Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry at the University of Jordan’s School of Pharmacy, conducted the botanical identification of
these specimens,” the authors write. “After collection, the aerial parts were air‐dried at room temperature, and protected from direct sunlight to avoid deterioration of sensitive components.”
Once dried, the plant material was mechanically ground into a fine powder “with particles no larger than 0.5 mm. This preliminary step was done to enhance the effectiveness of the next extraction process, guaranteeing the highest possible amount of the extracted phytochemicals.”
The study finds that the extract contained many active compounds with properties capable of fighting colorectal cancer with various degrees of effectiveness. The findings show that the extract from Artemisia herba-alba stopped the growth of cancerous cells and caused them to die, regardless of specific genetic traits.
“It also disrupted the cell cycle and reduced the activity of proteins like Cyclin B1 and CDK1, which are crucial for cancer cell division. Additionally, it blocked the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway, which plays a major role in cancer development,” adds Dr. Bou Malhab.
“The current study underscores the extract’s selective cytotoxicity against CRC cell lines, highlighting its potential to serve as a complementary treatment to existing cancer treatment with more efficacious and less harmful alternatives.
“Our findings highlight the immense potential of Artemisia herba‐alba as a natural source for developing innovative therapies against colorectal cancer, addressing the urgent need for treatments with fewer side effects and greater efficacy.”
Inhibitory effect escalating concentration of A. herba-alba extract on cell viability of various colon cancer cell lines after (A) 24 h and (B) 48 h of incubation. Credit: Food Science & Nutrition (2024): DOI: 10.1002/fsn3.4715
Colorectal cancer or CRC is the third most common cancer worldwide. It accounts for nearly 10% of all cancer cases. It is the second leading cause of cancer‐related deaths. In 2020, it
caused 1 million deaths with two million new cases reported in the same year. According to the World Health Organization, CRC predominantly affects old individuals with most cases occurring in people aged 50 and above.
“Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common and serious illness, making it essential to find new and better treatments,” emphasizes Dr. Bou Malhab.
The study could assume considerable significance if noted and adopted by big pharma as current traditional chemotherapy, used to treat colorectal cancer, faces challenges with cancerous cells becoming resistant to the drugs besides their harmful side effects.
“Which is why alternative solutions are needed. One plant, Artemisia herba‐alba, known for its medicinal applications, was studied for its ability to fight CRC,” maintains Dr. Bou Malhab.”
Researchers tested a methanol-based extract of this plant on eight different types of CRC cells, aiming to see how it affected cell survival, growth, and death, as well as its impact on a key cancer‐related pathway.”
The study’s findings emphasize Artemisia herba‐alba’s “potential as an anticancer agent for CRC. [They] demonstrate its cytotoxic effects, ability to induce apoptosis, ability to arrest the cell cycle …, suggesting a wider therapeutic significance.”
As they conclude their study by recounting their findings, the scientists urge further research “to elucidate the molecular mechanisms and clinical efficacy of Artemisia herba‐alba in the context of cancer treatment.”
Herba-alba promotes cell death in all CRC cell lines tested. The percentage of apoptotic and necrotic cells was assessed by flow cytometry using Annexin V/PI staining. Control cells were cultured in media, whereas treated cells were treated with the extract for 48 h with their corresponding IC50 concentration. DMSO was used as a negative control. Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4 represent the average of three independent experiments is represented. Credit: Food Science & Nutrition (2024): DOI: 10.1002/fsn3.4715
Scientists from the University of Sharjah think monoclonal antibodies hold the potential to be a far better treatment for asthma exacerbations than conventional therapies like steroids.
In a recent study, published in the journal Clinical and Experimental Allergy, the scientists find that when the antibodies are administered to patients with severe asthma, they prevent the symptoms from aggravating. They also maintain that the antibodies help balance the production of white blood cells and lower asthma‐related structural changes like thickened airway walls.
Current treatment of asthma, a chronic lung disease with significant social and economic burden, relies on steroids and muscle relaxants, the scientists note.
The scientists said, “Conventional treatments like steroids primarily target inflammation not remodeling” while “emerging therapies focusing on specific receptors or cytokines could be promising” in alleviating the severity of the chronic disease.
Airway remodelling in asthma refers to the structural changes that happen in airway passage to the lungs, increased muscle mass and gland enlargement.
Most people with troublesome asthma are currently treated with inhaled corticosteroids.
“These therapeutic options … have limitations in addressing severe cases, particularly those with steroid hyporesponsiveness and irreversible airway narrowing,” the scientists write.
Hyporesponsiveness is a medical condition in which the body’s response to treatment diminishes, disrupting therapy and promoting inflammation in the case of asthma. However, the scientists say, the development of steroid resistance is a commonly encountered issue, necessitating other treatment options for asthma patients.
Though corticosteroid medicines have hitherto been the most effective in treating asthma, the scientists report that “using monoclonal antibodies has shown promising results in recent studies. Administering these antibodies (has) led to reduced asthma exacerbations, lower eosinophilia, and decreased airway remodeling.”
Monoclonal antibodies are proteins or molecules produced in laboratories and serve as substitute anti‐bodies that can fight off germs by enhancing or mimicking the immune system. They fall under the category of biological therapies, and unlike corticosteroids, they are not likely to become less effective over time and are with lower side effect risks.
The authors note, “Biological therapies are a promising therapeutic approach for people with steroid‐resistant asthma,” citing biological medicines like Interleukin 5, which “is recently gaining a lot of attention as a biological target relevant to the tissue remodeling process.”
The scientists describe asthma as “a common and burdensome chronic inflammatory airway disease that affects both children and adults. One of the main concerns with asthma is the manifestation of irreversible tissue remodeling of the airways due to the chronic inflammatory environment that eventually disrupts the whole structure of the airways.”
Despite their therapeutic value, monoclonal antibodies are still some of the most expensive treatments and out of reach for many patients, while asthma is reported to affect over 260
million people and the cause for over 45,000 deaths each year worldwide, most of which, according to scientists, are preventable with the right treatment.
It is one of the most common chronic non-communicable diseases that affects the airways in the lungs, causing repeated episodes of chest tightness, breathlessness, wheezing and night or early morning coughing.
Still, the scientists emphasize that there is no definitive cure for asthma, and patients are clinically managed in accordance with the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) guidelines based on the severity of the onset and the disease state.
More advanced research is needed before asthma patients can have a definitive cure, the scientists remark. Further research, in their opinion, should target “transcriptomics, proteomics and second harmonic analysis of patient samples analyzed pre‐ and post‐anti‐IL5 therapy” to elucidate “the underlying molecular pathways impacted by IL-5 and to identify it as a potential biomarker for improved targeted therapies.”
Asthma is reported to affect over 260 million people and the cause for over 45,000 deaths each year worldwide, most of which, according to scientists, are preventable with the right treatment. Credit: Clinical and Experimental Allergy (2024). DOI: org/10.1111/cea.14489
Scientists claim to have developed an artificial intelligence tool to consolidate the privacy of vehicles and their drivers.
How to preserve the privacy of the so-called Internet of Vehicles (IoV) has emerged as a major challenge due to geographical mobility of vehicles and insufficient resources, the scientists say.
The problem has been aggravated, according to the scientists, due to the “limited resources of onboard units (OBUs)” and the shortcomings of embedded sensors installed in vehicles, which “lure the adversaries to launch various types of attacks.”
“Thus, lightweight but reliable authentication schemes need to be designed to combat these attacks,” they write in the IEEE Internet of Things Journal. The research is co‐authored by scientists from the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, the University of Maryland in the US, and Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Pakistan.
The IoV refers to a network in which vehicles can communicate with each other, as well as with intelligent communication devices in parking lots, pedestrians, and road infrastructure. This technology “has transformed cities around the globe by providing real‐time communication,” the authors note.
Vehicles connected via IoV are also equipped with embedded sensors and units that collect useful data and communicate it to the closest roadside units (RSUs) or server modules. “The operational capabilities of these vehicles are further augmented by artificial intelligence, particularly machine learning and deep learning, which analyze and interpret data in real‐time,” the researchers write.
The security of vehicles in the IoV age has been found to be vulnerable to cyberattacks that may cause regrettable events via interception or even alteration of vehicle‐infrastructure communication. Machine Learning has been suggested as a solution, and the authors’ AI tool is promoted as such.
The autonomous vehicles today are supplied with an onboard Unit device or OBU as part of their Intelligence Transportation System or ITS.
However, the authors maintain that the communication system installed in the vehicles still encounters challenges, particularly those related to bandwidth scarcity, and delays in the responses from cloud-located services within a stipulated time.
Currently available cloud servers, the authors emphasize, are yet not reliable even if supplemented with machine
learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) algorithms, because they are still “unable to provide swift responses to vehicles that can lead to catastrophic circumstances on the roads.”
So are the embedded sensors on-board units (OBUs) and RSUs, which “are resource‐constrained and are unable to support computationally complex security and privacy preservation schemes. It would require ample resources for these devices to securely communicate with the cloud servers,” the authors say.
To address these challenges, the authors propose “an ML‐based authentication scheme that trains and classifies the vehicles at the edge servers in a distributed manner, preserves the privacy of communicating entities and minimizes the bandwidth consumption and delay experienced by the vehicles.”
For this purpose, the authors design a new machine learning‐based authentication mechanism to solve privacy and security issues which the emerging IoV ecosystem is currently grappling with.
The research team conducted its experiments in a simulated environment using comparative analysis of the proposed scheme with existing state‐of‐the‐art schemes in terms of communication, processing, and storage overheads.
“Simulation results have concluded that the proposed scheme is not only pruned against well-known intruder attacks, but it is equally lightweight and effective concerning various performance evaluation metrics such as computation, communication, and storage overheads.”
The authors emphasize the scheme they have developed solves the issue of bandwidth scarcity and excessive delays vehicles currently experience when communicating via cloud servers.
“The ML-based approach extends the decision power of vehicles and edge servers to identify adversaries. Our scheme requires that each vehicle participates in an offline phase, where a trusted authority shares a list of MaskIDs and secret keys of legitimate vehicles and edge servers,” they stress.
Once vehicles and servers have their unique list of masked identities, they can authenticate each other without
needing to rely on cloud servers, ensuring faster and more efficient communication.
When a vehicle starts to communicate, the nearest edge server verifies its identity using the MaskIDs and secret keys, reducing the computational load on the vehicle.
The scientists explain, “In our scheme, each vehicle and edge server (via RSU) is equipped with an ML algorithm to classify adversaries from legitimate ones.”
The machine learning algorithm analyzes and verifies communication patterns in real‐time, strengthening security against common cyber‐attacks including man‐in‐the‐middle or impersonation attacks.
What makes the approach stand out in comparison with currently available tools is the embedding of a timespan “in the payload of each encrypted message to prune the proposed scheme against well‐known adversarial attacks.”
“The simulation results verify the exceptional performance of our scheme in terms of computational overhead, communication overhead, and storage overhead,” state the authors.
Research, published in the journal Scientific Reports, highlights the substantial advantages of using AI models over conventional drought indices in predicting the causes and onslaught of conditions leading to scarcity of rain and water.
“The results were promising. The AI models were able to predict future drought conditions with high accuracy. The AI models demonstrated strong correlations with multiple drought indicators and consistently outperformed existing indices,” said Dr. Mohamed Abdallah, University of Sharjah’s Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, and the study’s lead author.
The research’s significance lies in its potential to enable authorities to monitor the drought and provide proper response strategies. The authors integrated AI into drought prediction, providing what they present as more reliable forecasts than hitherto available.
The authors attribute the absence of reliable drought forecasts to the complex nature of the phenomenon and varying hydroclimatic conditions.
They write, “As a result of the inherent complexity of drought phenomena and hydroclimatic condition differences, no universal drought index is available for effectively monitoring drought across the world. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a new meteorological drought index to describe and forecast drought based on various artificial intelligence (AI) models.”
The authors underscore in their study the limitations of traditional drought indices. To identify these drawbacks, they trained several advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models using historical climate data and soil moisture levels to enhance drought prediction accuracy.
“We compared the developed AI-based indices with multiple conventional drought indices based on their correlations with various drought indicators. Our AI models proved to be particularly efficient in capturing extreme climatic changes, with enhanced forecasting accuracy,” said Dr. Abdallah.
“This capability is vital in regions where increasing water scarcity and more severe climatic fluctuations pose
significant challenges. Our AI models can help in planning water resources more efficiently and mitigating the impacts of droughts on ecosystems.
“Implementing this data‐driven approach is especially important as it allows for better adaptation to the challenges posed by climate change, particularly in regions most susceptible to its effects.”
The research substantiates that AI can be a powerful tool in drought assessment, potentially paving the way for more effective and proactive management strategies on how to combat water scarcity.
“Overall, the findings proved that soft computing models could be considered robust approaches for the rapid and accurate modelling of drought,” the authors write. “This paper presented novel high-performing drought indices that can provide decision-makers with a reliable tool for drought management and monitoring.”
Dr. Abdallah said the findings he and colleagues arrived at were not merely theoretical but carried considerable implications. “These advancements are not merely academic; they represent a transformative step toward revolutionizing drought preparedness and response, ensuring communities can better withstand and adapt to the evolving climate realities.
“The significance of this project lies in its potential to revolutionize drought management practices. By providing more accurate and timely predictions, the developed AI‐based drought indices can help policymakers, rural planners, and farmers make better‐informed decisions, potentially mitigating the adverse effects of droughts on agriculture and water resources.”
“For the Middle East, for instance, where water resources are precariously poised, the ability to predict and mitigate drought impacts can steer the region away from potential socio‐economic and geo‐political crises and promote stability in agricultural output and water management,”
said Abdulrahman Abdeljaber, a research assistant at the University of Sharjah’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and a co‐author.
The research develops a methodology that can be tailored for the specific needs of different regions in accordance with the available climate and environmental data. “This approach provides practical implications by enhancing drought monitoring systems, which enable earlier warnings. Such advancements allow governments and farmers to optimize water usage and storage strategies during dry spells.”
The innovative AI tool the authors develop is even designed to aid in better resource allocation, agricultural planning, and disaster management, ensuring that water and food security are not compromised as climate changes intensify.
The tool has the capacity of providing early warnings and more precise data, empowering arid regions to effectively prepare for and address the harsh realities of climate‐driven drought.
The study’s lead author Mhamd Oyounalsoud, a research assistant at the University of Sharjah’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, said the study was testimony of AI being an efficient tool for drought assessment and monitoring, furnishing experts with means to adopt “mitigation strategies in water‐scarce regions.”
AI-based drought indices like the ones the authors develop are projected to enable more optimized water management strategies, which are crucial for maintaining food security particularly in a world in the throes of a severe climate crisis.
“By integrating AI into drought monitoring, we offer a transformative approach that enhances decision‐making in resource allocation, critical for regions facing persistent water scarcity,” said Dr. Abdullah Yilmaz, a senior lecturer at the Australian La Trobe University’s School of Computing, and a co-author.
Scientists from the University of Sharjah believe they have created an artificial intelligence system that can automatically identify which Arabic dialect someone is speaking. The work is published in IEEE Xplore.
They say their system unravels the rich and complex tapestry of Arabic dialects which hitherto conventional speech systems fall short of accurately interpreting and identifying.
“Arabic is a rich language with many regional dialects, and each one has its own unique vocabulary, expressions, and pronunciation. This diversity makes it challenging for technology to accurately understand and differentiate between them,” said Ashraf Elnagar, Professor of Computer Science and Intelligence Systems.
“To address this, we developed a system that can automatically identify which Arabic dialect someone is speaking.”
The official language in 22 countries spanning the Middle East, North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, Arabic is one of the most spoken languages globally with more than 370 million people having it as their mother tongue. It is also one of the world’s most immersed languages in culture and those having it as a mother tongue or learning it as a second or foreign language find themselves learning about Islam and its culture as well.
With a totally different alphabet than English, the language has numerous sounds that are specific to its phonology. The charm of its sounds and characters bewilders countless foreign learners who aspire to speak it fluently. Though most learning of the Arabic language occurs in the standard formal variety, many foreign learners opt for colloquial or daily versions, particularly the spoken forms in currency in Egypt and Syria.
Despite the astounding results, Prof. Elnagar noted, the project can still be improved. For this purpose, the authors have made their system publicly available “online on a platform called HuggingFace, so others can access and build upon our work to improve Arabic language technologies.”
The research is the outcome of collaboration between Prof. Elnagar and three of his undergraduate students as part of a project to build a deep learning model for Arabic dialect identification from speech. The initial research results were first presented at the 15th Annual Undergraduate Research Conference on Applied Computing (URC) in 2024.
“Developed by our dedicated students, the technology behind our system integrates cutting‐edge methodologies and deep learning techniques. Expanding its functionality from text to audio signals sets it apart, providing a multi‐modal approach to understanding and processing the Arabic language,” Prof. Elnagar said.
For student researcher Amr Barakat, the project “bridges a critical gap in language technology, enabling more inclusive and accurate communication for Arabic speakers worldwide. By leveraging advanced machine learning, we have created a model that not only excels in performance but also paves the way for future innovations in speech recognition.”
The authors utilized datasets comprising more than 3,000 hours of audio segments collected from YouTube. The data includes 19 different dialects spoken in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Tunisia, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Sudan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), Bahrain and Yemen.
The results were impressive, said Prof. Elnagar, underscoring the model’s high accuracy in Arabic dialect identification regionally and at country levels. “Our model correctly identified regional dialects 97.29% of the time and specific country dialects 94.92% of the time.
“What is remarkable is that we achieved this using only 29% of the training data typically required by other researchers. We have made our models publicly available so that other researchers and developers can use them to create better speech‐related technologies for Arabic speakers.”
The project has the potential to enhance communication and accessibility for millions of Arabic speakers worldwide. Prof. Elnagar said the model’s ability to correctly identify a dialect can “improve voice‐activated technologies like virtual assistants, translation services, and automated customer support systems.
Another student researcher, Abdulla Aldhaheri, reported wide interest from the industry in the project, as it “holds the potential for widespread adoption, offering numerous benefits and improvements to various AI‐driven language applications and services.”
Besides its high accuracy, the tool the authors have developed, unlike currently available models, requires less data and computational resources, rendering it accessible for wider use. This feature, according to the authors, was behind the industry’s interest in their work. They cited tech corporations like Microsoft and governmental bodies in Sharjah in the U.A.E. as being particularly enthusiastic about their work.
The authors say they didn’t face an easy task in their attempt when teaching computers to recognize different Arabic dialects just by listening to spoken words. They write, “The primary challenge is the development of a machine learning model capable of accurately identifying a wide range of Arabic dialects from audio recordings.
“This not only bridges communication gaps between different Arabic-speaking regions but also contributes to making technology more inclusive and user‐friendly for Arabic speakers.”
“This task is compounded by the inherent diversity and complexity of Arabic dialects, coupled with the technical challenges of audio processing and machine learning model optimization.”
‘harmful’
The much‐hyped AI products like ChatGPT may provide medical doctors and health care professionals with information that can aggravate patients’ conditions and lead to serious health consequences, a study suggests.
Researchers considered three nutrition‐related diseases in their study, with two experienced dietitians examining a total of 63 ChatGPT outputs of disease management against medical guidelines.
Their findings sound a warning to medics and health personnel who only lean on AI and related products in passing health and medical advice to their patients.
“The research warned against relying solely on AI interfaces for the management of diabetes and metabolic abnormalities and highlighted the need to consult with the dieticians and other members of the health care team,” said Farah Naja, University of Sharjah’s Professor of nutritional epidemiology. “ChatGPT could provide incorrect, incomplete or harmful advice, jeopardizing the quality of medical care and consequently patients’ health and safety.”
Prof. Naja is the lead author of the study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition in which scientists from the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Bahrain and Turkey investigate the correctness and accuracy of ChatGPT answers to various prompts for how to manage and prevent diabetes and metabolic abnormalities.
The study covers three major domains: 1) dietary management, 2) nutrition care process and 3) menu planning for a 1,500‐calorie diet. For each domain, three prompts were developed, meaning nine prompts per condition.
“A total of 63 prompts were fed into the GPT3.5‐turbo0301 model through the ChatGPT interface provided by OpenAI, during October 2023. Two experienced dietitians evaluated the chatbot output’s concordance with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ guidelines,” the scientists write.
The scientists, according to Prof. Naja, wanted “to raise awareness regarding the role of artificial intelligence in guiding the dietetic care for diseases such as diabetes and metabolic abnormalities.”
Their target, she added, was to assess and measure ChatGPT’s accuracy in providing nutritional management for type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and its components.
“Diabetes and metabolic abnormalities such as high blood glucose and high blood lipids are widespread and their prevalence keeps increasing in most parts of the world, posing significant challenges for individuals, societies, and governments.”
“The management of these diseases requires, in addition to medications, subtle and often complex changes in lifestyle behaviors including dietary intake.”
To evaluate ChatGPT limitations, the researchers selected seven diet-related metabolic diseases due to their public health impact and risk factors. They include type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and its components, namely central obesity, hyperglycemia, hypertension, low levels of high‐density lipoprotein, and hypertriglyceridemia.
Prof. Naja pointed to weight loss, which she said was “critical in the management of diabetes and metabolic abnormalities ... Yet the outputs of the ChatGPT missed the weight loss recommendations along with guidance on achieving an energy deficit.”
When asked to provide sample menus for the health conditions considered in the study, ChatGPT outputs did not meet the requirements in terms of energy, carbohydrates, and fat, in addition to calcium and vitamin D, Prof. Naja maintained.
Statistics show that diabetes accounts for 2 million out of 17 million people who die annually from a non-communicable disease before age 71, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
WHO attributes 19% of global deaths to metabolic risk factors, like being overweight and high blood pressure, which are part of the study’s three main nutrition management‐related domains.
In their study, the scientists highlight that “the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association consider lifestyle modifications, including nutritional management, as the first‐line therapy, being 1.59 times more effective in reversing Metabolic Syndrome compared to pharmaceutical treatments.”
The authors acknowledge ChatGPT’s role in nutrition‐related health issues, underscoring its “dynamic conversational capabilities” and its potential in offering “personalized and engaging education.”
They also note that the prevalence of an “increasing number of real‐world applications of ChatGPT have been launched in the field of nutrition and health, including nutritional counselling platforms, health and fitness apps, public health campaigns and chatbots’ incorporation within school health and nutrition curricula.”
However, they stress that research is scant on whether “the transformative potential of using ChatGPT in nutrition education” and its huge potential powers can be of any “limitations in providing clinical nutritional advice.”
Prof. Naja said the study found that ChatGPT missed “appropriate physical activity and weight loss recommendations along with guidance on achieving an energy deficit” despite their being “critical in the management of diabetes and metabolic abnormalities.
“ChatGPT outputs were incomplete in terms of guidance on specific nutrients … and did not address the need to increase fiber intake or to consume whole grain products for all the considered conditions.”
The study concludes, “ChatGPT, and potentially other future AI chatbots, react to the user’s prompts in ‘a human‐like’ way, but cannot replace the dietitians’ expertise and critical judgment.
“While health care practitioners may consult this increasingly available technology for various purposes, they must also be cautious about relying solely on AI chatbots in clinical practice and should collectively raise awareness about associated risks.”
A newly developed automated system can add vowel signs to computerized Arabic texts, enabling learners and speakers to read them in an easy and accurate manner, scientists reveal.
In linguistic jargon, the signs are called diacritics. Adding the right diacritics manually is a time‐consuming task that only linguists can master, and their absence from digital texts has been an issue for scientists to grapple with as it is even hard for native speakers to read Arabic texts properly without them.
But the scientists say their system can supplement all types of computerized texts with their proper diacritics automatically. Diacritics are an integral part of Arabic texts as they are placed below, above, and occasionally even through letters to help in pronouncing words correctly and grasping their meanings.
The details about the scientists’ automated system are published in the journal Expert Systems with Applications. The research dubs the system “a state‐of‐the‐art approach” that can improve the accuracy of Arabic texts and their pronunciation.
“In order to accurately represent the meaning and pronunciation of Arabic words and sentences, the presence of diacritics plays a crucial role,” the scientists write. “Over the years, researchers have dedicated significant efforts to enhancing automated diacritization systems.”
The diacritical marks or vowel sounds are called Harakat in the Arabic language. There are three primary symbols and five secondary ones. They are of paramount importance to correctly read Arabic texts, guess shades of meanings of different words, as well as their syntactical function in a sentence.
Arabic diacritics can even change the entire meaning of words. Crucial in shaping pronunciation, meaning and gender distinction, the signs are indispensable for obtaining correct Arabic language skills of reading, speaking, learning, and listening.
The Arabic alphabet comprises 28 letters, all representing consonants. Unlike English, consonant clusters are not common in Arabic. Thus, each of its 28‐letter consonants comes with a diacritic or vowel sound that joins them together in a flowing manner both in writing and speech.
The scientists call their new system “SUKOUN” in reference to an Arabic diacritic whose presence above a letter indicates that it is in a still position. Like other diacritics, it plays a key phonetic, semantic, and grammatical role. The diacritic is pronounced “as‐sokoun” and its correct pronunciation requires intensive training for correct recitations of the Quran, the Muslim holy book.
“This study introduces a real‐time diacritization system called SUKOUN, which offers diacritized text through a user‐friendly website. A comparison with existing automatic diacritization tools, using six example texts, reveals the superior prediction accuracy and preservation of input format provided by SUKOUN,” the scientists write. Ashraf Elnagar, Sharjah University’s professor of computer science, described SUKOUN’s performance as “groundbreaking,” claiming to have “achieved a Diacritic Error Rate (DER) as low as 1.14% and a Word Error Rate (WER) of just 3.34% on the Arabic Diacritization (AD) dataset, and an even more remarkable DER of 1.11% on the Tashkeela Processed (TP) dataset.
These results represent over a 30% reduction in error rates compared to the previous best systems.
“What makes SUKOUN exceptional is not just its accuracy but also its efficiency and practicality. It requires less computational power to train and deploy, thanks to innovations in data preprocessing and transfer learning. Additionally, it operates in real‐time, allowing users to input Arabic text and receive a fully diacritized version instantly via a user‐friendly web interface.”
Arabic has both long and short vowels. While long vowels are distinguishable as they are represented by separate letters, the short ones are only recognized by diacritics or vowel marks written above or under the letter in a process called Tashkeel or TP in scientific jargon.
The system’s success is due to its ability to bridge the gap between the linguistic complexity of the Arabic language, particularly in morphology, and the technological capability of machine learning. “SUKOUN has the potential to revolutionize applications in education, text‐to‐speech systems, translation, and beyond, making the Arabic language more accessible to all,” added Prof. Elnagar.
The authors showcase their system not merely as an AI tool but rather as a practical and user‐friendly application, allowing anyone to add Arabic text without diacritical symbols instantly and get a version with all the correct diacritics, keeping the original text intact.
Prof. Elnagar states, “Beyond its accuracy and ease of use, SUKOUN has wide‐ranging applications. It can improve education by helping students read and learn Arabic more effectively, support the visually impaired through better text‐to‐speech systems, and enhance translation services and other natural language processing tools.”
If it is successfully deployed on a large scale, the automated system could change the perspective of Arabic learning and teaching, said lead author Ruba Kharsa. “SUKOUN has the potential to revolutionize Arabic education. Teachers and students can use the tool to easily diacritize texts, aiding in the learning of proper grammar, pronunciation, and meaning. This is particularly important for non‐native learners and children developing their language skills.
“By enabling accurate diacritization, SUKOUN improves the effectiveness of text‐to‐speech systems and other accessibility tools, especially for the visually impaired. It also supports better language learning and interaction for users who rely on assistive technologies.
“SUKOUN showcases how cutting‐edge AI, particularly BERT‐based models, can solve complex linguistic problems efficiently. Its success demonstrates the power of AI in processing and enhancing underrepresented languages, paving the way for similar advancements in other domains.”
The research underscores the power of AI to transform language learning and teaching as it ensures that “Arabic texts are accessible and comprehensible for speakers and learners worldwide,” maintained Sane Yagi, Sharjah University’s professor of linguistics and a co‐author.
“SUKOUN is more than a diacritization tool—it’s a gateway to improving education, accessibility, and cultural preservation in the Arabic‐speaking world. Rooted in collaboration between the Departments of Computer Science and Foreign Languages, SUKOUN reflects the interdisciplinary innovation and commitment to excellence at the University of Sharjah.”
While the industry has yet to engage with the new automated diacritical system, Prof. Elnagar predicts “significant practical applications” in education, accessibility, and language learning, providing “accurately diacritized texts to help students and teachers improve
pronunciation, grammar, and comprehension.”
Other implications, according to Prof. Elnagar, include enhancement of text-to-speech systems “for the visually impaired by ensuring accurate pronunciation, (and) making Arabic content more user‐friendly. In automated translation services, SUKOUN reduces ambiguities in undiacritized texts, improving the quality of machine translations.
“Additionally, SUKOUN aids (Arabic) linguistic research by offering precise diacritization for large‐scale text analysis and facilitates cultural preservation by making classical and historical Arabic texts accessible to future generations.”
Scientists say they have designed machine learning models able to predict when and why structures built of reinforced concrete start deteriorating and cracking.
Concrete is the modern world’s most common construction material used in the building of a wide variety of structures like bridges, jetties, houses, multi‐story car parks and buildings.
However, and despite its strength and durability, reinforced concrete may crack and delaminate as part of a process called spalling, which is commonly caused by the corrosion of steel sections in the concrete.
Researchers from the University of Sharjah now claim to have designed new machine learning models which they believe can predict when and why spalling can occur, thereby providing engineers with ample time to offer solutions and practices on how to stall spalling and its detrimental effects.
The research, published in Scientific Reports, “investigates the multifaceted factors influencing spalling, employing a comprehensive approach that integrates statistical and machine learning techniques for predictive modelling.
“Descriptive statistics meticulously profile the dataset, emphasizing age, thickness, precipitation, temperature, and traffic parameters,” the scientists write.
Spalling has many adverse effects. In the absence of proper assessment and prediction as well as right treatment, it can lead to hazardous consequences.
When steel corrodes, it expands much beyond its original volume, pressuring the surrounding cement and leading to the emergence of cracks and deterioration in concrete structures.
Cracking of concrete structures is a distress phenomenon, posing a threat not only to concrete pavements and buildings but is also a health and safety risk.
Dr. Ghazi Al‐Khateeb, the lead author, and Sharjah University’s Professor of asphalt pavements, pavement damage and mechanics, said key factors influencing spalling were considered in the study, particularly their impact on Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement (CRCP).
CRCP has emerged as the most common concrete pavement in the modern age as it eliminates the inclusion of transverse joints which usually require continuous and costly maintenance. It is adopted as part of measures to help concrete to weather environmental and traffic pressures.
Heat map correlation results. Credit: Scientific Reports (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-69999-9
The authors also considered in their analysis the Annual Average Daily Traffic or AADT, which calculates the sum of total traffic over a pavement for the entire year divided by 365 days.
Prof. Al‐Khateeb said, “The research study identified key factors influencing spalling in Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement (CRCP), including age, climate variables such as temperature, precipitation, and humidity, as well as Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) and pavement thickness.
“These factors were highlighted as primary contributors to the deterioration of CRCP.”
The research study, the authors write, “adhered to a systematic methodology, comprising several stages to ensure robustness … Descriptive statistics meticulously profile the dataset, emphasizing age, thickness, precipitation, temperature, and traffic parameters.”
The authors employed regression analysis to key relationships of different factors causing spalling. Their results emphasized “significance of age, annual temperature, annual precipitation, maximum humidity, and the initial International Roughness Index (IRI) as influential factors.”
“The selection of Gaussian Process Regression and ensemble tree models stems from their adaptability to capture intricate relationships within the dataset, and their comparative performance provides valuable insights into the diverse predictive capabilities of these models in the context of CRCP spalling.”
When feeding the results of the analysis of these factors into the models they designed, the authors found their learning machines to have the capacity to forecast when deterioration of reinforced concrete can occur and the factors posing a threat to concrete durability.
The machine learning models the authors employed, according to Prof. Al‐Khateeb, were mostly of the type of Gaussian Process Regression and ensemble tree models, which “demonstrated the highest accuracy in predicting spalling.”
“However, it was noted that model performance varied depending on the specific architecture and characteristics of the dataset used, indicating the importance of careful model selection.”
Hence, the authors advised engineers and practitioners to be cautious when employing machine learning models, noting that in “machine learning, adopting models, including Gaussian Process Regression and ensemble tree models, is grounded in their diverse capabilities and suitability for the complex task at hand. Their varying predictive accuracies underscore the importance of judicious model selection.”
The research study, in the authors’ words, “advances pavement engineering practices by offering nuanced insights into factors influencing spalling in CRCP, refining our understanding of spalling influences.”
“Consequently, the study not only opens avenues for developing improved predictive methodologies but also enhances the durability of CRCP infrastructure, addressing broader implications for informed decision‐making in transportation infrastructure management.”
When asked about the immediate practical implications of the study, Prof. Al‐Khateeb referred to the authors’ research findings, which he said highlighted “the need for maintenance strategies that incorporate critical factors such as age, traffic load, and pavement thickness. By addressing these variables, practitioners can enhance the durability of CRCP and reduce the risks of spalling.”
Prof. Al‐Khateeb said there was still room for further research to solidify the findings by placing more focus on “exploring the temporal changes in spalling patterns, integrating real‐time sensor data for more accurate predictions, addressing regional data variability, and examining the impacts of climate change on spalling.”
“These avenues could significantly improve predictive methodologies and enhance the resilience of concrete pavement systems.”
Machine learning results. Credit: Scientific Reports (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-69999-9
The College of Law has formally adopted the International Guidelines for Wellbeing in Legal Education, which the International Bar Association (IBA) released in 2024.
The IBA has issued ten recommendations for law schools to promote wellbeing in legal education and have it prioritized in their educational and training programs.
The guidelines call, among other things, for commitment addressing challenges, assessment of the efficacy changes and ensuring that polices reflect wellbeing of students, faculty, and staff. As an early adopter, the College of Law will be actively involved in the implementation and refinement of the guidelines.
The college’s plan of action encourages professors to read and apply the guidelines within their teaching methods. It urges educators to launch regular online meetings designed to create a community of practice, fostering international collaboration along the lines of IBA guidelines.
“Between meetings, the legal educator will work with their law school on the practical implementation of the Guidelines. We would hope that the law schools involved would recognize this as valuable work and would encourage them to reflect this in workload allocation,” said Dr. Shadi Alshdaifat, Associate Professor of International Law, a co author of the guidelines.
“Universities have a responsibility to offer students not just lectures, but also the tools to sustain their mental wellbeing throughout the academic journey. Building a culture where the pressure of legal education is recognized, and resources are put in place to address the mental, emotional, and physical health of students.”
The College of Law as an early adopter will be working with a select group of legal educators and law schools from various jurisdictions who opted for the guidelines’ early adoption.
The College of Law hosted the Second International Air Law Moot Court in October 2024. The event was brought together in partnership with the Institute of Air and Space Law AEROHELP.
Law schools across the world get engaged in moot court competitions. Moot court practice is vital for law schools through which law students argue about a hypothetical case in simulated court or arbitration proceedings.
The 2024 AEROHELP and the University of Sharjah International Air Law Moot Court Competition provided a unique platform for students from different countries seeking practical experience on how to develop arguments in court cases involving the international law and air law.
The competition comprised two phases: preliminary rounds, in which the participating teams presented their legal arguments, and the semi‐final rounds in which the teams competed for the championship.
The case for argument was titled “The State of El Dorado. The State of Mikewa,” and raised legal issues concerning international air law, treaty obligations, state responsibility, and liability, as well as the enforcement of international safety regulations.
On the importance of the event, Dr. Shadi A. Alshdaifat, Associate Professor of public international law, said, “This
event represents a significant milestone in promoting international legal education, with a specific focus on international air law. This hands‐on experience is critical for developing essential legal skills, including legal writing, advocacy, and public speaking.”
Beyond the competition itself, the moot court provided students with opportunities for academic networking and international collaboration as it “fostered international networking, offering students a platform to exchange ideas and establish professional connections with peers and experts from around the world,” added Dr. Alshdaifat.
The competition format allowed students to experience both sides of litigation, the applicant, and the respondent.
The participants took part in the full legal process, from preparing written memorials to delivering oral arguments before a panel of highly respected international judges.
The competition featured a panel of distinguished judges, each recognized for their expertise in public international air law representing institutions from The Hague, Istanbul, Moscow, and Brussels and the University of Sharjah.
Russia’s MGIMO University snatched the first place in the legal championship, followed by the University of Sharjah in second place. Belarus State University and Kutafin Moscow State Law University tied for the third place.
• Best Oralist: Ilya Shamsheer (Belarus State University)
• Best Judge: Professor Mia Wouters
The co‐organizer, AEROHELP, is an esteemed institute specializing in air and space law education and research. Based in the Russian capital, Moscow, it serves as a hub for legal scholarship and practical training in the complex field of aviation and space law.
The College of Law is keen to partner with international law schools to become a hub of international moot court competitions on various legal issues and challenges.
added.
He noted that such competitions are essential in preparing students for careers in international law. “Moot courts expose students to the complexities of international legal disputes and provide them with a structured environment to test their knowledge and advocacy skills.
The Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program at the University of Sharjah’s College of Pharmacy has been granted official accreditation from the US-based Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE).
The accolade is likely to raise College of Pharmacy’s status significantly and help it cultivate excellence in pharmacy education and clinical practice as ACPE is globally recognized as a leading academic accreditation agency.
ACPE experts assessing the program conducted field visits of the college’s campus, labs, classrooms and clinical training sites, and held meetings with faculty, staff, and students to ensure compliance with international standards before granting the official award.
The endorsement marks the first ACPE accreditation awarded to a post‐BS PharmD program in a pharmacy college in in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is good news for the college’s doctoral students who, from now on, will have their post‐baccalaureate Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program backed by a major US accreditation body.
A PharmD (Doctor of Pharmacy) is a professional, usually two‐year clinical degree program. The only difference is that while a PhD prepares candidates mainly for academic careers, a PharmD readies them mostly for jobs in clinical practice in hospitals, or clinics.
Associate Professor Mohammad Alqudah, the PharmD program coordinator, said, “Since its inception in 2021, the College of Pharmacy has worked diligently to meet ACPE’s requirements, conducting regular reassessments to evaluate the performance of students and graduates.”
The two‐year PharmD program is specifically designed to provide students with advanced knowledge and handson experience in medication therapy. A key focus of the program is on preparing students for real-world clinical practice.
Dr. Alqudah added: “We have continuously assessed student and graduate performance through annual and semi-annual evaluations to maintain the highest educational standards.
“The program’s experiential learning component includes immersive hands‐on training in hospital environments,
where students work under the supervision of experienced clinical preceptors.
“The program’s practical training includes immersive experiential learning opportunities in hospital environments under the supervision of experienced clinical preceptors. The college’s mission for the students is to graduate highly qualified clinical pharmacists, ready to make a meaningful impact in the healthcare industry.
Prof. Hamid M.K. Al Naimiy, Chancellor of the University of Sharjah, said ACPE’s approval of the college’s PharmD program mirrors academic excellence and highly qualified practical skills of pharmacy students.
The accreditation, Prof. Al Naimiy added, means the Pharmacy College plays a vital role in disseminating pharmaceutical knowledge in the UAE and beyond.
The College of Pharmacy has launched a new Doctor of Philosophy program in pharmaceutical sciences.
It is the first program to award a doctoral degree in pharmaceutical sciences in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
It is designed to provide a transformative learning experience, combining rigorous academic training with innovative research opportunities.
Students in this program will be empowered to address real-world healthcare challenges through groundbreaking discoveries in drug design, pharmacology, and advanced drug delivery systems.
Dean of the College of Pharmacy Prof. Karim El‐Zu’bi said, “This program represents a significant step forward in pharmacy education in the UAE. It reflects
as drug design and discovery, pharmacology and pharmacotherapeutics, and novel drug delivery systems and pharmaceutical technology. In the third year, the students are to work on their dissertation.
Prof. El‐Zu’bi added, “Our PhD program is designed not only to offer students a deep understanding of pharmaceutical sciences but also to equip them with the research skills necessary to lead innovations that can transform the healthcare sector. Graduates will be prepared to contribute significantly to the development of new treatments, drug delivery methods, and therapeutic strategies.”
The graduates will be equipped with both theoretical knowledge and practical expertise and positioned to assume leadership roles in pharmaceutical production, quality control, biotechnology, regulatory agencies, policymaking, and academic research.
Two students from the College of Fine Arts and Design (CFAD) dominated the winners list at an arts exhibition held in Beijing late last year to mark 40 years of diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The exhibition, organized by UAE’s embassy in China in collaboration with China’s Central Academy of Fine Arts, showcased artworks by young artists from both countries. Besides University of Sharjah’s CFAD, two other UAE universities took part – Zayed University and New York University, both located in Abu Dhabi.
UAE students showcased 50 artworks in the exhibition while their Chinese counterparts from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in China presented 100 pieces of art.
The exhibition covered areas that ranged from painting, calligraphy, sculpture, photography, video, to experimental design. Titled “Creativity and Research for Young Artists,” the exhibition served as a cultural bridge between the two countries, according to the organizers.
The participants from each country vied for five awards, two of which were by CFAD students –Shamma Alhammadi won the first award for her work called “Al Thoub,” while Fatma Aljasmi secured third place for her typographic work dubbed “The Best Give Back.”
Alhammadi’s work depicts UAE women’s traditional attire, blending heritage and contemporary design. The piece incorporates vibrant colors and textures.
Through photography and digital skills, the work reflects the cultural significance of local garments, offering a unique visual journey that bridges the past and present.
Describing her artwork, Alhammadi said, “At the heart of the design is The Anemone Lady, draped in these exquisite fabrics, symbolizing both grace and cultural pride. Each garment in the collection carries a name that reflects the richness of its fabric and the intricacy of its craftsmanship.
“Vibrant pops of color and texture celebrate the legacy of UAE women’s traditional dress, offering a visually captivating journey that bridges past and present. This project not only showcases the aesthetic beauty of Emirati attire but also emphasizes its cultural significance, ensuring that these timeless garments are both preserved and reimagined with modern sophistication.
On her trophy, she said, “Winning this competition feels like a milestone in my journey as an artist or a designer. It affirms my passion for creating meaningful work that connects cultures and celebrates heritage. This achievement motivates me to continue exploring ways my art can contribute to fostering understanding and dialogue between different nations.”
The project by Aljasmi, which won the third place, is a typographic exploration of the “
an Arabic saying attributed to the Prophet Mohamed which means “The best of people are those who benefit others.” The calligraphic work transformed a well‐known Prophet Hadeeth or saying in Arabic into a compelling visual statement about generosity and social impact.
“Participating in the Chinese exhibition was a meaningful experience, especially as it gave me the opportunity to showcase my custom typography in a cultural context,” Aljasmi said. “Winning this competition is an incredible honor, reinforcing the impact of design in celebrating history and diplomacy.
“Through this project, I aimed to create a visual language that speaks to unity and difference. This achievement inspires me to continue pushing the boundaries of typography and cultural storytelling in design”.
Nada Abdallah, Assistant Professor of Visual Communication, who supervised the winning projects, said, “This initiative is more than just an art competition. It highlights how young artists are using design as a means of cultural storytelling, preserving heritage while adapting it to contemporary visual language.
“By participating in extracurricular activities and pushing their creative limits, students gain valuable exposure and open doors to greater opportunities in the global design community. This experience encourages them to step beyond the classroom, refine their skills, and establish a strong professional presence in the field of typography and design.”
Artworks by students from the College of Fine Arts and Design (CFAD) now decorate Aljada, a posh and popular district in the Emirate of Sharjah reputed for its attractive housing and state-of-the art public amenities.
The mural decorations are conversions of student projects and designs by Arada. The designs were originally part of an exhibition titled “Shifting Perspectives” which the developer Arada and CFAD had jointly launched in fall last year.
Arada had invited the students to submit designs to bedeck public facilities in the area, particularly the basketball court and the swimming pool. Arada intends to turn these utilities into immersive artistic spaces.
The exhibition had attracted 36 artworks – 8 paintings, 1 sculpture and 27 illustrations. The developer had allocated six prizes for the winners. The jurors included members from the Arada Team Designers and the residents of Nest Campus housing in Aljada.
Dubbed “Shifting Perspectives,” the exhibition was an interdisciplinary gathering, featuring artworks from Fine Arts and Visual Communication students. The exhibits were presented in response to a brief by Arada that the winning designs were converted into projects to adorn modern public amenities in Aljada.
“The idea was to engage our art and design students in projects that highlight the role of art and design in making public spaces more livable and more memorable,” said Prof. Nadia M. Alhasani, Dean of CFAD. “The artwork’s success lies in the artist and designer’s ability to engage the public in a silent conversation or debate.”
Founded in 2017 and based in the United Arab Emirates, Arada is a privately held property developer in the United Arab Emirates. It focuses on the Emirate of Sharjah, where it is engaged in scores of construction projects, including the massive development taking place in Aljada.
The exhibition comes as CFAD and Arada have been cementing their collaboration since 2023 when a team representing the developer visited the college and was impressed by students’ artworks.
Arada brought the exhibition together so that CFAD students could present artworks to be selected to beautify the Nest Campus housing in Aljada.
The developer wanted to “empower students to play a role in designing their own neighborhoods via public art,”
said Melissa Bayik, Arada’s Senior Creative Director. “The initiative has made Nest a more joyful place to live in, to walk through, and to gather.”
Arada chose two of the six winning artworks the jurors had selected out of the 36 the student artists had showcased in the exhibition. The developer has transformed two of the six winning artistic designs into giant murals decorating some of Aljadah’s most attractive public facilities.
Among the winners is Mariyam Al Helo whose design the jurors had selected for conversion into mural. Farah Bahaaeldin is another student artist whose work now beautifully spruces up the swimming pool.
Al Helo, whose mural features a dynamic basketball game where the players’ heads are transformed into basketballs, was upbeat to see Arada choosing her design as it is the first time her artwork will be displayed in a public place. This work now adorns the basketball court in the district.
“Working with a company recognized in Sharjah for supporting emerging designers has been incredibly motivating. Whenever I design something for myself, I like to take advantage of the opportunities to experiment, which I believe adds value to the final piece of my art.”
Bahaaeldin’s mural design currently graces the swimming pool area in Aljada. Titled “Satalana”, the artwork belongs to Farah Bahaaeldin and snatched the top award in the competition.
Bahaaeldin’s mural points to an immersive experience with a surreal, underwater theme. It is rendered in an
analogous palette of reds, purples, and blues, taking the viewers to a whimsical world where each creature’s eyes are slightly distorted, symbolizing a shift in perspective.
“The mural, designed for the pool area, creates a dreamlike aquatic scene where starfish, jellyfish, crabs, prawns, and a human diver coexist,” she said. “The mural invites viewers to step beyond the ordinary and see beauty through a fresh, imaginative lens.”
Arada awarded prizes for four more artworks to student artists taking part in the exhibition. They included yet another prize for Mariyam Al Helo, and one for each of Ghena Qasim Kofahi, Zaynab Mohammad, and Lana Ahmad.
Prof. Alhasani saw practical benefits for her students and college from partnering with companies like Arada. “The partnership between our college and Arada strongly supports our future creatives and their journey to interact
with industry professionals, bringing their studio practice into actual client experience.”
Arada’s Bayik said the company was committed to developing local creative talent, adding that the exhibition was part of the developer’s broader activities to bring art into Sharjah’s public spaces.
“We believe collaboration is the catalyst for creativity and innovation. Partnering with high‐quality universities like UoS keeps us connected to the most recent research, future talent, and the community,” she said. ““This initiative is in line with one of Arada’s core beliefs—that the spaces between our homes are just as important as the homes themselves.”
Arada’s Bayik said that for her company “Shifting Perspectives” was the start of a long journey. “Our vision is to continue collaborating with CFAD, exploring new ways to develop community‐centered designs,” she said.
