NEWS
www.kaust.edu.sa
April 2011
3
KAUST Students Go Global
Kai Cheung Ng (left) and Andrew Yip (right) surround fellow entrepreneur from India at the NYSE
Six carefully selected KAUST postgraduates were privileged to attend the Kairos Global Summit in New York in February. Aimed at “exploring humanity’s most pressing challenges” and “developing sustainable and entrepreneurial solutions to these problems,” the meeting brought together 350 students from all over the world, with KAUST the only Middle East university represented. Participants spent the first day at the United Nations where they learned from dynamic keynote speakers how to become leaders in future technology by engaging in research and entrepreneurship. Speakers, including Peter Diamandis of the X PRIZE Foundation, Thomas Goetz, Executive Editor of Wired, and Daniel Kraft, Chair of Medicine at Singularity University, talked of setting milestones for research and ways in which technologies will influence us all in the future. On the second day, the group visited the floor of the NY stock exchange, where KAUST master’s students, Andrew Yip and Kai Cheung (Jacky) Ng had been chosen to present their company, Ideoasis: one of the 50 Most Innovative Student Ventures. Ideoasis is an innovative technology development and enterprise creation venture based in Jeddah. It brings together engineers, scientists,
From left: Dr. Karen Holbrook, University of South Florida, Dr. Chunli Bai, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mr. Mohammed Al-Mady, SABIC, and President Choon Fong Shih, KAUST
Presidential Peer Review Saturday, February 26, 2011 was declared a special holiday to mark the return of King Abdullah to the Kingdom. All KAUST employees enjoyed an unscheduled day off, except for the University’s top administrators and management team. They were scheduled to meet with members of the President’s International Advisory Council (IAC) that day and the next. With thirteen distinguished university presidents, scientists, and corporate executives flying in to learn about the state of the University, there was no time for a holiday. Chaired by Sir Richard Friend, Cavendish Professor of Physics from the University of Cambridge, the IAC has the charge to advise and counsel President Shih on the academic direction of the University. Not meant to rubberstamp the President’s plans, instead, much like reviewers of journal papers and grant proposals, the IAC acts as a face-to-face peer review for the President and the executive management team.
Sir Richard Friend, IAC Chairman, and Dr. Alice Gast, President of Lehigh University and IAC member
The meetings in February were characterized by lively discussions, helpful exchanges, and important engagement between the University’s top management team and IAC members. Dr. Mohamed Samaha, Senior Vice President for Economic and Technology Development said that the IAC had “reaffirmed most of the assumptions that we had initially, while making it clear that the University needs to act as a leading model for advancing innovation in the Kingdom.” Professor Jean Frechet, Vice President for Research, said, “what this meeting has reinforced for me is that we must be very proactive in recruiting additional faculty members and in establishing our priorities to achieve our research function and to meet our academic needs.” After the IAC meeting, President Shih noted, “we gained much from the IAC’s generous sharing of expertise and experience as we considered the challenges facing KAUST in our endeavor to build a globally renowned research university in Saudi Arabia.” He will next review the IAC’s recommendations with the executive management team and continue the dialogue with Sir Richard Friend and other members of the IAC throughout the year. A list of all members of the IAC can be found on the KAUST website at: http://www.kaust.edu.sa/about/iac/iac.html or access it from your phone by using the following QR code:
researchers, and entrepreneurs to create high-growth enterprises with the goal of establishing Saudi Arabia’s tech sector. The booth attracted many interested visitors and gave our other student representatives the opportunity to answer the many questions people posed about what it is like to live and study at KAUST. Later, all the students participated in round table discussions of their choosing led by leaders in finance and commerce in subjects as diverse as personalized medicine, urbanization, and rebuilding economies through innovation and entrepreneurship. Students Muhamed Falemban, Faisal Nawab, Mona Alsayadlani, Reem Khojah, Andrew Yip, and Kai Cheung Ng felt that “the summit exceeded expectations” and that their discussions on “cutting edge ideas and how to communicate them” will empower them as they seize the opportunities that they are offered at KAUST for innovation and entrepreneurship. The students were able to tell the KAUST scholarship students in attendance (currently undergraduates in the U.S.) that the entrepreneurship programs that will be available to them at KAUST are “powerful and nurturing.”
From left: Prof. Stefan Catsicas, President Choon Fong Shih, Prof. Bai Chunli and Prof. Deng Yong, Executive Vice President of Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
Dual Degree Program with China
A landmark agreement was recently signed which will provide the opportunity for students to study at both KAUST and the Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (GUCAS). Prof. Bai Chunli, Executive Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and President of GUCAS, accompanied by Prof. Deng Yong, Secretary General of CAS and Executive Vice President of GUCAS, Prof. Zhu Xiangbin, Assistant President of GUCAS, and Prof. Su Gang, Provost of GUCAS visited KAUST from February 25 to 27. During their meeting, Prof. Bai and President Shih signed an agreement which will establish a student exchange program between KAUST and GUCAS. Each student, supported by KAUST, will be appointed two academic supervisors, one from each university. After fulfilling the credit requirements of both institutions, they will be entitled to apply for a GUCAS degree and a KAUST degree. Headquartered in Beijing with four campuses and five branches in Shanghai, Chengdu, Wuhan, Guangzhou, and Lanzhou, GUCAS was founded in 1978 and is backed by more than 100 institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, located in more than 20 cities throughout China. By 2004, GUCAS had graduated 50,000 graduate students including 20,000 Ph.D. students. The university’s faculty includes over 300 members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and its research facilities number over 150 national and state laboratories as well as key R&D Centers for technology.