KU Times | Issue 5

Issue 5, January 2020

KU Brings in New Year Celebrating Community and Research Accomplishments

Fulbright Program Brings Bioengineering Experience to KUCARS for a Year of Research KU Team Wins 1st Place in Global Hybrid Electric Challenge Cloud Seeding Operations of KU’s Nanotechnology Enhanced Seeding Materials Begin

Improving Membranes in Water Desalination with 3D Printed Feed Spacers

Streamlining Operations with EBTIC Forecasting Techniques

A new type of 3D-printed feed spacer, developed by a team of researchers led by Dr. Hassan Arafat, could make membrane-based seawater desalination processes more efficient

EBTIC is developing a smart surveillance system to help streamline operations at petrol stations

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Contents

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KHALIFA UNIVERSITY’S 48TH UAE NATIONAL DAY CELEBRATION HIGHLIGHTS

CONSTRUCTING THE FUTURE AT THE MOHAMED BIN ZAYED INTERNATIONAL ROBOTICS CHALLENGE 2020

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84 ENGINEERING EXHIBIT SHOWCASES FRESHMEN STUDENTS’ INNOVATIVE PROJECTS

TOWARDS A ‘ZEROSKIN’ WELL WITH NEW DRILL-IN FLUIDS AND NONCORROSIVE CLEANUP SOLUTION

ANKABUT HOSTS 2019 ASREN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ARAB E-INFRASTRUCTURE IN A GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT AT KHALIFA UNIVERSITY

KU HOSTS 15TH EMIRATES INTERNATIONAL PEACE MUSIC FESTIVAL

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KHALIFA UNIVERSITY ACHIEVES NEW MILESTONES IN COLLABORATIONS, COMMERCIALIZATION AND RESEARCH INNOVATIONS DURING 2019 INITIATIVES FURTHER PROPEL UNIVERSITY’S STATUS AS REGION’S PROMINENT, HIGHLY-PREFERRED AND TOPRANKED ACADEMIC INSTITUTION

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Student and faculty, achievements, campus activities, & student activities

Milestone agreements to expand collaborations with national and international partners, pioneering research innovations that have led to commercialization license to benefit the community, new academic programs, and fresh inroads into developing medical professionals to support the regional healthcare ecosystem were some of the key highlights for Khalifa University of Science and Technology during the year 2019.

The launch of the Emirates Nuclear Technology Center (ENTC) at the Sas Al Nakhl campus, in collaboration with stakeholders including Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) and the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR), marked a key milestone moment for Khalifa University’s contribution to enhancing the UAE’s nuclear technology research capability.

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The new Emirates Nuclear Technology Center will support research, innovation and capacity building in the UAE’s peaceful nuclear energy industry.

An MoU between UAE’s Ministry of Energy and Industry and Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs outlines the framework of cooperation on research projects between the center’s relevant partners, which include ENEC and FANR.

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An agreement with Korea Basic Science Institute (KBSI), to launch the KoreaUAE Joint R&D Technical Center (KUTC) to promote scientific exchange between the two countries, was another step that solidified the existing collaboration with Korean institutions.

The KUTC is supported by the Korea Ministry of Science and ICT. It will initially cover areas including advanced materials in energy, oil/gas, and catalysts, as well as characterization of semiconductor materials and devices, in addition to materials for bio-medical and energy applications.

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Khalifa University, the University of Milan and the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA) of Pisa signed an agreement to set up a Joint Lab for Embodied Artificial Intelli-gence that will be physically located within the University’s Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent System Institute (AI Institute) in Abu Dhabi, enabling AI applications to medical research with the strength of Milan in life sciences and of SSSA in biorobotics.

The KUTC is supported by the Korea Ministry of Science and ICT. It will initially cover areas including advanced materials in energy, oil/gas, and catalysts, as well as characterization of semiconductor materials and devices, in addition to materials for bio-medical and energy applications.

Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, said:

“Our excellent track-record continued during the year 2019 especially in new initiatives, international collaborations, global academic rankings as well as faculty and student achievements. We believe as a top-ranked researchintensive university focusing on science, engineering and medical fields our contributions to building new capacities, creating intellectual capital and registering new milestones will remain on track in the years ahead as well.”

A string of laurels came the Khalifa University way when the students won top position overall, first position in electric Grand Prix, and second position in the Hybrid Electric categories at the Global Hybrid Electric Challenge in UAE (GHECUAE) 2019. Khalifa University’s two student teams also won awards for Best Sportsmanship, Best Workmanship, Best Technical Report, Best Presentation, Best Technical Innovation, and for Best Usage of 3D-Printing.

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A White Coat Ceremony marked the start of Fall 2019 classes for the newly enrolled first cohort of 30 students at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences. ‘The Body Museum’ – the region’s first-ever Body Worlds Exhibition, a traveling exposition of dissected and ‘plastinated’ human bodies, was inaugurated at the Main Campus on the same day. The exhibition that will remain open until March 2020, offers free entry for school and university students with their family members.

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Reiterating its role as a leading academic institution that continues to support the UAE’s growing space sector, Khalifa University presented its first-ever honorary doctorate degree to the UAE astronaut Hazza Al-Mansoori in recognition of his historic achievement, during the Class of 2019 graduation ceremony that celebrated the academic success of 408 bachelors, Master’s and PhD students.

KU and Etihad Aviation Training link up to improve airline pilot training programs.

New agreements with leading industry stakeholders signed during Dubai Air Show 2019, the premier global aviation event held at the Dubai World Central (DWC), marked Khalifa University’s continuously expanding status in research and innovation. These include a collaboration with Etihad Aviation Training for a threeyear study to develop innovative and more engaging training procedures, drawing upon neuro-cognition, to train the next generation of airline pilots.

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Also during the Dubai Air Show 2019, Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign investor, signed an agreement with Khalifa University, extending the industryleading aerospace R&D collaboration for the Aerospace Research and Innovation Center (ARIC) for another four years, and supporting the UAE’s ambitions for developing a global aerospace hub.

Earlier, the university also launched the Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems Institute (AI Institute), and a Program in Artificial Intelligence during the year. The AI Institute aims to bring all the university’s research in robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), data science and information and communication technologies under a single umbrella. The program in AI, first-of-its-kind in the UAE, is available to all undergraduate, graduate and PhD science and engineering students from Fall 2019 semester.

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Khalifa University also received accreditation from the UAE’s Commission for Academic Accreditation (CAA) for its Physics BSc degree during the year. The new degree adds to the rapidly growing range of science degrees on offer at the university, including BSc programs in Petroleum Geosciences, Applied Mathematics & Statistics, and Chemistry.

and Hydrogen (RICH), the Advanced Digital & Additive Manufacturing Center (ADAM), and the Center for Digital Supply Chain and Operations Management (DSOM). The research centers are located at the Main Campus and the Sas Al Nakhl Campus, depending on their research focus and association of subject areas.

In line with its status as a researchintensive academic institution, Khalifa University launched three new research centers focusing on carbon capture, advanced materials and supply chain logistics, bringing the total number of specialized research centers to 18 across all campuses.

Khalifa University further expanded its range of international collaborations during the year, entering into a Partnership and Cooperation Memorandum’ with the Global Energy Association to help build academic and research ties between the UAE and Russia across all energy-related areas.

Launched over this summer, the three new research centers include the Research and Innovation Center on CO2

During the Aqdar World Summit in Moscow, Khalifa University and Russia’s National Research University

(Moscow Power Engineering Institute – MPEI), signed an MoU to establish a joint research program in power and energy-related fields to bring together multidisciplinary scientists, experienced engineers, talented students, industrial partners, and stakeholders. Globally, Khalifa University already has collaborations agreements with Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian and other European academic institutions.

The joint research partnership between KU and Moscow Power Engineering Institute will enhance the ongoing industrial capacity cooperation between the UAE and the Russian Federation, while fostering the high-caliber human capital development in both countries.

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Also during the year, a research collaboration with the University of Manchester resulted in the publishing of the third scientific paper on developing graphenebased membranes for desalination in the Journal of Membrane Science.

Additionally, the Swedish solar energy company Azelio partnered with Khalifa University and Masdar to run a pilot project to evaluate and demonstrate Azelio’s Stirling engine systems and integrated thermal energy storage (TES) solution for renewable energy projects that use photovoltaic solar, concentrated solar power (CSP) and wind energy, or projects that provide off-grid solutions.

Khalifa University broke new ground when it signed a milestone commercialization and licensing agreement that was granted to a technology startup established by an Emirati alumnus. The technology behind the product was developed

by Dr. Ahsan Khandoker, Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering, and granted to Advanced Research Projects, the start-up established

by Biomedical Engineering graduate Saeed Alteneiji, and was incubated at Khalifa Innovation Centre (KIC).

In another first, a group of Khalifa University researchers led by Dr. Habiba Al Safar, Acting Associate Dean for Student Affairs, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Associate Professor at Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology, and Director of Khalifa University Center for Biotechnology, and Dr. Guan Tay, Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering, successfully completed the Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) on two UAE nationals. The project provides a starting point for constructing a UAE reference panel that will lead to improvements in the delivery of precision medicine, quality of life for affected individuals and a reduction in healthcare costs.

Meanwhile, researchers from Khalifa University’s Emirates ICT Innovation Center (EBTIC) won two honors at KU TIMES 12

the AI and Machine Learning Awards 2019 in London – ‘Outstanding AI/ Machine Learning Project’ and ‘Most Innovative use of AI/ Machine Learning’ – for developing a cutting-edge tool called Intuitu.

The AI-based tool Intuitu optimizes the deployment of warehouses for large service organizations such as telecommunications companies.

companies as part of the 2019 Summer Internship program.

Moreover, Dr. Ibrahim Elfadel, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, showcased the first ever successful body-coupled communication transceiver that transmits and receives information using human skin as a communication medium at the 41st Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference in Berlin.

In global recognitions, for the first time, the university became the only institution in the UAE to be ranked in the prestigious Shanghaibased Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). The ARWU Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2019 placed Khalifa University in the top 100 leading universities in Chemical Engineering and the world’s top 150 universities in Mechanical Engineering..

Furthering industry-academia collaborations, Khalifa University partnered with DarkMatter Group, the region’s first and only fully integrated digital and cyber transformation firm, for the US$1.5-million Cyber Security Research Award (CRA). The award focuses on generating ideas that will safeguard the world’s smart cities against the cybersecurity threats of tomorrow.

Khalifa University will be proudly hosting the US$5-million Mohammed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC), one of the world’s largest and most prestigious AI and robotics competitions, in February 2020. Designed to further advance innovation in robotics and artificial intelligence, the international biennial challenge will select 34 robotics teams from top universities around the world to compete in Abu Dhabi for a threeday event that will test the innovation and science and engineering skills.

More than 200 students from Khalifa University successfully interned within the UAE at various government organizations, private sector enterprises, and leading multinational corporations, as well as across the world at renowned scientific research institutions, universities, and major

Over 40 organizations located in the UAE and 20 international organizations across the world, as well as some of the Khalifa University research centers and facilities hosted these interns throughout the summer for the internship program.

More recently, Khalifa University was ranked top in the UAE in the 2020 edition of the Best Global Universities rankings by the US News & World Report, the global authority in education rankings, which evaluated over 1,500 universities in 81 countries. In Subject rankings, the university was placed #114 in ‘Engineering’ in general, and #123 in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

In other rankings, Khalifa University topped in the UAE, came second in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and was listed within the top 200 globally in the most recent Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2020 by Subject: Engineering and Technology, which covered more than 1,000 Universities from 70 countries. The University is also ranked first in the fields of ‘research’ and ‘industry income’ – strong indications of its research status. Moreover, it is ranked 28th among Asian universities in the THE Asia Universities ranking, while remaining among the top 31% of the 1011 global institutions assessed by the 2019 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings.

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KHALIFA UNIVERSITY’S 48TH UAE NATIONAL DAY CELEBRATION HIGHLIGHTS The Khalifa University community celebrated the 48th UAE National Day with several activities including student-led events on its Main and Sas Al Nakhl (SAN) campuses on 26 November. The activities reflected the ‘Year of Tolerance,’ which aims to raise the UAE’s status as a global frontrunner for acceptance and coexistence.

In his UAE National Day message, Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice-President, said: “We are proud to host the student-led events on the occasion of the 48th UAE National Day celebrations, demonstrating our commitment to the path of tolerance shown by the UAE Founding Father Late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and the current leadership. We believe the events at our campuses will not only illustrate the students’ extent of involvement in remaining part of the UAE’s heritage and success, but also in upholding the values directed by the leaders to ensure future progress.”

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Celebrations at the SAN Campus began at the Arzanah and Habshan buildings where students gathered for the flag hoisting and the singing of the National Anthem. After the unfurling of the UAE National Flag, the festivities started and traditional Emirati Dhiyafa were served to students, faculty, and staff.

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Activities at the Main Campus also opened with the National Anthem and unfurling of the flag as students gathered in the open courtyard near the S-building after 4pm.

Student-sponsored stalls included the UAEKorean Corner, the Year of Tolerance booth, the ‘National Memories Museum,’ and a special booth dedicated to ‘Evolution of UAE Medicine’.

The UAE-Korean Corner included a UAE Majlis, a Korean Majlis, an Emirati-Korean Dukkan, an Engineering Challenge, Kids’ area, and a photobooth to capture special moments.

The ‘Year of Tolerance’ booth highlighted how the UAE remains a global capital for tolerance since its establishment and a bridge of communication among the people of the

world and their various cultures, in an environment of openness and respect that rejects extremism and promotes coexistence. The newly-elected Khalifa University Student Council oversaw the booth where international students highlighted the UAE’s contribution to tolerance, coexistence, and openness to different cultures.

At around 6pm, the program started with a stage performance by students, followed by welcome messages, a Zayed Legacy Show, and a short film titled ‘Zayed Tolerance Pledge’. The highlight of the program was a show prepared by the Theater and Emirati Club. The celebrations concluded at around 8:30pm with closing remarks and an appreciation ceremony.

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CAMPUSES DECKED IN UAE NATIONAL COLORS AS KU COMMUNITY JOINS TO COLLECTIVELY RAISE FLAGS FOR UAE FLAG DAY

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The entire community of students, staff and faculty members of Khalifa University of Science and Technology marked the UAE Flag Day with enthusiasm and traditional national fervor by raising the national flags during a ceremony organized at the Main and Sas Al Nakhl Campuses.

The UAE National flags – a symbol of pride, loyalty and belonging for both Emiratis and expats – fluttered across both campuses as patriotic cheers marked the event when those gathered raised the flags to the accompaniment of the UAE National Anthem.

The national flag was hoisted by Dr Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University.

Other senior members of the KU management were present on the occasion.

The Flag Day is celebrated on November 3 every year to mark the accession of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. It is a national occasion where people of the UAE remember the efforts of the founders of the country, including the Late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and Late Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, and other leaders for their sacrifice and contribution towards establishing the UAE. This year, those who cannot raise a flag at home or workplace will have the opportunity to do so in the virtual world from anywhere on Earth, thanks to an initiative by the Ministry of Education. The ministry has created an online platform for UAE citizens and residents to proudly raise the national flag electronically.

The UAE National Flag, which represents UAE citizens and the values such as dignity, pride, achievement, safety, peace, and happiness, is used at all national events, as well as religious, social, sporting and other occasions, internally and externally.

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FROM NORTHEASTERN TO KHALIFA: FULBRIGHT PROGRAM BRINGS BIOENGINEERING EXPERIENCE TO KUCARS FOR A YEAR OF RESEARCH

Conor Messer, recipient of one of the most prestigious and competitive fellowship programs in the world, has chosen the Center for Autonomous Robotic Systems (KUCARS) as his place of research for the next year.

CONOR MESSER, VISITING RESEARCH INTERN FROM NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY, PROVES STUDENTS CAN COMBINE THEIR AREA OF STUDY AND PERSONAL INTERESTS IN EXCITING WAYS.

explained Messer.

“I was awarded the Fulbright through the US government in coordination with the UAE government,”

“The fellowship exists to promote cultural exchange and provides me with support for academic research abroad for approximately one year. I am being hosted by KU, with Dr. Federico Renda in the Mechanical Engineering department as my advisor.”

The Fulbright Program is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs whose goal is to improve intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of the United States and other countries through the exchange of persons, knowledge and skills.

Photo credit : Samuel Haas

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Founder of the program, US Senator J. William Fulbright, said the program “aims to bring a little more knowledge, a little more reason, and a little more compassion into world affairs and thereby increase the chance that nations will learn at last to live in peace and friendship.” Messer took inspiration from his experiences in Jordan, where he volunteered with refugees, during his time at Northeastern University in Boston.

He took up Arabic language lessons and formed a student group aiming to break down misconceptions between Muslims and Christians and give followers of both faiths a space to learn more about each other.

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Messer joins KU in the UAE’s Year of Tolerance, where tolerance is emphasized as a universal concept and sustainable institutional endeavor to bridge the people of the world and their various cultures in an environment of openness and coexistence. His work in Boston complements the values that are so important for the UAE, especially in The Year of Tolerance.

“As I prepared my application for the Fulbright, I knew I wanted to continue my studies in Arabic and be immersed in Arabic culture while also pursuing research in medical robotics,” said Messer. “As I explored the offerings of different universities in the region, it quickly became apparent that not only is Khalifa a top-notch university, but it also boasts one of the best robotics programs in the region. As a matter of fact, I had heard about the inaugural Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC) through my research advisor back at Northeastern, so I knew there were a lot of new developments happening in the program. I was able to get in touch with Dr. Renda and together we came up with a proposal centered on the design and implementation of a soft robot for minimally-invasive surgery, furthering work already happening in his lab.”

Messer is currently a Visiting Research Intern in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, bringing his academic knowledge and degree in bioengineering from Northeastern University to KUCARS. “With my background in biomechanical engineering and computer science, research on surgical robotics is a logical application of my skillset and passions,” explained Messer. “As a discipline, robotics is transforming many industries, with healthcare no exception. However, there are many

concerns with safety when using robots in medical environments.

Soft robots, with their inherent compliance and flexibility, are much safer to use in human interaction than their rigid counterparts and are currently being investigated for use in surgical intervention.”

Soft robots are a new trend in robotics research. Just as robots are asked to complete increasingly complex and intricate tasks, they are expected to do so in increasingly diverse environments. To achieve this, reconfigurable robots that are able to dynamically adapt their structures to accomplish their tasks are being developed. Dr. Renda, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, has been researching soft robots with a project on a flagellum-inspired soft underwater propulsor to achieve safe and reliable interaction with delicate environments such as oil pipelines.

“Soft robotics is a new branch of robotics that deals with highly deformable robots,” explained Dr. Renda. “The main driver is the search for advanced robots capable of intervention in unstructured environments, including humanrobot physical interaction.”

“We are working specifically on a concentric tube robot that can be used in various minimally-invasive interventions from cardiac surgery to endonasal neurosurgery,” added Messer. “It can travel to hard-toaccess locations while avoiding sensitive anatomies (unlike rigid robotic devices) and its complex geometry is controllable and allows for significant force application (unlike current surgical catheters).

My research focuses on extending the design space of this robot to nonconstant curvatures and developing an algorithm for its design and path planning, all of which should allow

for better use of the robot in anatomies with tortuous geometries, such as the lungs, heart, and brain.”

KUCARS and the Healthcare Engineering Innovation Center are researching a new generation of continuum robots for force and stiffness control in endoluminal cardiac intervention. The goal is to create an automated robotic catheter that can safely navigate tis way through the heart, controlling contact force with tissue walls, and performing procedures such as angioplasties and valve repair.

“Conor has only been here a month so far, but we have already defined a nice research plan that can lead to non-negligible contribution in the field of continuum robotics for medical application,” said Dr. Renda of Messer.

“I also involved him in other smaller research activities with other members of my team, including MSc students. It seems that they are doing well together and everything is going smooth so far.”

Messer clearly agrees.

“I have been enjoying my life here thus far, both the research as well as my social life,” he said.

“In only a month and a half, I feel I have found some good friends and become accustomed to the university. Though I certainly have some hard days and do miss friends and family back home, I am enjoying life here in Abu Dhabi.”

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ALUMNI SUCCESS: THE FIRST EMIRATI FEMALE NUCLEAR SAFETY INSPECTOR

experience, even the late nights at the lab, the ups and downs of my mood and marks, and the usual morning runs to catch the bus! Indeed, KU taught me the art of discipline and time management, which I will always be grateful for.”

Al Mehairi chose to go into nuclear power after graduation as it was a completely new field to the UAE. When she heard about it, she knew that was the challenge she needed.

“After graduation, I decided to pursue a career in the nuclear field, at the UAE’s regulatory body, the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR),” she continued. “I am the first Emirati female as a nuclear safety inspector, where I conduct inspections that are intended to ensure that the nuclear power plant, including facilities, equipment, and work performance, meet all necessary requirements, and are in compliance with the applicable laws, regulations and any license conditions.”

Graduates from Khalifa University leave with the skills, experience, and expertise to succeed in any field they choose, and one alumna did just that, becoming the first Emirati female to work as a nuclear safety inspector.

Meera Al Mehairi graduated from KU in 2015 with a MSc degree in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Nuclear Engineering.

“I chose Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering as a major when I started at Khalifa University,” said Al Mehairi.

“I didn’t know where I would end up, or if I was even sure I wanted to do this course. All I had was a passion for math and science, and a curiosity for the future.

“Course after course, and each semester, I felt happier about the decision I had made,” said Al Mehairi.

“I enjoyed every part of the university

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The nuclear safety inspector role is critical to the safe operation of any plant, and to ensure she continues to build on the skills and knowledge acquired at KU, Al Mehairi gets involved in as many projects as possible at FANR, attends most of the technical trainings provided in-house and internationally, and seeks one-to-one mentoring sessions with her senior colleagues.

“I love how dynamic my job is, as I get to explore different technical areas every mission,” said Al Mehairi. “My senior colleagues told me: ‘You’ll always learn something new.’ And they’re right!

However, the job is very challenging as it requires precision, comprehensiveness, and a thorough understanding of the science and technology of the nuclear power plant, with a mindset always concerned with safety.

“It’s a huge responsibility and I was panicking since day one! I used to worry, what if I did something wrong? But all

these fears have faded away, as I have great support from my colleagues and management, and all the necessary technical knowledge and soft skills.”

Al Mehairi plans to continue to work on different tasks and projects at FANR to develop her skills but also plans to enrich her knowledge in areas of personal interest like international affairs, diplomacy, psychology, and interfaith dialogue.

Al Mehairi remains an inspiration for alumni and current students, advising everyone to read, think critically, and be mindful. She encourages everyone to read and understand the depth and breadth of different topics and pursue continuous learning.

“I want to volunteer as much as possible. The Special Olympics were by far my favorite and the closest event to my heart, and I am really looking forward to Expo 2020 in Dubai. I also hope to engage with more youth to foster tolerance and coexistence, as I am the Vice President for the Coexistence Lab. There’s a beautiful piece of advice from His Excellency Ahmed Belhoul I would like to share: ‘Always be humble to learn.’”

“I’m in it to break down barriers,” she said. “I’m in it to inspire other girls, women, and people to pursue their dreams fearlessly, and to keep trying, learning, and moving forward until they fulfill their dreams. Thank you Khalifa University, FANR and Youth Council for turning me into the person I am today, and thank you to my mother for teaching me how to break down barriers in the first place.”

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MASDAR INSTITUTE ALUMNA DELIVERS SEMINAR ON FUTURE OF ELECTRONICS

Dr. Nazek El-Atab, a 2017 PhD alumna from Masdar Institute and current Post-Doc at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), delivered a seminar on Thursday, 5 December titled “Topologically Transformed Electronics” to MSc in Electrical and Computer Engineering and MSc in Materials Science and Engineering students.

In her talk, Dr. El-Atab asked a key question in the field of microsystems: Can complementary metal oxide semiconductors (CMOS) – the technology that underpins the ever-shrinking integrated circuits in our electronic devices – be further innovated to extend Moore’s Law and find new applications in our increasingly connected world?

Dr. El-Atab offered her own research insights to address the question. Two main research projects she is working on include multi-dimensional integrated circuits for IoT applications, and ultraflexible, ultra-stretchable inorganic solar cells with high efficiency.

Dr. El-Atab has become an internationally recognized scientist in a rather short period of time.

While pursuing her MSc degree in Microsystems Engineering from Masdar Institute, followed by her PhD in Interdisciplinary Engineering, she worked under Dr. Ammar Nayfeh, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at KU. During her time at Masdar Institute, she received several awards for her research, including the 2015 For Women in Science Middle East Fellowship by L’Oreal-UNESCO, Best Paper Award in the Micro/ Nano-systems section at the UAEGSRC 2016 conference, the 2016 IEEE Nanotechnology Student Travel Award in Japan, and the 2017 International Rising Talents Award by L’Oreal-UNESCO. Post-graduation, she received the 2018 “Rafik Hariri University” Alumni Award, and was portrayed in the 2019 “Remarkable Women in Technology” by UNESCO. Over the course of her fairly short but prolific academic career, she has published over 30 papers in international peer-reviewed scientific journals and conference proceedings, 2 book chapters, 2books and has 6 US filed patents.

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SOLAR SMART CAR SHOWCASED AT EDUCATION CONFERENCE AND KHALIFA AWARD’S NATIONAL DAY CELEBRATION

Khalifa University students presented their Solar Powered Smart Vehicle during the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research’s (ECSSR) 10th Annual Education Conference, which took place from 12-13 November at the ECSSR complex in Abu Dhabi. The annual education conference, titled ‘Education and Jobs of the Future: Developing Qualified Human Capital to Secure the UAE’s Progress,’ convened academic leaders, researchers, diplomats and education experts to discuss the vital and dynamic educational issues shaping the sector today.

Khalifa University’s Muhammad Taha Ansari, BSc in Mechanical Engineering student, was invited to the conference to present the Solar Powered Smart Vehicle, which he developed with his team under the supervision of Dr. Firas Jarrar, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, for their Senior Design Project. The smart, compact car runs entirely on solar energy. It also has smart amenities, such as an air cooling system, to provide a comfortable user experience.

Ansari presented the solar car alongside two other projects from Zayed University and UAE University, including a Car Tracking System and a Robotic Prototype.

The projects served as a testament to the UAE’s clear commitment to supporting research and development of strategic technologies and sectors across its universities.

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KU TEAM WINS 1ST PLACE IN GLOBAL HYBRID ELECTRIC CHALLENGE

The KU Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team was the overall champion of the UAE’s Global Hybrid Electric Challenge (GHEC-UAE) held on 21-23 November 2019, where the team won first place in the Electric Vehicle Grand Prix competition and won second place in the Hybrid-Electric Grand Prix (HE-GP) competition.

The GHEC-UAE is an international collegiate competition that promotes education, energy efficiency, and environmental consciousness. The primary goal of the competition is to provide a handson environment where students apply what they learn in the classroom to develop real-world solutions.

The competition has two phases. The first phase is the Electric Grand Prix (E-GP) where teams drive their electric vehicles as far as possible for an hour on a closed-circuit track using only energy stored in the vehicles’ batteries. The team with the longest distance

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Faculty advisors were Dr. Bashar El-Khasawneh, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Dr. Shakti Singh, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

KU Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team Members included:

traveled during this period wins the E-GP competition. The second phase is the Hybrid-Electric Grand Prix (HE-GP) where teams use petrol to increase their vehicles’ range and run as far as possible in a period of three hours on the closed-circuit track. The team with the longest distance traveled in the three-hour duration wins the HE-GP. The combined results of the two competitions decide the overall challenge winner.

The KU Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team also won the following special awards in the challenge: • BEST VEHICLE WORKMANSHIP: awarded to the team that showed the highest attention to detail and quality in constructing the vehicle, both in fit-and-finish, and sturdiness.

• BEST USE OF 3D PRINTING: awarded to the most creative use of 3D printing in the vehicle.

• TECHNICAL INNOVATION AWARD: awarded to the team that demonstrates a technical innovation above and beyond the basic design.

• SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD: awarded to the team that exhibits the highest level of sportsmanship by helping other teams, following the rules and regulations, and abiding by the official decisions.

• Abdullah Ayman

• Omar Essa Buabdulla

• Maryam A. Naqi

• Khadeeja Aljaberi

• Asadullah Saeed

• Abdula Fawzy

• Mohamad Mussa Ali

• Qasim Eisa Alblooshi

• Khaled Alkhoujah

A second KU team, called the KU Oryx Team, won Best Technical Document for the best written technical report, and the Best Presentation Award, for the best presentation delivered to the judges, describing how the team was structured, the process for constructing the vehicle, the challenges faced in the project, and lessons learned.

KU Oryx Team Members included: • Ikhlas Ben Hmida

• Jwahir Albreiki

• Hadeel Faiz Alnahdi

• Rayya Rashed Alkhanjari

• Muneera Al-Shaibah‎

• Ayesha Alhosani

• Rzan Raed Al-Haddad

• Aaesha Almazrouei

• Shaikha Adel Alblooshi

• Mahra Ali Almarzooqi

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KU STUDENTS WIN OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE AT HUAWEI MIDDLE EAST ICT COMPETITION Two undergraduate students from Khalifa University made it to the final rounds of the 3rd Huawei Middle East ICT Competition held by Chinese multinational ICT company Huawei and were awarded ‘Outstanding Performance.’

Amir Abdela Mohamedsalih and Solomon Fissehaye Tewelde were the UAE national finalists, selected from 30 students that competed in the first round of the competition from Khalifa University, UAE University and Zayed University. Amir won first place, Solomon took second, and a student from UAEU placed third in the UAE National round. The competition comprised of an exam, where students had to configure practical ICT related

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simulations and solve challenges. The National exam consisted of solving and configuring a given network topology. In addition, the exam also consisted some basics of cloud computing.

The Huawei ICT Competition covers ICT fields such as Routing & Switching, WLAN, Security, AI, 5G, and Cloud Computing. The aim of the competition is to provide students with a platform to compete and exchange ideas in order to enhance their ICT knowledge, practical and application skills, and raise their innovation awareness.

The 2019 Huawei Middle East ICT Competition ran in 10 Middle Eastern countries. Over 435 universities and

21,000 students participated from Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Amir, Solomon and the UAEU student joined the top 3 finalists from each country and competed in the final stage of the competition, which took place at Huawei Headquarters in Shenzhen on 28 November. A total of 13 teams of 39 students from across the Middle East competed in the final rounds.

In this final, teams competed in day-long competitions, which included technology workshops with global ICT experts. The UAE team were honored with the award for ‘Outstanding Performance.’

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KU ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AND TWO STUDENTS RECEIVE FOUNDER LEADER’S AWARDS

STUDENT SNAPSHOTS Ahmed Khalid Alzaabi recently graduated with honors from KU. He has written three research papers that focus on the nationalism of the Emirati youth and was able to present one these papers at the 3rd AARE Conference (2019). He was also an active member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Student Chapter during his undergrad days and worked on different on-campus events such as the Khalifa University Program Choice Day (Fall 2018) and Khalifa University Majors Day (Spring 2019).

Ahmed is currently enrolled in the Young Future Energy Leaders (YFEL) program, an initiative led by Masdar Institute, that mentors future leaders in the fields of alternative energy, offering opportunities to be more engaged in finding solutions to the challenges of energy efficiency and climate change.

Khalifa University Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Dr. Arafat Al-Dweik, and two KU students Jawaher Alameri and Ahmed Alzaabi, were among the recipients of the 2019 Founder Leaders Awards. They were honored at a ceremony on 28 November where they were presented with medals by HE Minister of Education Hussain bin Ibrahim Al Hammadi.

Dr. Arafat won in the ‘Distinguished Research’ category for his research contributions and community service. Ahmed won in the ‘Innovative Academic Student’ category, and Jawaher won in the ‘Innovative University Student’ category, as both students represent the attitudes and traits of the goal-oriented and accomplished youth envisioned by the Founding Father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

The Founder Leader’s Award is presented by the Ministry of Education to celebrate excellence and education pioneers, and to fulfill the Founding Father’s vision of developing a strong educational system that will be the foundation of the country’s continued progress.

Jawaher Alameri is a BSc Mechanical Engineering graduate who participated in different engineering competitions, such as the VEX Robotics Competition and Global Hybrid Electric Vehicle Challenge, when she was an undergraduate. She also assisted several KU professors in a variety of research projects.

She interned with Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp. (ENEC) and spent time at Korea Electrical Power Corp. (KEPCO), ENEC’s joint venture partner, to know more about the nuclear energy industry and was named as one of the Best Interns at the time. In 2016, Jawaher was one of the two representatives of the UAE to the Total Energy Summer School in France.

Outside the campus, Jawaher is a member of the Sea of Culture Toastmasters for Arabic Public Speaking, a certified trainer of the Dubai Knowledge and Human Development Authority, and was a part-time cultural tours specialist at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.

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KU LAUNCHES RED CRESCENT CHAPTER

Khalifa University has launched a Red Crescent Chapter to boost the spirit of volunteerism among its students. The Emirates Red Crescent is the UAE’s primary humanitarian organization.

It was established in 1983 to mobilize the power of humanity to help the weak and the needy wherever they are. The new KU Chapter will develop and train KU student volunteers to support important humanitarian activities across the UAE.

CV CLINIC AT KU TEACHES STUDENTS AND ALUMNI HOW TO MASTER THEIR CVS

On Monday, 28 October, the Student Services Office offered a free session to KU students to help them write professional resumes. The “CV Clinic” connected current students and Alumni with experts to learn important CV writing skills.

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Over 45 students and alumni, including a number of Master’s and PhD students, received critical feedback and editing on their CV content and structure. They also received advice on how to target their CV towards the current job market.

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KU SPORTS: WELLNESS, COMPETITION, AND FUN! On 30 October, KU’s Student Services and Sports Office engaged with students and fielded questions about the university’s sports programs, which offers opportunities for participation at all levels.

Participating in university sports promotes wellness and inspires teamwork and leadership -- values at the heart of Khalifa University. With nine sports teams, KU supports a broad athletic program. KU offers on-campus tournaments, intercollegiate tournaments and recreational sport programs.

KU SPORTS TEAMS INCLUDE VOLLEYBALL FOOTBALL CHESS BASKETBALL TABLE TENNIS

In October, KU’s state-of-the-art sports and fitness facilities became the venue for many of the 2019-2020 Abu Dhabi Inter-University Sports League (ADISL) female and male sports games.

ADISL fosters sports competition and cooperation among Abu Dhabi universities. During this ADISL season, which runs from October 2019 to March 2020, many of the Men’s basketball games, and the Women’s badminton and volleyball games, are being hosted at KU.

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CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING (CTL) PROMOTES “7 HABITS” FOR SUCCESS AMONG STUDENTS AND TEACHERS

KHALIFA UNIVERSITY IS FIRST TO RUN THE ONE-CREDIT HOUR COURSE, “7 HABITS FOR HIGHLY EFFECTIVE COLLEGE STUDENTS,” AND PROVIDE TRAINING TO POTENTIAL KU INSTRUCTORS. The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) launched a lifechanging student success course this semester for STEM 2 students in the Preparatory Program, called Skills for Academic Success (SDAS 001).

Skills for Academic Success is focused on teaching students important study skills needed to progress in the university environment. The core text of the course is the “7 Habits for Highly Effective College Students”, a high-impact course built on the foundation of the global bestselling book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

“This maiden semester saw almost 300 students putting the principles of the ‘7 Habits for Highly Effective College Students’ into practice through increased proactivity, goal setting, time management, study skills, life skills, and more,” said Joud JabriPickett, English Instructor in the Prep Program.

Earlier this year, Jabri-Pickett and Dr. Abdus Sabur Muhammad, Head of Student Retention and Advising, became certified as facilitators for the “7 Habits for Highly Effective People”, a program developed by FranklinCovey, a global company specializing in performance improvement, to introduce foundational principles, paradigms and practices of the “7 Habits” to employees.

Last month, 12 faculty and staff from the Preparatory Program became certified to teach the “7 Habits for Highly Effective College Students” course at KU

They recently facilitated a workshop for 12 administrative staff and faculty members of the Preparatory Department, called “7 Habits Foundations at KU,” to introduce the principles that support greater effectiveness within their departments. The faculty and staff are now certified to teach the “7 Habits for Highly Effective College Students” and help students learn the principles of university effectiveness, which will propel them toward greater academic maturity and performance.

The 7 Habits® is the world's best-known personal-leadership framework, synthesizing key principles of personal and interpersonal effectiveness.

A list of the 7 Habits® follows: • Habit 1: Be Proactive • Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind • Habit 3: Put First Things First • Habit 4: Think Win-Win • Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood • Habit 6: Synergize • Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw Jabri-Pickett hopes to continue providing the workshop to various departments across the university community, both academic and administrative, to promote positive, lifelong learning and success habits in all classrooms.

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BREAST CANCER AWARENESS DAY In celebration of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, KU female students at SAN Campus, Arzanah Building took part in activities to raise awareness of the disease on Wednesday, 30 October 2019.

In partnership with NMC Royal Women’s Hospital and RAHMA Cancer Patient Care Society, students were screened for their body mass index (BMI), met with a dietitian, and had one-on-one discussions with a radiographer about breast self-examination.

Students were given the opportunity to learn about ways to give back to cancer patients. And a breast cancer survivor gave students first-hand experience on the effects of the disease and the treatment journey of breast cancer patients.

COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARENESS DAY The Student Success Office organized the ENJOY Community Service Awareness Day on Tuesday, 5 November 2019, at the KU Main Campus, to promote awareness and understanding among undergraduates of the Community Service Development Program, which requires students to complete 100 hours of community service throughout the duration of their degree program.

Undergraduate students networked with the KU community and participating organizations from the wider UAE community, and explored a number of volunteering opportunities.

PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS INCLUDED: • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

KU Student Services KU Career Services KU Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) KU Libraries KU Red Crescent Club Volunteers.ae Takatof – Emirates Foundation SANID – Emirates Foundation Emirates Red Crescent Sandooq Al Watan AZRAQ Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club CSR Division of Al Ahli Holding Group Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation

• Happiness Imprint Volunteers Team • Absher Ya Watan Volunteer Team • National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority • The Hope – Volunteering Initiatives • Ma’an Authority • Emirates Natural History Group • Emirates Nature - WWF • Make-A-Wish Foundation • Operation Smile • Special Olympics • Sheikh Sultan Award for Celebrating the Spirit of Youth • Gulf Multi Sport • Abu Dhabi Municipality

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EMPLOYERS LINK UP WITH STUDENTS AND HIGHLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES IN JOB MARKET The Career and Alumni Services Office regularly invites renowned local and international businesses to deliver workshops and connect directly with students.

TAWAZUN ECONOMIC PROGRAM WORKSHOP ON 13 NOVEMBER Mouza AlZaabi, Senior Associate of Economic Development from Tawazun, an industry enabler responsible for the creation and development of a sustainable defense and security industry in the UAE, shared the Tawazun legacy, offered employer success stories, and taught students how the organization supports the UAE’s strategic objectives.

CISCO ROADSHOW ON 19 NOVEMBER Cisco is one of the largest tech companies in the world.

Representatives from Cisco engaged with students about how emerging technology is driving the IT company’s activities, and told them about the opportunities they are offering to new graduates.

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KU HOSTS 15TH EMIRATES INTERNATIONAL PEACE MUSIC FESTIVAL In recognition of its efforts to promote a culture of tolerance and inclusion, Khalifa University has marked the Year of Tolerance with a special concert.

On Monday, 18 November, Khalifa University hosted the 15th Emirates International Peace Music Festival, which was held under the patronage of His Excellency Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance. The Festival featured inspiring performances by the Emirates Youth Symphony Orchestra, which is celebrating its 25-year anniversary.

The Orchestra performed its World Classical Music Series Concert, which included talented youth musicians from Poland, China, and USA.

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FIRST MATHEMATICS MUSABAQAT BRINGS OUT KU’S TALENTED MATHLETES Khalifa University’s mathletes and winners of the University’s First Mathematics Musabaqat were honored on Thursday, 21 November during the official Award Ceremony.

KU’s Mathematics Department organized the Mathematics Musabaqat competition for KU students earlier this year. A total of 50 students participated in the competition, where they faced five challenging mathematical problems individually over a 3-hour period.

The three winning students were announced during the Award Ceremony.

The three best results were Syed Anas Hussain, Mohammed Elamine Azz, and Biniam Teweldebrhan. First place received a Majid Al Futtaim mall voucher worth AED700, second place received a voucher for AED500, and third place received one for AED300. They all received trophies and certificates as well. Now, the winners will be trained to compete at the 11th Open Mathematical Olympiad of the Belarusian-Russian University, taking place from 19-21 February, 2020.

The aim of the Mathematics Musabaqat competition is to: 1. Raise the awareness of the importance and beauty of Mathematics 2. Help students interact in scientific activities and share their analytical thinking skills 3. Stimulate problem solving skills 4. Foster mathematical talents The second edition of the competition is expected to be held in the Spring 2020 term.

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TREASURE HUNT Over 100 KU students participated in a fun yet challenging treasure hunt last month, which was themed around the story of Captain Evax.

Captain Evax was cursed in a dungeon guarded by two guardians. The students (who were playing the “heros”) had to gather scattered pieces of position ingredients labeled by the colors red, green, and blue, by conquering the challenges in each room. The rooms were: Gaming room, Ghost room, Crime scene room, Music room, Lie or Truth room, King’s room, Silent Hill room, IT room, and Jigsaw room.

By gathering the clues, they become qualified for the next objective -- defeating the two Guardians of the Dungeon by facing the ultimate challenges of Samurai’s lair room and Magician’s lair room. By defeating the two guardians, the students were rewarded with the steps needed to create the potion to cure Captain Evax.

At the final room, only 2 teams survived the dungeon and saved Captain Evax, making them the heroes of the Treasure Hunt of 2019.

BOOSTING JOBREADINESS SKILLS WITH MOCK JOB INTERVIEWS The Career Counseling Service set up Mock Job Interviews for KU students to practice their interviewing skills in an environment similar to an actual interview.

Over 230 undergraduate students participated.

A Mock Job Interview is a great opportunity for students to: 1. Familiarize themselves with interview type of questions and interview etiquette 2. Reduce their stress and anxiety about interviewing 3. Boost their confidence 4. Provide them with constructive feedback from professionals 5. Familiarize themselves with interview type of questions and interview etiquette 6. Increase the likelihood that they secure internship for summer or employment after graduation 7. Equip students with the right self-marketing tools to succeed in the market

Nearly 20 organizations, ranging from multinational corporations to local government entities, and a number KU Alumni, participated in the Mock Interviews to provide our students with an authentic interview experience.

Participating organizations included: • • • • • • • • • • •

Accenture Whiteshield Partners NMDC EMITAC Healthcare Solutions Healthpoint hospital Baker Hughes Shelf Drilling MOE Schneider Electric Catalyst - A Masdar-BP Initiative PricewaterhouseCoopers

• • • • • • • •

Honeywell ADNOC Technology Innovation Institute Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre Total UAE Dubai Asset Management Tenaris Global Services National Petroleum Construction Company

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ENGINEERING EXHIBIT SHOWCASES FRESHMEN STUDENTS’ INNOVATIVE PROJECTS

Around 50 innovative projects by Khalifa University students were presented at the Engineering Design Fall 2019 (ENGR111) Term Project Presentation Day on 4 December 2019 at the Main Campus.

ENGR111 Term Project Presentation Day is a regular event where freshmen engineering students showcase different projects they have worked on as they learn the different disciplines and fundamentals of the engineering design process. The students interact with visitors as they present their projects and answer questions about their work. At the end of the event, two awards were given, the Judges’ Award and Audience Award.

The Audience Award, chosen by those who attended the exhibition through votes via a mobile app, was presented to the Protected Live Coral Farm project by Mohamed Alshamsi, Khalfan Alnaqbi, Mohamed Nasr, Abdulkareem Harthi, and Saif Alali. The team’s project focuses on developing a feasible strategy to revive, as well as protect the Arabian Gulf coral reefs, taking into consideration the Gulf’s unique conditions. The plan is to construct a land-based coral farm where coral is cultivated and then moved from the farm to the ocean. The team presented a working prototype of the farm design, including live coral, showing how the strategy will work.

The Blind Aid Stick project by Shaikha Alteneiji, Aisha Alzahmi, Asma Almansoori, Maryam Almheiri, and Banan Abedalhaq was the recipient of the Judges’ Award, which was chosen by a committee of 24 judges. The project is a walking stick for those who

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have visual impairment to detect if an obstacle or another person is in the way of the user’s movement. The stick’s built-in sensor estimates the distance between the stick and the potential obstacle, and then sends a signal to give sound or voice feedback.

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The event attracted a huge number of visitors who enjoyed learning about the different projects that highlighted the creative and ingenious talents of KU students in conceptualizing solutions and building prototypes for reallife challenges.

KU LAUNCHES GOLDEN KEY INTERNATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY CHAPTER

Khalifa University has established a local Golden Key Chapter, and will be offering Golden Key membership to its high-achieving students.

At an award ceremony to take place during the Spring semester, KU will be extending membership to the top 15% of our sophomores, juniors, seniors, and graduate students. These students will become part of an international honor society that has over two million members across the globe, and includes honoraries like Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel and Bill Clinton.

Golden Key is one of the world’s best networking groups. Thousands of Golden Key members have utilized the opportunities of this society to develop their leadership skills, engage in community service, and enhance their personal network. KU Golden Key members will receive exclusive opportunities and connections through access to over half a million dollars in scholarships and awards, partnerships with major corporations, career advancement and graduate programs.

The Khalifa University chapter is Golden Key’s only Middle East chapter. Membership into the chapter is by invitation only to those students performing in the top 15% of their class. By extending Golden Key membership to our top-achieving students, KU is not only reaffirming its commitment to help students realize their full potential, but it is also setting a new standard of academic excellence in the region.

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STUDENTS ENJOY A DAY OF FUN AT F1 2019

A group of KU students were given a front and center opportunity to be part of the Formula 1 (F1) Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2019 festivities at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.

The group started their day at the F1 Fanzone, where there are several off-track fun activities for everyone. As the group enjoyed their complimentary morning coffee, they indulged themselves at the Pampering Pit Stop and Barber Station, where visitors can get manicures and haircuts. On the main stage, live shows of a variety of musicians and dancers entertained the crowd. There were also roaming entertainers moving across the various areas to greet and amuse the visitors.

After the pamper session, the students had lunch at the Majlis as they watched the different F1 teams train on the track. Right after lunch, they went on to the Paddock Area where they were given a short introduction about Formula 1 and its importance, as well as its impact not only on Abu Dhabi but worldwide. Then the students were given a unique chance to see the race control room, where they can see every corner of the race track in detail through the 44 TV screens.

The whole day was a one-of-a-kind experience for the students. They did not just participate in the F1 festivities but they also learned about the work and the technology that goes behind an event like the Grand Prix.

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KU TEAM HONORED FOR WINNING 9TH PLACE IN DBF 2019 AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS COMPETITION

An appreciation ceremony led by Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice President, was held on 16 December 2019 to honor the team of Khalifa University students who ranked 9th place out of 104 universities that participated in the Design Build Fly (DBF) 2019 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Competition in Tucson, Arizona, USA. Also present in the event was Ahmed Bin Saifan Al Falasi, the KU Team’s sponsor representative.

The team was comprised of 12 students from the fields of aviation, space and mechanical engineering, and drone construction and operation. They designed and developed a drone that works on electric energy and

can be controlled remotely using radio waves, with the plane able to successfully complete three mandatory missions.

Aside from the students, two faculty advisors of the team were also present at the ceremony and were honored— Dr. Andreas Schiffer, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Dr. Asli Hassan, Assistant Professor, Department of English.

The DBF 2019 AIAA Competition is an international competition participated by different top universities. This is the eight successive year Khalifa University has participated in the event.

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PROCUREMENT AND CONTRACTS DEPARTMENT RECEIVES ISO 9001:2015 CERTIFICATION

Khalifa University’s Procurement and Contracts Department has recently received ISO 9001:2015 Certification. The milestone was celebrated in a ceremony at the SAN Campus and attended by Mosallam Al Kathiri, Vice President, Human Resources and Procurement; Khalifa Alobeidli, Director, Procurement & Contracts; and all the Procurement and Contracts staff to recognize the Department’s hard work in obtaining the certification. Lyudmila Koltomova, Deputy Manager, Business Development and Marketing KU TIMES 40

of TÜV SÜD Middle East, the certifying body that granted the ISO certification, was also in attendance.

ISO 9001:2015 certification specifies requirements for quality management systems that need to consistently provide services that meet applicable statutory and regulatory requirements. Being ISO 9001:2015 certified means that the Procurement and Contracts Department is capable of preparing and implementing policies and procedures that meet Quality Management Systems standards.

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KU EMPLOYEES ATTEND CREDO™ BOARD SIMULATION LEADERSHIP TRAINING

A CREDO™ Board Simulation Leadership Training was organized by the Human Resource Department for employees last December 2019 at Fairmont Bab Al Bahr, Abu Dhabi. Employees were encouraged to take part in an engaging and insightful leadership training session to improve workplace dynamics and team management.

The full-day training session was led by professionals from HNI Training and Coaching, in cooperation with Practex Management Consulting, whose expertise is in delivering soft skills and management programs through

simulation-based training. The training is designed to help employees better understand and assess complex or difficult workplace scenarios to enable them to adjust their behaviors in response to these scenarios and communicate clearly in a manner everyone involved will understand.

Leadership depends on specific situations and no single leadership style can be applicable to all situations. The CREDO™ Board Simulation Training aims to improve leaders’ and employees’ understanding of situational

leadership, focusing on understanding workplace challenges and how different individuals within the team will react to these challenges, and then leveraging this understanding to achieve the team’s goals.

The employees who attended were grouped into different teams and brainstormed solutions for the simulation exercises given.

Everyone enjoyed participating in the discussion and team activities as they learned new leadership and management techniques.

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KU RESEARCH CENTER HIGHLIGHTS

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HEIC HOLDS 1ST INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP TO ADDRESS CHALLENGES IN HEALTHCARE

The Healthcare Engineering Innovation Center (HEIC) hosted its 1st International workshop from 25 - 26 November 2019.

The HEIC seeks to develop novel methodologies, devices, and tools for the diagnosis, intervention, treatment, and rehabilitation of the wide spectrum of health challenges associated with cardiovascular diseases. The center also has the framework to tackle other relevant health challenges in the UAE. The HEIC workshop focused on the themes of vision on healthcare, innovation, and value creation.

The workshop offered a unique opportunity for local and international researchers and healthcare professionals to address challenges related to healthcare innovation, with a particular focus on cardiovascular diseases.

Highly qualified local and international institutions participated, including representatives from SEHA, the Department of Health, Mubadala, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, University of Limerick (Ireland), The BioRobotics Institute (Sculoa Superiore Sant’Anna, Italy), Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), New York University Abu Dhabi, Medical Micro Instruments (MMI, Italy), University Of Applied Sciences (Germany), Polytechnic of Milan (Italy), Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, and American University of Sharjah.

The researchers presented their projects, achievements, and latest research findings on issues related to patient needs, clinical challenges in terms of diagnosis, intervention, therapeutics, and rehabilitation.

Discussions also centered around anticipated future challenges for the local, regional, and international healthcare industry.

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2ND C2PS SYMPOSIUM EXPLORES 5G AND EMERGING DISTRIBUTED ARCHITECTURE The Cyber-Physical System Center (C2PS) hosted its second open symposium, to mark the oneyear anniversary of the Center, on Thursday, 21 November at the Main Campus.

Held under the theme “5G and Emerging Distributed Architecture,” the symposium provided a forum for C2PS researchers and potential research partners to share knowledge and ideas about the future of computing and communications.

C2PS researchers presented projects related to two of its four themes, including Networks and Communication Technology, and Computation Architecture.

Dr. Sami Muhaidat, Associate Professor of Communication Engineering, and Dr. Arafat Al-Dweik, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science spoke about the Networks and Communication Technology theme. They addressed several major challenges preventing the realization of next generation wireless networks, including the high energy and spectral efficiency, low latency, and massive connectivity.

Dr. Abdulhadi Shoufan, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Dr. Davor Svetinovic, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, presented on projects related to the Computation Architecture theme.

They addressed the importance of selecting the proper platform, infrastructure, and technologies to facilitate and support, at any scale, the required computing, storage, and networking functionalities for CPS and IoT ecosystems.

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International experts were invited to address important topics in blockchain, RF-powered radio networks and 6G challenges. International guest speakers included Dr. Mohamed-Slim Alouini, Associate Dean of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Dr. Muhammad Ali Imran, Vice Dean at Galsgow College of UESTC, UK, and Dr. Perpétus Jacques Houngbo, Cybersecurity Expert of West Africa Response on Cybersecurity and Fight Against Cybercrime (OCWAR-C).

The Symposium closed with an engaging panel session moderated by Dr. Ernesto Damiani, Senior Director of Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems Institute, Director of C2PS Center, and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

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SOCC OPEN HOUSE HIGHLIGHTS KU’S PIONEERING MICROSYSTEMS RESEARCH

The System on Chip Center (SoCC) held its first Open House on Wednesday, 20 November at the Main Campus.

The SoCC Open House provided a platform for SoCC faculty, researchers and students to highlight how they are advancing microsystems research through the use of SoCC’s advanced facilities. The SoCC is the only research center in UAE with a comprehensive range of expertise in analog, digital, and RF that can deliver integrated systemon-chip and electronics circuits and system solutions for various applications targeting near market research.

Center Director Dr. Baker Mohammad, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, opened the event with an overview of center activities and main projects.

Dr. Onur Mutlu, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at ETH Zurich and Carnegie Mellon

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University, delivered the keynote address. Dr. Mutlu is a leading expert in computer architecture, computing systems, hardware security, and bioinformatics. Many of the techniques he and his group discovered and invented over the years have influenced industry and have been employed in commercial microprocessors and memory/ storage systems, including systems designed by Apple, Intel, IBM, Samsung, Sun Microsystems.

SoCC faculty presented research in ultra-low power digital design for security, AI application, radio frequency and millimeter-waves activities, photo sensors based on plasmonic nano-structures, and emerging RRAM technology for sensing and computing applications.

The Open House also included poster sessions for SoCC researchers and students to share their various electronics research.

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STUDENT WINS CSAW BEST PAPER AWARD FOR HARDWARE LOCKING SYSTEM PhD student Lilas Alrahis won Best Paper Award for her paper titled “ScanSAT: Unlocking Obfuscated Scan Chains,” at the Applied Research Competition - MENA Region, one of nine competitions held in association with the New York University’s Cyber Security Awareness Week (CSAW) 2019, which took place from 6-8 November 2019.

Her winning paper addresses a key security issue arising out of the shifting microelectronics supply chain landscape.

“The dramatic increase in fabrication costs of Integrated Circuits (ICs) has led to the globalization of the IC supply chain, raising concerns regarding IC piracy, reverse engineering, and hardware Trojan insertion. ICs are the heart of electronic systems that are embedded in a wide range of applications. Therefore, ensuring trust in the IC supply chain is vital in order to guarantee a reliable and trustworthy platform to build on,” Alrahis explained.

The IC supply chain is witnessing the outsourcing of key steps, such as testing, to Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) companies, which may damage or compromise on-chip assets. To prevent piracy and inappropriate use of ICs, chip makers are incorporating hardware locking systems as an important aspect of chip design.

One technique, called “obfuscation of scan chains,” hides the functionality of the chip design from the untrusted testers via the insertion of additional logic elements. The method involves inserting a type of logic between the chip elements that shift chip test data in and out of the chip to make every point in the chip controllable and observable. The logic is driven by a secret key to hide the transformation functions between the

inputs, outputs and captured test data responses.

Alrahis leverages this technique and proposes the use of ScanSAT, a type of attack that transforms a scan obfuscated circuit to its logic-locked version and applies the Boolean satisfiability (SAT) based attack, which allows the user to extract the secret key.

The research work was carried out under KU’s System on Chip Center (SoCC) with supervisors Dr. Hani Saleh, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Dr. Baker Mohammad, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Dr. Mahmoud Al Qutayri, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, in collaboration with Dr. Ozgur Sinanoglu, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering from NYU-AD.

CSAW is the most comprehensive student-run cyber security event in the world, featuring nine competitions across six global regions. In the Applied Research Competition, industry experts served as judges who evaluated the originality, relevance, and accuracy of the research.

The achievement is a testament to the research and development being carried out at KU that aims to address the rapidly emerging changes in the landscape for cybersecurity.

“Participating in CSAW’19 was a great opportunity to present my research work and utilize the skills I have gained during my PhD. The experienced judges gave critical and valuable feedback on my work. Also, winning the competition provides proof of our important research work and distinguishes our publication from the rest,” Alrahis shared.

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SIFIVE RISC-V TECH SYMPOSIUM TEACH FACULTY AND STUDENTS LATEST DEVELOPMENT IN CHIP ARCHITECTURE

On Tuesday, 5 November, the System on Chip Center (SoCC) hosted the SiFive Tech Symposium at KU. SiFive is the company founded by the inventors of the RISC-V architecture, an open-source chip architecture. RISC stands for reduced instruction set computer. It is an open-source hardware instruction set architecture (ISA) based on RISC principles.

RISC-V based designs are at the heart of many new hardware and software solutions. The Symposium showcased current RISC-V core development boards, high bandwidth memory IP subsystem validation boards, and customizable RISC-V SoC platforms, all of which reduce risk, development time and cost while enabling differentiation within a silicon chip.

Many presentations were delivered by industry veterans, ecosystem partners and academic luminaries.

Attendees learned about custom cores and design platforms, and the SaaS-based approach that is enabling fast and easy access to them.

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APEC LINKS UP WITH AL AIN DISTRIBUTION COMPANY FOR JOINT EVENT TO PROMOTE PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF POWER ENGINEERING RESEARCH The Advanced Power and Energy Center (APEC) and the IEEE Power and Energy Society (PEC) organized the first Al Ain Distribution Company - Khalifa University (AADD-KU) Joint Event on Sunday, 24 November.

The aim of the joint event was to promote research and industrial collaboration of practical applications in the field of electrical power engineering. Distinguished experts and representatives from AADC, KU and UAE University presented a series of technical lectures on emerging research, practical knowledge and applications of electrical power engineering.

Faculty from APEC highlighted research related to renewable energy integration, modern power electronics devices, active transmission and distribution systems, high voltage and dielectric materials, and industry engagement and professional development.

Dr. Ehab El-Saadany, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Center Director of APEC, and Dr. Ahmed Al-Durra, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, participated in a panel during the event on the topic of “Bridging the Gaps in Front of Practical Research.”

The event concluded with technical tours of AADC facilities, including the AADC Primary Distribution Substation, the AADC Distribution Management System and the AADC Technical Training and Research Center.

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CMAT WORKSHOP ON PHOTOCATALYSIS

Masdar Institute’s Center for Membranes and Advanced Water Technologies (CMAT) at KU held a workshop on photocatalysis on Wednesday, 30 October 2019.

Photocatalysis is a promising technique for solving energy and environmental challenges.

Photocatalysis has the potential to transform greenhouse gases into fuel, and to purify air and water, among many other useful applications.

The workshop brought together academia and industry around local and global challenges, current advances, and sustainable solutions in the area of water and environmental remediation through advanced oxidation technologies.

The workshop featured several presentations from renowned professors in the fields of chemical and environmental engineering and catalysis.

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EBTIC TEAM SCORED FIRST PLACE IN DATA MINING CHALLENGE

Khalifa University’s Emirates ICT Innovation Center (EBTIC) has scored first place in the “Suspicious Network Event Recognition” - a data mining challenge organized in association with the IEEE BigData 2019 conference, beating out 2,400 solutions that were submitted.

Dr. Dymitr Ruta, Chief Researcher, and Dr. Cen Ling, Senior Researcher, from EBTIC teamed up with the former EBTIC colleague Dr. Quang Hieu Vu on a challenge to decide which internet security alerts should be regarded as suspicious based on information extracted from network traffic logs.

The team developed an efficient model to extract essential summarized content from billions of traffic event data and used it to efficiently train eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) – a state of the art machine learning model – to make the most accurate predictions. Their model outperformed the 249 competing teams from around the world, who submitted over 2,400 solutions.

The IEEE International Conference on Big Data (IEEE BigData) provides a leading forum for disseminating the latest research in Big Data. IEEE Big Data brings together leading researchers and developers from academia, research and the industry from all over the world to facilitate innovation, knowledge transfer and technical progress in addressing the 5 V’s (Velocity, Volume, Variety, Value and Veracity) of Big Data. The purpose of the conference is to identify deep technical and scientific nature of big data problems, and share the future direction on the development of nextgeneration solutions for data-driven decision making.

IEEE BigData 2019 is taking place in Los Angeles, California, USA from 9-12 December.

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NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY CENTER SUPPORTS INTERNATIONAL EFFORT TO DEVELOP RADIOLOGICAL IMPACT MODELS Dr. Philip Beeley pictured here (second row, third from left) with members of the MODARIA II program at the Working Group 4 final meeting in Vienna in October.

Over the past 15 months, Dr. Avin Pillay, Dr. Marouane Temimi, Dr. Yacine Addad, Dr. Sasi Stephen and Dr. Philip Beeley of KU’s Nuclear Technology Center (NTC) attended several working group meetings of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Modelling and Data for Radiological Impact Assessment (MODARIA) II program, which ran from 20162019.

The MODARIA II program brought together 140 scientists, regulators, operators, and radiation protection experts from around the world to maintain and develop capabilities in radiological impact assessment through comparison and application of assessment models

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to real situations, and to compile, analyze and evaluate data. Models are essential tools for use in the regulatory control of nuclear facilities and activities in planned, existing and emergency exposure situations. Modelling the fate of radionuclides in the environment and assessing the resulting radiation doses to people and the environment is critically needed to support the implementation of the IAEA safety standards.

The work carried out during the MODARIA II program meetings is directly related to NTC Theme 3 -- Radiation Safety in the Environment. One of the working groups specifically focused on gathering radiological data in arid regions, such as the UAE. While sufficient information about radionuclide behavior and interaction with

environments in temperate regions has been published and is available, there is little information on radioecology in arid areas. In order to be prepared for the potentially damaging impact of radioactivity accidentally released into such regions, it is important to construct the radioecological knowledge about transfer and impacts of radionuclides in arid areas characterized by ecosystems and climatic conditions very specific.

In addition, other working groups supported the modeling of atmospheric and aquatic dispersion of radioactive release.

Dr. Beeley, Chair and Professor of Nuclear Engineering, and Center Director of the NTC, attended the final technical meeting for the MODARIA II program in Vienna from 21-24 October 2019.

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SEAS PREPARES FOR FOURTH PLANTING SEASON Researchers at KU’s Sustainable Bioenergy Research Consortium (SBRC) have spent the past few weeks tilling, leveling, and replenishing the water levels in its integrated Seawater Energy and Agriculture System (SEAS), the flagship project of SBRC and the world’s first research facility to grow both food and fuel using desert lands irrigated by seawater. They are preparing to plant the fourth season of Salicornia plants, whose oil-rich seeds are harvested to produce aviation biofuel.

KU Researchers plant and irrigate Salicornia plants at the SEAS facility in Masdar City

“This season will be dedicated to increasing the yields of the oilseed crop based on experience gained from previous seasons by implementing a different planting strategy and a supplementary irrigation methodology during the germination phase of the plant,” said Research Engineer Jose Barron.

“Two of the eight fields will be dedicated to grow three of the best performing accessions based on the recommendation of the halophyte breeding team.”

From the aquaculture side, the ponds are also being prepared to be restocked with a fin fish species to explore the feasibility of growing higher market value seafood at demonstration scale. Fin fish species is more attractive to the UAE market than the Indian White Shrimp, Tilapia, and Sea Bream species that were cultivated previously.

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CENTER ON DIGITAL SUPPLY CHAIN AND OPERATIONS BUILDS CONNECTIONS AND KNOWLEDGE IN LOGISTICS Faculty from KU’s Research Center on Digital Supply Chain and Operations Management (DSO) have returned from a visit to the Netherlands where they met with experts from industry and academia to learn about the country’s logistics industry.

From 28 – 30 October, Assistant Professors of Industrial and Systems Engineering Dr. Andrei Sleptchenko and Dr. Heungjo An met with representatives from TKIDinalog (Dutch Institute for Advanced Logistics), a Dutch-based logistics and supply chain company; faculty and students from Erasmus University Rotterdam; and professionals from Fokker Services,

an independent aerospace service provider.

The visit centered around potential collaboration opportunities with the DSO Center, which has set a major focus on digitalizing and optimizing areas like maritime logistics and production lines.

The Netherland’s Port of Rotterdam, which is the largest port in Europe, is a pioneer in port digitalization and a perfect case study for researchers in the DSO Center. The organizations and research centers the KU faculty visited throughout their trip are heavily involved in the Port’s ongoing transition into the world’s smartest port.

The Port of Rotterdam was the first port in the world to launch an automated terminal back in 1993. Pictured here are automated guide vehicles (AGVs) used to transport containers.

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At TKI-Dinalog’s headquarters, Dr. Sleptchenko and Dr. An met with Prof. Henk Zijm, former Research Director of DINALOG, and active collaborator of the DSO Center; Dr. Nils Knofius, postdoc at the University of Twente; Bas van Bree, Program Manager at TKI Dinalog; and Jasper de Graaf, Program Developer at TKI Dinalog.

TKI-Dinalog mediates collaborations between Dutch logistical companies and national research funds and Dutch universities.

Dr. Sleptchenko and Dr. An were keen to learn more about how TKI-Dinalog is organized, and how they could bring that experience back to KU. During their visit to the Erasmus University, the KU faculty met with Dr. Rob Zuidwijk, Professor of Global Supply Chains and Ports at the Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) and a DSO center steering committee member, and Dr. Rommert Dekker, Professor of Operations Research, Quantitative Logistics, and IT at the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE), along with some PhD students. Discussions were centered around the DSO’s planned research activities and potential collaboration projects, the ESE’s maritime logistics research, and the activities and developments at the SmartPort research center at RSM. SmartPort is a center of excellence offering port related education and research, designed to address the Port of Rotterdam’s need for solid knowledge.

The trip concluded with a visit to Fokker Services, where the KU team met with Kaveh Alizadeh, Proposition Manager Aircraft Programs, Charlotte Zohlandt, Teamlead Product Management, and postdoc Dr. Nils Knofius. They discussed potential collaboration opportunities on the research projects related to additive manufacturing (or 3D printing) of service parts, which is directly related to Research Theme 1 of the DSO Center, which addresses the need for optimizing spare parts management for aerospace and defense industries.

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2ND BIOTECHNOLOGY SYMPOSIUM TACKLES CLINICAL APPLICATIONS OF NEXTGENERATION SEQUENCING Khalifa University’s Center for Biotechnology (BTC) hosted its second Biotechnology Symposium from 16–17 December 2019 at the Main Campus.

Under the theme ‘Clinical Applications of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS)’, the symposium was an opportunity to showcase and highlight the research being carried out by the Center in the area of genetics, specifically regarding how to use genome data for clinical applications and for developing personalized medicine programs that are ‘Predictive, Preventive, Personalized, and Participatory (P4)’.

Dr. Habiba Alsafar, Director, BTC, opened the symposium with a brief backgrounder of

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the BTC’s mission to characterize and annotate the UAE reference genome for P4 medicine initiatives.

Members of the BTC research team presented their work alongside international experts on genome data for diagnostic and predictive applications.

Dr. Anand Saggar, from St. George’s University Hospitals, London, discussed the current use and the future of Nextgeneration Sequencing and Direct Clinical Care. Dr. Katie Snape, also from St. George’s University Hospitals, London, spoke about Integrating Cancer Genomics into Transformative Care Pathways for Cancer Patients.

KU’s Dr. Sabina Semiz, Professor, Molecular Biology and Genetics, presented the

topic Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Treatment for Type 2 Diabetes. While Dr. Guan Tay of the University of Western Australia, Perth, talked about the Genomic Organization of the Major Histocompatibility Complex. Sequencing Applications for Assisted Reproduction was presented

by Dr. Braulio Peramo, Medical Director and General Manager, Al Ain Fertility Center.

A workshop on NGS Analysis Pipelines and Clinical Requirements for Reporting Genetic Variants and a round table discussion on the VRI2019/20 Initiative of the Abu Dhabi Research and Development Authority were also conducted during the 2-day symposium, as well as poster sessions of the works of BTC researchers.

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FIRST UAE-JAPAN HYDROGEN WORKSHOP TO JUMP START HYDROGEN SUPPLY CHAIN COLLABORATIONS

The workshop was attended by Prof. Masakazu Toyoda, Chairman and CEO of IEEJ; Prof. Kazunari Sasaki, SVP of Kyushu University; Kazuma Shibata, Deputy General Manager for Marketing Planning, Toyota Motor Asia Pacific; Prof. Stephen Lyth, Associate Professor, Kyushu University; and Prof.

Haiwen Li, Associate Professor, Kyushu University.

Representatives from UAE industry players such as Dr. Mohamed Shahtout, Continuous Movement Manager, Emirates Steel; Dr. Sgouris Sgouridis, Director of Research Programs, Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA); and Dr. M. Toqan, CEO, ATD also attended the event.

Khalifa University hosted the first UAE-Japan Hydrogen Workshop on 15 December 2019 at Shangri-la Hotel, Abu Dhabi.

Organized by KU’s Research and Innovation Center on CO2 and H2 (RICH), in collaboration with Kyushu University and the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ), the event aims to launch and foster bilateral collaborations between the UAE and Japan in the area of hydrogen supply chain, link the academia with the industry, and define the background for industrial-academia collaborations.

Some of the topics discussed in the workshop were hydrogen utilization, the role of H2 in the sustainable economy, and hydrogen as a source of energy. Dr. Lourdes Vega, Director, RICH, also led a roundtable discussion on the ‘Present and Future of H2—Way Forward’.

A highlight of the workshop was that Toyota Motor Corporation brought the Toyota Mirai, the company’s fuel cell electric vehicle that is powered by hydrogen. Participants were able to see the vehicle up close and even test ride the car during the event.

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KHALIFA UNIVERSITY HOSTS 10TH KU-KAIST JOINT RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM The 10th KU-KAIST Joint Research Symposium was held from 18-19 December 2019 at the Khalifa University Main Campus.

The event is the largest symposium to date between Khalifa University (KU) of the UAE and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) of South Korea. Around 50 delegates from KAIST comprised of faculty members, research staff, and students who came to the UAE to share and discuss research achievements. The KAIST delegation was led by Dr. Hyunwook Park, VP for Research; Dr. Changheui Jang, Associate VP and Dean of KAI-NEET Institute; Dr. Jonghyun Kim, Director of KAIST-KU Joint Research Center; and Dr. Sungmin Choi, Chair of Nuclear & Quantum Engineering.

During the symposium, joint presentations were given by KU and KAIST Principal Investigators (PIs) on the 24 ongoing collaboration projects in areas such as Smart Transportation, Smart Health Care, Nuclear Materials, Robotics/Drones, Energy, Chemistry, etc.

The event was an opportunity to discuss the projects, maximize synergetic effects, strengthen the KU-KAIST partnership, and plan strategies moving forward.

Since 2011, KU and KAIST have carried out over 200 joint research projects in various fields. This partnership has reached a milestone in 2019 as Joint Research Centers were launched in the UAE in April 2019 and in Korea in July 2019, further strengthening the ties between the two countries to carry out joint research on technologies that are shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The next symposium scheduled in 2020 will be hosted by KAIST in South Korea.

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RECRUITING TOP STUDENTS

INTERNATIONAL GRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP FAIR Khalifa University, represented

by Dr. TieJun Zhang, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering along with Hongxia Li, Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Noora AlSheebani, Student Recruitment Officer, introduced over 250 students from six different universities across five Chinese cities to the graduate study, research and scholarship opportunities at KU during the International Graduate Scholarship Fair (IGSF) from 1826 October 2019.

The IGSF provides information on graduate scholarships and fellowships at international universities and the China Scholarship Council (CSC) to excellent students who wish to pursue postgraduate study or doctoral research overseas.

It also aims to strengthen ties between CSC and international institutions and promote academic exchange with Chinese and international universities.

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REGION’S BIGGEST RECRUITING FAIR - NAJAH

Khalifa University participated in NAJAH Abu Dhabi 2019 - the region’s most important higher education exhibition, which was held from 31 October to 2 November. KU faculty and staff met with hundreds of students to share information about the latest academic programs and research activities offered at KU. 61 KU TIMES

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RECRUITING TOP TALENT IN EGYPT

Dr. Hatem Zeineldin, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at KU, visited four top-ranking universities in Egypt, including Alexandria University, American University in Cairo, Mansoura University and Cairo University, to highlight and present KU’s research, academic offerings and scholarship programs. He was accompanied by Fatima Al Qubaisi and Amira Abdulkarim from the Student Recruitment and Admissions Office.

Undergraduate and graduate students attended the information sessions highlighting the process for applying to the various graduate programs at KU.

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KU AWARDED FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO ‘ZAYED’S AMBITION’

HE Hamad Obaid AlMansoori, Chairman of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center, presented an award to Dr. Arif Al Hammadi, Executive Vice President of Khalifa University, for the University’s contribution to the success of the UAE’s first astronaut’s mission to space, which took place under the slogan ‘Zayed’s Ambition.’

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VIP VIST Dr. Christopher P. Manfredi, Provost and Vice-Principal Academic at McGill University, visited KU on Tuesday, 29 October 2019, and met with Dr. Arif Al Hammadi, Executive Vice President, and other members of KU’s leadership team.

During the meeting, both parties explored potential areas of cooperation including research collaboration, training and internship opportunities, and student and faculty exchange. McGill University is among the top 50 universities worldwide.

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HE SHEIKH NAHYAN BIN MUBARAK AL NAHYAN, MINISTER OF TOLERANCE, VISITS BODY WORLDS

HE ENG. KAMAL BIN AHMED MOHAMMED, BAHRAINI MINISTER OF TRANSPORTATION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS, VISITS KU

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VIP VIST MUBADALA HEALTHCARE VISITS COLLEGE OF MEDICINE AND HEALTH SCIENCES

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Khalifa University welcomed a senior delegation from Mubadala Healthcare (MHC) to our Main Campus on Thursday, 21 November. This visit came following the signing of an MoU between KU and MHC to collaborate on projects related to the KU’s new medical college. The visit included a tour of the College of Medicine and Health Sciences’ (CMHS) state-ofthe-art facilities including the anatomy labs and OSCE labs (one of the largest in the region for training of physicians and healthcare professionals). the visit also included a meeting with senior management from the CMHS, including Dr. John Rock, Founding Dean of CMHS and Senior VP Health Affairs; Dr. Robert Hernandez, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs; Dr. David Graham, Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs; and Dr. Georg Petroianu, Associate Dean for Research, Technology and Innovation.

During the meeting, participants discussed collaboration opportunities with the National Reference Lab, discussed future joint research projects, and also discussed the potential to partner with adjunct clinical faculty at Mubadalaowned health care facilities, including Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi.

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MINISTERS FROM THE MALDIVES We were pleased to host HE Dr. Ibrahim Hassan, Minister of Higher Education in the Maldives, and HE Dr. Khadija Adam, Minister of State for Higher Education in the Maldives, and their delegation during a visit to Khalifa University’s Main Campus. The visit included a tour of Body Worlds and KU’s research centers and stateof-the-art labs, including the Robotics Lab, the Aerospace Research and Innovation Center (ARIC), the Emirates ICT Innovation Center (EBTIC) and the KU Biotechnology Center (BTC).

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SEMINARS

USING AI AND SATELLITES TO ENHANCE WEATHER AND ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING

Dr. Sid-Ahmed Boukabara, Deputy Director of the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA) and Principal Scientist for NOAA’s Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR), visited Khalifa University and met with members of the KU Coastal and Environmental Sensing and Modeling (CESAM) Lab, including the CESAM Lab director Dr. Marouane Temimi, Associate Professor of Civil Infrastructure and Environmental Engineering.

CESAM is active in the field of numerical weather prediction and the use of satellite imagery for the monitoring of environmental processes. This is in line with

DR. MARK DRESSMAN ENCOURAGES BEING IDLE IN THE CLASSROOM

The second seminar for this semester from the English Department saw Dr. Mark Dressman, Professor of English, take to the stage to discuss informal language learning in the classroom.

IDLE, or Informal Digital Learning of English, is a rapidly growing global phenomenon first described by Dr. Dressman and Dr. Ju Seong Lee of the Education University of Hong Kong.

“In many countries around the world, students are using digital media such as movies, television, video games, and social networking, as well as contact with other speakers through tourism or study abroad, as critical parts of their English acquisition process, in addition to formal lessons in school or after-school learning centers,” explained Dr. Dressman.

IDLE sees students either teaching

activities led by The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the USA. Dr.Boukabara delivered a lecture titled “On the Use of AI and Satellite Imagery to Enhance Weather and Environmental Monitoring” to interested students and faculty about the use of AI and satellite imagery to enhance weather and environmental monitoring.

He also toured the CESAM Lab and discussed some of NOAA’s ongoing projects in the field and future satellite missions.

themselves or “picking up” English through a wide variety of mostly digital resources.

In his seminar, Dr. Dressman discussed his findings from studies of IDLE in Morocco, where he began his career as an English teacher, and in South Korea by co-author Dr. Lee. He spent time focusing on the qualities of IDLE, such as authenticity, learner autonomy, research variety, and ubiquity, and their potential adaptation to classroom settings. Using three examples of strategies adapted from his research, namely vlogging and podcasting, uses of YouTube, and the ethnography of IDLE, Dr. Dressman showed how they can empower classroom learning and help students master the English language at university.

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LINGUISTIC KNOWLEDGE NEEDS OF SCIENCE TEACHERS USING ENGLISH AS A MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION

In the third seminar for this semester from the English Department, Dr. Mark Wyatt, Associate Professor of English, addressed the knowledge science teachers needed to use English as their medium of instruction among English as a foreign language (EFL) students.

In many parts of the world, there is a great need for qualified scientists and engineers. Yet, unfortunately, many science teachers must increasingly use English as a medium of instruction with students still learning the English language. These teachers currently lack the opportunities needed for targeted professional development that would help them to help more of the English language learners to succeed. Where training is provided, it tends to be focused mostly on standard EFL teaching pedagogy—little help to science

RESEARCH FROM PERTH, AUSTRALIA, PRESENTED AT KU ON PREDICTING THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF NANOCOMPOSITES

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Dr. Yu Dong, Senior Lecturer at the School of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at Curtin University, visited KU to deliver a seminar titled “Modelling elastic modulus of PVA bio-nanocomposites based on 3D interphase.”

In recent years, the prediction of mechanical properties of nanocomposites, particularly elastic modulus, using theoretical and numerical modelling approaches to correlate the processing-structure-property relationship has drawn great attention. However, many conventional theoretical models generally neglect the effect of interphase features like interphase dimensions and properties, as well as volume fraction on overall mechanical properties of nanocomposites.

teachers using discipline-specific linguistics.

Dr. Wyatt used examples from various science texts to illustrate these linguistic challenges in a Middle Eastern university context to explain the professional development training needed by science teachers in the region.

“While it is important that science teachers with English language learners can contextualize the language or pre-teach vocabulary, they also need to be alert to features of scientific discourse in English that their students find challenging,” explained Dr. Wyatt.

“They may also need to support skills such as close reading, skills which are sometimes given less attention in the classroom than skimming and scanning.”

Dr. Dong proposed a novel theoretic modelling framework to systematically calculate interphase volume fraction according to stereological theory and nearest-surface distribution functions so that elastic modulus of bulk bionanocomposite films could be more accurately predicted.

He explained how a threephase composite model was developed using hard-core-softshell structures, namely hard mono/polydispersed anisotropic particles, soft interphase, and matrices.

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PROFESSOR OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DELIVERS SEMINAR ON NANOSCALE CARBON MATERIALS FOR RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES

To share his research on nanoscale carbon materials for multifunctional nanocomposites and rechargeable batteries, Dr. JangKyo Kim, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, visited KU and lectured in the main campus auditorium.

Nanocarbon materials are a class of carbon-based nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes, carbon nanofibers, graphene and graphite nanoplates, that are extensively used as fillers, supports and substrated. Prof. Kim presented the preparation of 2D and 3D graphene architectures into polymer-based nanocomposite materials to be explored for multifunctional applications, including EMI shielding, dielectric materials, thermal interface materials, and wearable sensors.

HEAD OF THE SPACE DYNAMICS GROUP INTRODUCES THE SELF-BALANCED ELECTRODYNAMIC TETHER CONCEPT

Every spacecraft on every mission has to carry all the energy sources required to get its job done, typically in the form of chemical propellants, photovoltaic arrays or nuclear reactors. Dr. Jesus Pelaez, Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the Technical University of Madrid, visited KU to share insight to a new and experimentally tested technology: the electrodynamic space tether (EDT).

Electrodynamic tethers, as Dr.Pelaez explained, are conducting wires that can be either insulated (in part or in whole) or bare, and that make use of an ambient magnetic field to induce a voltage drop across their length.

An EDT exploits some fundamental laws of physics to provide pointing, artificial gravity, electrical power, and thrust or drag, while reducing or eliminating the need for chemicalenergy sources.

One application of electrodynamic tethers that is particularly attractive and feasible, according to Dr. Pelaez,

Prof. Kim explained that nanocarbon materials with different structures can also be employed as substrate for composite electrodes to develop high-performance rechargeable lithium and sodium ion batteries possessing high energy and power densities. He discussed the effects of pores and cavities of various sizes and distributions, surface area, graphitizing sacrificial metals, activation and functionalizing agents on functional characteristics of nanocarbon materials and the electrochemical performance of the batteries.

Novel in-situ characterization tools and theoretical analyses based on density functional theory and ab initio molecular dynamic simulations were also introduced to establish the relationship between the material characteristics and battery performance.

is deorbiting of satellites at the end of their operational life from low Earth orbits (LEO), especially in space debris mitigation. EDTs are able to exert electrodynamic drag at heights were the aerodynamic drag is negligible. This production of drag is reliable, cheaper than other solutions, and does not need to use fuel to deorbit space debris.

Rather, it can recover a significant part of the orbital energy of the debris during the process of deorbit. These advantages make EDTs one of the most promising technologies for this operation.

Dr. Pelaez also introduced the possibility of balancing the electrodynamic tether to avoid the dynamic instability of EDTs in inclined orbits. Considering that very large “mega-constellations� of thousands of satellites are being deployed in low earth orbits, the self-balanced electrodynamic tether could be of paramount interest.

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VISITING PROFESSOR DELIVERS SEMINAR ON GENERATING AND ANALYZING MASSIVE GRAPH QUERY LOGS

Prof. Angela Bonifati, Professor of Computer Science at University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, visited KU to share her insights to generating and analyzing massive graph query logs.

Several modern graph query languages are capable of expressing sophisticated graph queries, which return nodes connected by arbitrarily complex labelled paths. Such paths can be encoded as regular expressions and oftentimes involve recursion. These are also known as Regular Path Queries (RPQ) and can be expressed in many popular graph query languages.

Prof. Bonifati focused on the schema-driven generation problem of synthetic graph query workloads and their companion graph instances. Many parameters can be tuned in the generation, such as the amount of recursion in the generated queries, the ability to target and control the diversity of properties in both instances and

VISITING PROFESSOR DELIVERS SEMINAR ON PATIENT SAFETY SURVEILLANCE AND MACHINE LEARNING

Dr. Al Ozonoff, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, visited Main Campus to deliver a seminar on patient safety event surveillance using machine learning and free text clinical notes.

Harm to patients during healthcare delivery is an important public health problem.

Recent estimates suggest that medical errors in United States hospitals contribute to over 100,000 patient deaths annually.

Despite the high burden of mortality and morbidity, available data on patient safety events has important limitations.

Dr. Ozonoff’s seminar discussed patient safety in healthcare and the surveillance of patient

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query workloads and the selectivity estimation of the generated queries. Prof. Bonifati illustrated the framework’s capabilities in generating high quality graphs and workloads, and its ability to encode user-defined schemas across a variety of application domains.

Recently, Prof. Bonifati and her team have also investigated RPQs and their upper query fragments by conducting an in-depth and diversified analysis of massive query logs.

Her analysis of the query traffic on one graph query language endpoints revealed interesting and unforeseen findings concerning the usage, types of recursion, and the shape classification of complex recursive queries. Prof. Bonifati provided the audience a thorough characterization of the queries in terms of their expressive power, topological structure and shape, and a detailed understanding on the usage of recursion in these logs.

safety events using peripheral intravenous infiltrations as an example of a safety event that may be underreported.

Dr. Ozonoff’s research focuses on the development and application of surveillance methods in the fields of public health, healthcare quality, and patient safety.

At KU, he described an approach using machine learning and Natural Language Processing to identify events from the free text clinical notes contained within an electronic medical record.

Dr. Ozonoff showed results from his pilot study and explained the further possible applications of his approach to surveillance of patient safety events.

MY CAMPUS, MY COMMUNITY

VISITING PROFESSOR EXPLAINS THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIETAL IMPACTS OF SPACE WEATHER

Dr. Daniel N. Baker, Director of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, visited Main Campus to discuss space weather impacts and their economic and societal costs.

Modern technological society is characterized by a complex set of interdependencies among its critical infrastructures. These are vulnerable to the effects of intense geomagnetic storms and solar storms. Strong currents flowing in the ionosphere can disrupt and damage Earth-based electric power grids and contribute to the accelerated corrosion of oil and gas pipelines. Magnetic stormdriven ionospheric disturbances interfere with high-frequency radio communications and navigation signals from GPS satellites.

arrays, and blind optical systems such as images and star trackers,” he told the audience. “Moreover, intense solar particle events present a significant radiation hazard for astronauts during the high-latitude segment of the International Space Station orbit, as well as for future human explorers of the Moon and Mars.”

In addition to such direct effects as spacecraft anomalies or power grid outages, a thorough assessment of the impact of space weather events on present-day society must also include the collateral effects of spaceweather-driven technology failures.

For example, polar cap absorption events due to solar particles can degrade radio communications along transpolar aviation routes. Dr. Baker covered the makeup of a complete picture of the socioeconomic impact on space weather in his seminar and explained that it is imperative that our technological society develops a truly operational space weather observing and modeling system.

VISITING PROFESSOR SHARES ADVANCES IN ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEM INTERCONNECTION

deliver a lecture on the advances in electric power system interconnection in Japan and share his experience with students.

The electric power system in Japan has many unique technical features such as the use of two different frequencies with HighVoltage AC and DC (HVAC and HVDC) transmission lines in service linking the different supply areas operated by the electric power companies.

“There are 10 major electric power companies in Japan,” explained Dr. Ohtsuka. “All are interlinked except Okinawa, which is completely isolated due to its island location.”

Dr. Ohtsuka explained how the Japanese electric power system is linked together, focusing especially on the linkage between the different frequency areas and where the HVDC transmission lines are applied, along with an overview of frequency control.

“Japan also has specific issues from frequent natural disasters affecting the operation of the power system, such as earthquakes and typhoons because of the country’s location and its volcanic activity,” added Dr. Ohtsuka.

He concluded by presenting the changes to the electric power supply in the event of such large natural disasters and explained how the current system is configured following the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011.

As Dr. Baker explained, the impact of space weather on earth pales in comparison to the impacts on spacecraft.

“Exposure of spacecraft to solar particles and radiation belt enhancements can cause temporary operational anomalies, damage critical electronics, degrade solar

Dr. Ohtsuka Shinya, Associate Professor at the Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan, visited the Khalifa University SAN campus to 73 KU TIMES

FROM THE NEWSROOM

Highlights of the latest important announcements, strategic initiatives, new partnerships, and VIP visits

VIP UNIVERSITY VIST KHALIFA SHOWCASED RESEARCH INNOVATIONS IN STRATEGIC OIL AND GAS SECTOR AT ADIPEC 2019

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FROM THE NEWSROOM

Khalifa University showcased research innovations in the strategic oil and gas sector, presented research papers and lead knowledge-sharing sessions at Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) 2019.

The 35th edition of ADIPEC, one of the world’s largest, most important and influential oil and gas events, was held from 11-14 November at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center (ADNEC).

The KU stand displayed projects, including a smart monitoring system for inspecting oil pipelines, while faculty and researchers presented five papers about their scientific contributions in the discovery of new technologies in petroleum exploration, production and distribution.

Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice President of Khalifa University, said: “The oil and gas sector remains strategically vital for the UAE and therefore requires closer monitoring and inspection to ensure longevity of the industry assets. With our cuttingedge research, our faculty experts continue to train students and guide them into focusing on developing new technology solutions in both downstream and upstream areas. The projects presented at our stand and the papers presented by our researchers

strongly illustrate the extent and depth of our involvement in this industry, as we continue to lead with pioneering innovations that benefit industry and government sector stakeholders.”

The Khalifa University research papers covered scientific explorations focusing on black powder that helps in ensuring smooth supply and distribution in oil pipelines, design of improved oil recovery from tight carbonate reservoirs in UAE oil fields, and drill-in fluid and wellbore cleanup fluid that facilitate full capacity production in an oil well while minimizing corrosion of downhole tools.

Another research paper will focus on Autonomous Robotic Inspection System (ARIS) – a cost-effective inspection tool for non-contact external detection of defects in highly vulnerable aging oil supply pipelines. A paper on using photovoltaic (PV) arrays as shades to reduce the thermal load on laborers working in extreme weather conditions, especially at oil rigs during long working hours, was also be presented.

Khalifa University researchers are also working on a datadriven workflow, combining deep learning, rock imaging and modeling, which offers great potential in accurately estimating the properties of oil reservoir for reservoir management and enhanced oil recovery strategy.

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VIP VIST KU HOSTED SPE-ADIPEC UNIVERSITY PROGRAM AND WELCOMED 79 STUDENTS FROM MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA REGION

As the Venue Host for the SPE-ADIPEC University Program, Khalifa University hosted a total of 79 students from the MENA region, providing them with the chance to develop a meaningful experience in the oil and gas industry as they transition from student to professional.

Each year the 3-day program, which takes place during the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC), plays an important role in the professional development of Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) undergraduate students studying engineering and geosciences. The program gives students a chance to meet other SPE participants from the region so they can make connections and expand their network within the industry they are about to enter, meet with professionals, hear from experts, and partake in industry field trips They also engage in a challenging project that requires teamwork. This year, the 79 students were divided into 19 teams, and developed presentations on the theme of ‘Co-Development Opportunities with Oil & Gas Renewable Projects.’ Four of the SPE_ADIPEC students were from Khalifa University. Dr. Emad Al Shalabi, Assistant Professor of Petroleum Engineering and a professional SPE member since 2006, supported the activities and was instrumental in facilitating the student presentation competition.

SPE ADIPEC University Program members participate in knowledge sharing sessions

SPE-ADIPEC University Program participants heard from ADNOC LNG’s CEO, Fatema Al Nuaimi and other experts in the oil and gas industry during the 3-day program.

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FROM THE NEWSROOM

VIPUNIVERSITY VIST KHALIFA COLLEGE OF MEDICINE AND HEALTH SCIENCES ESTABLISHES 14-MEMBER EXECUTIVE ADVISORY COUNCIL their experience and knowledge to help us chart the right course of action that will create the CMHS into a center of excellence for medical education.”

Panel members assessed the integrated curriculum of the Khalifa University CMHS and discussed the prospects, challenges and opportunities of the program. They also deliberated on shaping and driving the strategies to improve the academic performance of CMHS to excel in medical education.

Khalifa University’s College of Medicine and Health Sciences, which commenced classes in September 2019, is the first 4X4 allopathic LCMEcomparable (Liaison Committee on Medical Education), post-baccalaureate medical college, which prepares its medical students for residency programs in the US and Canada.

Khalifa University of Science and Technology’s College of Medicine and Health Sciences (CMHS) has established a 14-member executive advisory council of industry professionals to drive and shape the strategies, and develop into a center of excellence in medical education.

Dr Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, welcomed the panel members who gathered for the inaugural meeting that was headed by Dr John Rock, Founding Dean, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Khalifa University.

The advisory council members include prominent stakeholders from the UAE healthcare sector such as Dr. Khaled Aidha Al Jaberi, Director, Healthcare Licensing & Medical Education

Division, Abu Dhabi Department of Health; Brigadier Aysha Al Dhaheri, Commander Medical Services Corp.,; Dr. Gareth Goodier, Group Chief Executive Officer, Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA); and Dr. Daryl A. Cornish, Director, Fatima College of Health Sciences (FCHS), NMC Royal Hospital. Dr. Shamsheer Vayalil, Chairman and Managing Director, VPS Healthcare, represents the private sector on the panel.

Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi said: “We welcome members of the newly constituted executive advisory council for the College of Medicine and Health Sciences. These professionals are the stakeholders representing the UAE’s healthcare sector. We are keen to listen to their recommendations and we believe these industry experts will share

The Khalifa University College of Medicine and Health Sciences has also developed an OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) and Simulation Center, which is designed to test clinical skill performance.

The program provides a hands-on real-world approach to learning and assessment. This program will serve hospital residency programs, military training units, and other medical schools in the UAE. Additionally, the College of Medicine and Health Sciences has developed a state-of-the-art testing center, which is created with Prometric and Pearson VUE standards. The center will enable Graduate Record Examinations (GRE), National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME), United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) and Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) testing on site.

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FROM THE NEWSROOM

KHALIFA UNIVERSITY RANKED TOP IN UAE

BY US NEWS & WORLD REPORT’S 2020 BEST GLOBAL UNIVERSITIES RANKINGS UNIVERSITY ALSO COMES AMONG BEST GLOBAL UNIVERSITIES IN ASIA WITH STELLAR RANKINGS FOR ‘REGIONAL RESEARCH REPUTATION’

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FROM THE NEWSROOM

Khalifa University is ranked top in the UAE in the 2020 edition of the Best Global Universities rankings, according to the US News & World Report, the global authority in education rankings, thus confirming another international recognition for the research-intensive institution.

In the most comprehensive assessment of research universities worldwide, the new edition of the US News & World Report evaluates over 1,500 institutions or universities in 81 countries on academic research and reputation.

Khalifa University has achieved the top spot in the UAE, ahead of other universities in the country. The university has specifically scored well in the ‘Regional research reputation’ category, which reflects the aggregation of the most recent five years of results of the Academic Reputation Survey for the best universities for research in the region.

The university also came #22 in the ‘International Collaboration’ category, which indicates the proportion of the institution’s total papers that contain international co-authors – another measure of quality.

Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, said: “The excellent regional and international recognition in the US News & World Report’s 2020 Best Global Universities Rankings strongly reaffirms our status as a leading research-intensive higher education institution that excels in quality. Such rankings also reflect Khalifa University’s faculty

expertise and research collaborations with top global, regional and local organizations that contribute to scientific exploration in strategic fields. We believe the current ranking will further inspire us to widen the scope of our research areas as we establish ourselves as an institution for qualitative academic research.”

In Subject rankings, the US News & World Report’s 2020 Best Global Universities Rankings placed Khalifa University #114 in ‘Engineering’ in general, and #123 in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

In general, Khalifa University was placed 651st globally in the list of over 1,500 world class universities.

Based on Web of Science data and InCites metrics provided by the Web of Science Group, the Best Global Universities methodology weighs factors that measure a university’s global and regional research reputation and academic research performance. For the overall rankings, this includes bibliometric indicators such as publications, citations and international collaboration. Each subject ranking has its own methodology based on academic research performance and reputation in that specific area.

Recently, Khalifa University was ranked first in the UAE, second in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and among the top 200 globally in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2020 by Subject: Engineering and Technology.

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IAEA AND KHALIFA UNIVERSITY HOSTED FIVE-DAY TRAINING COURSE ON NUCLEAR POWER INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT TEAM OF EXPERTS OFFERING OVERVIEW OF IAEA’S MILESTONES APPROACH AND NUCLEAR INFRASTRUCTURE ISSUES TO IMPLEMENT N-POWER PROGRAMS

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Khalifa University and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) jointly organized a five-day training course on nuclear power infrastructure development at the Main Campus in Abu Dhabi.

The course, held from 8-12 December by a team of experts, aimed to provide an overview of the IAEA’s Milestones Approach and the nuclear infrastructure issues countries should consider and address when implementing new nuclear power programs.

The course was titled ‘Supporting Knowledgeable Decision-making and Building Capacities to Start and Implement Nuclear Power Programs.’ Around 25 participants shared their experiences during the course.

FROM THE NEWSROOM

nuclear safety, nuclear security and nuclear safeguards, while highlighting the management, human resource development and stakeholder involvement. It included a combination of classroom lectures, facility visits and interactive exercises.

The course included discussions, case studies, peer-to-peer exchange of good practices, and working group sessions on related topical issues. This provided participants the opportunity to discuss common challenges and lessons learnt, while fostering enhanced networking between member states embarking on new nuclear power programs.

Earlier, in May 2017, Khalifa University hosted the weeklong IAEA Nuclear Energy Management (NEM) School, the third joint UAE-IAEA regional NEM School since 2012 and 2015. In September 2019, an IAEA team concluded a five-day follow-up mission to review the emergency preparedness and response framework for nuclear and radiological emergencies in the UAE. The Emergency Preparedness Review (EPREV) was carried out at the request of the UAE Government.

One of the 18 dedicated research centers, Khalifa University’s recently-launched Emirates Nuclear Technology Center (ENTC) aims to support the UAE’s nuclear technology research capability and help deliver safe, clean and efficient nuclear energy to meet the strategic UAE 2030 vision, while protecting the public, workers and the environment.

The IAEA Training Course on Nuclear Power Infrastructure Development provided an overview of IAEA’s Milestones Approach and the nuclear infrastructure issues countries should address when implementing new nuclear power programs.

It emphasized development of the key organizations involved in the nuclear power programs, specifically, the nuclear energy program implementing organization (NEPIO), owner/operator and regulatory body. It provided an opportunity to share best practices for establishing a strong regulatory framework and exchange experiences in the licensing process from both the regulator and owner/operator perspective.

Led by IAEA experts, the training course focused on the implementation of national requirements for

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FROM THE NEWSROOM

ANKABUT LAUNCHES ANAAPP, FIRST OF A KIND CLOUD-BASED APPLICATION VIRTUALIZATION PLATFORM ANAAPP SERVES AS REPOSITORY FOR AN ENTIRE UNIVERSITY SOFTWARE CATALOG BENEFITING RESEARCHERS AND ACADEMIC SECTOR STAKEHOLDERS

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FROM THE NEWSROOM

Ankabut, the Emirates Advanced National Research and Education Network, an initiative of Khalifa University of Science and Technology, announced the official launch of AnaApp (Applications Anywhere, Anytime, Any Device), a first-of-a-kind application virtualization platform that serves as a repository for a university’s entire software catalog, benefiting researchers and academic sector stakeholders in particular and others in general.

Ankabut, in cooperation with Software2, incorporated a large array of added applications in AnaApp which is already fully operational, currently serving Khalifa University in the UAE and more are expected to sign up in the coming weeks. Stakeholders in the research and academic communities can access or work on the software on-demand while in the cloud or download their applications to their devices regardless of the operating system for easy access and for completing core and non-core tasks.

AnaApp also offers access to scores of academic-related and professional programs including MATLAB, SolidWorks, ANSYS, and Adobe.

Fahem Al-Nuaimi, Chief Executive Officer, Ankabut, said: “We are delighted to announce the official launch of AnaApp, the first-of-a-kind cloud-based application virtualization platform that has already become fully operational, offering academic institutions and universities multiple benefits. It can be remotely accessed, thus providing researchers and academics the easy mobility and the ease of working from any location. As a pioneer in offering reliable and secure connectivity in the Arab world, Ankabut is proud to add AnaApp to its existing range of services, while looking forward to increasing our dedicated offerings in the near future.”

In the cloud domain, Ankabut currently operates and connects more than 30 different universities in the UAE while

more are expected to become part of the network in the coming months. In the managed services area, Ankabut provides support to all IT aspects such as network monitoring, security, backup, and disaster recovery service. It also facilitates seamless connectivity so that classes held anywhere in the world can be aired in real time in the UAE. Ankabut also provides dedicated, unconstrained network connectivity for eligible research and educational institutions throughout the country. At the same time, Ankabut’s Disaster Recovery guarantees quality performance and protection without interruption that provides privileges including customized solutions, security, and core business focus, reduced downtime and 24/7 operations.

Additionally, Ankabut provides a unified Learning Management System across the UAE to enable educators to drive student development through innovative advanced digital classroom abilities, while introducing a conducive and structured information exchange environment for integrating students, parents, teachers and the administration of schools, colleges or universities.

The first network to be IPv6enabled in the Middle East region, Ankabut delivers four major technology services categories to provide over 20 education technology services for developing a collaborative approach to research and education in the UAE and the region. Managed by Khalifa University, the Ankabut is jointly funded by the Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRA) through the ICT Fund and Khalifa University.

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ANKABUT HOSTS 2019 ASREN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ARAB E-INFRASTRUCTURE IN A GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT AT KHALIFA UNIVERSITY

Ankabut, the Emirates Advanced National Research and Education Network, an initiative of Khalifa University of Science and Technology, hosted the ninth annual International Platform on Integrating Arab e-Infrastructure in a Global Environment (e-AGE 2019) Conference on 11–12 December 2019 at the Khalifa University of Science and Technology Main Campus in Abu Dhabi.

Organized by the Arab States Research and Education Network (ASREN) under the theme ‘Groundbreaking Research and Education Networks’, the conference focused on demonstrated successes in using research and education e-Infrastructures and on the need for interoperable high-speed networks at national, regional, and international levels.

Fahem Al-Nuaimi, Chief Executive Officer, Ankabut, said: “Ankabut is delighted to partner with ASREN to bring to Abu Dhabi the ninth annual e-AGE 2019 conference, the Arab world’s most important gathering, to highlight the successes in using research and education e-Infrastructures. The conference is a knowledgesharing forum and Ankabut is honored to welcome delegates from across the Middle East and Africa region to showcase recent advances in this sector. We believe the outcome of the conference will immensely benefit stakeholders in this sector.”

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FROM THE NEWSROOM

In addition to the e-AGE annual conference, e-AGE19 also hosted events, workshops, and meetings such as the ‘12th Event on Euro-Mediterranean e-Infrastructure’, ‘The 9th annual shareholders meeting of ASREN’, ‘EUMEDCONNECT3 Project meeting’, ‘AfricaConnect2 Project meeting’, and ‘Internet2 Middle East SIG (special interest group) Meetings’. There were also exclusive workshops for e-Infrastructure users as part of the conference.

The conference underlined the importance of research infrastructure in creating tangible benefits to communities, while demonstrating the role of research connectivity in promoting collaboration and innovation. There were special sessions dedicated to specific domains, mainly focusing on experiences in connectivity and e-Infrastructure, applications and services across a variety of scientific domains, where discussions centered in detailing practical steps towards developing a regional e-Infrastructure.

Managed by Khalifa University, Ankabut is jointly funded by the Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRA) through the ICT Fund and Khalifa University. Ankabut offers academic

institutions connectivity to other education networks around the world. It also connects schools and public institutions together across the UAE. Ankabut cooperates on a national, GCC, regional and international arena, representing the UAE in conferences, exhibitions and forums.

Since the launch of ASREN in December 2010 at the League of Arab States, AGE is organized every year in one of the Arab countries. The e-AGE is in line with ASREN’s major objectives that are related to dissemination and awareness, promotion of research collaboration and joint activities, and establishment of research networks in the Arab region and worldwide.

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ANKABUT HIGHLIGHTS IT SERVICES AT EDEX MENA 2019

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Ankabut also participated in the Education Exchange (EdEx) MENA 2019, the meeting point for the private education community from the Middle East and North Africa region, which was held from 18 - 19 November in Dubai.

Ankabut’s CEO Fahem Al-Nuaimi delivered a presentation during the event about Ankabut’s range of services, including its learning management system, library management system, cyber-security services, and Software Defined Datacenter.

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KU WINS BID TO HOST IROS 2024

The support of the KUCARS team was instrumental in winning the bid.

Abu Dhabi has won the bid led by Khalifa University to host the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) in 2024. IROS is one of the world’s largest (attracting around 4000 attendees) and most prestigious robotics research conferences, and it will be the first time in the conference’s 30+ year history to be hosted outside North America, Europe and the far east Asia.

Winning the bid to host IROS 2024 demonstrates Khalifa University’s internationally-recognized expertise in the field of robotics and intelligent systems. KU’s Center for Autonomous Robotic Systems (KUCARS), directed by Professor Lakmal Seneviratne, is a flagship center of the University’s newly launched Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems Institute. With over 50 faculty and staff working on several diverse projects, KUCARS researchers are conducting groundbreaking research to discover new ways to advance robotics for extreme environments, industrial applications, and infrastructure inspection.

In their bid to host IROS 2024, the KUCARS team led

by Professor Jorge Dias, highlighted the importance of hosting the event in the Middle East, which has seen tremendous growth in Robotics and AI research in the last decade. The team highlighted the UAE’s growing focus on Robotics and AI, as evidenced by the UAE’s AI Strategy, which was unveiled in October 2017. The support received from the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority was also crucial in winning the bid.

The announcement came during IROS 2019, which was held from 4 - 8 November in Macau, China.

Established in 1988 and held annually, IROS provides a forum for the international robotics research community to explore the frontiers in intelligent robots. In addition to technical sessions and multimedia presentations, IROS conferences also hold panel discussions, forums, workshops, tutorials, exhibits, and technical tours to enrich fruitful discussions among conference attendees.

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KHALIFA UNIVERSITY AND MUBADALA COLLABORATE ON PROJECTS FOR NEW COLLEGE OF MEDICINE AND HEALTH SCIENCES

CONOR MESSER, VISITING RESEARCH INTERN FROM NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY, PROVES STUDENTS CAN COMBINE THEIR AREA OF STUDY AND PERSONAL INTERESTS IN EXCITING WAYS. Mubadala Investment Company, through its healthcare arm, and Khalifa University signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on projects related to the university’s new medical college, thereby supporting one of the key Abu Dhabi Vision 2030 objectives of establishing the emirate as a significant knowledge hub in the region.

Khalifa University’s College of Medicine and Health Sciences (CMHS) opened its doors to students enrolled for the UAE’s first post-graduate Doctor of Medicine program in Fall 2019. The program is open to all nationalities.

Abdulla Abdul Aziz Al Shamsi, Head of Mubadala Healthcare, said: “By partnering with highly regarded academic institutions that are elevating medical education, we can help to develop an ecosystem of world-class healthcare education, medical research and innovation that positions Abu Dhabi as a leader in the medical field.”

“In terms of the agreement, we will work with Khalifa University’s College of Medicine and Health Sciences to identify opportunities covering Mubadala KU TIMES 88

Healthcare’s medical staff and facilities and CMHS’s students and faculty members.”

According to the MOU signed at Cleveland, the two partners will identify potential synergies and areas for collaboration within healthcare, including knowledge transfer and development, optimizing the use of facilities, practical training and nurturing talent, as well as promoting innovation and research.

Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice President of Khalifa University, said: “The College of Health and Medicine Science has expanded our existing academic offerings as part of our contribution to strengthening the country’s healthcare ecosystem, thereby helping to support Abu Dhabi’s Vision 2030 objectives. It will be through cooperation with entities such as Mubadala Healthcare’s wide range of trusted medical facilities that we look forward to establish our medical college as a leading institution for medical education, research and innovation.”

Khalifa University’s College of Medicine and Health Sciences is Abu Dhabi’s first allopathic Liaison Committee on Medical Education-comparable (LCME), post-baccalaureate medical college, which prepares its students for residency programs in the US and Canada. The Doctor of Medicine program is the first of many planned CMHS education programs and will be offered in five strands – biomedical science, clinical medicine, medicine and society, physicianship, and research, technology and innovation.

Al Shamsi added: “The MOU allows both parties to explore opportunities where each group’s staff as well as the university students can advance knowledge through sharing stateof-the-art healthcare and research facilities.”

Mubadala Healthcare facilities include Imperial College London Diabetes Centre, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Healthpoint, Amana Healthcare, National Reference Laboratories, Capital Health Screening Centre, and Abu Dhabi Telemedicine.

“We divide each challenge into a series of sub-problems,” explained the ETH Zurich team. “Challenge 2 presents four sub-problems: path planning and exploration; brick detection; building task coordination; and brick manipulation.”

CONSTRUCTING THE FUTURE AT THE MOHAMED BIN ZAYED INTERNATIONAL ROBOTICS CHALLENGE 2020 Drones are big business. Countries around the world are pouring investment into this relatively nascent technology, hoping for revolutionary change across industries, particularly in construction.

While dozens of industries use drones, the fastest growing commercial adopters come from the construction industry. This is a major economic sector, plagued with inefficiencies and low productivity; robotics and automated systems have the potential to address these shortcomings. Drone use on the job site has skyrocketed, surging 239 percent, but usage stems mainly from project managers and superintendents bringing drones on board to help track projects and collect real-time data about progress.

There’s more potential here. Drones do more than help keep projects on track. They can also increase safety, save time and resources, fast-track surveying, and deliver accurate measurements. What if they could do the actual constructing too?

The construction industry is evolving rapidly, and with all the innovations and changes to traditional building comes the need for greater efficiency; drones could be the solution if they could work autonomously.

The second challenge of the Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC) in 2020 will see a team of autonomous aerial and ground robots collaborate to locate, choose, transport, and assemble different objects to build pre-defined structures in an outdoor environment. This challenge is motivated by construction automation and autonomous robot-based 3D printing of large structures.

Robots have already found a spot in manufacturing, dealing with automated and cyclic tasks, and even 3D printed buildings are not new to Dubai. In 2016, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, opened a futuristic office with 3D printed elements.

In 2019, the world’s largest 3D-printed two-story building opened in Dubai’s Warsan neighbourhood, its walls having been constructed in place using a massive 3D printer.

But success at this challenge requires more than programming the drone team with a building plan and letting them loose on a site. The teams, comprising unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and a single unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) must locate the brick-shaped objects, determine the type they need from the selection, transport their chosen object to the job site, and then assemble the objects into a pre-defined patterned structure.

The path planning and exploration elements should come fairly naturally to the drones employed in this challenge. Since drones are generally small with high levels of maneuverability, they are being used more and more as an alternative to traditional vehicles. Using drones to transport goods aerially saves money and time, especially since drones do not have to adhere to traffic laws, which allows them to make deliveries in a fraction of the time, using a fraction of the resources. The tricky part comes in programming autonomy.

“Challenge 2 is a good showcase for cooperative robotics for construction,” said the KAIST team.

The drones must find their own way around the arena and identify the required building components one by one. The team drones require breakthroughs in mobile manipulation, perception, mobility over rough terrain, navigation control, multi-robot collaboration and—in the future—human-robot interaction.

A large ask, but as the 25 teams selected for MBZIRC 2020 Challenge 2 hail from some of the world’s top robotics labs, expectations are high for success.

The results of this challenge will go a long way in revolutionizing the construction industry. As construction companies look to robots as having the potential to achieve improvements in construction quality, efficiency, and safety, autonomous building robots could be sent further afield, with space research agencies seeking to build infrastructure without human intervention.

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L’ORÉAL-UNESCO FOR WOMEN IN SCIENCE PROGRAM 2019 RECOGNIZES OUTSTANDING FEMALE SCIENTISTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST SIX SCIENTISTS WIN RECOGNITION FOR THEIR PIONEERING RESEARCH IN SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE REGION

The 6th edition of the L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Middle East Fellowship has recognized six leading women scientists who have made extraordinary discoveries in their fields in 2019. This initiative is part of the global L’Oréal–UNESCO for Women in Science program that has recognized over 3,200 outstanding researchers in its 21-year history, three of whom have gone on to win the Nobel Prizes.

This year, the program has received the endorsement of H.E. Sarah bint Yousef Al Amiri, Minister of State of Advanced Sciences, and was held in partnership with Khalifa University. An awards ceremony to honor the recipients took place at W Hotel in Dubai on 11 November where Dr. Maryam AlYammahi (UAE), Dr. Fatma Al Ma’Mari (Oman), Dr. Wafa Audah Altalhi (Saudi Arabia) and Dr. Nour Alsabeeh (Kuwait) each received EUR 20,000 in the Postdoctorate Researchers category. Wafaa Ramadan (UAE) and Asma Al-Amoodi (Saudi Arabia) each received EUR 8,000 in the PHD Students category, in recognition of their contribution to KU TIMES 90

science and their aspiring research work.

The L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Middle East Program is based on the belief that the world needs science, and science needs women, because women in science have the power to change the world.

The MENA region has witnessed a rapid growth of Arab women taking on roles in STEM fields, with a number of initiatives across schools, universities and communities. According to UNESCO, 34-57 percent of STEM grads in Arab countries are women, which is significantly higher than in universities in the US or Europe. L’Oréal has been one of the first companies to create a globally recognized initiative to support and encourage female STEM graduates on such a large scale.

About the 2019 Fellows: Postdoctorate Researchers category • Dr. Maryam AlYammahi (UAE): For her research on developing a new

method for efficient access and retrieval of information from Big Data systems • Dr. Fatma Al Ma’Mari (Oman): For her research on creating new magnetic materials to replace rare earth materials as a major component in energy production • Dr. Wafa Audah Altalhi (Saudi Arabia): For her research on improving patient health by moving away from the reliance on organ donors • Dr. Nour Alsabeeh (Kuwait): For her research on investigating mechanisms underlying the development of type 2 diabetes PHD Students category • Asma Al-Amoodi (Saudi Arabia): For her research on enhancing the use of certain stem cells for the treatment of haematological diseases like leukaemia • Wafaa Ramadan (UAE): For her research on improving the success rate of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment among women

FROM THE NEWSROOM

KHALIFA UNIVERSITY HOSTS REGION’S FIRST-EVER IAEE MIDDLE EAST SYMPOSIUM IN ABU DHABI Khalifa University of Science and Technology hosted the region’s first-ever IAEE Middle East Symposium in Abu Dhabi to assess the impacts of economic diversification, new technologies and climate concerns on the Middle East energy outlook.

Organized by the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) on 16 December 2019, the event was attended by key academic, government, and industry stakeholders. More than 150 regional and international delegates were at the event to provide a unique opportunity for dialogue and networking among energy professionals from all energy sectors. The event was brought to Abu Dhabi with the support of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KA-CARE), global energy leader ENGIE, as well as the Energy Industries Council, the UAE Ministry of Energy and Industry, and the Abu Dhabi Convention Bureau.

Discussions focused on the main drivers, uncertainties, and potential disruptors in global oil and natural gas demand, impacts of climate change concerns

and new technologies within the future energy landscape, the region’s accelerated deployment of renewable energy and nuclear power, and the potential implications of geopolitical issues facing the region.

HE Matar Al Neyadi, Undersecretary, UAE Ministry of Energy and Industry, opened with the ministerial keynote, while Christophe Bonnery, President, IAEE, delivered the opening remarks. Dr. Steve Griffiths, Senior Vice-President, Research and Development, and Professor of Practice, Khalifa University, and Symposium Chair, provided an opening address and welcomed the delegates.

Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, said: “We are delighted to partner with the International Association for Energy Economics to bring the region’s first-ever IAEE Middle East Symposium to Abu Dhabi.

Participating delegates will surely gain insights into the region’s energy challenges, opportunities, and advances. Energy being the vital sector in this region, we believe

the fast-changing energy sector will inspire fresh perspectives from the global experts at this knowledge exchange forum.”

The plenary session on ‘The Future of Hydrocarbons: Changing Demand and Subsequent Impacts’ was presided over by Marianne Kah, Advisory Board Member and Adjunct Senior Research Scholar, Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy. The second plenary session on ‘Shaping the Future Energy Landscape: The Role of Climate Concerns and Technology Innovation’ was led

by Yukari Niwa Yamashita, Board Member and Director, The Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ).

The first post-lunch plenary session titled ‘Energy Diversification: Renewables and Nuclear in the Middle East’ was led

by Adnan Shihab-Eldin, Director General, Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS).

Adam Sieminski, President, King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC), led the discussions for the plenary titled ‘Geopolitics: Issues Facing the Region Today and Tomorrow’.

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Expert insights from KU’s worldclass faculty

UAE HONORS NINE FACULTY MEMBERS WITH GOLDEN RESIDENCY VISAS

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Nine Khalifa University faculty members were granted permanent residency during a special ceremony in Abu Dhabi on 12 November 2019.

The permanent residency, also known as the Golden Card Visa, is a renewable 10-year residency program granted to qualified investors, entrepreneurs, chief executives, scientists, and outstanding students.

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THE FOLLOWING ARE THE NINE DESERVING KU PROFESSORS WHO RECEIVED PERMANENT RESIDENCY:

DR. LOURDES VEGA

Dr. Vega is a Professor of Chemical Engineering and the Director of the Research and Innovation Center on CO2 and H2 (RICH Center). A recognized authority of molecular thermodynamics, clean energy, and sustainability, she has authored and co-authored more than 200 publications and has five patents to her name.

“I feel very excited, honored, and immensely grateful to the leaders of this country for granting me this permanent visa. One of the things that attracted me the most when I decided to come to the UAE to continue my research on clean energy and sustainability was the eagerness of its people to learn, to progress, and to contribute from this country to a better future for the next generation.

This motivated me to work from

DR. LINDA ZOU

here and to try to make an impact in the UAE, addressing its needs, and helping shape the expertise and education of its people, so I decided I wanted to be part of this adventure in which I’m fully engaged now, and I’m very happy about it. I have also been fascinated since the beginning by the vision and commitment of the UAE leaders regarding the advancement of science and education, as shown by the support of research and innovation we receive through Khalifa University and the activities developed through the Mohammed bin Rashid Academy of Scientists, among other things. Granting this golden visa to scientists is, once more, a clear example of the deep commitment of this country to the advancement of science, technology and innovation.”

Dr. Zou is a Professor of Civil Infrastructure and Environmental Engineering at KU. She is known for leading the ground-breaking research project of using nanotechnology to develop cloud seeding materials, which was awarded a three-year grant by the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science (UAEREP) in 2016. Now, actual seeding operations using her research have begun in the UAE.

– Dr.Lourdes Vega

– Dr.Linda Zou

“It is a good feeling when your work and effort as a scientist and researcher have been directly recognized by the government and such honor is only possible with the great opportunity and continued support provided by Khalifa University and other UAE sponsors on advancing scientific research and innovation.”

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DR. HASSAN ARAFAT

DR. WESLEY CANTWELL

DR. LAKMAL SENEVIRATNE

Dr. Arafat is a Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director of the Center for Membrane and Advanced Water Technology (CMAT). His expertise in developing desalination technologies and systems, with particular focus on sustainable, low-energy technologies has tremendous impact since the UAE relies on desalination plants for most of its potable water. Dr. Arafat was also one of the awardees of the Khalifa Award for Education in 2017. He won the ‘Distinguished University Professor in the Field of Scientific Research’ award in the ‘Higher Education within the UAE and the Arab World’ category.

Dr. Cantwell is a Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Director of the Aerospace Research & Innovation Center (ARIC). The ARIC is a research initiative funded by Mubadala and Khalifa University, which focuses on manufacturing strategies for producing highquality composite structures, as well as the automated assembly of composite parts. The center is unique in the region as it hosts a range of manufacturing, non-destructive testing, and robotic equipment. It also supports manufacturing initiatives at Strata in Al Ain and works closely with leading aerospace OEMs.

Dr. Seneviratne is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Khalifa University Center for Autonomous Robotic Systems (KUCARS). As director of KUCARS, he leads his team of researchers working on innovations that could potentially save lives.

“The permanent residency is a major step in the right direction in cementing the UAE’s position as a knowledge hub in this region. It ensures the sustainability and long term stability of our activities as scientists and researchers working in the UAE. Surely, the research ecosystem available to us at KU has played a key role in me achieving the status of research excellence that led to this residency.”

– Dr. Hassan Arafat

“I am honored to be among the first scientists to receive this award.

It is nice to be recognized by the nation for one’s efforts to build a knowledge-based economy here in the UAE. I believe that 10-year visas will serve to attract leading international scholars to the UAE. Research often involves long-term horizons and having the option to stay in the UAE for a long period, build a research group and establish a strong research activity will be appealing to many internationally-recognized academics. The research facilities and funding levels in my own university are excellent and this is creating a highly attractive environment in which to work and undertake cuttingedge research.”

– Dr. Wesley Cantwell KU TIMES 94

His projects include building drones to fight fire in high-rise buildings, systems designed to prevent industrial accidents, and even developing self-driving cars.

DR. HATEM ZEINELDIN Dr. Zeineldin is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. His research focuses on renewable energy, smart grids, energy systems and renewable energy integration and its impact on the operation of energy systems.

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and deep eutectic solvents in engineering applications. He has co-authored more than 100-peer reviewed journal publications and has eight patents from the US and EU patent offices. He has also received the ‘King Abdullah Award for Best Innovation’ in 2013.

DR. ERNESTO DAMIANI Dr. Damiani is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Senior Director of the Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems Institute, and Director of the CyberPhysical System (C2PS) Center.

His research interests include secure service-oriented architectures, privacy-preserving big data analytics, and cyber-physical systems security.

In 2015, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation granted US100,000 for Dr. Damiani’s ‘Pay with a Selfie’ technology to be developed.

“Everyone nowadays is looking for stability and peace of mind, and so this initiative will really help when it comes to attracting the best scientists from around the world. Personally, I am really happy with the 10-year visa, it shows that you and your work are appreciated. Having the long-term visa also encourages me to strive harder in my work now because we have received a big honor from the government of the UAE. This s a very big motivation.”

– Dr. Enas Nashef

“The UAE has set many ambitious and strategic energy goals and launched many pioneering energy projectst to achieve said goals. Our objective at APEC is to develop the country’s intellectual and human capital to provide innovative ideas and solutions. We are also working on electric energy systems, allowing seamless and economical operations of renewable and clean energy resources.”

– Dr. Ehab El-Saadany The group was among the first batch of scientists to receive permanent residency visas as part of the government’s move in strengthening the nation’s talent pool and positioning the UAE as an incubator and hub for talents, creatives, and innovators.

DR. EHAB EL-SAADANY

DR. ENAS NASHEF Dr. Nashef is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering whose research interest is in green engineering and sustainability, focusing on the use of ionic liquids

Dr. El-Saadany is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Director of the Advanced Power and Energy Center (APEC). His research interests include distribution system operation and control, smart/micro grids, renewable integration, and power quality and protection systems. Dr. ElSaadany also has five US patents.

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PROF. LOURDES VEGA APPOINTED AS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF THE JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR LIQUIDS The Journal of Molecular Liquids is a leading journal in the field of condensed matter physics, materials chemistry, atomic and molecular physics and optics, and electronic, optical and magnetic materials, published by Elsevier.

Being invited to join an editorial board, particularly as Editor-in-Chief, is a compliment. While there is plenty of prestige associated with being an editor of a respected journal, most editors are fueled by the desire to serve their community and further their field’s impact within the scientific community.

Prof. Lourdes F. Vega, Professor in Chemical Engineering and the Director of the Research and Innovation Center on CO2 and Hydrogen (RICH Center) at KU, has been appointed as Co-Editorin-Chief of the Journal of Molecular Liquids (MOLLIQ).

“I was approached by the publisher in one of the conferences I attended,” said Prof. Vega. “He proposed the position to me and explained in detail what the role was and the responsibilities that came with it. After considering, I accepted.”

Prof. Vega is an internationally recognized and leading authority in the area of molecular thermodynamics, clean energy and sustainability, and has played pivotal roles on international advisory academic and industrial boards. In 2019, Prof. Vega was also granted a golden visa as the UAE recognized and celebrated its talented and influential scientists and intellectuals. She will now be contributing her significant expertise to the journal, alongside Dr. Wolffram Shroer of Bremen University, Dr. Toshio Yamaguchi of Fukuoka University, and Dr. Artur J. M. Valente of the University of Coimbra.

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“I feel both excited and honored,” said Prof. Vega. “I think this is a great opportunity to help the scientific community I belong to, to have an impact in this area of research, promote high quality publications, and increase the international visibility and reputation of Khalifa University and the UAE as well.”

In addition to her new appointment, Prof. Vega also serves on the editorial board of five ISI journals and five international conference organizing committees. She has more than 200 publications, five patents and has raised more than $50 million in grants as chief investigator. The impact of her research has been internationally recognized by the reception of several prestigious awards, and she has made significant contributions in the development of molecular-based equations of state, CO2 capture and utilization, and alternative solvents, among many other fields.

It is the editor’s role to publish the best research and Prof. Vega will be looking out for experimental studies, computer simulations, and analytical theory that will contribute to the

understanding of the fundamentals of molecular and ionic liquids to advance the field.

“Given my area of expertise and personal interest, works with an emphasis on clean energy, green solvents and sustainable processes and products will be especially welcomed,” said Prof. Vega.

Taking on the duties of an editor is an enormous undertaking, with Prof. Vega accepting responsibilities towards the authors providing the content of the journal, the peer reviewers commenting on the manuscripts, the journal’s readers and the scientific community, the publishers of the journal, and the public as a whole. Prof. Vega will be balancing these activities with her continued teaching, research and dedication to Khalifa University.

ADVANCES IN QUANTUM COMPUTING RESEARCH SHARED Dr. Faisal Khan, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, presented a paper titled “Nash embedding: a road map to realizing quantum hardware” at the 1st International Symposium on Applied Artificial Intelligence (ISAAI’19), which took place from 20 -21 November in Munich, Germany.

The paper describes an approach to constructing hardware for quantum computers that reconciles the quantum nature of these computers with the Euclidean nature of the hardware. In other words, it proposes a way for quantum objects, such as electrons and ions, to operate quantum computationally in hardware that is

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ROBOTICS RESEARCH SHARED AT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

non-quantum, or classical, and has a 3D architecture. The approach was based on the work of the Noble Laureate John Nash in differential geometry.

In his paper, Dr. Khan used Nash’s results to layout a roadmap for constructing properly-quantum hardware, unlike the “synthetic” or “quasi-quantum” hardware prototypes that are being tested at labs and companies like Dwave, Google, IBM, and Rigetti. These quasi-quantum approaches do not address how to reconcile the quantum nature of quantum computers with the classical nature of their hardware architecture.

Dr. Khan also recently became appointed as Associate Editor of the Springer-Nature journal Quantum Information Processing, a high-impact, international journal publishing cutting-edge experimental and theoretical research in all areas of Quantum Information Science. As a leading mathematical authority in the field of quantum computing with over 20 published papers, the appointment is a recognition of Dr. Khan’s numerous contributions to the field.

Dr. Jorge Dias, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, shared KU’s advanced robotics research at the International Symposium on Cross-modal Learning in Humans and Robots, on 28 November at the University of Hamburg in Germany.

His presentation, titled ‘Visual Multi-Spectral Semantic Analysis and Prediction’ provided insight into some of the recent robotics work being carried out at Khalifa University’s Center on Autonomous Robotic Systems, specifically in the area of surveillance of urban environments using lowcost unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with a diversity of imaging sensors, including standard cameras, infrared cameras, and more.

During his presentation, Dr. Dias also highlighted how KU is exploring the two types of data interpretation paradigms used for programming robot vision and understanding -- semantic imaging and semantic reconstruction. He emphasized how the Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC) provides an important platform for testing UAVs programmed with these semantic analysis paradigms in real-life situations.

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HONORING THE HISTORY OF THE UAE Dr. Athol Yates, Assistant Professor of Humanities and Social Science, received the Institute of International and Civil Security, Khalifa University Award, on behalf of Colonel David Neild, founding commander of the Sharjah National Guard in 1972, who was recognized for his contribution to recording the history of the UAE.

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KU PROFESSOR DELIVERS KEYNOTE AT “WINNING DIGITAL WAR” CONFERENCE

Dr. Ernesto Damiani (second from left) awarded by HE the Minister of State for Defense Affairs

Dr. Ernesto Damiani, Senior Director of Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems Institute, Director of C2PS Center, and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Khalifa University, delivered the keynote speech on Wednesday, 6 November, at the “Winning the Digital War” conference, sponsored by the UAE Ministry of Defense.

The conference convened policy makers and experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities that digital warfare brings. It was held at the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research and the Armed Forces Officers Club in Abu Dhabi.

Dr. Damiani discussed how digital warfare is evolving, and how the lines between traditional acts of war in the real world are blurring with acts of war in cyberspace.

He noted the fast pace of technological development in the realm of AI, commenting that in the past, the military would innovation and develop new technologies that would then become commercial. But now, commercial technologies are becoming incorporated into military solutions.

Khalifa University also hosted a workshop, titled “Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Decision Making in Cyber Warfare workshop” as part of the conference on Thursday, 7 November. The workshop, which included a scenario highlighting interference between cyber- and ordinary warfare, workshop, which included a scenario highlighting interference between cyber- and ordinary warfare, was attended by representatives of the MoD and various UAE government entities.

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PROLIFIC PROFESSORS

SUPPORTING ENGLISH LANGUAGE CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT IN MEXICO The US Department of State announced the selection of Dr. Asli Hassan, Assistant Professor of English, and Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) as the English Language Specialist for a multiphased project focusing on curriculum and materials development for the oil industry followed by teacher training in Mexico.

The project resulted in the creation of the first specialized diploma course with a syllabus that incorporated the ABET Learning outcomes. Dr. Hassan is part of a select group, as one of approximately 80 US citizens each year selected to serve on an English Language Specialist assignment.

The English Language Specialists assist US Embassies in delivering and maintaining quality English language programs overseas and promoting mutual understanding between the US and other countries.

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DR. LABEEB AHMED BSOUL,, Associate Professor of Humanities & Social Sciences at KU, has published a book titled, Translation Movement and Acculturation in the Medieval Islamic World.

The 252-page book explores the transmission of knowledge in the Arab and Islamic world, while paying particular attention to the translation of material from Greek, Persian, and Sanskrit into Arabic, and then from Arabic into Latin in medieval Western Europe. Dr. Bsoul also explores how translation has led to profound exchanges in the cultural sphere. It is Dr. Bsoul’s fifth published book on the subject of Islamic history. To date, he has also published three book chapters, and is the sole author of 17 published articles.

While most modern scholarly works have addressed contributions of Muslim scholars to the modern development of translation, Dr. Bsoul bases his study on Arabic classical literature and its impact upon modern translation. He focuses on the contributions made by prominent classical Christian and Muslim scholars, showcasing how their works and contributions to the field of knowledge are still relevant today. The book was published by Palgrave Macmillan. It is available at the KU Libraries and at Springer.com/shop.

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EMERGING AREAS OF NUCLEAR POWER APPLICATIONS Journal : Nuclear Engineering and Design Authors: Dr. Saeed Alameri, Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering, Dr. Jonghyun Kim from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and Dr. Mike Song.

Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/ pii/S002954931930192X Dr. Alameri’s paper has become the most downloaded article in the Nuclear Engineering and Design journal in the past 90 days.

CURRICULUM-MAKING AND DEVELOPMENT IN A PAKISTANI UNIVERSITY Journal: The Qualitative Report Authors: Dr. Mark Wyatt, Associate Professor of English, and Said Imran, one of Dr. Wyatt’s former PhD students, and Lecturer at Kohat University of Science and Technology, Pakistan.

Link: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol24/iss10/7/

ENERGIZING TEACHER RESEARCH The book was produced for the IATEFL Research Special Interest Group; IATEFL is a global association of over 4,000 English teachers.

Editors: Dr. Mark Wyatt, Dr. Kenan Dikilitaş (University of Stavanger, Norway), Dr. Anne Burns (University of New South Wales, Australia), and Dr. Gary Barkhuizen (University of Auckland, New Zealand) Link: http://resig.weebly.com/ uploads/2/6/3/6/26368747/energizing_teacher_ research.pdf

MULTI-OBJECTIVE OPTIMIZATION DESIGN OF FRACTIONAL SLOT CONCENTRATED WINDING PERMANENT MAGNET SYNCHRONOUS MACHINES Journal: IEEE Access Authors: Saleh Edhah, PhD Student in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, Dr. Jamal AlSawalhi, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Dr. Ahmed AlDurra, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Link: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8890644

FUNCTIONALLY GRADED AND MULTIMORPHOLOGY SHEET TPMS LATTICES: DESIGN, MANUFACTURING, AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES Journal: Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials Authors: Oraib Al-Ketan, Postdoctoral Fellow, DongWook Lee, Research Scientist, Dr. Rashid Abu Al-Rub, Acting Chair and Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Dr. Reza Rowshan, Executive Director of Core Technology Platforms Operations at NYU Abu Dhabi Link:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/ pii/S1751616119312482#!

A BLOCKCHAIN-BASED MODEL FOR CLOUD SERVICE QUALITY MONITORING Journal: IEEE Transactions on Services Computing Authors: Dr. Hadi Otrok, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and three others from Concordia University and University of Duisburg-Essen Link: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8873576

INSIGHTS INTO THE TRANSPORT PROPERTIES OF ELECTROLYTE SOLUTIONS IN A HIERARCHICAL CARBON ELECTRODE BY MOLECULAR DYNAMICS SIMULATIONS Journal: J. Phys. Chem. C Authors: Dr. Lourdes F. Vega, Director of the Research and Innovation Center on CO2 and H2 (RICH Center) and Professor of Chemical Engineering, Dr. Mostafa Elabyouki, Daniel Bahamon, Research Scientist, and Maryam Khaleel Link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs. jpcc.9b05620

IMAGING AND CHARACTERIZING FLUID INVASION IN MICRO-3D PRINTED POROUS DEVICES WITH VARIABLE SURFACE WETTABILITY Journal: Soft Matter Authors: Dr. Tiejun Zhang, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Dr. HongXia Li, Postdoctoral Fellow Link: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/ articlelanding/2019/sm/c9sm01182j#!divAbstract

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IMPROVING MEMBRANES IN WATER DESALINATION WITH 3D PRINTED FEED SPACERS A new type of 3D-printed feed spacer could make membranebased seawater desalination processes, such as reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration, more efficient, according to new findings by researchers at Khalifa University’s Center for Membranes and Advanced Water Technology (CMAT).

The feed spacers, designed and manufactured with the help of 3D printing to achieve complex geometries and sizes, are described most recently in the Journal of Membrane Science, by a team led by KU’s Dr. Hassan Arafat, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director of CMAT. The team also includes professors Rashid Abu Al-Rub, Hector Hernandez and Giovanni Palmisano as well as researchers Oraib Al-Ketan, N. Sreedhar Navya Thomas and Mahendra Kumar.

The KU team collaborated with Dr. Reza Rowshan, Executive Director of Core Technology Platforms Operations at NYU Abu Dhabi, to print the feed spacers using the 3D KU TIMES 102

Cutting-edge research and breakthroughs

printer available at NYUAD’s Core Technology Platforms facility.

A patent has been filed on the new feed spacer design with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

“Feed spacers play an important role in promoting turbulence of the feed water, which then affects the water flux, an indication of how efficiently the water flows through the membrane, which has a direct impact on the power consumption in desalination plants, especially those that use reverse osmosis processes,” explained Dr. Arafat.

Reverse osmosis (RO) removes salt from seawater by pushing water under pressure through a semipermeable membrane that allows water molecules through but blocks the dissolved salts. Because the water is being pushed at very high pressure to overcome its natural osmotic pressure, it consumes a lot of energy. More energy is required to overcome the issue of membrane fouling – when organic and inorganic deposits buildup on a membrane’s surface, reducing its ability to filter impurities.

Feed spacers are netted sheets made from strong polymer materials sandwiched between two membrane layers to create space for the water to flow through. Fouling usually occurs first at the feed spacers. The intersections where its filaments meet, known as ‘dead zones,’ provide nucleation sites for scaling and deposits of organic impurities or microbes. In addition to fouling, the

overall design and geometry of the feed spacer also affects the water flux, or the flow of water through the membrane.

Traditional commercial feed spacers are planar, or flat sheets of netted plastics, which repeat the same diamond or rectangular shape – these are the feed spacer’s ‘cells’.

Dr. Arafat’s team took a different approach, realizing that additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, can be leveraged to produce materials with unique and precise pore geometrical configurations that can stand up to the rigors of high-pressure membrane desalination systems.

“The unique benefit of 3D printing over conventional manufacturing processes is its ability to fabricate structures with complex forms and shapes that can be optimized for fluid flow. This creates new applications for structures that we couldn’t use before the era of 3D printing,” Dr. Arafat explained.

One such class of complex geometries are triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS), which can be described mathematically as having perfectly curved surfaces with no selfintersecting or enfolded surfaces.

TPMS have various properties that enable smooth fluid flow, making them ideal candidates for a number of applications in water research. ‘Triply periodic’ means that the structure can be patterned in the 3D space and ‘minimal surface’ means that it minimizes surface area for a given boundary.

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“We theorized that the interconnected maze-like pathways of TPMS structures would enhance turbulence through the feed channel, while the perfectly smooth minimal surface would minimize pressure drop, as well as minimize locations for the attachment of foulants,” Dr. Arafat explained.

His theory proved true. After exploring a range of different configurations and shapes, Dr. Arafat’s team developed TPMS feed spacers that improved water flux by 16% using RO membranes and 38% using ultrafiltration (UF) membranes, when compared to a commercial spacer.

The feed spacers also proved to significantly reduce fouling. The team visualized fouling patterns on the membranes using crystal violet stains, which revealed significantly less biofilm depositions. The TPMS spacers

showed a reduction in biofouling up to 91% compared to commercial feed spacers. Last but not least, due to their intrinsic curvature, the TPMS spacers were able to achieve higher flux and lower fouling while reducing the pressure drop – an energy consumption – in the feed channel. “This is the first time this combination of benefits has been demonstrated for a novel spacer design,” Dr. Arafat said.

3D printing allowed the researchers to print one contiguous feed spacer with interconnected repetitive cells, giving it a significant advantage over traditional feed spacers, which must be woven together and often lack precise conformity. With a greater level of control over the cell shapes, they were able to achieve curvature between the feed spacer’s cells, which improved the hydrodynamics of the feed spacer and increased its

surface area; both of which contributed to an increase in water flow.

“Curvature creates turbulence within that structure, while a flat 2D structure creates more resistance,” Dr. Arafat explained.

“These spacers have shown great promise in enhancing both reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration processes, in terms of flux enhancement, energy consumption and fouling reduction,” he added. As a result, new applications of TPMS architectures are now being explored by the team, covering a range of potential applications in water and wastewater treatment.

The UAE relies on desalination plants for most of its potable water, which is why Dr. Hassan works to find new solutions aimed at making seawater desalination more efficient and sustainable.

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CLOUD SEEDING OPERATIONS OF KU’S NANOTECHNOLOGY ENHANCED SEEDING MATERIALS BEGIN

An aircraft loaded with a new cloud seeding material developed by Khalifa University has taken flight to seed warm clouds in UAE skies.

The cloud seeding material developed by Khalifa University’s Dr. Linda Zou, Professor of Civil Infrastructure and Environmental Engineering, has generated significant attention since Dr. Zou won in 2016 a USD 1.5 million, 3-year grant from the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science (UAEREP) to research the use of nanotechnology to enhance rainfall.

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INNOVATION FORWARD

Over the past three years, Dr. Zou’s team has made steady progress towards designing and fabricating the nanotechnology-enabled cloud seeding materials in the lab. Now, the team has identified a novel, scalable method for fabricating large quantities of the particles, allowing for mass production. Actual seeding operations have just began.

“We have successfully fabricated 75 kilograms of the cloud seeding particles, which is made of a sodium chloride crystal core coated with titanium dioxide nanoparticles, thanks to a novel dry particle coating process that greatly simplified the process of coating of nanoparticles on the core materials,” Dr. Zou explained.

Being able to scale up development in a high-quality and cost-effective way is key to transferring the research from the laboratory to the market, where it can bring tangible benefits to society.

Dr. Zou’s research has played an important role in helping to UAEREP to achieve its overarching objective of enhancing rainfall in arid regions, such as the UAE, through new advances in the underlying science of rainfall and the technologies to stimulate it. Her work further showcases the world class research capacity of UAE faculty at the country’s leading science and technology university and positions the UAE as one of the leaders in rainfall enhancement research.

Cloud seeding is the science of adding particles to the atmosphere to serve as nuclei for the condensation of water vapor to form water droplets formation that grow and ultimately become rainfall from clouds that may otherwise produce no rain. It is being increasingly recognized as a viable tool that could be used as part of a broader strategy to achieve water security, particularly in waterscarce regions like the UAE. Studies have shown that cloud seeding can increase rainfall between 5% to 20%, which can help restore groundwater reserves, boost agricultural production, and reduce to some extent the UAE’s heavy reliance on freshwater produced by energy-intensive seawater desalination.

Dr. Zou’s research is exploring for the first time the use of nanotechnology to improve the properties of cloud seeding materials.

Conventional cloud seeding materials, such as salt particles, provide nuclei around which water vapor can condense. Once enough water vapor condenses into water droplets that are large enough, they fall as rain.

Dr. Zou conceptualized that nanotechnology can be leveraged to improve a salt particle’s ability to condense water more effectively, and in turn produce rain.

“The synergistic effect of the hydrophilic – or water loving – titanium dioxide shell and the hygroscopic sodium chloride core, which absorbs water from its surroundings, has enhanced condensation and ability for water droplet formation and growth,” Dr. Zou explained.

The groundbreaking research outcomes have been published in high impact journals such as ACS Nano (2017). One international patent application has been filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), while another provisional patent has been filed for a new but equally interesting material.

The project has been evaluated by the International Scientific Direction Committee of the UAEREP, who have commented that Dr. Zou’s project has been extremely successful, both in terms of the scientific and technical achievements as well as in shedding light on how innovative technologies (in this case nanotechnology) provides exciting new directions in the development of seeding materials for rainfall enhancement.

This and other sustainable water research taking place at Khalifa University aim to position the UAE as a leader in advanced water technologies to address issues of water security.

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COMPLIANT CO-WORK ROBOT FOR SAFE HUMAN-ROBOT COLLABORATION

together. Having robots undertake repetitive or potentially risky tasks can free humans to focus on operations with added value or that demand higher levels of dexterity.

A collaborative environment in which humans and robots can work side by side and share tasks in an open environment is thus a worthy goal.

“With rising labor costs and customer requirements changing frequently, robotics technology has been widely explored and is believed to be a promising solution to reducing costs and making the manufacturing system flexible enough to adapt to real-world variability,” said Dr. Dongming Gan, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

However, this future involves breaking with established safety procedures as direct interaction with robots in industry bring the rise of new risks of accidents.

To facilitate this vision of effective collaborative work between a human worker and an industrial robot, previously existing barriers need to be eliminated and new types of safety systems introduced.

The testbed of a new compliant joint made with springs to reduce impact in interaction

AS WE STAND ON THE BRINK OF THE 4TH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS SUCH AS THE VARIABLE STIFFNESS ACTUATORS DEVELOPED BY DR. DONGMING GAN BRING US EVER CLOSER TO SAFE HUMANROBOTIC INTERACTION.

A team of researchers at the KU Center for Autonomous Robotic Systems (KUCARS) are creating robots that can coexist and co-operate with humans in a safe and efficient way.

Their work has so far produced five papers and two patent applications for robots offering a wide range of applications in many different fields, including medicine and industry.

Although up to 90 percent of manufacturing tasks nowadays are yet to be fully automated, automated manufacturing is the undisputed future trend of modern industry. Flexible and intelligent manufacturing is the aim as conventional procedures of production are replaced and the separation of workspaces between robots and human workers is removed.

Human-robot collaboration (HRC) can contribute to the development of the factories of the 4th Industrial Revolution, where humans and robots will work and carry out tasks

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Currently, to interact safely and productively with humans, robots must be flexible, robust, precise, adaptive and compliant. But our robot counterparts today lack the fine motor skills, unique flexibility and compliance to work efficiently—in other words, they are too rigid, too clumsy and struggle to adapt.

But robots can also be tough, fast and accurate—in their own space. They typically have powerful, heavyweight automated arms that perform tasks such as welding, painting or assembly within the confines of an enclosure.

Since their introduction, industrial robots have been designed to operate at a distance from workers, mostly due to the variety of hazards posed and their lack of the sensory capabilities necessary to detect nearby humans.

Most of the regulations and safety strategies in place around the world depend on keeping workers at a distance during operation, either through physical barriers or sensors that shut machines down when people approach too closely.

While the safety of humans around the robot must be guaranteed during the execution of a task, physical safeguards may not always be practical. The alternatives include power or force limiting, robotic awareness of the humans around it, and effective bidirectional human-robot communication.

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“Since humans are still the key members in the manufacturing process and environment, co-working scenarios are common with robots assisting, collaborating, and independently working with humans,” added Dr. Gan. “Our project aims to develop a new compliant robotic manipulator targeting safe human-robot collaboration in automated manufacturing.

“The possible advantages that can be obtained with compliant actuators are very well known, but most of the robots in industry still lack these features.”

In industrial robotics, the term ‘compliance’ refers to flexibility and suppleness. While a stiff actuator is able to move to a specific position or to track a predefined trajectory, a compliant actuator will allow deviations from its own equilibrium position, depending on the applied external force. The equilibrium position is defined as the position of the actuator where it generates zero force or torque.

Inspired by human motion and learning behavior, similarly versatile and constantly adaptive movements and skills endow robots with singularly human-like motor dynamics and learning.

The challenge is to integrate novel biological notions, advanced learning algorithms, and cutting-edge compliant mechanics in the design of working robots with an unprecedented aptitude for integrating in our environments.

“Bio-inspired robotics design results in compliant robotic systems with improved natural dynamics and kinematics,” added Dr. Gan. “Intrinsic compliance is one of the possible solutions towards robust and safe HRI.” The conventional rule of thumb in robotic design focuses on the interface between motor and loads, which is “as stiff as possible” because stiffness improves precision, stability, and bandwidth of position control. But precise tracking of trajectory isn’t always the optimal strategy for robots that need to interact with humans. Good shock tolerance, lower reflected inertia, more accurate and stable force control, less damage during inadvertent contact, and the potential for energy storage are all elements of compliant actuation.

“Our project focuses on safe human-robot interaction in manufacturing based on novel mechanical system design, advanced sensing technology, and intelligent control algorithms,” explained Dr. Gan.“We are currently designing a new compliant joint and this will be the key component in safe interaction by employing compliance of springs to reduce impact in interaction.”

Characterization experiment of Passive Discrete Variable Stiffness Joint

The KUCARS team approach involved a lever mechanism and a new method of stiffness variation achieved through the addition and subtraction of elastic elements in the actuator mechanism. The elastic elements can be arranged in series or in parallel and this series-parallel arrangement is efficient in terms of both energy and peak torque.

“Based on the concept of series-parallel elastic actuators, we first proposed a passive version of the discrete variable stiffness actuator,” said Dr. Gan. “In our previous work, we mainly focused on the passive versions and in this regard, we proposed various design topologies and optimized their design specifications according to the intended applications. The key motivation behind our design topology is the need for instantaneous switching between stiffness levels for different applications.

“Now that passive actuators have been successfully demonstrated to change their stiffness using our proposed topologies, we are in the process of developing a compact and active version with a motor. The basic design principle is based on a stiffness varying mechanism comprising a motor, three inline clutches, and three torsional springs with stiffness values connected to the load shaft and the motor shaft through two planetary sun gear trains..”

“Theoretically, the softer the joint is, the safer the robot will be. However, compliant serial manipulators are difficult to control and there is a trade-off to optimize stiffness. Future work will take control analysis to reach the optimized compliant setting for real time applications.”

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BOOSTING THE ELECTRIC FIELD AT METALSEMICONDUCTOR JUNCTIONS FOR BETTER CURRENT FLOW THROUGH TRANSISTORS

KU RESEARCHERS PUBLISH STUDY THAT SHOWS PRESENCE OF NANOPARTICLES ON GRAPHENE HELPS MAKE SILICON PRODUCE A LARGER CURRENT AT THE NANOSCALE KU TIMES 108

INNOVATION FORWARD

“Our research explores the use of nanoparticles and graphene to overcome the interface limitations that occur at the point where semiconductors and metals intersect,” said UAE National and PhD student Badreyya Al Shehhi, who was the paper’s lead author. Electron flow at the point where semiconductor and metal meet is limited by electrical barriers known as Schottky barriers, which impede current flow and limit current density. Al Shehhi’s work aims to reduce the current limitation at the metal-semiconductor junction with the nanoparticles layered on graphene.

“The nanoparticles have an important effect on the current transport and electrical field enhancement, which can be further enhanced by decreasing the probing tip size of the atomic force microscope (AFM),” the paper reports. The researchers used atomic force microscopy – a type of high resolution scanning probe microscope – to fine tune the size, type, and placement of the nanoparticles on the graphene layer.

“This fine tuning in turn enables the development of customized nano-Schottky barrier properties for a range of different applications,” Al Shehhi said. The team found that a combination of noble metal nanoparticles on graphene enhanced the optical and current transport properties of the underlying graphene.

An important fundamental discovery has been made by a team of researchers at Khalifa University that may help enhance current flow between semiconductors and metals at the nanoscale. The team found that silver nanoparticles layered on an ultrathin sheet of graphene, creates an enhanced localized electric field that produces a larger current between the semiconductor and the metal.

The work has a significant fundamental research focus but with clear potential application. A paper describing the research was accepted into the IEEE Nanotechnology Council’s 14th Nanotechnology Materials & Devices Conference (NMDC), to be held in Sweden from 27-30 October.

The researchers were able to simulate the behavior of the current flow at the nanoscale, enabling them to study the transport of charge carriers from nanoparticles to graphene to the silicon substrate; a vital piece of fundamental research that has not been done before.

“To study and characterize these nanodevices require advanced material and electrical characterization techniques like AFM, Raman and advanced microscopy,” Al Shehhi explained. The research was carried out using KU’s Clean Room Fabrication Facility, followed by device characterization and measurements.

“This particular research is not based on just one or a few tools. It requires a

sequence of steps through different sophisticated tools to fabricate the target devices. This requires expertise to operate the equipment and develop a sense for process ‘recipes’ or sequence of steps needed to fabricate the target devices. Additionally, the supplies needed are expensive or require special handling. Thus sustained supply chain and logistics are critical for continuous success,” Dr. Irfan Saadat, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at KU. Al Shehhi and Dr. Saadat were joined

by Dr. Ammar Nayfeh, Associate Professor Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Dr. Ayman Rezk, Dr. Yawar Abbas and Dr. Moh’d Rezeq, all from the KU Physics Department.

The work is a result of synergistic integration of the research expertise of Dr. Saadat’s group for cleanroom device fabrication, Dr. Nayfeh’s group for nanoparticles dispersion, and Dr.Rezeq’s group for AFM nanoprobing and characterization.

The research establishes KU’s ability to leverage advanced microscopy tools and fabrication devices to “see” what is happening at each processing step.

Being able to observe new phenomena at the nanoscale with sophisticated tools is a critical skill in the area of nanoscale materials and systems.

This know-how will help advance understanding of the quantum physics underlying such phenomena, and can be useful for manipulating materials and processes at the nanoscale, which has a myriad of applications in key sectors from electronics and medicine, to oil and gas.

“This kind of fundamental research enables and strengthens the advanced indigenous infrastructure of knowledge and sciences, which in turn provides a platform where cross pollination can occur to tackle issues across different fields and provide innovative solutions not realized before,” Dr. Saadat shared.

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MATHEMATICAL MODEL MAY BRING SCIENTISTS CLOSER TO UNIFYING THEORY KU RESEARCHERS TEST MODEL ON MICROSCOPIC BLACK HOLES AND DEMONSTRATE THAT GRAVITATIONAL WAVE FREQUENCIES FROM BLACK HOLES AT ALL SCALES – FROM MASSIVE TO QUANTUM – ARE THE SAME

A new application of the mathematical model used to predict the gravitational waves produced by two merging black holes at the microscopic level could play a key role in realizing the unifying theory of physics, says KU’s Dr. Davide Batic, Assistant Professor of Mathematics.

Dr. Batic has recently published a second paper on his work in the European Journal of Physics C, which answers questions raised in his first paper on the same topic, which was published last year.

“In that paper, we discovered new oscillations for a certain class of black holes, and we noted that it would have been interesting to verify whether these theoretically predicted oscillations and associated frequencies could also be detected in larger classes of black holes,” said Dr. Batic.

“This paper satisfactorily answers this question.”

These new wave oscillations are created when two black holes attract each other. As their event horizons—the point at which anything under the speed of light would be unable to escape the gravitational pull—get close enough to merge, the ringdown phenomenon occurs. This is the phase where the unified black hole system is still ringing and radiating, but progressively less so.

“In the ringdown phase, the black hole starts vibrating after interacting with matter. These vibrations get translated into gravitational waves, in the same way a guitar string being plucked translates into soundwaves,” explained Dr. Batic. “The frequencies of these waves are known as quasinormal modes and their oscillations become smaller as time passes.”

Dr. Batic added to this research by computing the theoretical oscillations in a different class of black holes: microscopic quantum black holes. This fundamental research helps to address the larger question of the

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unified field theory – the theory that would tie together all known phenomena to explain the nature and behavior of all matter and energy in existence.

The objective of particle physics is to understand the basic structure and laws of nature from the largest dimensions in the universe—the formation of stars and galaxies—to the smallest dimension in the microcosm. The Standard Model of particle physics is the theory describing the fundamental forces and classifying all known elementary particles. It was presumed complete with the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012.

But questions remain.

Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity describes physics at a grand scale. However, this theory breaks down when applied to what happens inside the singularity at the center of a black hole.

“We already know that General Relativity is not able to reliably explain what happens inside the event horizon of a black hole,” said Dr. Batic. “This suggests we need a theory unifying General Relativity with quantum mechanics. Indeed, we have several candidate theories but each one with its own problems.”

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By applying this assumption to the geometry of a black hole, Dr. Batic is able to demonstrate through mathematics that the same wave oscillations can be found in other classes of black holes, namely the non-commutative geometry inspired Schwarzschild black hole.

“Any unified theory will need to pass a fundamental test: it must be able to reproduce on a certain scale all predictions arising from quantum mechanics in curved space-times,” explained Dr. Batic.

The results from Dr. Batic’s research shows the mathematics does produce the same quasinormal modes in all classes of black holes. Should experimental data in the future discover the modes predicted by Dr. Batic, non-commutative geometry could be the unifier between the two major theories in physics.

Another important contribution made by Dr. Batic’s paper is the danger of using the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) method – a method for finding approximate solutions to differential equations – to its full extent when unnecessary.

“WKB orders are like breaking a problem down into chunks: like trying to find 23 percent of a number,” explained Dr. Batic.

“We can start by calculating 10 percent, that would be the first approximation. From there we can calculate 20 percent, and refine our approximation to get closer to the answer. Then, we can refine it even further to calculate 23 percent.”

Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics at the opposite end of the scale from general relativity: it describes nature at the smallest scales of atoms and subatomic particles.

Dr. Batic’s work, if corroborated by experimental evidence, could advance scientific understanding of key elements needed to unify the two theories.

“Even though we don’t currently have a final theory able to offer a definite answer to the mechanisms underlying the final evolution of a black hole and the central singularity, there are existing theories including string theory and loop quantum gravity,” explained Dr. Batic.

His latest paper looks at a third contending theory: noncommutative geometry.

The physical world according to non-commutative geometry becomes extremely fuzzy at very small scales where coordinates starts to fluctuate according to an uncertainty relation reminiscent of the Heisenberg uncertainty relation for position and momentum of a particle in space.

The WKB method is used to find approximate solutions to linear differential equations with various orders of slowly changing approximation until an answer is found.

“The WKB method works up to a certain point, at which it fails,” said Dr. Batic. “By means of a sixth order WKB approximation, we show that this widely used method does not converge in the critical cases and instabilities show up at the third order.”

An instability is the point at which the method fails. Using black holes here shows the limitations of this mathematical method while simultaneously demonstrating that instabilities in black holes are an artifact of the WKB method.

“We addressed if these instabilities persist by increasing the order of the WKB or by employing different algorithmic methods,” said Dr. Batic. “Extending the WKB calculations up to the sixth order reveals that the method is not convergent exactly when the presumed instabilities occur. This forces us to turn to another reliable method to pin down the nature of these instabilities. We chose the inverted potential method by which we can assure that the instabilities are due to the inefficiency of the WKB in such cases. This teaches us an important lesson for the determination of quasinormal modes: a single algorithm is not always appropriate for uncovering them all.”

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Dr. Shoaib Anwer, Postdoctoral Fellow (right) is lead author of both papers.

He worked directly under Dr. Kin Liao, Professor of Aerospace Engineering.

WONDERS OF 2D MATERIALS & THEIR 3D NANO-ARCHITECTURES FOR ENERGY STORAGE Over the past decade, the UAE has demonstrated a serious commitment to the development of renewable and alternative energy, which is one of the pillars of the country’s economic diversification strategy. The empowerment of renewable energy technology and the rapid advancements in energy storage technologies will lead to significant improvements in our daily life. Batteries play a key role as an energy storage device to overcome the operational challenges caused by the intermittent nature of renewable energy, while advanced flexible energy storage solutions will allow for further miniaturization of portable electronic devices, including wearables.

A major limitation to better electrochemical energy storage systems lies in the electrode. Electrodes are the

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places in every storage device i.e., battery or supercapacitor, where the chemical reactions occur and where the ions, or charged particles, are stored. Researchers around the world have been racing to develop highperformance electrode materials.

Considering the above mentioned research demands, a collaborative team of researchers at Khalifa University have developed excellent electrodes using ultrathin 2D materials and their 3D nano-architectures, for safer, more powerful and less expensive batteries and for flexible supercapacitor applications. The research is described in two papers published recently in the journals ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces and Advanced Materials Interfaces Wiley.

The research is being led by Dr. Shoaib Anwer, a postdoctoral fellow working with Prof. Kin Liao in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Professor Lianxi Zheng of Mechanical Engineering, Prof. Wesley Cantwell, Director of the Aerospace Research and Innovation Center (ARIC), and Dr. Shashikant Patole of the Department of Physics.

THE NATURE-INSPIRED ANODE MATERIAL FOR SODIUM-ION BATTERIES All batteries produce current in the same way – through an electrochemical reaction involving electrodes (an anode and a cathode) and electrolyte. In a rechargeable battery, the reaction is reversible. When electrical energy from an outside source is applied to a rechargeable battery, the negative-topositive electron flow that occurs during discharge is reversed, and the cell’s charge is restored.

The most common and widely used rechargeable batteries are lithium-ion, where lithium is the charge carrier, moving from the negative electrode to the positive cathode. But since 2011, there has been a revival of research interest in sodium-ion batteries because of growing

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concerns about the availability of lithium and the increasing cost. In 2015, prices for lithium almost tripled to more than USD 20,000 a ton in just ten months.

“Sodium-ion batteries are an efficient, low-cost and sustainable alternative to the expensive lithium-ion batteries used today in most large-scale energy storage applications in renewable energy and smart grids owing to the abundance of sodium in nature compared to lithium,” said Dr. Anwer.

“However, the practical applications of SIBs have been constrained­— sodium ions are nearly 25 percent larger than lithium ions, and the larger sodium ions do not fit into the crystal structure of the electrodes, where the chemical reactions take place.”

Ideally, the anode and cathode materials should be able to withstand repeated cycles of sodium storage without degradation. However, the typical anode material used in commercial lithium-ion batteries, graphite, cannot be used in SIBs as it cannot store the larger sodium ion in large quantities.

The KU researchers investigated 2D nanostructured materials, such as transition-metal sulfides and hydroxides, and carbon-rich materials as possible electrode materials to overcome the limitations posed by graphite anodes and to improve the properties of rechargeable SIBs. Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has been identified as a particularly attractive anode material for SIBs due to its layered structure. 2D materials, sometimes referred to as single layer materials, are crystalline materials comprising a single layer of atoms. Molybdenum disulfide monolayers comprise a unit of one layer of molybdenum atoms covalently bonded to two layers of sulfur atoms, forming a nanosheet.

“The large interlaying spacing and weak van der waal interaction among the molybdenum disulfide layers are beneficial for reversible sodium ion intercalation and extraction,” Dr. Anwer explained. “But poor electronic conductivity and slow sodium diffusion kinetics makes MoS2 as an anode material for SIBs limited.”

To overcome these key problems, and to improve molybdenum disulfide’s performance, Dr. Anwer scaled down the structure of MoS2 to ultra-thin nanosheets, and a two-dimensional crystalline form with a thickness of few atomic layers was achieved. Then they controlled the closely interconnected ultrathin molybdenum disulfide nanosheets synthesis to form a 3D marigold flower-like microstructure.

Finally, they wrapped these microstructures in atomically thin sheets of graphene, forming MoS2-Graphene networks.

“Inspired by the marigold flower structures in nature, we developed a simple hydrothermal approach to synthesize the flowery 3D MoS2 ultrathin structures, followed by graphene wrapping to obtain the MoS2-G interconnected 3D conductive network,” said Dr. Anwer. “Such a unique MoS2-G 3D architecture influenced by the surface-tosurface intimate contact between MoS2 and graphene effectively improves the electron/ion transport kinetics of MoS2 and ensures structural integrity, resulting in superior electrochemical performance.”

“The prepared electrode exhibited an outstanding specific capacity, remarkable rate performance, and long cycle life, while our proposed synthesis strategy and 3D design offer a unique way to fabricate high-performing anode materials for low-cost and large-scale applications in SIBs,” elaborated Dr. Anwer.

The high energy density SIBs would be well suited for those applications currently dominated by lithium-ion batteries, including long-range electric vehicles and power-hungry consumer electronics, reducing energy storage costs across the board.

A FLEXIBLE ELECTRODE FOR SUPERCAPACITOR APPLICATION Dr. Anwer and his co-workers also leveraged advancements in nanotechnology and 2D materials to develop flexible electrode materials for supercapacitors application.

Supercapacitors have emerged as the advanced energy storage system for portable and wearable electronics due to their excellent power density, charging time and cycling life.

The researchers prepared a freestanding flexible supercapacitor electrode, based on Ni(OH)2 nanosheets (NSs) grown on a carbon nanotube foam (CNTF) as core– shell 3D Nano-architectures.

“The new flexible electrode displayed outstanding electrochemical performance by retaining its shape and structure under bending or compression without any fracture,” Dr. Anwer said. “The highly conductive CNT foam, which comprised a 3D network of CNTs – which are tiny cylindrical tubes made of tightly bonded carbon atoms, measuring just one atom thick walls – and the unique nanostructure design of the nickel hydroxide nanosheets, facilitated rapid ion transport near the electrode surfaces, and improved charge storage activity.”

The proposed synthesis strategies developed by Dr. Anwer and his team, which leverage 2D materials with a 3D design, reveal a unique way to fabricate promising electrode materials for energy storage devices.

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STREAMLINING OPERATIONS WITH EBTIC FORECASTING TECHNIQUES analytics. Etisalat then presented this to ADNOC and based on the customer feedback, was able to provide further beneficial features. As a result of this work, EBTIC did earn an excellent reputation within this area of Etisalat and the prototype is still running today in their IoT Operations Centre in Dubai. We’re working on phase three now, developing its capabilities and moving into the prediction stage to try and provide the mechanism to make business intelligent decisions.”

EBTIC is developing a smart surveillance system to help streamline operations at petrol stations

Each of the over 3 million registered vehicles in the UAE needs petrol and with only 170 ADNOC petrol stations distributed among Abu Dhabi city, Al Ain, the Western Region, and the northern emirates, it’s no wonder residents of the UAE are often left waiting to fill up.

To combat this, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) enlisted the help of telecoms company, Etisalat, to provide data analytics and forecasting tools. The Emirates ICT Innovation Center, known as EBTIC, established by Etisalat, British Telecom (BT) and Khalifa University, stepped up, with Dr. Siddhartha Shakya, Chief Researcher, Himadri Sikhar Khargharia, Researcher and Sara AlShizawi, Research Associate, designing an artificial intelligence (AI) system to increase operational efficiency at the pump.

“EBTIC works on a number of Etisalat projects every year and this project came

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about on my very first day on the job,” said Nathan Eden, Head of Innovation at EBTIC. “Etisalat were bidding for a service contract with ADNOC to run their service stations in lots of different ways, including providing a wireless network to them, but their main goal was to turn the images captured by their CCTV systems into useful data. At the time we met them, they had one service station using these cameras, but they were planning on implementing them across all stations in the UAE. They were looking to make predictions about usage: how long do users spend at petrol pumps or in the shop; how busy does the station get at a particular time; etc.

“Because it’s in the AI space, and AI at the time within Etisalat was quite a fresh new area, this gave EBTIC the opportunity to really shine.

We iteratively produced prototypes taking in the data and applying some

The petrol stations already had Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure in place, in the form of CCTV cameras and sensors to capture the data required.

The goal for this project was to build a demand prediction model for a service station where this IoT infrastructure is incorporated into a prediction framework together with an analytical dashboard to provide additional insight to the large volume of data being collected at the station.

The researchers built several prediction models and documented the results achieved by calculating the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of the prediction produced by each model.

“The system is up and running and the data is continuously coming in,” said Dr. Shakya. “Each station has various areas: the parking bays, the shop, the petrol islands, the car wash and oil change bays.

These bays are numbered and each has a sensor to record when a vehicle comes in and when it leaves. There are also the CCTV cameras which read the number plates so we can see which Emirate the vehicle came from, for example. We get all this data in a huge table of numbers once per day which we then feed into our algorithms to understand what the data is showing us as to service station usage.”

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“Now, with all the historical data, we’re looking into forecasting: for example, how many vehicles can we expect at a particular station between 10am and 12pm on a Thursday. Where we’d like to go is to begin making recommendations from the predictions. We want to be optimizing operations—if there’s more demand predicted in one station than in another but both stations have the same number of staff scheduled, we can then recommend staffing levels drop in the quieter station for that time period to provide more staff at the busier station.”

Data collected on parking bay volume by station and date

Data collected on average time spent at petrol stations

The algorithms tested were the auto regressive integrated moving average model, K-nearest neighbors regression, support vector regression (SVR), elastic net regularization, and the development of a neural network. The researchers found that the neural network they developed had the highest accuracy with the lowest MAPE across the stations, making it the optimum model for their forecasting system.

This data is then analyzed according to the measures originally agreed with Etisalat and ADNOC. The researchers are interested in the number of unique visitors, their origin points (determined from their number plates), the time of day, petrol pump analytics, car wash frequency, and many more items. The dashboards and visual representations were designed in-house by EBTIC and show useful interpretations such as which station has the fastest average filling time, which station changes oil the fastest, and the average time spent at a pump or in a parking bay, for example.

All these insights are now being used to make better business decision for better customer service.

“This model has been incorporated in a prediction framework, together with analytical dashboards to provide additional insights from the large amount of data collected from the IoT infrastructure,” said Dr. Shakya.

“We started with analytics, taking the data and seeing if we could find any insights using our in-house developed interface and dashboards,” said Nathan.

The neural network uses machine learning to continually improve on its accuracy rate. It is retrained every morning based on the new data arriving from the previous day.

Dashboard display of daily forecast of petrol pump occupancy predicted by EBTIC’s smart surveillance system

“This model uses data from 58 stations across the UAE, each station with multiple bays,” explained Dr. Shakya. “Of these bays, we’re mostly interested in petrol and parking, so in building our neural network, there are 100 models we have to train every day.”

“Every organization has to manage their resources and most of them are doing so without a full visibility of future demand,” added Dr. Shakya. “Our model can put real business intelligence behind this resource management and help optimize resources across all ADNOC forecourts.”

This project has had significant impact across many domains, including the provision of further projects building on this model, and leading to Sara Sharif’s success in her career at Etisalat post-graduation. Sharif worked on the project as a master’s student at Khalifa University and took the prize for Best AI/ML Solution from the Etisalat AI Symposium 2019.

“This work has created other opportunities in this area such as fleet management analytics, energy prediction in buildings, equipment failure predictions in buildings, lots of new projects that we’re working on for Etisalat,” said Nathan. “Whatever the use case is, we can provide a solution.”

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PETROLEUM INSTITUTE HIGHLIGHTS

TOWARDS A ‘ZERO-SKIN’ WELL WITH NEW DRILLIN FLUIDS AND NON-CORROSIVE CLEANUP SOLUTION A new approach to drilling oil wells that combines novel drill-in fluids with enzymatic wellbore cleanup fluids could lead to more productive oil and gas reservoirs.

Research led by Dr. Samuel Osisanya, Professor of Petroleum Engineering at Khalifa University, with Ismail AlCheikh, former KU Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant, Dr. Bisweswar Ghosh, Associate Professor of Petroleum Engineering, and Dr. Debayan Ghosh, President and Founder of Epygen Biotech, has led to the development of a new drill-in fluid and non-corrosive cleanup solution to maximize oil well productivity.

Drilling fluid is an essential component of any rotary drilling operation—no drilling can be performed without it. In geotechnical engineering, drilling fluid is used to aid the drilling of boreholes into the earth. Drilling fluid provides hydrostatic pressure to prevent formation fluids from entering the wellbore, keeps the drill bit cool and clean during the process, carries out drill cuttings, and suspends said cuttings while drilling is paused and the assembly is moved.

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The drilling fluid for any job is selected to avoid formation damage – the general term to describe the reduction in permeability to the wellbore area – and limit corrosion. To a great extent, the successful completion of a borehole depends on the properties of the drilling fluid.

“Drilling fluids have undergone significant development since they were first used,” said Dr. Osisanya.

“As drilling operations progressed, new conditions were encountered and new functions were required. Despite the usefulness of drilling fluids with regards to any rotary drilling operation, there are several aspects that require critical attention and control.”

Dr. Osisanya’s work focuses on minimizing formation damage to the

wellbore. There are many ways this area can be damaged, including solid particles from the drilling fluid physically plugging pores in the formation and chemical reactions between the drilling fluid and the formation rock precipitating solids that line the borehole as a sludge.

“Drilling fluids with improper particle size distribution result in the plugging of the formation pores,” explained Dr. Osisanya. “This is due to the act of the invading filtrate into the pores, known as internal damage. Internal damage causes a decrease in the porosity or permeability of the formation and therefore lowers its productivity.”

One approach to minimizing formation damage is to use drill-in fluids specially formulated to avoid damage to the formation.

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“For a drilling fluid to be used as a drillin fluid, several modifications to the composition and properties must be made,” said Dr. Osisanya. “The addition of sized bridging particles such as calcium carbonate and sodium chloride is an example of such a modification.”

One of the critical factors in designing a drill-in fluid is to prevent the solids and filtrate present from the drilling process from invading the pores, effectively sealing the formation surface. What is known as Abram’s Rule can be used to formulate a drill-in fluid as it specifies a bridging agent to be equal to or slightly greater than one third of the medium pore size of the targeted formation.

However, this rule only addresses the particle size that initiates a bridge and does not address the best packing sequence for minimizing fluid invasion and optimizing sealing.

Instead, Dr. Osisanya applied Ideal Packing Theory by determining the maximum, median and minimum pore sizes of a given core plug to provide the full particle size distribution required to quickly bridge all sizes of pore openings.

Because each reservoir is unique, each drill-in fluid must be tailor-made.

Laboratory tests on core samples characterized the reservoir rock and then a polymer-based drill-in fluid was formulated using calcium carbonate bridging particles.

Results from core flood tests showed that effective filter cakes – impermeable layers of built-up solids used to prevent filtrate loss during the initial drilling – were deposited on the core face, reducing permeability by more than 99 percent.

While blocking the pores in a wellbore is necessary during the drilling process, once the well is complete, the reservoir rock needs to be returned to its original

permeability so the sought-after hydrocarbons can flow to the surface during production. If sufficient permeability cannot be restored, it will not be economically viable to extract the hydrocarbons “Homogenous and effective cleanup operations must then be performed to remove any residual filter cake (known as external damage) and to restore the well’s original permeability,” said Dr. Osisanya. “The second objective of this work was to develop a non-corrosive wellbore cleanup fluid to remove the external filter cakes and bring the skin close to zero prior to well completion.”

A zero-skin well refers to a well in which the permeability around the wellbore is unaltered after drilling takes place.

To maximize the production rate and economic value of the well, the filter cake needs to be removed as uniformly as possible from the entire borehole. Historically, acid, particularly hydrochloric acid, has been used to remove calcium carbonate in filter cakes. While strong acids can give good results in wells with short production intervals, the very fast reaction rate results in the consumption of the acid before a homogenous cleanup is achieved. Plus, strong acids tend to also react with downhole equipment and tubulars causing severe corrosion.

Conversely, weak acids have improved efficiency due to their slow reaction but are unable to dissolve a filter cake’s polymer content and are also corrosive to the downhole tools.

“Normally, wellbore cleanup fluids are highly acidic and need a corrosion inhibitor,” explained Dr. Osisanya. “But this new formulation is effective in minimizing corrosion of downhole tools without the use of corrosion inhibitors.”

Dr. Osisanya’s work combines acid precursors and enzymes into one cleanup solution. Organic acid precursors are esters which generate weak acids downhole at various rates, which minimizes corrosion as they are pumped downhole in a non-acidic phase. These clean the carbonate content of the filter cake. To tackle the polymer content, specific enzymes such as alpha-amylase are used. The combination leads to effective and uniform removal of the filter cake while also limiting corrosion of the tools and equipment.

“The corrosion rates were found to be significantly below the industry limits.

Meaning, the use of acid corrosion inhibitor is not necessary,” said Dr. Osisanya. “The industry accepted corrosion limit is 4.6mm per year.

The average corrosion rate from our solution was 0.327mm per year.

Corrosion inhibitors are usually inorganic salts of heavy metals and extensive use of these materials is restricted in many areas due to their impact on personnel and the surrounding area. Strong acids also pose significant health and safety risks as well as environmental concerns. A corrosion free breaker chemical is key to mitigating these issues.

Not only is Dr. r all tests was around 95 percent. As a common acceptable return permeability is around 60 percent, this iOsisanya’s cleanup solution minimally corrosive, it is also very efficient. Return permeability fos a remarkable improvement.

“The combination of our designed drillin fluid and the cleanup solution saw us achieve a ‘near zero-skin,’ which was the objective of this research.”

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INNOVATION FORWARD

NEW COMPUTER MODEL COULD HELP BOOST OIL PRODUCTION FROM UAE’S TIGHT OIL WELL

MODEL HELPS MAKE BETTER PREDICTIONS ABOUT MECHANICS OF ACID FRACTURED HORIZONTAL WELLS AND OIL FLOW

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Fracturing, commonly known as fracking, is frequently used to enhance oil and gas production from underground hydrocarbon reservoirs. Fracking allows access to vast quantities of previously unreachable unconventional hydrocarbon resources and therefore is being adopted by regional oil and gas producers to unlock oil and gas deposits. For instance, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) saying fracking will be critical to future production.

To support ADNOC’s ambition to explore new sources of oil and gas, researchers at Khalifa University, Dr. Talal Al Hajeri and Dr. Mohamed Motiur Rahman, have developed a new computer model that could

potentially boost oil production from unproductive, or ‘tight’, carbonate reservoirs by making better predictions about the mechanics of acid fractured wells and how oil flows through them.

The model was described recently by Dr.Talal Al Hajeri, Director Engineer of the UAE Navy Task Force and PhD student from KU, during a technical seminar at the 2019 Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC).

“The main objective of this work is to study the behavior of injected hydrochloric acid and oil flow from a horizontal well with multi-stage acid fracures,” explained Dr. Al Hajeri.

INNOVATION FORWARD

Horizontal wells, which are created by horizontal drilling, combined with acid fracturing, allow oil companies to access previously non-viable reservoirs. In conventional vertical wells, a single acid fracture is used, but in horizontal wells, multiple acid fractures are required.

“Our research looks at the acid flow behavior in multiple fractures created hydraulically in horizontal wells, and the flow of the oil after the fracturing. We have created an integrated model that simulates five different stages of fractures, along with other dimensions, such as well geomechanics and operational constraints. The model then generates the post-fractured oil flow and production yields,” Dr. Al Hajeri said.

Because fracturing takes place underground, using advanced computer models to simulate the fracturing mechanics is critical to understanding and improving the process. Dr. Al Hajeri and Dr. Rahman’s work will contribute to advanced well simulation techniques of acid fracturing that are representative of actual field applications.

Acid fracturing is one of two types of fracturing methods used to exploit tight and ultra-tight (or low permeability) oil formations underground. In carbonate rock formations, such as limestone and dolomite, which make up the geological landscape of the Middle East, acid fracturing is common.

Whereas in sandstone formations, hydraulic, or proppant, fracturing in used.

Both techniques involve injecting high-pressure liquids into an oil or gas rock formation to create a flow channel through which hard-to-reach hydrocarbons trapped in porous rocks can flow to the surface.

Hydraulic fracturing involves pumping high-pressure liquids (like water) mixed with a proppant (such as sand) into a well to crack the rock open (the proppant is used to keep the cracks open). While acid fracturing involves pumping high-pressure acids (like hydrochloric acid) into a well to etch channels in the rocks (in acid fracturing, the acid keeps the channels open).

Before fracking can begin, reservoir modelling is key to improving productivity, as it allows operators to better understand their resources, the area they’ll be working in, and the best locations to drill. Even more helpfully, whether acid fracking or hydraulic fracking should be used can also be determined digitally.

“Determining the type of stimulation technique for a formation is completely dependent on instinct, logic, and experience,” said Dr. Al Hajeri.

“Moreover, choosing between hydraulic or acid-based fracturing may be subject to regulations, environmental, or even geological criteria.”

Modelling can help make this decision.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical analysis and data structures to analyze and solve problems involving fluid flows. Computers are used to perform the calculations required to simulate the free flow of the fluid, and the interaction of the fluid with surfaces defined by boundary conditions.

The researchers used the Autodesk Fusion 360 software to initiate the vertical and horizontal fractures before using CFD to model the flow inside the fracture itself. There are several studies using various CFD software to investigate hydraulic fracturing but these involve the application of proppant, not the use of an acid.

“The issue with using CFD software for acids compared to proppant is that the properties of acid are normally

not included in the CFD directory compared to the mechanical properties which can be added for solid flow,” explained Dr. Al Hajeri.

The researchers focused on a preliminary simulation to model acid fracturing in a carbonate formation.

They combined two of the most common hydraulic fracture models: the 2D fracture geometry model known as the Perkins-Kern-Nordgren (PKN) model and the pseudo 3D fracture geometry model. The outcomes of this combined model will assist in upscaling simulations to 3D models with field values from existing wells, adding validity.

Further developments with fracture simulation can be carried out for horizontal fractures to understand how the area around the fracture will be affected.

“One of the challenges of acid fracturing in carbonates is related to layering where it is important for the induced fracture not to propagate into adjacent undesired layers,” said Dr. Al Hajeri. “The CFD simulation gives a visual representation of acid and oil flow inside a fractured formation and how fluid flow properties affect the development of acid turbulence inside the fracture and along the fracture walls.

Additionally, the fracture widening for a horizontal fracture is simulated to model the stress intensity on fracture growth and the displacement of the mesh elements.”

“Our simulation can show the behavior of two fracture models and their relative geometries where most realistic formation constraints and requirements are incorporated.

If the model is integrated properly with production models for designing an acid fracture, this can predict the production profile in a much better way than any existing model in the industry.”

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INNOVATION FORWARD

PREDICTING PERMEABILITY IN MIDDLE EASTERN CARBONATE USING MACHINE LEARNING Modern oil geologists examine surface rocks and terrain, using sensitive gravity meters to measure tiny changes in the Earth’s gravitational field that could indicate flowing oil, and electronic noses to “sniff” for the smell of hydrocarbons.

Most commonly, they use seismology, creating shock waves that pass through the rock layers and interpreting the waves that are reflected back.

Finding oil beneath the Earth’s surface is one thing; extracting it is another.

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Hydrocarbon exploration is an expensive, high-risk operation. Hydrocarbons formed in source rock migrate to a reservoir rock, commonly a porous limestone or sandstone. The hydrocarbons collect in the pores in the rock (the more porous, the more oil) and extracting them requires the reservoir to be permeable so hydrocarbons can flow to the surface during production.

If a potential area lacks sufficient porosity or permeability, it may not be economically viable to extract the contained hydrocarbons.

Accurate estimations of petrophysical properties are critical for oil reservoir characterization with direct impact on reservoir management and enhanced oil recovery strategies.

In work presented at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) 2019, KU’s Dr. Moussa Tembely, Research Associate,

applies advanced artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to predict the petrophysical properties of complex carbonate rock. Once trained on thousands of high-resolution images, the AI-based model was able to reduce the computation time into seconds instead of days for classical direct simulations.

Reservoir models are built upon measured and derived petrophysical properties to estimate the amount of hydrocarbons present in the reservoir, the rate at which that hydrocarbon can be produced to the Earth’s surface through wellbores, and the fluid flow in rocks. Geological descriptions are normally obtained from thinsection photomicrograph analysis, but in carbonates like limestone and dolomite, which make up the geological landscape of the Middle East, reservoir heterogeneity complicates efforts to establish rock types.

INNOVATION FORWARD

The mineralogy, organic content, natural fractures, and other properties vary from reservoir to reservoir in this region.

“Characterizing complex rocks, such as carbonate, is still very challenging due to intrinsic heterogeneities occurring at all scales of observation and measurement,” explained Dr. Tembely.

A major application of petrophysics is in studying reservoirs for the hydrocarbon industry. The rock properties of the reservoir are investigated, particularly how pores in the subsurface are interconnected and control the accumulation and migration of hydrocarbons.

“The permeability is one of the most significant petrophysical properties for reservoir rock,” explained Dr. Tembely.

“It is essential in targeting a desired commercial oil and gas production rate.”

Permeability is a measure of the ability of a rock to allow fluids to pass through it and relates to pore interconnectivity.

If a rock has sufficient porosity and permeability that oil or gas can flow through it, it can potentially serve as a reservoir.

Apart from core analysis, formation testing is so far the only tool that can directly estimate a rock formation’s permeability. Where this is absent—as in most cases­—an estimate for permeability can be derived from empirical relationships with other measurements such as porosity, nuclear magnetic resonance and sonic logging.

“Correctly predicting subsurface flow properties is critical in many applications, ranging from water resource management to the petroleum industry,” explained Dr. Moussa Tembely.

“To address this, we apply machine and deep learning to quickly and accurately compute petrophysical properties based on micro-CT images without any computationally intensive procedures.”

Digital Rock Physics (DRP) allows reservoir rock characterization to take place away from the reservoir site. Highresolution images of the rock’s pores and mineral grains are obtained and processed, and the rock properties are evaluated at the pore scale. Micro-plugs are drilled and high resolution micro-CT images are recorded, processed and analyzed to generate 3D digital rock models. Users of DRP look for total porosity and absolute permeability, among other reservoir properties.

Simulations at the pore scale can be classified into two categories: porenetworking modeling (PNM), and direct modeling, which includes the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM).

“The pore network modeling approach is widely used for fast computation of flow properties, albeit with less accuracy due to the inherent simplification of the pore space,” explained Dr. Tembely.

“Alternatively, direct simulation using computational fluid dynamics, such as the lattice Boltzmann method, is very accurate. However, its high computational cost prevents this approach from including all the relevant flow physics in a single simulation.”

Innovations in machine learning accelerate the pace of any sector and artificial intelligence has already been applied to petroleum engineering.

Previously, most applications were concerned with rock typing, production, and drilling optimization, while few works were devoted to the direct prediction of petrophysical properties using 3D micro-CT images. One model has been used to predict permeability using the PNM approach, which is not reliable enough to provide an accurate estimation.

“After assessing numerical techniques ranging from PNM to the LBM, we established a framework based on machine learning for fast and accurate

prediction of permeability directly from 3D micro-CT images of complex Middle East carbonate rock,” said Dr. Tembely.

“We used thousands of samples from which engineered features are fed into both shallow and deep learning algorithms to compute the permeability.

In addition, we have a hybrid neural network accounting for both the physical properties and 3D raw images. Our model is accurate and much faster than the lattice Boltzmann method.”

Using images of complex carbonate rock from the Middle East, Dr. Tembely and Dr. Ali Alsumaiti from the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) compared three numerical techniques used to simulate flow properties: PNM, the finite volume method, and a voxelbased method of the LBM. The PNM technique was used to extract porosity and permeability data, while LBM direct simulations were performed to compute the permeabilities of all samples. This data was then fed into supervised shallow and deep learning models to train the machine learning technique to compute permeability.

Despite only being trained on a small subset of 3D images, the machine learning technique was able to estimate the permeability of a larger sample in less than a second—in very good agreement with the result obtained by LBM in a day of simulation. Dr. Tembely’s algorithm accurately estimated complex and heterogeneous rock petrophysical properties within a 3 percent margin of error.

“With our data-driven workflow, simulations that could take days would only need a few seconds when a trained network is used,” said Dr. Tembely. “Combining deep learning and rock imaging and modeling has great potential in reservoir simulation and characterization to swiftly and accurately predict petrophysical properties of porous media.”

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INNOVATION FORWARD

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INNOVATION FORWARD

THE IMPACT OF PV SHADES IN REDUCING HEAT STRESS IN OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY BEYOND JUST PROVIDING COVER, PV PANELS CAN BE PART OF A HYBRID ELECTRICAL GENERATING SYSTEM, WITH STORAGE BATTERIES AND DIESEL GENERATORS. THE PV PANELS REDUCE THE NEED TO OPERATE THE GENERATORS AND REDUCE CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS.

Heat stress is a common phenomenon in the UAE. During the harsh summer months, residents across the country suffer from the heat, but for outdoors workers, like those on oil rigs, summer can be a potentially dangerous time of year. To keep workers safe, a team of researchers from Khalifa University have investigated using a system of photovoltaic (PV) panels to provide shade for the workers, significantly reducing the temperatures in which the employees are working.

Dr. Clarence Rodrigues and Dr. Rodney Simmons, both Associate Professors of Industrial and Systems Engineering supported Abdul Hasib Siddique, graduate student from the M. Eng. in Health, Safety and Environmental Engineering (HSE) program, with his efforts conducted for the 1-credit research course requirement for the program.

“Excessive heat in an oil or natural gas drilling environment can have negative effects on workers, production levels and work efficiency,” explained Siddique. “The summer temperature in the UAE can reach as high as 51⁰ C, which is extremely high for continuous outside work, especially considering that a 12-hour work shift is normal on the rigs.”

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SOLVING CHALLENGES, SMARTER