KU Times | Issue 10 | February 2021

Issue 10 I FEB 2021

Technologies for Present and Future Space Exploration Challenges Khalifa University Launches New Alumni Association Khalifa University’s YFEL Outreach Program Organized Virtual Graduation Ceremony for 2020 Batch KU Researchers Use Blockchain to Develop Digital Immunity Passports for COVID-19

Atmospheric Extremes Triggered the Biggest Calving Event at an Antarctica Ice Shelf in More Than 50 Years, Reports Khalifa University Team The iceberg continues to be monitored due to the threat that an iceberg this size could pose to shipping channels.

45 Faculty from Khalifa University included in Stanford University’s List of World’s Top 2% of Scientists Khalifa University tops UAE universities with a quarter of all UAE faculty in the prestigious list hailing from KU 1 KU TIMES

ABOUT KU TIMES KU TIMES IS A NEWSLETTER PUBLISHED

BY THE KHALIFA UNIVERSITY MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT. IT AIMS TO KEEP OUR STAKEHOLDERS INFORMED AND UPDATED ABOUT KHALIFA UNIVERSITY’S LATEST BREAKTHROUGHS, CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH, COLLABORATIONS, INITIATIVES, STUDENT ACTIVITIES AND NEWS. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SUBMIT AN IDEA FOR AN ARTICLE, NOMINATE STUDENTS OR OTHERS TO BE INTERVIEWED, PROVIDE SUGGESTIONS ON TOPICS YOU WOULD LIKE TO READ ABOUT, OR SIMPLY WANT TO LEAVE A COMMENT, PLEASE EMAIL US AT COMMUNICATIONS@ KU.AC.AE.

Contents 15 Dr. Maryam Tariq Khaleel Alhashmi,

6

44 KU TIMES 2

Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering

Khalifa University’s College of Medicine and Health Sciences Organizes White Coat Ceremony for Second Cohort of 34 Students

5

57

32

74 63 Think Smart: Challenges and Opportunities in Smart Cities

3 KU TIMES

RESPONDING TO COVID-19 Contextualizing the Covid-19 Pandemic for a CarbonConstrained World The global Covid-19 pandemic has rapidly overwhelmed our societies, shocked the global economy and overburdened struggling healthcare systems and other social institutions around the world. While such impacts of Covid-19 are critical matters, the implications of the disease for energy and climate policy also must not be overlooked.

BY DR. STEVE GRIFFITHS

THE IMPLICATIONS OF COVID-19 FOR ENERGY AND CLIMATE POLICY MUST NOT BE OVERLOOKED

KU TIMES 4

In a Special Section for Elsevier’s international journal Energy Research & Social Science, Dr. Benjamin Sovacool, University of Sussex, Dylan Furszyfer Del Rio, Queen’s University Belfast and Khalifa University, and I offer insights on the emerging connections between Covid-19 and energy supply and demand, energy governance, future low-carbon transitions and social justice through own perspectives complimented by assessment and summarization of key findings from papers solicited for the Special Section.

Although ostensibly never intended as measures to reduce energy consumption, air pollution, or climate change directly, responses to the virus have had substantial connections with energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions. The most prominent drivers of these have been mandatory lockdowns or quarantines for households and the related severe restrictions on travel.

By late April 2020, more than half of the global population was under some form of coronavirus lockdown, with their movement actively restricted and controlled by their respective governments. One article we assessed calculated that more people were in lockdown due to Covid-19 than were alive during World War II, with the largest lockdowns in India, China and the United States. More than 100 countries had travel restrictions in place in March 2020 and the number of commercial flights had plummeted dramatically.

As people were forced to stay at home, road transport and traffic dropped significantly as would be expected. Although road transport has begun to rebound as lockdown measures eased during the summer, public transportation and international passenger air travel continue to be significantly reduced relative to pre-pandemic levels.

RESPONDING TO COVID-19

Covid-19 has not only affected travel and the energy involved in providing it, but also global energy supply chains and the viability of energy firms. The reasons for this are understandable as governments distributed public funding to combating the disease, leaving funding for clean energy and other climate measures to economic recovery packages to be deployed at a later time. While the European Union in particular is indeed delivering on “green stimulus”, many countries and regions around the world continue to focus efforts on battling Covid-19 and have yet to deliver on meaningful stimulus for protecting the environment.

At the time of the paper release, projected installations for residential solar panels had fallen significantly, with IRENA predicting that total new solar capacity additions in 2020 would be roughly on par with 2019, which is as much as 20 percent below earlier expectations. Due to a strong dependence on imported solar panel technology from China, where manufacturing has declined due to the pandemic, dramatic reductions on future solar capacity were also projected for countries such as India. Fortunately, more recent data from IEA has shown great resilience for renewable energy during the pandemic and this leaves us with great optimism for the continued success of renewable energy in global power systems.

Perhaps most salient among the energy impacts of Covid-19, the global fossil fuel markets have been significantly affected and this was highlighted by many contributors to the Special Issue. The coronavirus has disrupted global oil markets far more than any geopolitical event ever has, weakening the ability of oil suppliers to control markets and driving natural gas prices down. Oil and gas markets have somewhat recovered in recent months but both the near and long-term outlooks for these markets remain uncertain. Many now question whether the pandemic has set off a chain of events that will make 2019 the year we witnessed peak oil demand globally.

The ramifications of Covid-19 extend beyond the avoided energy consumption and emissions associated with travel and household lockdowns; they are also drastically shaping energy institutions and policy frameworks. The pandemic has significantly disrupted lives, businesses and economies with potentially lasting effects on social norms and practices. As economies recover from the economic impacts of Covid-19, governments will need to make decision on how economic stimulus is directed and, as already noted, it is yet to be seen whether investments to mitigate climate change will be made on a large scale globally. Policy frameworks that positively support potentially beneficial norms and practices that have

arisen from the pandemic also we become apparent only in time. For instance, online meetings in lieu of international business travel can have a very positive long-term climate impact but the dealing with the second-order impacts that would result from the financial harm this could do to the airline, travel and leisure industries would need to be considered in policy frameworks.

In the context of sustainability transitions, this pandemic is causing disruptive change by not only potentially accelerating transformations in incumbent socio-technical systems, but also by affecting emergent innovations and niches. It is altering the scope and pace of energy systems change with new dynamics of electricity demand and pricing, disruption of energy technology supply chains, and unknown outcomes from stimulus packages, which themselves are still be defined. By calling into question longstanding conventions about globalization and interconnectivity, as well as freedom of movement, the pandemic is changing multi-scalar policy and politics. Importantly, when people do travel now, they prefer individual modes of travel, given the focus on social distancing. This raises the critical question of whether there will be an acceleration of pre-pandemic drivers for sustainability or whether momentum for sustainability will be lost pandemic recovery unfolds and previously promoted measure for sustainability, like public transportation, are shunned by the public.

In sum, Covid-19 is shaping global patterns of energy consumption, policy making and governance, heightening concerns over energy vulnerabilities and injustices, and challenging how future energy and climate researchers go about their work. For every noted positive intersection with some aspect of sustainability, there is an almost equally negative intersection. Beyond the noted issue with public transportation, will falling demand for fossil fuels drive a long-term move away from carbon-intensive fuels, or will associated falling prices cement them as cheap and abundant sources of energy for years to come? This health crisis presents a strategic opportunity to work on advancing the global climate agenda towards a just transition and a sustainable future. Although the impacts from the pandemic have so far been far from equitable or welcomed, we can foresee a future in which the tragic and challenging events surrounding COVID-19 may ultimately lead to a brighter future if we are able to capitalize on climate-beneficial policies, norms and practices that emerge.

Dr. Steve Griffiths is Senior Vice President for Research and Development at Khalifa University.

5 KU TIMES

RESPONDING TO COVID-19

BY DR. JORGE RODRÍGUEZ

health authorities: which population groups should be targeted first and what sequence must be followed to achieve the minimum number of fatalities?

Khalifa University Researchers Develop Model to Determine Who to Vaccinate First against COVID-19 to Reduce Total Fatalities THE OUTCOMES OF THE MODEL SUGGEST PRIORITY BE GIVEN TO THOSE WITH THE MOST CONTACT WITH OTHERS.

After months of unprecedented events and uncertainty due to COVID-19, there’s good news: vaccines are just around the corner. The next dilemma, however, involves distribution of the vaccine to the billions of people around the world. These days, it’s not only a question of manufacturing enough doses, or physically shipping the vials, but rather, who’s first in line?

The rapid development of vaccines against the SARSCoV-2 virus is an enormous achievement. Effective and safe vaccines that can be mass produced and distributed to almost the entire population could prevent deaths and boost economic recovery.

But vaccinating the world population in a short period of time creates a new challenge for governments and KU TIMES 6

To answer this question, I worked with a team of researchers from Khalifa University to create a mathematical model to simulate the impact of vaccination on fatalities and infection spread across different population groups by age and accounting for the different stages of the COVID-19 disease. The team included myself, Dr. Mauricio Patón, Postdoctoral Fellow, and Dr. Juan Acuña, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. We evaluated and compared different strategies to determine the most effective possible vaccination priority sequence, with the objective to minimize the total fatalities at the end of the vaccination campaign.

Dr. Jorge Rodríguez Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at Khalifa University

The COVID-19 outbreak has brought unprecedented attention to mathematical modeling, with the development of several epidemic models trying to forecast the extent of the pandemic.

RESPONDING TO COVID-19

Our work builds on a previous model we developed back in March for predicting how different interventions impacted the spread of the COVID-19. We initially used epidemiological data from Spain due to their availability and level of detail. The previous model used population groups segregated by age and was designed to evaluate the impact of different types of interventions (such as isolation or use of masks) on the COVID-19 outbreak dynamics and outcome. Designed to be open source, the model provided a stepping stone for non-experts and policymakers to understand what to expect as the disease spread. After all, using mathematical modeling to understand the potential spread of a disease has a long history and epidemiological models have improved drastically over the years.

Now, since a vaccine is available, attention is turning to evaluating vaccination strategies against the disease. The goal of the updated model was to elucidate which strategy might be best for vaccinating the population, with the objective of reducing the number of fatalities.

In this new model, individuals are also segregated by population groups, related to their age, but also to their activity and other epidemiological specifics. The model did not include groups such as healthcare workers or extremely vulnerable individuals (since those already take priority for other reasons) and assumes, at this stage, that the vaccines are effective against the transmission of the disease.

By applying the model first to the vaccination in countries with large numbers of elderly citizens, such as in Europe or the US, we obtained results that showed how organizing vaccination by priority groups can achieve dramatic reductions in total fatalities (more than 70% in some cases) compared to no prioritization.

The results, evaluated for different vaccine efficacies (including against transmission) and coverage values, show also that, in order to have the largest impact in total fatalities, priority should not necessarily go first towards those groups with the highest mortality (such as senior citizens), but rather to those with the highest number of daily person-to-person interactions.

Furthermore, if groups with higher mortalities but less social interactions are put first, the model predicts even more final total fatalities as if no priorities are followed.

This is due to the delay (potentially by months) in

vaccinating the highly interactive (and potentially highly spreading) groups that allow the exponential infection curve to continue growing.

These findings, which do not apply to special groups such as healthcare workers or to very vulnerable individuals, may run counter to the vaccination plans for the general population as announced in countries like the UK and the US as well as the EU. Other countries such as Indonesia, however, have decided to follow an order similar to that suggested by our results, starting with the most interactive, and not with the elderly, to achieve maximum impact on fatalities.

We are also not the first study suggesting such a sequence of vaccination, giving priority to spreaders over vulnerable but more isolated groups. This was also found to be most effective for the influenza vaccine under a situation of vaccine dose limitation; the most vulnerable were better protected by indirectly blocking their infection through vaccination of the most interactive spreader groups first.

In the last few weeks, we have applied the model to the population demographics of Abu Dhabi, which are quite different to that of European countries and with a much younger population. For countries like the UAE, with its specific characteristics and young population, our results show that the vaccination of the elderly first, due to their low numbers, would not pose any negative impact as it does not delay the vaccination of the highly interactive spreaders by much.

Our conclusions also suggest that following a specific prioritization by groups in the UAE does not seem to make a major difference as opposed to the case in countries with older population demographics, as long as a good vaccination coverage is reached.

The organization of vaccination campaigns against COVID-19 is a very complex problem to which the expertise of different disciplines and perspectives can contribute. Its success, as our results clearly show, depends ultimately on reaching high vaccination coverage, and on all of us taking the vaccines without delay as soon as the health authorities recommend it.

Our work is currently under peer-review for publication in scientific journals, and a preprint version of it is fully available on medRxiv.

7 KU TIMES

RESPONDING TO COVID-19

Khalifa University and Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi Researchers Developing Model to Understand How Long and How Far COVID-19 Virus Remains Airborne Aerosol spread means that tiny droplets containing the SARS CoV-2 virus remain airborne for a long time and travel significantly farther than the six-foot separation recommended for social distancing. As some studies have suggested, the spread of COVID-19 by aerosols is both real and dangerous.

To create their model, the researchers spray a colloid made of silicon nanoparticles to simulate a patient’s cough and aerosol generation, making droplets of various sizes containing the nanoparticles. These nanoparticles glow red under UV light, allowing the researchers to see how the particles spread. The team will also be testing their model in a hospital environment with mannequins at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi.

Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice President, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, said: “Our researchers have been persistently engaged in scientific research that brings solutions through the use of advanced technology. The use of nanoparticles to ‘locate’ the SARS CoV-2 virus and find KU TIMES 8

out how the airborne particles spread quickly is one model our research team is currently working on, as part of our efforts to contribute to mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic. We believe the outcome of this research will not only help identify how the airborne particles of the virus spread, but will also help ensure the care-providing environment such as hospitals and clinics are kept safer.”

Dr. Ahmad Rakad Nusair, MD, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, said: “Understanding the transmission of the virus is crucial in our fight against it. So far, the evidence for modes of transmission has been based on observations that have not been validated experimentally. As one would imagine, it would not be safe to experiment with the real virus, and hence, our decision to use nanoparticles to simulate the virus transmission in the healthcare environment. Globally, there are different recommendations to prevent the spread of the virus in the healthcare settings. While they all come from credible regulatory bodies, they are widely variant. The result of that is what we continue to see today, transmission of the virus in different healthcare settings and in different countries varies a great deal. There were hospitals in other countries that reported more than one third of their healthcare to have contracted the infection, while others reported minimal transmission. There are many factors that are responsible for the variation we see.

RESPONDING TO COVID-19

IN ORDER FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: KU MSC STUDENT WAFA SULAIMAN ALNAQBI, JUVEIRIAH MOHAMMED ASHRAF RE, DR. AHMAD NUSAIR CCAD, DR. SHADI MUHAMMAD, PROFESSOR AMMAR NAYFEH, POSTDOC DR. AYMAN REZK

The type of rooms that are used for patient care, the ventilation systems that are in place, the type of PPE that is being used. We are going to look into all those variables and understand each of those effects on the virus transmission.

Our scientific experimental approach will enable us to give sound scientific recommendations for healthcare institutions to protect their staff against COVID-19.

The researchers will be using mannequins to simulate a breathing healthcare worker in a regular room and in a negative pressure isolation room. This is expected to improve the researchers’ understanding of the virus’ epidemiology, the effectiveness of masks and social distancing, and improve how we use our resources in hospitals.

Aerosols are tiny compared to droplets, which are larger in size and may be exhaled by people talking, coughing or sneezing. These droplets don’t travel far and quickly fall to the ground, but aerosols spread to far greater distances and can linger in the air for a longer time, making them more likely infecting others.

(a) A surgical mask under the UV lamp after spraying the Si NPs

(b) A surgical mask under the UV lamp before spraying the Si NPs

The research team, led by Dr. Ammar Nayfeh, Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, comprises Dr. Ayman Rezk, Postdoctoral Fellow, Juveiriah Mohammed Ashraf, Research Engineer, and MSc students Wafa Sulaiman Alnaqbi and Aisha Al Hammadi.

What constitutes a safe distance from aerosols is much harder to define, especially in indoor spaces with poor ventilation.

At present, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi is partnering with the research team to provide two patient care environments for testing. No patients are involved, and the team will use medical mannequins to simulate a breathing healthcare worker in a patient’s room.

9 KU TIMES

RESPONDING TO COVID-19

KU TIMES 10

RESPONDING TO COVID-19

Khalifa University Researchers Launching App to Identify CoVid-19 ‘High Risk’ Category Users from Smartphone Data

A team of researchers at Khalifa University of Science and Technology launched an app to collect data from smartphone users to identify, through machine intelligence, whether they are in the CoVid-19 ‘high risk’ category.

The app named ‘CovidSense’ will target all mobile phone users. It will also help those users under quarantine to monitor their symptoms and location, while assisting them with their health control measures.

The app will record metadata and self-reported health status data, along with breathing sounds, cough, heart rate, the GPS location from a smartphone, as well as details of those who the user has interacted with.

The data collected from the smartphones can be used to monitor the evolution of the health status over a period of time, informing the status of the Covid-19 patients to the connected physicians. At the same time, it will allow researchers to form ‘Deep Learning’ models in order to come up with a ‘reliable predictive high-risk index’ in an updated version at a future date. This update will also help minimize spreading by alerting or helping healthcare workers to act at the correct time and place.

The development of ‘CovidSense’ app is being led by Dr. Leontios Hadjileontiadis, Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Acting Chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Khalifa University, along with Dr Herbert F. Jelinek, Associate Professor, Dr. Ahsan Khandoker, Associate Professor, and Dr. Kinda Khalaf, Associate Professor and Associate Chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Khalifa University, for the metadata and physiological signal analysis, when they will be obtained from the users.

Khalifa University is also collaborating with the research Lab, Signal Processing and Biomedical Technology Unit, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, involving the development team of Tsoumalis George, Zafiris Bampos, and Iakovakis Dimitrios, for implementing the functional versions of CovidSense in both operational systems of Android and iPhone. For more information about the app please visit https://covidsense.info/ 11 KU TIMES

INNOVATION FORWARD

KU Researchers Use Blockchain to Develop Digital Immunity Passports for COVID-19 DESIGNED TO HELP PEOPLE PROVE THEY HAVE BEEN VACCINATED AGAINST COVID-19, DIGITAL IMMUNITY PASSPORTS MAY HELP SIGNIFICANTLY CONTROL THE VIRUS’ SPREAD WHILE ALLOWING NORMAL LIFE TO REEMERGE.

These passports will likely take the form of apps as outlined by a team of researchers at Khalifa University.

Haya R. Hasan, Research Associate, Dr. Khaled Salah, Professor, and Dr. Ibrar Yaqoob, Post-doctoral Research Fellow, from the KU Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, with Dr. Mohammed Omar,

How or when our lives may return to normal is still unclear as Covid-19 continues its spread. But a new strategy is being proposed that may significantly help control the virus’ spread while allowing normal life to re-emerge. The new strategy focuses on identifying and documenting people’s immunity, or their inability to infect others, with so-called ‘immunity passports.’

Professor, and Dr. Raja Jayaraman, Associate Professor, from the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, collaborated with Dr. Junaid Arshad, Associate Professor at Birmingham City University, and Dr. Samer Ellahham from the Heart and Vascular Institute, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, to develop a blockchain-based solution for Covid-19 digital medical passports and immunity certificates. Their work was published in IEEE Access.

A digital immunity passport is a digital document detailing a person’s test results proving he or she is not considered a risk in spreading the virus. This accounts for people who have tested negative for the disease, have been vaccinated, or are otherwise immune to Covid-19.

“Covid-19 has had an unprecedented impact on human life across the world,” said Dr. Salah. “Highly contagious, this disease has affected a significant proportion of the world population with a very large number of infections and deaths.

KU TIMES 12

INNOVATION FORWARD

Although the symptoms, which are similar to those of the influenza virus, vary in severity across people and not all people infected with the disease show symptoms. Some infected people are known as silent carriers or silent spreaders, which makes effective and verifiable testing paramount to a successful response to Covid-19.”

the patient’s vaccination and immunization records as well as their medical and travel history, which is authenticated by the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Foreign Affairs for international usage. The patient’s personally identifiable information is completely secure, as disclosure is delegated to the owner of the information—the patient.”

Immunity certification could prove valuable in settings where there is a high risk of transmission, such as large gatherings of people at sports events or during travel. The virus has wreaked particular havoc on the travel industry and so digital immunity passports may present a potential lifeline to that industry.

Internationally, the biggest hurdle for the introduction of immunity passports is the scientific knowledge about Covid-19 itself. It is still unclear exactly how accurate antibody tests are, and when antibodies are detected, how long they remain in someone’s body. However, while the medical community continues to understand the nature of immune responses to Covid-19, researchers are building platforms and solutions on which to host digital immunity passports.

Designed to help people prove that they have been tested and that the test results belong to them, but without having to share any personal information, an immunity passport requires verifiable and trustworthy testing and concrete security.

“The government’s response strategy is evolved and implemented based on data related to infections collected by regional units,” explained Dr. Salah. “Such data relies on clinical diagnosis conducted by hospitals and other specialized facilities, but the presence of multiple intermediaries in this process causes delays in reporting time, which limits hospitals and testing centers from promptly reporting infections.

Furthermore, the layered structure in reporting lines can lead to discrepancies, affecting the overall response strategy and its effectiveness in mitigating against the disease.”

The KU research team addressed the challenge of accurate and timely reporting of Covid-19 infections using blockchain technology to aid response strategies against the disease.

Their solution uses programmable Ethereum smart contracts hosted on the blockchain to create a digital medical passport.

Blockchain technology offers an immutable and tamperproof ledger of data and transactions as a shared database, validated by a wide community. Each record created forms a block, and as each block is confirmed by the community, it is paired up with the previous entry in the chain, creating a chain of blocks. Blockchain could be used to confirm a person’s immunity to Covid-19 in a way that is decentralized, trusted, and secure, with tamper-proof records, logs, and transactions.

“Digital health passports are a crucial mode of identification which can help mitigate the spread of contagious diseases,” explained Dr. Salah. “The smart contracts securely store

“For our purposes, we envisaged an immunity certificate to verify that a person has developed relevant antibodies to mitigate against Covid-19 and is consequently unable to infect other people,” explained Dr. Salah. “Whether this was from vaccination or previous infection is the medical aspect of this challenge and outside our scope. For us, people with these certificates can have them saved to their smart contract by a testing center or hospital and the time frame for immunity would also be included.”

In the team’s design, these smart contracts can generate events to notify patients and test-takers about medical updates with quarantine information or details on the medical tests they have completed. Health authorities are important stakeholders in this solution, representing legitimate testing and real results, and providing accurate information to the immutable blockchain.

As for privacy, every individual’s biometric information is associated with their unique Ethereum Address on the blockchain to maintain privacy. Users can control access to their sensitive information, including their identities and other credentials. The blockchain maintains authentication, trust and privacy, and allows users to share information as necessary when needed. At the same time, the solution offers security and transparency for international use.

“Our solution tackles an important problem where the travel history and medical history of a Covid-19 test taker or patient can be traced and tracked easily,” explained Dr. Salah. “Using the immutable logs, a patient can safely engage in social activities and institutions, while community managers and verified stakeholders can access immunization records in an efficient and trusted way.”

13 KU TIMES

RESPONDING TO COVID-19

personnel and volunteers at two sites—Naif and Hatta. These sites were chosen to provide an understanding of Dubai Police’s work in two radically different environments – a densely populated city area and a low-density rural location.

“This research is in line with developing our strategic industrial partnerships with governmental entities in the UAE,” explained Captain Almheiri.

“This comparative research features our organizational success in handling the crisis and will help us build a future-oriented responsive and anticipatory police force. It will also integrate and foster future driven studies between police organizations and academic national institutions like KU within a national framework of collaborative strategic research and development.”

Lessons Learned from Covid-19: Research with Dubai Police Dr. Athol Yates, Assistant Professor in Institute of International and Civil Security at Khalifa University, has been investigating Dubai Police’s contribution to containing the Covid-19 outbreak in Naif district, Dubai.

“With Captain Muhammad Almheiri from Dubai Police’s Future Foresight and Decision Making Support Centre, we’ve been looking at how Dubai Police has contributed to mitigating the Covid-19 pandemic from January to October 2020,” said Dr. Yates. “We’re hoping this research will allow lessons and good practice to be identified, which may help the Dubai Police and other UAE government agencies to better prepare for future human, animal, and plant infectious outbreaks.”

Data collection involved interviews with police

KU TIMES 14

Interviews complete, the team will now draft papers from this research; including one for the internal use of Dubai Police outlining the contribution, lessons learned, and recommendations for Dubai Police when the country faces other unexpected threats or hazards, and another to be published in policing journals.

For the Center for Future Foresight and Decision Support, this research will help identify best practices for future situations and better identify how policing could be affected. Similarly, for Dubai Police, this work will raise awareness of the contribution the police force had on mitigating the pandemic and the importance of coordination with other government and non-government agencies Most importantly, improved knowledge of how policing can contribute to the nation being better prepared to prevent, respond to, and recover from pandemics will be vital for the UAE in facing future similar situations.

INNOVATION FORWARD

Khalifa University Scientists Unravel 40-Year Long Mystery of Large Sea in the Middle of Antarctic Ice Cover LARGE-SCALE POLEWARD TRANSPORT OF HEAT AND MOISTURE BY ATMOSPHERIC RIVERS CAUSES A STRETCH OF OPEN WATER IN ANTARCTICA

Cutting-edge research and breakthroughs

Researchers from Khalifa University’s Environmental and Geophysical Sciences (ENGEOS) Laboratory have unraveled a more than 40-year scientific mystery when they identified the reason for the occurrence of a body of unfrozen ocean that appeared within a thick body of ice during Antarctica’s winter, known as a Polynya event. Two major Polynya events were recorded in the Weddell Sea in Antarctica in 1973 and 2017.

In fact, Khalifa University researchers have discovered that synoptic-scale atmospheric rivers (AR) emerging from the tropics and spreading poleward into the Antarctic Ice Sheet are actually initiating this phenomenon. Anomalous increase in surface temperature was induced by the atmospheric rivers over the ice pack and caused melting and thinning of ice which led to the opening of what is known as the ‘Polynya’ event.

15 KU TIMES

INNOVATION FORWARD

role of atmospheric rivers in melting sea ice, as demonstrated in this study, it is becoming a pressing concern to assess the impact of atmospheric rivers on the Antarctic-wide sea-ice cover,” she concluded.

The Khalifa University study also connects this phenomenon, for the first time, to the larger-scale poleward movement of heat and moisture transported by atmospheric rivers, demonstrating their role in Antarctic sea ice melt during the winter and early spring seasons.

According to Dr. Francis, the study demonstrates that changes in the climate occurring at one place on the planet, say for example in the tropics, can have worldwide impact and affect as far as the South Pole.

The research led by Dr. Diana Francis, Senior Scientist and Head of ENGEOS lab, was recently published in the journal of Science Advances. Co-authors of the study are Dr. Kyle Mattingly from Rutgers University (USA), Dr. Marouane Temimi from Stevens Institute of Technology (USA) and Dr. Rob Massom and Dr. Petra Heil from the Australian Antarctic Division.

She added: “Our analysis shows that the atmospheric rivers that initiated the polynya event in September 2017 were the most intense on record.

The poleward transport of moisture and warmth by the atmospheric rivers was also the highest on record.

Surprisingly, these atmospheric rivers resulted in the highest amount of snowfall on record over the study area, but because of the warm temperatures, it was warm snow that enhanced the ice melt and inhibited refreezing.”

Khalifa University is the lead institution for this research project, which is funded by Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company Masdar.

“Previous studies have shown that under a warmer climate, atmospheric river activity in the Southern Ocean will intensify considerably. Given the

KU TIMES 16

Dr. Francis’ previous research in 2019 into this phenomenon had found the important role of storms in triggering the opening of the polynya. However, her current research has found that if atmospheric rivers had not melted the ice before the storms, (a ubiquitous feature around Antarctica, which is not the case of the ARs that are of large scale spanning from the tropics to Antarctica), they would have not been able to trigger the opening of the large area of water.

Building on such research expertise and previous achievements, Khalifa University aims to further broaden the scope of its polar research, attracting young scientists and students to the next phase of this project for addressing the associated environmental challenges.

Earlier in 2019, Khalifa University Material Science and Engineering Graduate Tawaddod Alkindi had the opportunity to participate in the installation of 105 solar panels and three inverters that provide 30 KiloWatts to Casey research station’s grid, the first solar power array at an Australian Antarctic research station. Alkindi was the first student to complete her internship at the Casey research station, located on Vincennes Bay in the Windmill Islands, just outside the Antarctic Circle.

INNOVATION FORWARD

System-on-Chip Center Advancements Shared at IEEE Symposium on Circuits and Systems Researchers from Khalifa University’s Systems-on-Chip Center have had three papers accepted into the IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS).

ISCAS is the flagship conference of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society and the world’s premier networking forum for researchers in the fields of theory, design, and implementation of circuits and systems.

The 2020 conference was held as a virtual event, with all papers available in Open Preview and video presentations hosted to inform participants of the papers’ contents. The conference is designed to emphasize the potential of circuits and systems to find multidisciplinary solutions for the societal and engineering challenges of our times.

The first paper, authored by Dr. Dima Kilani, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dr. Baker Mohammad, and Dr. Mihai Sanduleanu, both Associate Professors of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, described a new design for a low-dropout voltage regulator, which is an important part of power management systems. They developed an ultra-fast and efficient lowdropout regulator that uses a clock-less ratioed logic comparator (RLC) to maintain constant and stable voltage output in a battery-operated power management system.

A linear low-dropout regulator regulates the voltage generated by a DC power supply, so that the same steady voltage output level is continuously controlled, despite any changes in the input voltage. While the RLC compares between the reference and the load voltage and generates a single bit which turns on or off power switches. The clockless design continuously responds to the voltage difference making it more efficient and faster than a conventional comparator.

The second paper, authored by Dr. Nourhan Elsayed, Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant, Dr. Hani Saleh, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Dr. Baker Mohammad, and Dr. Mihai Sanduleanu, investigates a modified Doherty power amplifier – an amplifier which is used in many areas where high efficiency is needed for high peak to average power ratio uses.

The power amplifier is often the most power-hungry component of a circuit, which is why designing a more efficient version is crucial. To make the amplifier more energy efficient, the KU team’s Doherty power amplifier uses two amplifier circuits within the one overall amplifier to accommodate different signal levels. Their paper focuses on the modified Doherty power amplifier for use in 5G technology.

The third paper, authored by Huruy Tesfai, PhD student, Dr. Saleh, Dr. Temesghen Tekeste, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dr. Mahmoud Al Qutayri, Professor and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, and Dr. Mohammad, describes a pre-trained neural network for monitoring the electrocardiogram signal, the electrical activity of the heart. Wearable devices with readout sensors and circuits can be used to record and process weak ECG signals, with the neural network integrated to a device, achieving an accuracy of 96.55%.

Through its pioneering research, Khalifa University is contributing valuable insights into the field of system on chip technologies, which are critically needed to support the development of faster, smaller and more powerful computing devices.

17 KU TIMES

INNOVATION FORWARD

Diving into the Emirati Genome to Determine the Genes Associated with Metabolic Syndrome DR. HABIBA AL SAFAR IS ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF GENETICS AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY & DIRECTOR OF THE KU CENTER FOR BIOTECHNOLOGY (BTC) AT KHALIFA UNIVERSITY.

Researchers from Khalifa University have been investigating the specific genome variants that may point to risk factors for certain diseases and seeking to understand how these genetic variations can help develop more personalized treatment plans.

Researchers from Khalifa University have recently published a number of articles investigating the nuances of the Emirati genome, following their research published last year describing the sequence of the first complete Emirati genome. They have since been investigating the specific genome variants that may point to risk factors for certain diseases and seeking to understand how these genetic variations can help develop more personalized treatment plans.

Much of the team’s attention has been focused on the genetic risk factors for metabolic syndrome, in particular type 2 diabetes. The discovery and mapping

KU TIMES 18

INNOVATION FORWARD

of the complete human genome in 2003 introduced the possibility of individualizing medicine to a person’s physical and genetic makeup, with plans for more population-specific genomic analyses to gain context-specific insights. Evidence is now increasingly suggesting that a patient’s unique genetic profile can be used to detect the onset of a disease and possibly even prevent it.

Dr. Habiba Alsafar, Director of KU’s Biotechnology Center and Associate Professor of Genetics and Molecular Biology, has been studying the unique genomic variants in the UAE population that are associated with diabetes, hypertension, increased cholesterol levels and obesity. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions occurring together, increasing risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.

The UAE has a high prevalence of metabolic syndrome, which may be linked to genetic risk factors in the local population.

However, the association between metabolic syndrome as a phenotype and key genetic variants in the UAE has not been investigated in depth until now.

Dr. Alsafar and her team found clear links between metabolic syndrome and specific genetic and metabolic risk factors, providing an insight into possible causes of disease development. Several gene variants were found to be associated with a predisposition to developing metabolic syndrome, providing clues for disease mechanisms.

“In one study, we found that patients with metabolic syndrome had higher rates of type 2 diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidaemia, a medical condition that refers to abnormal levels of lipids in the blood,” explained Dr. Alsafar.

“We noticed that waist circumference and type 2 diabetes were key risk factors for metabolic syndrome and that individuals who developed metabolic syndrome had a higher rate of clinical complications.”

Diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic diseases, all of which are characterized by high blood glucose levels. It is a major public health problem, particularly type 2 diabetes, which is commonly associated with obesity. Diabetes tends to run in families with genetic factors contributing to its development.

The UAE has a high prevalence of diabetes, consistently ranking among the top five most affected countries in the world. Recent genome-wide association studies have

identified more than 400 locations on particular chromosomes that are associated with susceptibility to type 2 diabetes disease. In-depth examination of the Emirati genome in particular could help pinpoint the exact genes that could be contributing to this prevalence.

In another study, the team found that genetic variants of one particular gene, known as TCF7L2, were associated with an increased susceptibility to type 2 diabetes, especially in Emirati males.

“Knowledge of specific risk markers in a population, including at risk genotypes, will help identify individuals who are more likely to develop metabolic syndrome. The ability to do so early, even prior to development of symptoms, could mean we can delay or even prevent its onset,” explained Dr. Alsafar.

The population in the UAE is also particularly prone to coronary artery disease. Previous studies having shown strong genetic associations between heart disease and type 2 diabetes. A further study by the team examined the genomes of a cohort from the Arab population of the UAE to replicate previously reported significant genetic associations. The study aimed to investigate how these genes are associated with twelve cardio-metabolic traits that may influence the development of the two diseases. The team did replicate these results, adding significant credence to the research, and also noted that some genes are associated with these diseases regardless of ethnic background. They also detected new links between the diseases with height and with blood type.

Knowledge of an individual’s susceptibility to a disease improves diagnosis and means more informed decisions can be made for a patient’s treatment, potentially helping them avoid metabolic syndrome altogether.

Through these projects, Dr. Alsafar and her team are contributing to the global body of information and research on how to use context-specific genomic information to advance the understanding of medical conditions, improve treatment and promote healthy lifestyle habits.

19 KU TIMES

INNOVATION FORWARD

Analyzing Unexpected Summertime Rains in the Desert

The UAE is hot and dry, characterized by a landscape of sand and a lack of vegetation. The rains are infrequent and irregular, sometimes with no rain for long periods, making it a hyperarid region.

And yet, despite these factors, the UAE also possesses unique weather systems that can occasionally provide life-giving moisture to rain-starved areas and relief from the excessive heat.

These systems are known as mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) and they develop occasionally during summer over the UAE. Dr. Diana Francis, Senior Research Scientist and Head of the KU Environmental and Geophysical Sciences (ENGEOS) Laboratory, investigated the processes, from local to regional scale, that are responsible for the development of summertime MCSs and associated rains over the UAE. She was joined in this research with ENGEOS team members Dr. Ricardo Fonseca, Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Narendra Nelli, Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Rachid Abida, Research Scientist, and Michael Weston, Research Engineer, all from Khalifa University, Youssef Wehbe from the UAE National Center of Meteorology, and Dr. Marouane Temimi from the Stevens Institute of Technology. Their findings were published in the Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.

KU TIMES 20

INNOVATION FORWARD

“For an MCS to develop in a hyperarid environment like the UAE, a combination of factors ranging from local to regional scale is needed,” explained Dr. Francis. “This includes a convergence over the UAE between the northerly wind and the southerly winds in the lower level of the atmosphere, the presence of an upper-level trough in altitude and a steep temperature gradient at the surface between land and surrounding seas”.

“Total annual precipitation in the UAE ranges from 30mm over the southern desert to 120mm over the Al Hajar mountains in the northeastern part of the country,” explained Dr. Francis. “This usually occurs during the cold season from December to March, but every so often, rain accumulations during the summer season are recorded.

These are mainly associated with short-lived mesoscale convective systems—a collection of thunderstorms that last for several hours.”

A mesoscale convective system (MCS) is a cluster of storms that moves as a single system. The storms are driven by upper-atmosphere wind patterns and fuelled by daytime heating and an abundance of moisture, typically gaining strength during the day to reach maximum intensity and the greatest potential to produce rainfall in late afternoon. They occur in the tropics around the world and form especially during the hot season. As they weaken and eventually end, they can leave behind a mesoscale convective vortex, which is a system that pulls winds into a counter-clockwise circulation and can become the catalyst for even more storms.

“Despite their minimal contribution to the country’s annual average rainfall, an understanding of the processes that cause MCSs to develop and the capability of numerical models to represent them is crucial for planning cloud-seeding activities,” explained Dr. Francis.

“Additionally, summer rain associated with MCSs helps to recharge the underground aquifers, an important water resource for agricultural activity here.”

A better understanding of what causes MCSs in a region

known for its aridity and summer heat is an important step towards accurately predicting them and their associated rainfall, especially as recent studies have shown that MCSs are expected to become more frequent as the global climate changes.

On the 5th of September 2017, regional winds converged, bringing warm, moisture-rich air to the Hajar mountains and resulting into the development of a MCS and subsequent rain at Hatta, Masafi and Fujairah airport.

Dr. Francis and her team used the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) numerical weather modelling framework to investigate warm season convective events in the UAE. The WRF model was validated using the September 2017 data with the results showing that the model predicted widespread clouds over the Hajar mountains in all simulations, but was not able to reproduce the MCS. The researchers noted the need to properly represent the soil properties for accurate simulations.

“In areas with drier soil, the land is warmer during the daytime,” explained Dr. Francis. “This will naturally lead to a more vigorous sea-breeze circulation, which makes rainfall more likely over most of the UAE.” The team also found that the WRF model tended to underestimate the observed cloud cover. Consistent with the lack of clouds, the air temperature in the model at night was is lower than the observed temperature, likely arising from enhanced radiative cooling.

“The fact that the MCS, and its impacts on the atmospheric state, are not accounted for in simulations has important implications for the use of the current state-of-the-art models for climate projections in arid regions,” explained Dr. Francis. “Our findings help to better clarify the mechanisms behind the convective events, and understand the signatures of MCSs in a hyperarid environment.”

21 KU TIMES

INNOVATION FORWARD

KU Researchers Find Climate Change Could Mean Fewer Sunny Days for Regions Relying on Solar Power

Photovoltaic power is rapidly growing worldwide, becoming at the same time a more economically viable source of energy. This trend is particularly evident in arid and cloud-free regions like the UAE, which are seeing an even faster growth of solar power deployment and pursuing ambitious plans for the future.

THE SUCCESS OF SOLAR POWER IN ARID REGIONS IS BOUND TO THE FUTURE RELIABILITY OF SOLAR RESOURCES. BUT ARID REGIONS COULD BE AMONG THE MOST AFFECTED BY SOLAR INTERMITTENCY UNDER FUTURE CLIMATE.

KU TIMES 22

The success of solar power in arid regions is bound to the future reliability of solar resources – which is traditionally ‘measured’ in terms of mean solar radiation trends. However, metrics based on mean solar radiation are not capable of providing a full picture of the problem.

In particular, they are not able to capture the inherent spatial and temporal variability of solar resources. This is commonly known as solar intermittency.

INNOVATION FORWARD

“In our study, it is assessed through both remote sensing products and climate models. To map it, we used probabilistic methods similar to the ones that hydrologists use to evaluate the risk of floods or droughts.

“While investigating global intermittency patterns across different datasets and models, we found something quite interesting: the relation between solar intermittency and reliability varies across the different climatic zones of our planet and is strongly non-linear. This means that relatively small changes in the radiation that reaches the surface of our planet can produce significant changes in power reliability in some climatic regions.

“Among these, arid regions seem the most affected. Here, a small change in the input can produce large impacts on solar power reliability.” One may wonder why.

“Climate models predict that arid regions such as the Middle East will have to rely on less solar radiation in the future, probably due to the increased load of atmospheric aerosols and to changes in the large-scale circulation,” continued Dr Molini. “Higher temperatures, increasing aridity, and land degradation all play an essential role in this context since dryer degraded soils are more prone to become dust and aerosol sources.”

A team of researchers from Nanjing University, Khalifa University and Princeton University has recently shown that arid regions could be among the most affected by solar intermittency under future climate. They published their results in Nature Communications.

“Arid, cloud-free regions of the World have a massive potential for solar energy production,” said Dr. Annalisa Molini, Associate Professor in Civil Infrastructure and Environmental Engineering at Khalifa University, and co-author of the study. “At the same time, we found that they are also the most susceptible to the fine-scale variability of solar resources – something that we call ‘solar intermittency. Solar intermittency is a measure of the variability of the radiation reaching the surface of our planet and which sustains solar power production.

“According to our results, the decrease in solar radiation is also accompanied by increased intermittency, which should not be overlooked. As temperatures and atmospheric turbulence increase in arid regions such as the Middle East, dry soils potentially lead to greater amounts of dust and atmospheric aerosols that would diminish solar radiation. These trends are already detectable in data from climate-observational networks.”

“Intermittency is one of the biggest concerns for the large-scale penetration of solar power,” concluded Dr Molini. “A variety of technology (e.g. power storage) and operational power policy (e.g. load shaping) already constitute promising solutions to this problem. However, they need to be designed in an ‘informed’ way. To understand future solar intermittency is a powerful tool to act in advance and support the growth of solar power worldwide.”

23 KU TIMES

INNOVATION FORWARD

Researchers at Khalifa University’s ENGEOS Lab Identify ‘Subtropical High’ Pressure as Reason for Gigantic Dust Storm in June 2020

COMPOSITE IMAGE DERIVED FROM THE VISIBLE INFRARED IMAGING RADIOMETER SUITE (VIIRS) ON SUOMI NPP, SHOWING SAHARAN DUST LEAVING WEST AFRICA AND HEADING WEST TOWARD - SOUTH AMERICA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO. IMAGE CREDIT: NASA

Intense Dust Emissions Carried Plumes 8,000 km from Sahara Desert and Across Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean and Southern United States Researchers from Khalifa University’s Environmental and Geophysical Sciences (ENGEOS) Laboratory have discovered that the gigantic dust storm in June 2020 was the result of a ‘subtropical high’ off the western coast of the Saharan desert.

The ‘subtropical high’ is an area of high pressure, which suppresses precipitation and cloud formation, and has variable winds mixed with calm winds. Subtropical highs, otherwise known as ‘horse latitudes’ or ‘subtropical ridges’, are the latitudes between 30 and 35 degrees both north and south, where earth’s atmosphere is dominated by the high pressure area.

KU TIMES 24

INNOVATION FORWARD

During the second-half of June 2020, this high pressure increased the north-south pressure gradient over the Saharan region, which resulted in the intensification of the northeasterly winds, producing highly intense dust emissions.

In fact, the emissions were so intense that they were able to carry the Saharan dust plumes for approximately 8,000 km across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean and the southern United States from 14 to 25 June 2020. Generally, on an average, a dust storm lasts only for two to three days.

The June 2020 phenomenon was made possible because the ‘subtropical high’ enhanced the north-easterlies that are responsible for dust emissions, and the anti-cyclonic circulation associated with the African Easterly Jet (AEJ), a jet stream around 5-km in altitude above the Saharan desert, moving from east to west. The intensification of the AEJ favored a rapid westward transport of the emitted dust, before the dust particles were able to settle, according to a paper by Dr. Diana Francis, Senior Scientist, Head of ENGEOS Lab, Khalifa University. The paper was published today in the journal Geophysical Research Letters GRL. Previous studies on large dust storms over the Sahara and the Middle East have linked the occurrence of highs and lows in the mid-latitudes and subtropics to the reduced sea ice cover in the

Arctic and the Arctic warming. By losing sea ice, the temperature gradient between high-latitudes and the subtropics/tropics is less steep, thus making the polar jet slower. When the polar jet is slow, it meanders, creating persistent highs and lows in the subtropics and mid-latitudes.

The study by Dr. Francis has found that dust emissions continued as long as the (subtropical) ‘high’ remained stationary and ceased only when the ‘high’ merged with the general circulation again by 25 June. The paper explains the causes of the ‘Godzilla’ dust storm and links it to the global circulation and possible changes in the Arctic.

Highlighting the storm’s significance to the GCC region, Dr. Francis said: “The most intense dust storm to date in the Arabian Gulf region occurred in September 2015 and caused disruption to normal life, impacting some of the strategic installations. This event was actually caused by disturbances in the polar jet as well, which led to the formation of a dry cyclone and emitted a large amount of dust, according to our previous studies in 2019. It is important to shed light on the causes and the state of variability of dust storms, both the frequency and the intensity, over the major dust sources around the globe.”

The Saharan desert is the major dust source followed by the Arabian Peninsula, which comes

second in terms of the total amount of dust aerosols emitted annually.

Since desertification is expected to increase in the Arabian Gulf region due to climate change and rising temperatures, the study suggests initiatives are necessary to mitigate this environmental and economic threat, perhaps by increasing the vegetated areas by planting trees and other type of flora.

Dr. Francis added: “Studies on the dust storms will help understand their long-term variability and identify the main drivers from regional to global scale, in order to improve our capabilities in predicting them and predict their impacts on the daily life and activities.”

As for forecast, based on the results of the published study, for instance, the researchers have found that the development of a ‘wave-train’ in the northern hemisphere with alternated highs and lows would be an indicator of the potential occurrence of extreme weather events over the subtropics and tropics. The ‘subtropical high’ was part of a wave-train in the northern hemisphere.

“The importance of identifying the causes of such extreme events and their link to the global circulation resides in the fact that this will help to predict them at least a few days in advance,” concluded Dr. Francis.

25 KU TIMES

INNOVATION FORWARD

Atmospheric Extremes Triggered the Biggest Calving Event at an Antarctica Ice Shelf in More Than 50 Years, Reports Khalifa University Team

and their governing processes are still poorly understood.”

Ice shelves are platforms of floating ice that form where the Antarctic ice sheet meets the ocean. The Amery Ice Shelf, which is one of the largest glacier drainage basins in the world, is located on the Eastern coast of Antarctica.

In December 2006, Australian scientists investigated enormous cracks that had been forming for over a decade at a rate of three to five metres a day in the Amery Ice Shelf. These fractures were feared to cause a 900-square-kilometer piece of the ice shelf to break off. The cracking was particularly concerning since the last recorded activity in this part of eastern Antarctica occurred over 50 years ago.

In the largest calving event from the Amery Ice Shelf since 1963, which occurred almost a decade earlier than expected, an iceberg 1,636 square kilometres in size with an estimated weight of 315 billion tonnes, broke away from its glacier in September 2019.

The iceberg continues to be monitored due to the threat that an iceberg this size could pose to shipping channels.

However, attention is turning to the cause of this event as global warming and atmospheric changes could lead to more such calving events.

In a study recently published in The Cryosphere, Dr. Diana Francis, Senior Research Scientist and Head of the Environmental and Geophysical Sciences (ENGEOS) lab from Khalifa University, KU TIMES 26

along with Dr. Kyle Mattingly, Postdoctoral Associate, Rutgers University, Dr. Stef Lhermitte, Assistant Professor, Delft University of Technology, Dr. Marouane Temimi, Associate Professor, Stevens Institute, and Dr. Petra Heil, Senior Research Scientist, Australian Antarctic Division, describes the cause of this calving event, identifying cyclogenesis—the formation of cyclones—as a major factor. The team reported for the first time the formation of polar twin cyclones near Antarctica immediately prior to the event.

“Ice shelf instability is one of the main sources of uncertainty in Antarctica’s contribution to future sea level rise,” explained Dr. Francis. “Calving events play a crucial role in ice shelf weakening but remain unpredictable,

Although early studies predicted that the Amery Ice Shelf would not experience a major calving event until at least 2025, on 25 September 2019, iceberg D28 was calved.

“The rapid collapse of several Antarctic ice shelves observed recently and the near-instantaneous acceleration of land-ice discharge into the ocean that followed the collapse, demonstrate the sensitivity of the Antarctic cryosphere to recent warming,” explained Dr. Francis. “Large uncertainty remains regarding the response of ice shelves to the global rising temperatures and the resulting changes in the atmospheric circulation. That this D28 calving took us by surprise highlights the need for an improved understanding of the underlying processes of calving events and the role of atmospheric forcing in ice shelf weakening.”

INNOVATION FORWARD

Around the world, rising seas threaten cities and infrastructure along the coast. Higher sea levels also mean that deadly and destructive storm surges push further inland than before, and high-tide flooding becomes more likely.

Global mean sea level has risen about nine inches since 1880, mostly due to meltwater from glaciers and ice sheets as temperatures rise.

Although much attention focuses on the melting ice caps, calving is the fastest way by which ice contributes to sea level rise. While ice shelves themselves are floating ice and therefore already displacing water, they act as a brake on the flow of the ice further inland. As the ice shelves thin when pieces break off, this restrictive force decreases.

Despite the importance and the implications of ice shelf calving, this phenomenon remains unpredictable and poorly understood. The Khalifa University team focused on the impact of extreme cyclone activity during this largest calving event since 1963.

They investigated the development of explosive cyclones and their impact on sea ice and land ice conditions in this area given that changes in cyclone tracks, numbers, and intensity may have significant impacts on Antarctic ice.

“Weather systems such as cyclones resulting from the larger-scale air and wind circulation are the main driver of the observed trends in sea ice variability,” explained Dr. Francis. “Furthermore, cyclones and their associated atmospheric rivers can induce sea ice melt, ice-shelf surface melt, and significant sea ice drift by virtue of their anomalous moisture and heat transport to high latitudes and the strong surface winds they carry. Severe storms can generate energetic waves in the Southern Ocean capable of penetrating hundreds of kilometers into the sea

ice-covered ocean but this sea ice cover acts as a buffer, reducing the impact of storms on ice shelves.”

The number and intensity of cyclones around Antarctica over the last few decades have increased as the storm tracks shift towards the pole under enhanced greenhouse gas concentrations. As the climate continues to warm, the intensity of more frequent cyclones is projected to increase.

An extreme situation is the formation of explosive cyclones, which are deeper and longer-lasting compared to ordinary cyclones. Worse, they are found to be more intense in the Southern Hemisphere than in the Northern Hemisphere, with the Amery Basin, where the Amery Ice Shelf is located, standing out as one of the three main regions for explosive cyclogenesis around Antarctica.

As the cyclones are directed towards the south pole, they are blocked at the Antarctic coast by the ridges to the east.

This results in stationary cyclones over the same region for longer, which has a pronounced impact on the sea ice and waves. As the extent to which the Antarctic sea ice extends reduces and the number and severity of atmospheric events increases, this may result in even more impact on ice shelves from extreme cyclones.

consecutive events just days apart in September 2019.”

The researchers found that an extended period of strong cyclonic activity in September 2019 resulted in an exceptional period of strong easterly/ north-easterly winds over the western side of the Amery Ice Shelf. This exceptional wind stress on the ice shelf generated strong waves in the region in front of it, where warm and moist air masses at the ice shelf front may have contributed to a decrease in sea ice concentration. The team found that the winds during the first twin cyclone event were exceptionally unusual compared to the record, while the winds during the second were strong but not extreme. This suggests that the first event had an important role in preconditioning the ice shelf front for breakoff, while the offshore winds in the second event triggered the calving by pushing the section of ice out from the shelf.

“We found that the cyclones had a large impact on the ice conditions because they were stationary,” explained Dr. Francis. “They subjected the ice to sustained stress and strain, weakening and exposing the ice shelf before strong winds pushed part of the shelf out to sea.”

The KU research team also noted the formation of twin cyclones, where mutually-interacting cyclones have twice the impact as a single cyclone.

The team asserts that important changes in the atmospheric circulation in the Southern Hemisphere need to be further investigated, with an urgent need to assess the impact of cyclones on the area.

“To our knowledge, the formation of explosively developing twin cyclones has only been observed and studied in the tropics, the mid-latitudes, and in the Arctic,” explained Dr. Francis. “But we reported the formation of polar twin cyclones near Antarctica during two

“If extreme polar cyclones are to form and more frequently reach ice shelves due to climate change, their destructive effect may have important consequences,” explained Dr. Francis.

“This needs to be accounted for in models used for sea level projections.”

27 KU TIMES

INNOVATION FORWARD

Khalifa University Researcher Bridges the Terahertz Gap to Create Powerful Sensing and Imaging Capabilities

Terahertz radiation – a band of the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and the infrared range – is useful for detecting toxic gases, explosives and even diseases. But scientists have only been able to generate terahertz radiation at temperatures below 200 kelvins (-73 degrees Celsius) or lower, making it difficult to make use of this unique band in real-world applications, resulting in what’s known as the ‘terahertz gap.’

Now, researchers from Khalifa University are making progress towards a new way of generating terahertz radiation at room temperature by capitalizing on the unique electronic characteristics of a semiconducting superlattice material.

KU TIMES 28

THE TERAHERTZ RANGE OFFERS OPPORTUNITIES FOR DETECTING ALL SORTS OF THINGS BUT USING THIS RANGE HAS PROVED DIFFICULT UNTIL NOW

“This research has great potential in the UAE because the terahertz range of frequencies can be used to detect dangerous gases in the environment, explosives, and a number of gases in exhaled human and animal breath,” explained Dr. Mauro Pereira, Professor and Chair of the Khalifa University Department of Physics. “It could also be used to screen diseases in an early stage without invasive testing, and could therefore become a powerful tool in diagnosis for respiratory, gastrointestinal, and hepatic diseases.”

Dr. Pereira is lead author on a paper that was recently published in Scientific Reports describing the new technique to generate terahertz radiation.

TERAHERTZ RADIATION WORK

INNOVATION FORWARD

He was joined by Dr. Vladimir Anfertev and Dr. Vladimir Vaks, both from the Institute for Physics of Microstructures, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, and Dr. Yuliia Shevchenko from the Czech Academy of Sciences Institute of Physics.

To reach the terahertz radiation frequency at room temperature, the researchers created a special kind of material, known as a semiconductor superlattice.

Semiconductor superlattices are made by layering atomically thin sheets of different materials (such as silicon and graphene) on top of each other. The layering gives the material an important electronic property called “nonlinearity.”

A material that is nonlinear behaves in a peculiar way.

When it is radiated with light (or any form of energy), the atomic crystals in the material will vibrate not only at its natural frequency, but also at its “harmonic frequencies.”

The harmonic frequencies are the waveforms of the natural frequency multiplied by two, three, four, five and so on until the frequency becomes so faint that it is no longer observable.

A nonlinear material with a natural frequency of 10 gigahertz, could have harmonic frequencies of 20 gigahertz, 30 gigahertz, 40 gigahertz and so on. As the harmonic frequency increases, however, the vibrations become more faint.

“Nonlinear physics is playing a major role in bridging whatwas once called the ‘terahertz gap’ and its multitude of applications,” explained Dr. Pereira.

“We take a source at a frequency that is easy to generate and use that to create higher frequencies in harmonic generation.

We take a source operating at around 120 Gigahertz and multiply it all the way to 720 Gigahertz and beyond, using semiconductor superlattices and controlling the nonlinearities of the material. We use similar superlattices to detect the high frequencies at room temperature in an efficient way.”

The ability to leverage semiconductor superlattices and their corresponding harmonics can get scientists closer towards creating efficient devices that can generate radiation at terahertz frequencies from gigahertz inputs.

“Semiconductor superlattice multipliers were only expected to deliver odd harmonics, but we have shown that they can also generate even harmonics. By actually controlling the even harmonics and increasing their output by several orders of magnitude with applied voltages, we open the possibility of exploiting a wide range of frequencies.”

“The superlattices are already being used by our Russian colleagues for breath analysis and we are designing new samples and devices based on them here at Khalifa University.,” explained Dr. Pereira.

29 KU TIMES

INNOVATION FORWARD

ELECTRICITY AND WATER CONSUMPTION PLAY A CRUCIAL ROLE IN THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF DESERT REGIONS. IN COUNTRIES WITH ARID CLIMATES LIKE THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, WATER-ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND CONSERVATION IN AGRICULTURE ARE CRITICAL ISSUES.

Electricity Water Usage for Sustainable Development on UAE Farms

The Middle East is one of the most water-scarce regions in the world, accounting for 6.3 percent of the world’s population with access to only 1.4 percent of the world’s renewable fresh water. Food, energy, and water supplies are essential to life in every community, particularly those that rely heavily upon electricity and water infrastructures.

In arid MENA countries like the United Arab Emirates, economic development results in increasingly intensive demands on energy and water resources, especially in the context of climate change.

One activity in the UAE that requires significant amounts of both water and electricity: agriculture. The areas suited to agriculture in the UAE are determined by the availability of water and cultivable soil, with groundwater the main natural source of water.

Due to increasing food demand and rapid population growth, and the goal to achieve food security, the UAE has invested in the agricultural sector, potentially resulting in more stress on water and electricity resources.

To suggest policies for water-energy efficiency and conservation in the UAE, a team from Khalifa University in

KU TIMES 30

INNOVATION FORWARD

collaboration with MIT investigated the links between electricity and water consumption on UAE farms. Abdullah Khamis Banhidarah, recent KU graduate, Dr. Ameena Saad Al-Sumaiti, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Dr. James Wescoat Jr., Professor of Landscape Architecture and Geography at MIT; and Dr. Hoach The Nguyen, Postdoctoral Fellow, published their findings in Energy Policy.

Their analysis showed that water use is more important than electricity use in rural areas, with the cost and reliability of water more important than the cost and reliability of electricity.

“In rapidly urbanizing countries like the UAE, heavy emphasis is given to municipal, industrial, and urban resource uses, but we wanted to draw attention to the importance and nature of agricultural water and electricity use in the UAE,” explained Dr. Al-Sumaiti. “Two-thirds of all Emirates’ water consumption is taken by agriculture and agricultural water conservation is a matter of high priority for the UAE’s sustainable development.

Understanding water and electricity use in agriculture can help increase efficiency and develop coherent usage policies.”

The researchers surveyed farms in the five different regions of the UAE, focusing on the variables that could explain the different levels of water and electricity use. They found that variables such as farm owner characteristics and farm worker salaries are associated with the levels of resource use. Gender, education level, and family visits to the farms in the winter influenced electricity consumption, while worker salary, the total number of palm trees, and the number of animals influenced water consumption.

“Interestingly, none of the farm owners reported that they are employing any renewable energy or distributed generation technologies, but they accepted the possibility of connecting to common water-electricity networks with other farms,” explained Dr. Al-Sumaiti. “Importantly, we also found that worker salary has a strong influence on both water and electricity consumption, meaning policies on water-energy efficiency should take this into account.”

There have been many changes to the UAE’s agriculture sector over the past few decades as the sector modernizes.

These changes include the development of modern irrigation systems, organic farming, and hydroponics for plant growth with minimum water. Additionally, major efforts have been made to preserve water resources and harvest renewable energy, with the government focusing on sustainable usage and management of water and energy resources, particularly as the number of farms continues to grow.

In 2011, there were 35,704 farms in the UAE. The farms surveyed by the research team used the electricity distribution networks as their electricity source, but received their water from two sources, the water distribution network or water tankers, especially in remote areas where the distribution network is unavailable.

“All farms use water tanks for storage with an average of two tanks per farm and an average capacity of 2,740 gallons per farm,” explained Dr. Al-Sumaiti. “All the farms are gridconnected and pay monthly electricity bills. From surveying the owners, we found that the farms prioritize water cost and reliability over electricity, with relatively equal importance given to water usage for households, animals, and irrigation.

These results indicate a strong rural pattern of resource preferences, and a recognition of water supply as crucial for farming sustainability.”

The researchers found five common factors affecting the consumption of both electricity and water: the farmer owner’s age, workers’ salary, farm owner’s visits to the farm in the summer, the number of buildings, and the number of rooms.

“The last two items are not too surprising, but the significance of the owner’s age and workers’ wages deserve further inquiry,” added Dr. Al-Sumaiti. “Additionally, gender, education level, and visits of the family to the farm in the winter influenced the electricity consumption in ways that need to be studied in relation to attitudes towards resource consumption and conservation. Less surprising is that income, total numbers of palm trees, and total numbers of animals affect water consumption. Farm water and energy budgets are a logical extension of this research.”

The team suggests that a variety of policies should be considered to achieve a significant effect on water and electricity consumption.

One policy has already been implemented by the Abu Dhabi government to increase the price of water and electricity as a way to reduce consumption, with the researchers believing this could be pursued further as their results found farm owners are most concerned about the costs of production.

Other policies could aim at increasing the efficiency of water and electricity consumption, as well as developing isolated networks, micro-grids, and distributed generation to emphasize the benefits of technologies connected to other farms.

31 KU TIMES

INNOVATION FORWARD

New Azelio Installation at Khalifa University’s Masdar Institute Solar Platform to Demonstrate Renewable Energy 24/7 USING A RECYCLED ALUMINIUM ALLOY TO STORE THE HEAT FROM THE DAY’S SUNSHINE ALLOWS THE MISP TO PRODUCE ELECTRICITY 24/7

The world is moving continuously towards using sources of energy that are more sustainable than the fossil fuels on which we predominantly rely today. Solar power is one of the most promising renewable energy technologies, especially in the UAE, allowing the generation of electricity from free, inexhaustible sunlight.

But even though the sun shines every day, this resource is subject to supply fluctuations.

Further, every night when the sun sets, as it inevitably does, the supply of solar energy ceases until the next morning.

Conventional batteries based on electrochemical storage can charge from solar energy during the day and provide power for a few hours at night, but their economical discharge duration is limited and they are made of critical materials that are not available in infinite supply.

However, a team from Khalifa University, in collaboration with Swedish solar energy company Azelio, and Masdar (Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company), has drawn inspiration from this need for energy storage innovation and applied it to a natural process, the phase change of materials.

KU TIMES 32

INNOVATION FORWARD

During the day when there is a lot of sun, solar energy is used to produce cheap electricity (photovoltaic panels) or provide some combination of heat and electricity (concentrated solar power(CSP)). This sustainable energy can be used to melt a Phase Change Material or PCM. When temperatures drop off, those materials cool and re-solidify, releasing their latent heat in the process. A stirling engine can then convert this heat back to electricity on demand. The team aims to leverage this phase transition process using an alloy of aluminium to provide thermal powered electricity at night, after the sun goes down.

The team, led by Dr. Nicolas Calvet, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at KU, has placed an aluminium alloy at the center of the Azelio’s energy storage system at the Masdar Institute Solar Platform (MISP).

Photovoltaic panels are generating cheap electricity during the day. This electricity is used to melt the PCM using an electrical resistance heater. This same concept is possible using wind energy or excess grid electricity as well. Another configuration can use direct heat from CSP by leveraging generated heat to melt the aluminium alloy. When electricity is needed, the alloy is allowed to cool and resolidify, releasing heat that is then used to generate electricity.

The MISP is the UAE’s first solar platform dedicated to research and development of CSP and thermal energy storage (TES) technologies. It was inaugurated in 2015 in recognition of the increasingly important role CSP and TES will play in achieving the UAE’s renewable energy target of generating 44 percent of its energy mix from renewable sources by 2050. With its one-of-a-kind 100kW beamdown solar concentrator facility among others, the MISP aims to provide local and international research institutes and solar and energy storage companies the

opportunity to research, test, and validate new CSP & TES components and systems, increasing efficiency, driving and driving down the costs of technologies that can withstand the UAE’s harsh desert climate.

“The Azelio Stirling engine is converting about 29 percent of the latent heat stored in aluminium alloy to make electricity, making Azelio’s TESPod™ system very cost competitive when charged with inexpensive solar energy,” explained Dr. Calvet. “This will allow us to produce 50 kW of electricity 24/7, meaning the MISP can generate its own energy during the day and

during the night become energy independent.

“This is the first demonstration of the Azelio technology and we’re looking at proving the long term viability of the system. We need to guarantee that it will last at least 25 years and that’s what we’re expecting. So we will evaluate the TESpod™ System during a full year of operation, collecting data and checking performances. We’re very excited about this installation as it uses recycled aluminium alloy and will be a game-changer in renewable energy.”

33 KU TIMES

INNOVATION FORWARD

The Sociopolitical Factors Impacting the Adoption and Proliferation of Desalination WHILE DESALINATION TECHNOLOGY IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY POPULAR AS COSTS COME DOWN AND DEMAND FOR WATER GROWS, SOME SOCIOPOLITICAL FACTORS STILL HAMPER ITS ADOPTION.

Water scarcity is a global challenge, with growing populations putting pressure on a finite supply of water. Responding to this challenge is desalination technology, with the cost of desalinated water coming down as technology evolves.

Desalination, however, is plagued by some serious problems, including environmental issues. Often overlooked are the sociopolitical factors impacting the adoption and proliferation of this technology, but a team from Khalifa University has used multiple cases from several countries to identify these factors and their influence on desalination around the world.

Yazan Ibrahim, Research Engineer, Roqaya Ismail, Graduate Student, Dr. Fawzi Banat, Professor of Chemical Engineering, and Dr. Hassan Arafat, Director of Khalifa University’s Center

KU TIMES 34

for Membranes and Advanced Water Technology (CMAT), all members of CMAT, with Adetola Ogungbenro, graduate student from the KU Department of Chemical Engineering, and Tom Pankratz from Global Water Intelligence, reviewed the sociopolitical factors involved and published their findings in the Elsevier’s international journal Desalination.

“Historically, water availability has always been considered fundamental for human civilizations to evolve and flourish, from the early Mesopotamian age to the current rapidly growing cities in the Middle East,” explained Ibrahim. “Over time, wasteful water use, mismanagement, and significant environmental challenges have triggered severe depletion and degradation of the available freshwater resources, with adverse effects on human health, living conditions, and social and economic prosperity.”

The UAE has limited natural water resources and uses desalination to make seawater drinkable. Today, most of the country’s potable water comes from over 70 major desalination plants, which accounts for 42 percent of the country’s water needs and nearly all of its potable water, and around 14 percent of the world’s total production of desalinated water. However, water scarcity is not confined to arid countries.

INNOVATION FORWARD

“Since its inception, the evolution and growth of desalination technologies have made water production appear more sustainable than ever before,” explained Ibrahim. “Scarce freshwater resources in MENA countries have resulted in an upsurge in the number and size of desalination plants.

Furthermore, the rapid development of this region has led to higher dependence on desalination to sustain this development.”

Yet, despite the benefits that can be reaped from using desalination to provide such a critical resource, the adoption and proliferation of desalination are impacted by a variety of economic, environmental, and sociopolitical factors.

Much of the resistance to desalination stems from the cost. Energy accounts for around 70 percent of the cost of desalination, with this energy typically derived from fossil fuels. However, the sociopolitical factors must not be overlooked.

“Although the economic and environmental factors have received more attention, there is evidence to suggest that the use of desalination technologies and their associated impacts would most likely exacerbate the existing inequalities in a society,” explained Ibrahim. “This was attributed to the increased greenhouse gas emissions, increased water prices, urban growth motivation, shifting geopolitical relations related to water security, and increased chemical pollution.”

Even building a desalination plant in certain areas can be difficult. One study proposed aesthetic acceptability – the noise and look of a desalination plant – as a barrier.

The research team used a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis as the framework for a critical review of the sociopolitical factors that impact the adoption and proliferation of desalination. A SWOT analysis is typically employed to help gain insights into the strengths and opportunities of an initiative or concept as well as the associated weaknesses and threats.

“We defined ‘sociopolitical’ factors as factors with a significant social dimension, which have either underlying social, economic, or political root causes and consequences within those spheres,” explained Ibrahim. “We identified eight strengths and opportunities, and seven weaknesses and threats.”

The strengths and opportunities include: the decentralization

of water supply, fast deployment, and low physical footprint that comes with some desalination technologies with the potential to help remote communities and tourist facilities flourish. Desalination can provide sufficient quantities of water as and when needed, which can significantly enhance the water security of a nation, while also supporting regional stabilities by evading any conflict over water resources. This also means there are a plethora of opportunities for society to benefit from desalination technologies. Local employment opportunities during the construction and operation of desalination plants are one such benefit, but easy access to water also means more work and education opportunities for women.

As for weaknesses, the visual impacts, noise and land use issues were among the most-cited concerns. Beyond this, another weakness of desalination lies in the unintended consequences of excessive reliance on desalination and the potential impacts of poor mineralization of desalinated water on human health. Freshwater contains various minerals which may offer health benefits and it’s not yet understood if desalinated water that has not been re-mineralized could have adverse health effects. Threats to desalination stem from social tension among those who mistrust the technologies as well as the wide range of anthropogenic and natural causes that could halt operation. The latter ranges from cyberattacks to natural disasters and oil spills.

The team’s research makes it clear that integrating desalination into a country’s water supply can yield significant direct and indirect benefits, in terms of political stability, water security and economic growth. Desalination can also provide a boost to tourism, agriculture and education although various threats and weaknesses are also noted.

“We wanted to note that these sociopolitical benefits and challenges can be difficult to quantify and compare across different domains,” explained Ibrahim. “But understanding these factors can help make the adoption and proliferation of desalination technologies much smoother, with more robust engagement among the multiple process stakeholders involved.

“Since its inception, desalination has delivered a range of benefits to societies in arid regions and supported their economic development and political stability. It must be recognized, however, that many factors are at play when it comes to the sociopolitical dimension of desalination. A holistic approach to this subject is essential.”

35 KU TIMES

INNOVATION FORWARD

KU Research Predicts New Effect for Proving the Existence of Cosmic Strings RESEARCHERS AT KU HAVE USED THE THEORY OF GENERAL RELATIVITY TO FIGURE OUT A NEW WAY TO CHART OUR UNIVERSE AND POSSIBLY DETECT COSMIC STRINGS.

A team of researchers from Khalifa University has used the theory of General Relativity to figure out a new way to detect cosmic strings across the universe. The team applied the concept of ‘gravitational lensing’ to a family of pairs of black holes connected by a cosmic string in what is known as a C-metric, and computed the first ever lensing formula that can be coupled with existing technologies to chart our universe.

the mass, the greater the gravity and the closer to the source of gravity, the greater the bending. This effect was observed for the first time in 1919, when English physicist Arthur Eddington measured the position of stars near the Sun before a total eclipse of the Sun and during the eclipse. By doing this, Eddington could discern if the Sun’s gravity bent the rays of light from these nearby stars.

Dr. Davide Batic, Associate Professor of Mathematics, Maha Alrais Alawadi, student from the Department of Mathematics, and Dr. Marek Nowakowski, Associate Professor from the Universidad de los Andes, Columbia, published their work last month in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity.

The stars did appear to be displaced, but only by a small amount. However, this was compatible with what was predicted by Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. The mass of the Sun had caused the light to bend only at the plasma limb, or the very edge of the Sun.

WHAT IS GRAVITATIONAL LENSING? According to Einstein, the presence of a mass deforms the space-time geometry in such a way that light rays passing nearby get deflected. This is the idea behind gravitational lensing, where rays of light bend near sources of gravitation, such as stars. The greater KU TIMES 36

“What Eddington observed was the least striking aspect of this gravitational distortion,” explained Dr. Batic.

“However, scientists soon realized that this phenomenon could be used to probe the cosmic depths with an accuracy never imaged before, opening the door to modern cosmology. Gravitational lensing became and still is an extremely active research field.”

INNOVATION FORWARD

Modern technology in astronomy can measure the relative position of the stars, using this technique.

Imagine two stars and the Earth in a line: the effect of gravitational lensing would bend the light from the furthest star around the nearest star, creating a a displaced faint image of the star, which otherwise would be impossible to observe. If we replace the gravitational source between the Earth and the distant star with a black hole, light rays emanating from the distant star may get caught by the black hole. These rays may move around a circular orbit in the exterior of the black hole and we would observe a ring of light around the black hole. In this way, we could infer the existence of the distant and apparently hidden bright gravitational object. This hypothetical effect is what scientists call an “Einstein ring.” Since the prediction of the light bending rule of general relativity, which suggests a direct interaction between gravitation and electromagnetism, several distorted images of distant galaxies, stars, star clusters and Einstein rings have been detected by extremely sensitive telescopes. The strong evidence of gravitational lensing in the universe suggests that this technique could be used to infer the existence of black holes scattered across the universe.

USING GRAVITATIONAL LENSING TO SPOT BLACK HOLES Light rays passing very close to a black hole may experience very strong deviations allowing us to ‘see’ black holes whether the light source is behind the black hole (standard gravitational lensing) or in front of the black hole (retrolensing).

A C-metric describes space-time with two black holes; one black hole here in this universe and one in a parallel universe. The two black holes have equal mass and are accelerating away from each other at a constant rate as a ‘cosmic string’ pulls the black holes apart. The team realized that the black holes in a C-metric would scatter light rays in such a way that would allow for gravitational lensing to detect them.

“There are two kinds of gravitational lensing: weak and strong lensing,” explained Dr. Batic. “Weak lensing occurs when the light rays emanating from the source pass at a distance from the gravitational object in the middle. Strong lensing occurs when the light rays travel very close to the gravitational source, and particularly when close to a special distance from the object called the photon sphere.”

While weak lensing for two uncharged black holes connected by a cosmic string is too small to be detected, strong lensing would indeed work, and the team went on to calculate the formula for detecting black holes in this way.

Their computations found that a weak lensing analysis applied to a supermassive black hole or anything smaller cannot discriminate what kind of metric is being represented. However, their new equations represent the general formula for using black holes in strong gravitational lensing and can be used with observational data to confirm or disprove the existence of black holes described by a C-metric.

“In order to understand the relevance of our result, we

“Light bending and possible bound states of light are genuine effects of general relativity,” explained Dr. Batic. “Whereas light bending has been studied and even observed in a variety of situations, bound orbits of massless particles are an interesting phenomenon and they deserve special attention.”

need to remember that in theoretical physics, String Theory or the Theory of Everything is our best candidate theory which brings together quantum mechanics with general relativity,” explained Dr. Batic. “Among several predictions provided by String Theory, we also find the so-called cosmic strings. If cosmic strings are observed by means of our theoretical predictions, this would

The research team investigated the effects of gravitational lensing on two black holes in a C-metric.

provide the first experimental evidence of a string theory model underlying the structure of spacetime.”

37 KU TIMES

FROM THE NEWSROOM

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

Khalifa University’s YFEL Outreach Program to Organize Virtual Graduation Ceremony for 2020 Batch on 21 January

11TH ANNUAL YFEL GRADUATION CEREMONY COINCIDES WITH ABU DHABI SUSTAINABILITY WEEK 2021

KU TIMES 38

FROM THE NEWSROOM

Khalifa University has announced the graduation ceremony for members of the 2020 Young Future Energy Leaders (YFEL) outreach program will be held virtually on 21 January 2021, coinciding with the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2021. This year will also mark the 11th annual graduation ceremony for the YFEL program.

A total of 32 YFEL members from the 2020 batch, who have successfully completed their year-long program of special courses, workshops, and conferences in leadership, policy and technology as well as personal project initiatives, will receive their certificates of completion at the ceremony. The graduation ceremony that culminates a transformative year for the 2020 YFEL members, will be streamed live online.

The 2020 YFEL members include 21 UAE Nationals, seven locally-based students and professionals, as well as four international young professionals from countries in Asia and South America, such as China, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and Brazil.

Launched at the 2010 World Future Energy Summit by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and the Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, the YFEL program offers members exceptional and unmatched access to top global leaders, senior business executives and academics engaged in alternative energy and sustainability.

Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, said: “The YFEL outreach program helps broaden the university’s founding mission, by reaching out beyond the UAE borders, to attract students and young professionals anywhere in the world, and bring them to the UAE. Over its 11-year existence, members of the YFEL program have consistently contributed to

sustainable projects, while remaining intensely involved in community-oriented initiatives. Through their yearlong courses on training, mentorship, and guidance, they not only acquire new skills but also enhance their individual capabilities as future leaders, fully equipped for taking the UAE’s vision of sustainable energy leadership out into the world, and expand upon it.”

Each year, the YFEL members have consistently worked on new project concepts and contributed to sustainability-related initiatives. Two YFEL members participated in the 16-day International Antarctica Expedition (IAE) 2012, joining the IAE team to highlight sustainability and the need to preserve Antarctica. A group of 2011-2012 YFEL members played a significant role in the delivery of the 543 KWe photovoltaic (PV) solar power project that was commissioned in July 2014 at the Rashid Abdullah Omran Hospital in Ras Al Khaimah. In 2015, a group of 10 YFEL members introduced several community-wide initiatives in collaboration with 10 students from the Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, in the Central Java province of Indonesia.

The YFEL program was consecutively sponsored by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) for several years.

His Excellency Sultan bin Rashed Dhaheri, Member of the Federal National Council, sponsored the program for two consecutive years with a contribution of US$1 million each year. In 2011, Emirati philanthropist Mohammed Bin Kardous Al Ameri was the first private sponsor of this outreach initiative with a contribution of AED1 million. Other sponsors include BASF – one of the world’s leading chemical companies, and Siemens – a conglomerate and one of the largest industrial manufacturing companies.

39 KU TIMES

FROM THE NEWSROOM

carried out in collaboration with Boeing, Etihad Airways, ADNOC Refining, Safran, GE, and Bauer Resources.

Khalifa University’s Seawater Energy and Agriculture System (SEAS) Recognized by Global Water Awards

The integrated Seawater Energy and Agriculture System (SEAS), the flagship project of Khalifa University’s Sustainable Bioenergy Research Consortium and the world’s first bioenergy facility using saltwater to produce seafood and aviation biofuel in the desert environment of the UAE, has been recognized as “Industrial Project of the Year – Distinction” by the Global Water Awards.

This SEAS project was recognized by the Global Water Awards because it is a unique project characterized by crossindustry co-operation to implement sustainable biofuel production and create an agricultural alternative in the UAE. In January 2019, Etihad Airways operated the first commercial flight using biofuel produced by the project, successfully flying from Abu Dhabi to Amsterdam.

The Sustainable Bioenergy Research Consortium (SBRC) was established in Abu Dhabi in 2011 as a not-forprofit research consortium to advance the aviation industry’s commitment to sustainable business practices by developing technology with the promise of producing a clean, alternative fuel supply. Its flagship project, SEAS, is being

KU TIMES 40

Dr. Alejandro Rios Galvan, Director of SBRC, said: “It is a great honor to be recognized by the Global Water Awards. It highlights the importance of collaboration between the private sector and academia in creating solutions for the creative use of water, which is of utmost importance for arid and waterconstrained regions of the world.”

The success of the SEAS system demonstrates the viability of using saltwater for halophyte agriculture in the desert environment of the UAE, avoiding the use of precious groundwater and arable land to produce biofuel. It also uses on-site solar panels to power the system’s pumps and valves, further extending its environmental impact.

The next step for the SEAS system is to scale it up to a 200-hectare site, in a move towards full commercial implementation.

The Global Water Awards was established in 2006 by Global Water Intelligence. It recognizes the most important achievements in the international water industry within several categories, and rewards those initiatives in the water, wastewater and desalination sectors that are moving the industry forward through improved operating performance, innovative technology adoption and sustainable financial models.

FROM THE NEWSROOM

KU Student Chosen as CEOx1DAY Finalist

organization, and the details of how a company functions.

The Career Services Office introduced and facilitated applications for this initiative to KU students, among others, as part of their career guidance program to prepare students for the job market.

SHAMA ALMAZROUEI

Shama Almazrouei will spend a day with an executive of an established company in the UAE and personally experience the company’s activities.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be the CEO of an established company? KU’s Electrical Engineering undergraduate Shama Almazrouei was one of the few chosen to shadow a successful CEO in the UAE and experience first-hand what it could be like to lead a company.

The CEOx1Day is a program of management and consultancy company Odgers Berndtson that matches 3rdand 4th-year undergraduates with a regional Chief Executive Officer and their executive team and shadow them for one full day to see how they work and do business. Program finalists will be able to learn about possible career paths, how team members create value in their

The CEOx1DAY program was first launched in Odgers Berndtson’s office in Germany and has now grown to 12 other countries, including Brazil, Denmark, South Africa, Singapore, Canada, and the UK. To date, the program has received around 17,000 applications from all over the world, and over 400 CEOs from prominent companies such as Google, Twitter, Adidas, and Ikea have participated in the initiative.

The program is designed to allow promising future leaders to experience and see first-hand what it is like to be a successful CEO. For the CEOs, the program gives them an opportunity to connect with the next generation of leaders, providing them a better understanding of today’s youth, what drives them, and their work ethics.

Aside from the invaluable opportunity to work with top business leaders, students chosen to participate in the program also have a chance to meet with the Odgers Berndtson team and learn more about the recruitment process, providing them additional skills that they can use during their job search after they graduate. They’ll learn presentation skills and team building skills, as well as strengthen their interview techniques as they undergo one-on-one interview exercises. The student finalists will

also receive a Hogan leadership assessment report that evaluates seven well-known characteristics that influence a person’s occupational success.

Much like any job application, applying to be part of the CEOx1DAY was a process.

“An email was sent by KU and I applied. I went through application and transcript screening, online leadership assessments, telephone interviews, and a half day of virtual group assessment with semi-finalists from other universities,” Shama explained.

When asked why she applied to the program, Shama said she wanted to “gain leadership skills and communication skills, get insight on workplaces and how things work, and learn from a successful CEO.” “KU has always encouraged me to always look for opportunities to gain more knowledge and more experience, and I try to always set myself apart from others by taking part in different competitions and programs,” she said.

After the program, she explained that she “wants to have an insight on how things work in an actual workplace and learn more about the role of the CEO and what it takes to be a great leader, how they reached this position, and what skills are needed to be a good CEO.” Shama is partnered with Mr. Regis Schultz, President of Retail at AlFuttaim Group, and is scheduled to spend the day in the company next year.

41 KU TIMES

FROM MY CAMPUS, THE NEWSROOM MY COMMUNITY

Welcoming the new YFEL Cohort Khalifa University’s Young Future Energy Leaders outreach initiative welcomed a new cohort to its program during the YFEL Virtual Orientation 2021, which kicked off last week during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week – the world’s largest sustainability gathering.

The new YFEL members’ first week ran alongside ADSW which kicked off the start of their yearlong journey in the program by engaging with leaders in energy, sustainability and government, participating in discussions about the future of energy, and brainstorming sustainable solutions to the challenges of climate change.

This year, the 43 YFEL 2021 members participated in three days of workshops and seminars during ADSW and engaged in interactive debates on key issues like how to reverse climate change and renewable energy’s role in replacing carbon fuels. The new cohort is now ready to make the most of their journey in the unique YFEL program where they will broaden their skills in sustainability and leadership KU TIMES 42

MY CAMPUS, MY COMMUNITY

Student & faculty achievements, and campus activities

Winners of 2nd Mathematics Musabaqat Announced The 2nd Mathematics Musabaqat – a Math competition

1st PLACE

for KU students was held on 21 October 2020. The competition was organized by the Mathematics Department in collaboration with the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and McGraw Hill Publishing Company.

Himanshu Upadhyay

A Total of 40 students from 14 different nationalities

India (PG Student)

participated in the competition where they solved eight (8) challenging mathematical problems from topics that included Algebra, Calculus, Geometry, Number Theory, Trigonometry, and Probability.

The competition aims to raise the awareness of the

2nd PLACE

importance of Mathematics, help students enhance their analytical thinking skills, stimulate curiosity and problem-solving skills, and nurture mathematical talents.

The virtual competition was held on Blackboard with the

Bushra Aldhanhani

Respondus Lockdown Browser, where registered students

UAE (Senior)

individually attempted to solve the problems over a 3-hour period.

Dr. Ahmed Al Shoaibi, SVP of Academic & Student Services, Dr. David Sheehan, Dean of the College of

3rd PLACE

Arts & Sciences and Dr. Jorge Zubelli, the chair of the Mathematics department congratulated the students during the award ceremony and spoke about the importance of developing mathematics skills outside of the classroom. During the Award Ceremony, the first, second and third place winners received vouchers worth

Mohammed Elamine Azz Morocco (Junior)

AED 700, AED 500 and AED 300 from McGraw Hill. They also received trophies and certificates from CTL. 43 KU TIMES

Khalifa University’s College of Medicine and Health Sciences Organizes White Coat Ceremony for Second Cohort of 34 Students COLLEGE OF MEDICINE AND HEALTH SCIENCES REGISTERS REMARKABLE FIRST YEAR, PUBLISHING 31 PUBMED-LISTED RESEARCH PAPERS

Khalifa University of Science and Technology organized a White Coat Ceremony, marking the start of Fall 2020 classes for the newly enrolled second cohort of 34 students at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University of Science and Technology delivered a welcome note, and Dr. John Rock, Dean, Khalifa University College of Medicine and Health Sciences, also welcomed the students and led the recitation of the students’ customary oath. The ceremony was virtually attended by the students’ parents, families and friends.

Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi said: “The College of Medicine and Health Sciences has made remarkable progress in the KU TIMES 44

academic, medical and healthcare research areas since its launch, having successfully published the 31st scientific paper recently. These research papers cover a wide array of biomedical topics of great relevance not only to the UAE, and the region but also the entire global community. Led by a renowned team of experts as faculty members and researchers in the medical field, the College of Medicine and Health Sciences has also made significant contributions to fighting and mitigating the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. We sincerely welcome the second cohort of students and we firmly believe that each one of the students will bring honor and glory to our university and the UAE.” Dr. John Rock said: “Particularly now, during a global pandemic, donning the medical white coat symbolizes a tremendous commitment to serving others and improving health outcomes for patients and communities. We are proud to welcome another outstanding cohort of students who have the desire and passion to pursue careers in the noble profession of medicine.”

In the very first year itself, the Khalifa University College of Medicine and Health Sciences has registered remarkable achievements, including publishing 31 research papers in respected international scientific and medical journals. The

Khalifa University CMHS’ PubMed-listed research papers, published so far, have covered a wide array of biomedical topics of relevance to the UAE and beyond ranging from the Arab genome to diabetes, nanoparticles to cardiovascular and medical education.

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, and serves 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 that allow on-site testing for Graduate Record Examinations (GRE), National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME), United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) and Medical College Admission Test (MCAT).

Located at the New Extension of the Main Campus of Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, the College of Medicine and Health Sciences is offering the post-graduate MD program in five strands – Biomedical Science, Clinical Medicine, Medicine and Society, Physicianship, as well as Research, Technology and Innovation.

45 KU TIMES

MY CAMPUS, MY COMMUNITY

KU Students Win Future Makers Award

ABDULAZIZ ALZURAHI, BSc in Mechanical Engineering student, won the ‘Honor Roll Student’ category of the Future Makers Award.

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS ABDULAZIZ ALZURAHI AND REEM AL HASHEMI WON AED10,000 EACH AND RECOGNITION OF THEIR OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE

skills required by the work environment and future professions to be a well-established behavior before entering the labor market.

The prodigious achievements of two KU undergraduate students were recognized earlier this month during the virtual closing ceremony of the Future Makers Award – 2nd Cycle 2020.

Now in its second cycle, the award was launched earlier this year in January, and accepted applications from students attending either Khalifa University, Higher Colleges of Technology or UAE University.

The Future Makers Award is organized by the UAE University. Its aim is to support educational excellence and nurture a creative and innovative environment in the UAE. The award is also concerned with enabling students to set a vision for their future and work diligently to achieve it by consolidating the values and

There were seven award categories: Honor Roll Students, Inspiring Students (People of Determination), Leading Students, Outstanding Freshmen, Innovative Students, Innovative Student Athletes, and Persevering Students. A total of 14 KU students registered for the award across the different categories.

KU TIMES 46

MY CAMPUS, MY COMMUNITY

Abdulaziz AlZurahi, BSc in Mechanical Engineering student, won the ‘Honor Roll Student’ category, while Reem Al Hashemi, BSc in Aerospace Engineering student, won the ‘Innovative Student Athletes’ category.

As winners, they each were awarded AED10,000 along with opportunities to enroll in educational programs and specialized workshops inside and outside UAE University.

Achievers, the H.E. Khalid Bin Tannaf Almenhali’s Award for High Achievers, and the Obaid Alhelo’s Award for High Achievers. He also scored second place in the BP Young Adventures Competitions and has been placed on the KU President’s List each year during his undergraduate degree journey.

“It has been a great honor for me to compete in this award with the country’s top performing students from across the best universities,” Abdulaziz remarked. “I am extremely grateful for the relentless support of my mother, and for the support from my country, the UAE, and my University, which gave me the tools, resources and guidance I need to excel as a scientist. That is why I am proud to represent Khalifa University in this competition, and at the same time, I am proud to elevate KU’s position as a university that attracts and retains hard working and high achieving students.”

Abdulaziz spent a semester studying abroad in Italy collaborating on international research projects that involved developing medical robotics at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. He also became a certified lab safety researcher at the same institute. Additionally, he performed clinical research studies at Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi Onlus in Florence. He also served as the Ministry of Higher Education’s ambassador to Dalhousie University in Canada.

While there, he worked with an Associate Professor on a graduate level research project performing mathematical modeling studies for thermal-fluid projects. Back in the UAE, Abdulaziz successfully manufactured a lower limb for disabled people and presented his invention at the Science Festival in Abu Dhabi 2020.

Abdulaziz has a number of accolades under his belt already: He is a member of the Golden Key Honor Society; he won the ADNOC High Achievers Award, the H.E. Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed’s Award for High

REEM AL HASHEMI, BSc in Aerospace Engineering student, won the ‘Innovative Student Athletes’ category of the Future Makers Award

Reem, who won the Innovative Student Athlete award, has performed outstanding work in both academia and in sports. She became the first female Emirati to win the Jiu Jitsu World Pro, and the first Jiu Jitsu athlete to study aerospace engineering. She won the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center – Zero Gravity competition, and traveled to Florida, USA to conduct research with professionals from NASA. Reem is grateful for the support of her family and everyone that has helped and supported her in her sports and academic life.

“The main reason that I work hard is to make my country proud, and to make Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed proud, as I have promised him to keep working and achieving new things always,” Reem shared.

47 KU TIMES

MY CAMPUS, MY COMMUNITY

Khalifa University Launches New Alumni Association

NEW COUNCIL MEMBERS TO FOCUS ON CREATING A PLATFORM WHERE KU ALUMNI CAN STAY CONNECTED WITH THEIR ALMA MATER Khalifa University has established the KU Alumni Association, which is being led by a council of five highly accomplished KU alumni.

The alumni leaders represent all Khalifa University legacy institutes (KUSTAR, MI and PI), and a range of undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

The council hopes to nurture a platform where KU alumni are supported, given growth and networking opportunities, and importantly, stay connected to one another.

Here we introduce the new Council Members with some Q&As that reveal who they are, why they joined the council, and what their plans are for the KU Alumni Association.

KU TIMES 48

MEERA AL MEHAIRI, PRESIDENT, KU ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Class of 2015, BSc in Mechanical Engineering

WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT POSITION? I work as a Senior Inspection Engineer in the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation, where my main task is to inspect nuclear power plants.

In addition, I was recently given a more strategic role by being appointed as a board member for the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood.

KU taught me how to manage time, work under pressure, and get things done no matter what, which are skills that have been essential to my professional development and growth.

MY CAMPUS, MY COMMUNITY

WHY IS A KU ALUMNI ASSOCIATION IMPORTANT? It will help facilitate and sustain a mutually advantageous network for KU Alumni and KU community as a whole.

HOW WILL YOU HELP AND ENCOURAGE KU ALUMNI TO STAY CONNECTED WITH THEIR ALMA MATER? By creating specific initiatives for them, consulting them in our upcoming projects, and engaging them more in the KU community.

WHY DID YOU WANT TO BE A MEMBER IN THE KU ALUMNI ASSOCIATION COUNCIL? To give back and enable Alumni to benefit from and contribute to the University community.

WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION? Reactor Operator – Not Licensed / Barakah Youth Council Member in Nawah Energy Company. My job will enable me to be part of achieving the UAE 2021 Vision, Abu Dhabi 2030 Vision.

HOW DID KU HELP YOU BE PREPARED FOR THIS POSITION? Through taking a minor in Nuclear Engineering, it

was a great foundation to prepare me to start my career in the nuclear industry.

HOW WILL YOU HELP AND ENCOURAGE KU ALUMNI TO STAY CONNECTED WITH THEIR ALMA MATER? Through developing online and on-campus services that meet the alumni needs.

49 KU TIMES

MY CAMPUS, MY COMMUNITY

WHAT DO YOU DO FOR A LIVING? I am currently working as a climate change & sustainability consultant at Ernst & Young (EY).

Being a consultant is very exciting. My day at the office is never standard. I am constantly working on sustainability projects across different fields and sectors. This includes but is not limited to strategy planning and support, due diligence and scoring of prestigious UAE Awards, sustainability reporting and assurance, and social and environmental impact assessments.

WHY DID YOU WANT TO BE A MEMBER OF THE KU ALUMNI ASSOCIATION COUNCIL? To give back to KU as an institute, demonstrate change and support the students & Alumni by creating a safe space that they can always come back to and guarantee they will be supported.

KU TIMES 50

WHY IS A KU ALUMNI ASSOCIATION IMPORTANT? It’s important to establish a designated committee that will carry on the legacy of our three institutes, maintaining continuity and building a strong global network.

WHAT KIND OF SOCIAL EVENTS OR ACTIVITIES DO YOU HAVE PLANNED FOR KU ALUMNI? My focus will be on the social impact of KU, Alumni trainings, networking events, and connecting minds so as to build a global network with all our Alumni everywhere.

MY CAMPUS, MY COMMUNITY

WHAT IS YOUR OCCUPATION? I work in ADNOC Onshore as a Reservoir Engineer.

It is a branch of petroleum engineering. Basically what I do is to monitor the fluid flow of the hydrocarbon (Oil/ Gas) in our reservoirs during the development and production, in order to obtain the highest economic recovery.

here to make sure that our fellow alumni who seek help, get the right help and support. We are here to increase their sense of belonging and to provide a digital platform where they can check all our services (technical support, professional support, mentoring support, etc.), social events and annual gatherings.

WHY DID YOU WANT TO BE A MEMBER IN THE KU ALUMNI ASSOCIATION COUNCIL?

WHAT KIND OF EVENTS OR ACTIVITIES DO YOU HAVE PLANNED FOR KU ALUMNI?

I consider this as an opportunity to create a platform that rejoins our big family. I wanted to be part of that. As a member of the council, I would like to make that platform reachable for our fellow alumni to seek any help or service, or just to make it simple to rejoin them with their fellow alumni.

As we are here to reconnect our fellow alumni, the KU Alumni Association Council has considered options which are applicable with the current situation of Covid-19. We are pleased to work on a couple of initiatives that place KU alumni at the forefront of the local and global community focusing on facilitating a robust and collaborative network.

HOW WILL YOU HELP AND ENCOURAGE KU ALUMNI TO STAY CONNECTED WITH THEIR ALMA MATER? Being in a big family, the alumni association is

51 KU TIMES

MY CAMPUS, MY COMMUNITY

WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT POSITION AT YOUR COMPANY AND HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE WHAT YOU DO?

WHY DID YOU WANT TO BE A MEMBER IN THE KU ALUMNI ASSOCIATION COUNCIL?

I currently work as a Sustainability Strategy Specialist for Boeing. My work focuses on achieving the long term goals set by the aviation industry to make aviation more sustainable.

This is a great opportunity for me to give back my alma mater. KU has provided me with so many opportunities as a student and also as a graduate and I am thankful for that. During my time as a student I also served on the student council as president.

This includes sustainable aviation fuels, carbon offsets, operational efficiency and improvise the fuel efficiency of the aircraft through design.

WHY IS A KU ALUMNI ASSOCIATION IMPORTANT AND WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE ASSOCIATION?

HOW DID KU HELP YOU BE PREPARED FOR THIS POSITION? My master’s thesis in KU focused on sustainable aviation fuels produced in the UAE from salt tolerant plants that grow in non-arable land. This paved the way for me to make connections with Boeing and eventually land my dream job.

KU TIMES 52

It’s crucial for alumni to stay connected with their colleagues and university after graduation. The alumni association aims to make the voice of alumni heard and to keep them engaged. We have already come up with many plans on what we would like to achieve during our time as council members.

Personally I’m looking forward to organizing an alumni dinner event in the near future once circumstances allow.

MY CAMPUS, MY COMMUNITY

KU Students Join the 2020 University Innovation Fellows Training Program

Petroleum Engineering students Amna Omar Hassan Shuhail Alqahtani, Fatema Ahmed Abdulla Qadah Al Shehhi, and Alia Fauzi Abubaker Abdulla Alkatheeri, and Chemical Engineering student Reem Aldahmani, have been chosen to participate in the 2020 University Innovation Fellows (UIF) training program.

The University Innovation Fellows is a program of Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school). It was created as part of the National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation (Epicenter), a five-year National Science Foundation grant.

The program builds a global community of higher education student leaders to become agents of change in their schools and their communities. Almost 200 students from 45 higher education institutions in 14 countries have been named University Innovation Fellows this year. The Fellows who are part of the program are trained to ensure that they gain the knowledge, skills, and attributes they need to be able to thrive and compete in our complex and ever-changing world.

At the end of the training program, University Innovation Fellows are expected to work with their peers, faculty, and administrators to unlock new learning opportunities for students at their campuses to encourage innovation, entrepreneurship, design thinking, and creativity. They will serve as advocates for lasting institutional change with academic leaders, lending the much-needed student voice to the conversations about the future of higher education.

Dr. Ahmed Al Shoaibi, Senior Vice President of Academic and Student Services, said: “We are keen to have our students participate in international programs. The engagement of our students in international learning and research is critical to KU’s vision as a researchintensive university with a transformative student learning experience. The students’ participation in international programs is a testament of going beyond the comfort zone and aiming to achieve global recognition.”

53 KU TIMES

MY CAMPUS, MY COMMUNITY

During the 6-week online training, the Fellows learned how to analyze their campus ecosystems, identify opportunities for change, and understand the needs of their peers across disciplines, as well as the perspectives of faculty and administrators. On 10 October 2020, the KU UIF Fellows presented their project ideas to faculty members and stakeholders of Khalifa University. There were three ideas the students came up with—the Help App, Virtual Labs Program, and the Digital Maker Space.

The UIF training program was an enlightening learning experience for the group. The students would like to thank Khalifa University, especially Dr. Nicholas Dimmitt, Associate Professor of English, who nominated them to the program; as well as Dr. Waleed Alameri, Assistant Professor of Petroleum Engineering and Eng. Abdessamia Jebbouri of the Petroleum Engineering Department for the support they showed from the application process and throughout the duration of the program.

Alia Alkatheeri:

“The bright side of this experience is that I am able to improve my thinking and problem solving skills. I’m so thankful for having this opportunity.”

Reem Aldahmani:

HELP APP This project is an easy way for students to access the contact information of departments and services at KU. The aim is to ensure that students can easily reach anyone from the University when they need help, whether this be their instructors or services for students.

“What I learned from this experience is that group work is very important in order to come up with different ideas and see problems from different perspectives. This program gave me an opportunity to help my creative potential and develop the designcentered mindset required to overcome today’s complex challenges.”

VIRTUAL LABS PROGRAM The Virtual Labs Program is an innovative approach to learning, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic as some students may find it challenging to have access and use traditional labs. The idea is to provide general technology skills training to students who have virtual labs that require software installation, providing them with all the information they need to download and utilize the software to their advantage for their online labs tasks.

DIGITAL MAKER SPACE One of the resources that KU students have on campus is the Maker Space, a place where students can meet to share knowledge and resources, work on projects, and network with other students. The group came up with the idea of creating a “Digital Maker Space,” which is an online version of the Maker Space on campus. This project intends to help KU students continue learning, discovering, and trying new things albeit virtually.

KU TIMES 54

Fatima Alshehhi:

“Joining this program was the best investment I’ve ever made for myself, as well as the start of a life-changing journey because it helped me expand my knowledge in innovation and entrepreneurship.”

Amna Alqahtani:

“The program was a great and interesting experience to me. It taught me the process of problem-solving known as design thinking and what I learned from this program is to try to come up with different ways to solve a problem and then filter those ideas in order to offer suitable solutions for a person’s needs.”

MY CAMPUS, MY COMMUNITY

KU Holds Virtual Majors Day to Guide First-Year Students in Choosing Their Career Paths

Every year, Khalifa University holds a Majors Day event to provide freshman students an opportunity to know more about the different majors and programs offered at KU, guiding them on what majors they should choose based on their interests and career goals. Around 300 freshmen were expected to participate in the sessions.

This year’s Majors Day event was different from previous years. For the first time, the annual event was held virtually through a dedicated website specifically developed for Majors Day. The virtual event, organized by the Career and Alumni Services Office in collaboration with the different Academic Departments of the University, was hosted online from the 26th of October. Prerecorded sessions of faculty from the different KU Academic Departments talked about the majors, academic requirements, and future career tracks for each of the various academic programs at KU.

55 KU TIMES

MY CAMPUS, MY COMMUNITY

After the presentations, dedicated Q&A sessions were scheduled on the 27th and 28th of October to give the students more detailed advice about the different programs and majors available to them. Choosing a major and future career paths can be daunting and KU is dedicated in providing the students with comprehensive guidance and support.

KU alumni also participated in the Q&A sessions to support the students as well as share their KU experience and give insights on their professional life after graduation. The KU graduates answered the questions and concerns and gave advice to the students.

Dr. Syed Salman Ashraf, Associate Dean for Postgraduate Studies, said: “The event was done very professionally and it was obvious that the Career Services team had put in a lot of hard work!

I was especially impressed with the excellent organization and the ease with which we were able to record our message for prospective students.”

Dr. Kinda Khalaf, Associate Chair, Biomedical Engineering, commented: “Our first BME virtual Majors Day at KU was a huge success. While initially I was somewhat skeptical about being able to virtually connect with students in a meaningful manner, I was very happily surprised to see that the virtual mode added a new flavor and perhaps some advantages over the personal meeting.

For example, the length of our BME event was double the one scheduled. Many students were engaged, especially because the platform allowed typing which some less verbal students prefer. The majority of the students opted to stay with us online after the event formally finished to chat and ask questions.

Many reached out in the following weeks. The team at the Career Office did a wonderful job facilitating and allowing for our customized version of the event.”

Dr. Emad Walid Al Shalabi, Assistant Professor, Petroleum Engineering, said: “The virtual Majors Day event at Khalifa University was a real success! Although it is the first time this event is KU TIMES 56

conducted virtually, the collaborative efforts of KU’s Career Services Office and the Communications department members ensured a smooth flow of the event! For our Petroleum Engineering (PE) virtual booth, we shared different flyers, leaflets, and videos to familiarize undergraduate students with the department activities and the nature of PE major.

Also, we successfully uploaded a virtual reality (VR) application on PE where students were engaged and the live Q& session was so interactive! I am glad to be part of this activity and we look forward to welcoming students to our beloved PE department!”

There have already been almost 2,500 visits on the Majors Day site since it was made available.

Students continue to view the sessions to know as much as possible about the majors they plan to take. The students found the videos, brochures, and other collaterals very useful to help them make their decision.

Shamma Kahoor, Interested in Biomedical Engineering: “It was well organized. I learned a lot about my interests. It helped me set a path for what I would like to study.”

Yousef Mohammed Balbahaith, Interested in Biomedical Engineering: “It was enlightening and I have made a clear decision about what major I want to pursue at KU, and I hope that everything goes well and special thanks go to all the team who worked on this event.”

Hamda Alhameli, Interested in Electrical Engineering: “I really enjoyed this Majors Day because it was different from all previous Majors Day. Instead of students answering our questions it was professors and doctors. Also, all my questions were answered and everything was available and easy to access.”

MY CAMPUS, MY COMMUNITY

KU Assistant Professor Recognized at the L’OréalUNESCO For Women in Science Middle East Regional Young Talents Program

For the seventh consecutive year, L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Middle East Regional Young Talents Program, in partnership with Khalifa University, continues to recognize Arab female scientists from the GCC for their revolutionary researches in the fields of Life sciences, Physical sciences, Mathematics and Computer science.

This year, Dr. Maryam Tariq Khaleel Alhashmi, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at KU and member of the Research and Innovation Center on CO2 and Hydrogen (RICH), has been recognized for her valuable contributions in the field of catalysis, specifically her research into the development of catalytic materials for sustainable production of chemicals.

Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University, added: “Spearheading towards Vision 2021 and Agenda 2030, the UAE has progressed immensely by creating an array of opportunities to support women empowerment, and Khalifa University continues to play a key role through its contribution in this area.

“With the recent pandemic worldwide, it is more important than ever that educational institutions especially universities, the scientific community and society at large encourage more women to bring their unique perspectives to the field. We are honoured to partner with L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Middle East Regional Young Talents Program for the second consecutive year and would like to congratulate the 2020 winners for their outstanding achievements and look forward to their future achievements.”

57 KU TIMES

MY CAMPUS, MY COMMUNITY

AR Game Developed

by KU Students Wins GameLab 2020

An augmented reality (AR) game that was developed by a team of Khalifa University students has won the 2020 edition of GameLab. GameLab 2020, a collaborative initiative of the French Embassy to the UAE and Ubisoft Abu Dhabi, is a competition that includes a series of workshops to inspire creativity and introduce UAE-based university students to the process of developing video games. Ubisoft Abu Dhabi is one of the first major video games studios based in the UAE capital focused on developing and bringing to market successful mobile games for a worldwide audience.

The team is composed of Yumna Albhaisi (BSc Chemistry), Mohammed Almemari (BSc Computer Engineering), Khaled Alzubaidi (BSc Computer Engineering), Rodah Almazrooei (BSc Electrical and Electronics Engineering), and Hamdan Al Ali (BSc Computer Engineering).

KU TIMES 58

MY CAMPUS, MY COMMUNITY

The team on a video conference with HE Ludovic Pouille, French Ambassador to the UAE.

The GameLab 2020 workshops took place from Fall 2019 to Spring 2020, and covered topics such as how to create concepts for a video game, gameplay and progression, and graphical user interface. The teams then presented and demonstrated their video games based on the concepts that they have learned from the workshops. His Excellency Ludovic Pouille, French Ambassador to the UAE, announced KU’s Gritty Gamers as the winner of GameLab 2020 during an online meeting with the team.

players level up, this will unlock more furniture options for them to build and decorate their houses. The style of the game is unique and encourages players to strategize and use their creativity in building their homes.

The KU team developed “Roam N’ Rob (RN’R),” an augmented reality game that features more than one style of gameplay that includes simulation, strategy, and adventure.

“It wasn’t that easy, it was a new experience for all of us.

Working together on a big project that none of us had ever done before was a challenge, but we managed to come together as a team and win with our idea,” he said.

“I think most of us (in the team) are interested in video games so going through this competition has increased our interest in games and in game development,” Rodah Almazrooei added.

Using GPS technology, players get to play in a simulation of the real world and collect materials that they can use to build their own houses and furniture.

The players can also “rob” and collect materials from the houses of other players. With the materials they gather, they collect coins and experience points. As

“Winning the competition was unexpected. All the teams were amazing, each with their expertise, even one went to as far as making the actual game, but we still managed to win by thinking out of the box,” team member Mohammed Almemari commented.

As part of their prize, the team members will receive an internship at Ubisoft Studios in Abu Dhabi.

59 KU TIMES

MY CAMPUS, MY COMMUNITY

Supporting Student Clubs & Chapters Virtually KHALIFA UNIVERSITY’S FIRST-EVER VIRTUAL CLUB FAIR KICKS OFF WITH NEW WEBPAGE VIEWED BY OVER 1,000 INTERESTED KU COMMUNITY MEMBERS

Despite the mandate for social distancing across the country, Khalifa University students can still join one of the University’s student clubs and professional chapters, and by doing so, gain more opportunities for meaningful personal and professional growth.

The Student Life Department has made it easy for students to engage with and join one of KU’s 13 student clubs and five professional chapters by launching the KU Virtual Club Fair webpage.

The new online platform allowed the clubs and professional chapters to showcase their goals, initiatives and activities, while giving students and prospective members the chance to join the clubs remotely. Three new Clubs that were established earlier this year also participated, including Cooking Club, Physics Club and Volunteering Club.

KU TIMES 60

MY CAMPUS, MY COMMUNITY

Since the launch of the webpage, over 1,000 prospective new members have visited the page to explore the wide variety of opportunities offered by the Clubs and Chapters. Interested students can still visit the Clubs and Chapters webpage on the KU Portal to learn more and register.

In addition to the webpage, Student Life hosted a live Q&A session with members from ten KU student clubs and five professional chapters on Wednesday,

23 September. Over 250 students attended and learned in-depth about the different clubs’ and chapters’ extracurricular activities and goals, and how they can engage with the clubs throughout the year.

When Abdulrahman Zahmak, Electrical Engineering major and IEEE Chapter member was asked about his experience during the Q&A sessions, he said: “It was smooth and very interactive, and successfully delivered the essence and the objective of the club to the students.”

THE IEEE STUDENT CHAPTER AIMS TO PROMOTE THE DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLICATIONS, SEMINARS, AND OTHER ACTIVITIES RELEVANT TO ENGINEERING DISCIPLINES.

Another student, Ahmed Almessabi, Chemical Engineering major and Volunteering Club member commented: ‘’It was an amazing experience answering questions about the club, and it showed that a large number of students are interested in the club.’’

61 KU TIMES

MY CAMPUS, MY COMMUNITY

THE JJANG CLUB WAS FORMED IN 2015 TO INTRODUCE AND TEACH KOREAN CULTURE, HERITAGE, AND LANGUAGE TO THE KU COMMUNITY.

Recognizing the important role that co-curricular and extra-curricular activities play in developing the “whole student,” KU’s Student Life Department strives to offer KU students meaningful opportunities to grow personally and professionally.

On the personal side, extracurricular activities can provide students with the camaraderie they need to feel a sense of belonging to their university community. On the professional side, such involvement pushes students to develop the real-life skills and experiences that will be useful in their future careers.

THE INTELLECTUAL AND ELECTRONIC SPORT CLUB (KUIESC) FOCUSES ON COMPETITIVE GAMES AND THE EXPERIENCE OF PLAYING WITH OTHER MEMBERS.

For more information about the student clubs and professional chapters offered at KU, visit the Virtual Club Fair webpage on the KU Portal here.

CLICK HERE

KU TIMES 62

MY CAMPUS, MY COMMUNITY

ensure the safety of the workers, and at the same time use modern technology to make the process easier and faster. She designed a UAV quadcopter equipped with an advanced cleaning mechanism that can wash the windows with the help of an autopilot feature.

The project can further be developed for different industries such as sanitation jobs, as well as address insect infestation or put out wildfires. This could lead to different opportunities where UAV advanced technology can solve everyday problems while at the same time ensure the safety of workers.

Asmaa noted that the purpose of the project is to showcase how modern UAV technology can help ease the process for many entities in the civil sector by replacing high-risk jobs. In her report, she first presents the design alongside the main elements of the UAV with an explanation of each of the features; she then highlights the industries where UAVs can be used, its requirements, possibilities, and competitions.

Aerospace Engineering Student Wins 2nd Place in EDGE Summer Challenge ASMAA (FAR RIGHT) WITH MS. MONA AL RASHDI, VP OF HUMAN CAPITAL AT THE EDGE GROUP, AND THE OTHER WINNERS OF THE EDGE SUMMER CHALLENGE.

Asmaa Alyammahi, a senior BSc Aerospace Engineering student, has won 2nd place in the EDGE Summer Challenge organized by the advanced technology company EDGE Group. The Challenge is a competition for the next generation of innovators to use their creativity to design drones that will advance key industries in the UAE. Asmaa’s winning project was a quadcopter unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) design that is capable of taking over the risky job of a skyscraper window cleaner. Asmaa says that this solution will advance many sectors; anyone with a building can benefit from such a service and make it 100 times safer, more efficient and faster, and at a low cost. “Introducing drone technology to our day-to-day labor work will not only create a faster, more reliable solution but will also open new job opportunities in the market,” she added.

The idea for the project came about when Asmaa noticed window cleaners hanging on ropes on skyscrapers. The UAE, particularly Dubai and Abu Dhabi, is constantly developing and building infrastructures. On a daily basis, the number of buildings in each city is increasing rapidly. During the day, window cleaners’ lives are at risk as they hang on ropes in extremely hot weather. These workers also spend days to complete the job. Asmaa wanted to create a solution that will

“It feels really good to have my idea appreciated by one of the top companies in the UAE. The sense of validation is overwhelming and the competing teams have been very professional with the process,” Asmaa said.

“I believe that undergoing my aerospace engineering degree at Khalifa University has helped me immensely in applying the knowledge I have into real-life projects and researches such as this competition. I am proud to happily apply what I have been learning and practicing in the past few years,” she added.

“I do hope I can continue the project and bring the design to life in the near future.”

Dr. Rashid K. Abu Al-Rub, Professor and Acting Chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering & Director of KU’s ADAM Center commented on Asmaa’s achievement: “The Aerospace Engineering Department congratulates Asmaa on this welldeserved achievement. This is a clear indication of the high caliber of our Aerospace Engineering students and faculty.”

“We have several courses and research activities in the Department that focus on the design and performance of UAVs. For example, Dr. Yahya Zweiri, an Associate Professor in the Aerospace Engineering Department, teaches a course entitled UAV Modeling and Control which covers the theory and practice of the modeling and control of UAV systems. Several research projects that are supported by the local UAE industries are led by Dr. Yahya. Our students are well-trained in applying the state-ofthe-art methods for designing UAVs,” Dr. Rashid said.

Currently, Asmaa is working on her Senior Design Project titled “ADCS System for KU 2U CubeSat” funded by the Boeing Company.

63 KU TIMES

MY CAMPUS, MY COMMUNITY

CTL and SSD Hold Virtual Graduation for 2nd Cohort of Leadership Training Program The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), in collaboration with the Student Success Department (SSD), held a virtual graduation ceremony on 16 November, 2020 for its second cohort of the certificate training titled “Leading with Passion and Knowledge.”

A group of 29 diverse undergraduate and graduate students (15 of which have leadership roles within the KU community ranging from club presidents to KU student chapters) and alumni actively participated in the 7-week hands-on training designed to develop knowledge about leadership and the skills necessary to serve as stepping stones to successful academic and professional leadership roles.

The training consisted of several modules including the Myers-Briggs Test Indicator and Leadership, multiple intelligences, cross-cultural leadership, conflict resolution and leading with change, problem solving and transformational leadership. The modules were designed to motivate, inspire, and give students the tools necessary to handle change effectively, KU TIMES 64

understand their strength and weakness, and improve their communication and teamwork skills in order to learn the art of leadership so that they can effectively serve others. Students presented a range of thoughtful, engaging, and creative multimedia projects intended to help KU students and the larger community manage and deal with the threat of COVID-19 and ensure the health and well-being of all.

Dr. Ahmed Al Shoaibi, Senior Vice President of Academic and Student Services congratulated the students on their willingness to develop their leadership skills and take an active role in building the KU community. He also extended his appreciation to all of the volunteer faculty for their time and effort in making this training such a success.

CTL and SSD look forward to offering the Leading with Passion and Knowledge certificate training during the spring semester.

LIBRARY CORNER

KU and KAU Link Up to Bring Better Library Recourses to Both Communities

The new agreement grants community members from KU and KAU access to the King Abdulaziz University scientific platform, which will enable users to explore their published articles and theses, and access to the KU Al Khaznah repository.

KAU was established in 1967 as a National University, recognized as the number one institution in the Middle East, ranked 200 globally, and regarded as ‘distinguished’ in terms of the number of students, scientific and theoretical fields of study and the exclusiveness of certain specializations such as seas sciences, geology, nuclear engineering, medical engineering, meteorology and aviation and mineralization.

What is the King Abdulaziz University scientific platform?

The platform will enable users to explore their published articles and theses. It is enriched with thousands of fulltext searchable dissertations and scholarly work from the University’s Master’s and Doctoral graduates, helping academics enhance their research potential.

As an outcome of the newly announced partnership between KU and King Abdulaziz University (KAU) and our continuous efforts to better serve the KU community to help KU libraries achieves its goals to be an information hub in science and technology, KU and KAU libraries are working together to make this collaboration succeed.

The new strategic partnership between KU and KAU presents some exciting opportunities for the two universities to collaborate in areas of education and knowledge exchange, bringing access to the university repository, exchange training

You can access to the platform thru our library portal CLICK TO LIBRARY PORTAL

and professional development opportunities between the libraries in the GCC countries.

If you have any questions, please email us at libse@ku.ac.ae 65 KU TIMES

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

Expert insights from KU’s worldclass faculty

KU Researcher Publishes New Book on the History of the UAE Armed Forces After five years of research and writing, Dr. Athol Yates, Assistant

for states and non-state actors threatening the UAE, and stability

Professor at Khalifa University, has published his book titled ‘The Evolution of the Armed Forces of the United Arab Emirates.’

A scholarly publication with an excellent military history publisher, Dr. Yates’ book is the first to cover this important and unique part of UAE history.

and security in the region.”

“While today the UAE military is described admiringly as the Arab region’s most capable military, just 60 years ago, the only security forces in the Emirates were the armed retainers of the Ruling Sheikhs and a small British-led, locally-raised Arab force,” explained Dr. Yates. “Using a combination of direct oversight by the rulers, investment in its nationals, engagement of expatriates, and the purchase of cutting edge military hardware, the UAE Armed Forces has created a powerful deterrent KU TIMES 66

“In the last decade, the UAE Armed Forces has also gained considerable experience through its military operations undertaken in Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen,” explained Dr. Yates.

Dr. Yates’ new book traces the littleknown and fascinating history of the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces from 1951 to 2020. It provides unparalleled detail on the constituent forces that evolved in the UAE Armed Forces in 1976, and how the unified force has grown since then. It also provides essential background information on the country, the enduring roles of the military, and the history of each military service, plus details on the political and command structure governing the military, and its manpower and material characteristics.

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

Georgetown University Awards a Book Contract on UAE and Regional History

KU Faculty to Lead the Newly Launched Association of Spanish Scientists and Researchers

Congratulations to Khalifa University’s Dr. Lourdes Vega, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director of the Research and Innovation Center on CO2 and Hydrogen (RICH), who was appointed as President of the newly launched Association of Spanish Scientists and Researchers, while KU’s Dr. Jorge Rodriguez, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, was elected as Vice President.

The ACIEAU is a professional networking platform of Spanish scientists and researchers working in the UAE.

Dr. Ash Rossiter and Dr. Athol Yates of the Institute of International and Civil Security (IICS) and Department of Humanities and Social Sciences have been awarded an advanced book contract with Georgetown University Press for a scholarly monograph. The book, which will fall under Georgetown’s prestigious Series in Intelligence History, will shed new light on an important part of this region and the UAE’s history.

Georgetown University Press was reported as the 14th most respected scholarly publisher in political science.

Its purpose is to disseminate the science and technology achievements by Spanish researchers in the UAE, to facilitate the creation of R&D consortia between academia and industry.

Prof. Lourdes Vega expressed that “We are delighted to launch the ACIEAU today with the support of the UAE and Spanish authorities, the private sector, and RAICEX. ACIEAU and its members are engaged and willing to build the UAE knowledge-based economy according to the UAE Vision 2021 through a series of scientific and dissemination activities, while fostering collaboration between Spain and the UAE”.

67 KU TIMES

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

Book on Robotics and Security Marks KU Faculty’s Third Book in a Single Year Dr. Ash Rossiter, Assistant Professor in the Institute of International and Civil Security (IICS) and the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, has published a third book in 2020, titled Robotics, Autonomous Systems, and International Security.

Published by Routledge and featuring contributions from leading security studies scholars from across the globe, the edited volume looks at technological impact of advances in robotics and autonomous systems across a range of contemporary security issues and settings.

Robotics, Autonomous Systems, and International Security marks Dr.Rossiter’s third book for 2020. It follows his singleauthored monograph Security in the Gulf: Local Militaries before British Withdrawal, published by Cambridge University Press, and Conflict and Cooperation in the IndoPacific, a co-edited volume published by Routledge and written with KU and IICS colleague Dr. Brendon J. Cannon.

KU TIMES 68

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

The publication of three books in a single year is a rare feat, which, according to Dr. Rossiter, was “only made possible by the research and publication culture fostered by the KU leadership and the seemingly inexhaustible encouragement within the College of Arts and Sciences.”

Alongside authoring or editing these books, Ash has published over a dozen peer-reviewed journal articles or book chapters.

“Rightly, publishing high-quality articles in top journals has been – and remains – my core research output aim,” says Dr. Rossiter.

“However,” he adds, “books are often signature publications in the social sciences and are highly valued.”

With the publication of these three books, Dr. Rossiter’s attention now turns to his two new book projects under contract: one on intelligence history with Georgetown University Press, and co-authored with KU and IICS’s Dr. Athol Yates, the other titled Warfare in the Robotics Age with the highly regarded American independent press Lynne Rienner.

69 KU TIMES

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

45 Faculty from Khalifa University included in Stanford University’s List of World’s Top 2% of Scientists KHALIFA UNIVERSITY TOPS UAE UNIVERSITIES WITH A QUARTER OF ALL UAE FACULTY IN THE PRESTIGIOUS LIST HAILING FROM KU

A total of 45 Khalifa University faculty were recognized in the prestigious listing of the world’s top two percent of scientists produced by Stanford University for the year 2019, making KU the top university in the UAE holding the highest number of faculty on the list.

• Dr. Shadi Hasan

• Dr. Hemant Mittal

• Dr. Wesley Cantwell

• Dr. Abdul Beig

• Dr. Ehab El-Saadany

• Dr. Sadoon Morad

• Dr. Ahmed Al-Durra

• Dr. Abhijeet Raj

• Dr. Vikas Mittal

• Dr. Georg Petroianu

• Dr. A. Alfantazi

• Dr. Leontios Hadjileontiadis

• Dr. Dimitris Goussis

• Dr. Lourdes Vega

• Dr. Khaled Salah

• Dr. Thanh Hai Nguyen

• Dr. Adewale Giwa

• Dr. Mohammad Al-Shudeifat

• Dr. Mahmoud Meribout

• Dr. Inas Alnashef

• Dr. Rashid Abu Al-Rub

• Dr. Reyad El-Khazali

• Dr. V.C. Kelessidis

• Dr. Kin Liao

• Dr. Peng Yong Kong

• Dr. Igor Boiko

The 45 KU faculty in the single year 2019 ranking include:

• Dr. Murray Gray

• Dr. Michael Perrott

• Dr. Jamal Sheikh-Ahmad

• Dr. Mohamed Shawky El Moursi

• Dr. Eiyad Abu-Nada

• Dr. Abhishek Lokhande

• Dr. TieJun Zhang

• Dr. S.N. Ehrenberg

• Dr. Hassan Arafat

• Dr. Amarendra Edpuganti

• Dr. Lakmal Seneviratne

• Dr. Maaike Kroon

• Dr. Matteo Chiesa

• Dr. Vinod Khadkikar

• Dr. W. Zaki

• Dr. Ernesto Damiani

• Dr. Fawzi Banat

• Dr. Linda Zou

• Dr. Baker Mohammad

KU faculty represent 25 percent of the total 178 UAE faculty who appeared in the list of the top two percent of scientists who had the greatest citation impact in the single year of 2019.

KU TIMES 70

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

Six of these KU faculty members have since left the University. They include Dr. Maaike Kroon, Dr. Thanh Hai Nguyen, Dr. Michael Perrott, Dr. S.N. Ehrenberg, Dr. V.C. Kelessidis, and Dr. Murray Gray. Additionally, KU postdoctoral fellow Dr. Ibrar Yaqoob was also included in the ranking. The full league table for the top 2% of

• • • • • • • • •

Dr. Lourdes Vega Dr. Akram Alfantazi Dr. Sadoon Morad Dr. Khaled Salah Dr. Abdul Beig Dr. Ehab El-Saadany Dr. Igor Boiko Dr. Reyad El-Khazali Dr. Mahmoud Meribout

scientists in single year 2019 can be

The five former KU faculty members

found here.

include: Dr. Murray Gray, Dr. Derek Woollins, Dr. S. N. Ehrenberg,

A second ranking of the top two

Dr. Michael Perrott, and Dr. V. C.

percent of career-long scientists

Kelessidis.

with the greatest citation impact up until the end of 2019 was also

Additionally, another nine faculty

published by Stanford University.

members who were affiliated with

In this ranking, 39 KU faculty were

other universities in the Stanford

recognized.

ranking, but are now with KU, were listed. These include:

Thirty of the researchers included in the ranking are affiliated with KU,

• Dr. David Sheehan

however five have since left KU.

• Dr. John Rock • Dr. Mauro Pereira

The 25 current KU faculty members

• Dr. Mohamed Amine Khamsi

included in the list are: • Dr. Westley Cantwell • Dr. Kin Liao • Dr. Hassan Arafat • Dr. Eiyad Abu-Nada • Dr. Simon Phoenix

• Dr. Gareth Price

• • • • • • • • • •

Dr. Dimitris Goussis Dr. Vikas Mittal Dr. Ernesto Damiani Dr. Georg Petroianu Dr. Vinod Khadkikar Dr. Fawzi Banat Dr. Mohamed El Moursi Dr. Leontios Hadjileontiadis Dr. Linda Zou Dr. Jamal Sheikh-Ahmad

• Dr. Rashid Abu Al-Rub

• Dr. F.V. Kusmartsev • Dr. Ahsanulhaq Qurashi • Dr. Andreas Kappos • Dr. Marcus Bursik (joining as Chair of Earth Sciences in January 2021) KU faculty in the top two percent of the career-long scientists list represent more than 31 percent of the total 114 faculty members from the UAE referenced in this listing.

The full league table for top 2% of career-long scientists until the

year 2019 can be found here.

The inclusion of several KU faculty members in the notable Stanford Rankings marks the latest milestone for KU and is a testament to the University’s commitment to attracting and retaining high-caliber researchers, who in turn help the University achieve its goal of fueling the UAE’s knowledge economy transformation.

About the Stanford Ranking The exhaustive Stanford University lists include over 158 thousand scientists out of eight million, and ranks the world’s most-cited scientists in their field of research across 22 different disciplines.

There is no other large-scale database that systematically ranks all the most-cited scientists in each and every field to a sufficient ranking depth. This large database created by experts at Stanford University, led by Dr. John Ioannidis, is also based on data from Scopus that ranks journals and gives a citation index.

The Stanford database includes the top two percent of scientists of the world from different fields on the basis of standardized citation indications. These include information on the number of citations, H-Index, co-authorship and a composite indicator. The results were recently published in PloS Biology and they have been classified into 22 scientific fields and 176 subfields in the report.

71 KU TIMES

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

KU Faculty Joins Journal of Petroleum Engineering’s Editorial Board Appointed to Improve Traffic Safety in Abu Dhabi Dr. Young-Ji Byon, Associate Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Infrastructure and Environmental Engineering, has been appointed to be on the Vision Zero Scientific Advisory Board, by the Integrated Transportation Centre (ITC) of Department of Municipalities and Transport, Abu Dhabi, UAE. The board will develop Vision Zero strategies to improve various aspects of traffic safety in Abu Dhabi.

Dr. Byon is one of a few experts on the board, specializing in Intelligent Transportation System (ITS).

Dr. Byon joined KU in 2012 after completing his PhD degree at the University of Toronto, Canada. He has taught various transportation engineering courses at undergraduate and graduate levels. His research interests include ITS, GIS, Artificial Intelligence and Traffic Analysis. He has recently won a national award, the Dubai Award for Sustainable Transport - Best Academic Research, based on his research work utilizing AI and GIS for transportation mode identification.

KU TIMES 72

Dr. Muhammad Arif, Assistant Professor of Petroleum Engineering, has been appointed as Associate Editor for the Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering. The Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering bridges the gap between the engineering, the geology, and the science of petroleum and natural gas by publishing articles intelligible to scientists and engineers working in any field of petroleum engineering, natural gas engineering and petroleum (natural gas) geology.

Dr. Kourakis Receives “IoP Trusted Reviewer” Title Dr. Ioannis Kourakis, Associate Professor of Mathematics, has been awarded the title of “IoP Trusted Reviewer” by the Institute of Physics (IOP, UK). Quoting the actual announcement of the award, “IOP trusted reviewer status acknowledges that you have demonstrated a high level of peer review competence, with the ability to critique scientific literature to an excellent standard.

You are one of our first reviewers to have achieved this status, so congratulations!”

Dr. Kourakis was also recently elected, upon nomination, Editorial Board member (EBM) of the Journal of Taibah University for Science (Taylor and Francis) Subject Editor for Physics. He also serves as Editorial Board Member for Beams and Plasmas with the prestigious Scientific Reports journal (Springer Nature Publishing) and as Associate Editor for Plasma journal (MDPI, Switzerland).

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

New Article about Passive Radar Tech Featured in MoD Publication Dr. Ash Rossiter of the Institute of International and Civil Security has contributed an article to the UAE’s Ministry of Defense’s flagship publication, Al Jundi.

The article – which appears in both Arabic and English – examines recent developments in passive radar technology, especially specific projects in Russia, Germany, China, and elsewhere.

Unlike other passive detection systems this new breed of passive radar system holds out the promise of achieving the same effects against non-emitting targets – at the high-end of sophistication scale, stealth aircraft; at the lower-end, small, off-the-shelf drones.

Postdoc Fellow Joins Editorial Board of Prominent Journalism Journals Dr. Sadia Jamil, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, is now a member of the Editorial Board of Journalism Practice, Digital Journalism, and Intellect’s Journal of Applied Journalism and Media Studies, which are highly regarded journals within the field of journalism and media studies.

She will also be part of the Editorial Board of the the Bloomsbury-I.B. Tauris book series: “Political Communication and Media Practices in the Middle East and North Africa”.

73 KU TIMES

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

Think Smart: Challenges and Opportunities in Smart Cities Cities become ‘smart’ only when they offer services that properly take into account the needs of their population and of visitors. City services have to be context-dependent and support the achievement of city-specific goals.

During the third session of the INNOV-Italy UAE Webinar Series, I participated in a webinar that highlighted multidisciplinary smart city solutions that blend together the socio-cultural and technical aspects of iconic cities like Rome, Milan, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. I was joined by Italian and UAE academia, industries and public institutions to discuss new collaborations as well as novel ideas for new projects.

In one of the sessions, Dr. Steve Griffiths, Senior Vice President for Research and Development at KU,

KU TIMES 74

and I covered our perspectives on research and innovation that can support the development and evolution of smart cities and sustainable mobility.

New technologies are enabling cities to become ‘smart.’

‘Smart cities’ is a concept that has evolved very quickly thanks to the recent advancements in sensors and artificial intelligence technologies that enable analysis of massive data sets. There is no shortage of start-up companies trying to address every sector of smart cities.

As Dr. Steve said, on the technology side, clearly there’s a good opportunity for the Internet of Things, high speed communications networks, low-earth orbit satellites providing data and lots of other ways of bringing data to intelligent systems. But a smart city is not just a collection of technologies.

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

factor into the UAE’s vision for smart and sustainable cities.

DR. NAWAF I. ALMOOSA

In fact, the notion of a city itself is not always so clear. City definitions differ: in Japan, a city needs 50,000 inhabitants; in Norway, just 200. But cities are very important, no matter how they are defined. 55 percent of the world’s population lives in cities—4.2 billion people—and 80 percent of global GDP is generated in cities. They account for three-quarters of human-caused global carbon dioxide emissions and an estimated two-thirds of global final energy use.

In the UAE’s definition of the smart city, we include the notion of sustainability, which is perhaps the most critical aspect of intelligence.

We look at the environment, we look at the economy, and we look at social welfare, bringing numerous opportunities to have impact across a lot of different areas. Healthcare, safety, convenience, environmental quality and social connectedness all

Additionally, the Khalifa University R&D strategy focuses on all the tenets of the 4th Industrial Revolution, including information and communication technologies, robotics, artificial intelligence and data science, and advanced materials and manufacturing. Like a city, our strategy involves integrating all the different sectors aligned with UAE priorities. The Emirates ICT Innovation Center (EBTIC), of which I am the Acting Director, is one of the key collaborators along with Khalifa University’s other research centers focused on smart and sustainable cities in the UAE. EBTIC is built on open innovation and collaboration between academia, industry and government. We function like any academic research center in terms of our research and putting out scientific publications, but we also work closely with government and industry stakeholders in applied research, where we produce different concepts and other value-driven research.

Smart societies, infrastructure and enterprise form the backbone of EBTIC’s research and innovation architecture. Our research teams aim to apply tools from ICT, operations research, data science and artificial intelligence to solve problems in telecommunications infrastructure and to optimize operational efficiency

for enterprises. We also use these tools to solve problems in society in general, specifically in areas of sustainability, education, healthcare and social networking.

Academia is crucial in developing a smart city—another aspect of a smart city is having a strong educational system. We have outreach programs to educate professionals in data science and the impact of the technology at a high level and how it can be used in organizations and society in general.

Since 2015, we have trained more than 250 professionals in the UAE, with Prof. Ernesto Damiani, Senior Director of the Khalifa University Robotics and Intelligent Systems Institute, leading that effort.

The UAE is at the forefront of important work in smart cities, with the smart and sustainable cities of the future the path forwards for smart and sustainable growth.

Innov-Italy UAE aims at improving the opportunities for bilateral cooperation between the UAE and Italy in six high-innovation sectors, including cybersecurity, space, smart cities and sustainable mobility, life sciences, food technologies, and renewable energy.

DR. NAWAF I. ALMOOSA IS ACTING DIRECTOR OF THE EMIRATES ICT INNOVATION CENTER (EBTIC) AT KHALIFA UNIVERSITY.

75 KU TIMES

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

Cybersecurity: Towards a New Paradigm?

The area of cybersecurity has expanded in scope, relevance and impact in our increasingly ICT-based society. In the first of six webinars aiming to strengthen the opportunities for bilateral cooperation between Italy and the United Arab Emirates, I was joined by experts to identify Cybersecurity gaps and opportunities that emerge with the continuing progress of IT developments like Artificial Intelligence.

As Noah Radford, Chief of Global Affairs for the Dubai Future Foundation, explained, it’s no secret that the UAE has experienced meteoric growth over the last 20 years, as the country has become a world leader in a variety of sectors, and as any complex system grows, so too does the number of challenges it must overcome. As we look towards the next 20 years, we must ask ourselves how we will tackle the questions that arise in a way which helps to benefit not just the UAE, but the region, and the world.

The future is certain to bring about a new paradigm in cybersecurity, driven by the fear of the damages that cybersecurity attacks can cause. Cyberattacks are estimated to cost the world USD$ 6 trillion this year, and a key figure KU TIMES 76

in that calculation is the unprecedented rise of connected devices. The Internet of Things is the new era, with devices connected to the Internet enabling a more customized user experience. This does, however, also increase the number of devices at risk of cyberattacks, making cybersecurity a concern not just for businesses and industries, but also the average smartphone user.

While numerous protection schemes have proved to be useful and effective in certain situations against known attack threats, one of the biggest challenges is coping with the unknowns. Automation is already being explored as a tool to combat cyberattacks. Salvatore Fiorillo, Senior Consultant at Dubai Electronic Security Center (DESC), explained that 69 percent of business CEOs believe AI will be required to respond to cyberattacks, while 80 percent of executives in telecommunications believe they will be depending on AI in cybersecurity. Artificial Intelligence is one of the technologies that can be used to close the gap between knowledge-based threat detection and unknown or rapidly changing threats. AI could even foresee potential maliciousness in actors before they are known, offering great capabilities to overcome and help solve numerous challenges.

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

many critical lessons learned that can be applied to a potential global cyber pandemic. The start of the biological pandemic showed how unpreparedness around public health can have devastating effects, and this can be analogous to cybersecurity, with attention turning to protecting home users and remote workers.

DR. ERNESTO DAMIANI

As cyberattacks start to target nationstates, countries around the world are instituting cybersecurity departments, with the UAE appointing its first Minister for Artificial Intelligence in October 2017 in its defense against cyber warfare.

Fiorillo highlighted the impact a cyber attack can have on a country and how much a government relies on networked systems, citing the 2007 cyber attacks on Estonia as an example. Dr. Roberto Baldoni, Deputy Director General of the Department of Information for Security for Italy, agreed, explaining that the essential functions and services of a nation are digital, with energy, finance, welfare, defense and transport all at risk from cyberattacks. Creating a cyber-resilient nation is of paramount importance.

Dr. Mohamed Al-Kuwaiti, Head of Cyber Security for the UAE Government, Supreme Council for National Security, and Khalifa University alum, compared cybersecurity to the Covid-19 pandemic currently facing the world. People and organizations have suffered greatly from the coronavirus pandemic, with

“We hope to continue and move that hygiene that we adopted from the biological pandemic to the cyberspace,” Dr. Al-Kuwaiti explained. “Today, we can’t leave our homes without a mask or a sanitizer as a prevention measure.

We make sure we don’t come into contact with anyone who could pose a risk. Cybersecurity is similar. We can quarantine an area of a network should a virus intrude. We can isolate such attacks and reduce the ‘infection’ rate between systems. The culture of building a very resilient network relies on all sectors from academia to industry.”

Following Dr. Al-Kuwaiti’s assertion that digital transformation is at the heart of the UAE’s national strategy, I wanted to share what we at Khalifa University are doing to research cybersecurity, particularly in the Robotics and Intelligent Systems Institute. In the last decade, the UAE has been investing heavily in transitioning from an oil-dependent economy to a Knowledge Economy. At the RISI, we’re aiming to coordinate the work done at KU in all ICT-related areas and boost its value for applications.

Interestingly, we’re seeing that while AI can be extremely useful when dealing with cybersecurity solutions,

it can be a double-edged sword.

AI algorithms can be targeted too.

To understand new threats, we as users need a clearer understanding of the lifecycle behind machine learning-based decision making and how systems are trained in the first place. Additionally, you can’t mention AI and not discuss blockchain these days. We are working on the idea of mapping threats to features of Distributed Ledger Technology, like blockchain.

We can then use this technology as a security control framework to guarantee security to our machine learning data assets.

At Khalifa University, we’re proud to showcase our faculty expertise, especially in cybersecurity and its related fields as we continue to seek to expand the scope of our technology research, resulting in patents and technology transfer to start-ups.

Innov-Italy UAE aims at improving the opportunities for bilateral cooperation between the UAE and Italy in six high-innovation sectors, including cybersecurity, space, smart cities and sustainable mobility, life sciences, food technologies, and renewable energy.

Dr. Ernesto Damiani is Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Senior Director of the Robotics and Intelligent Systems Institute & Director of the Center for Cyber Physical Systems (C2PS) at Khalifa University.

77 KU TIMES

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

Technologies for Present and Future Space Exploration Challenges

The UAE and Italian scientific communities have both experienced unprecedented success in space exploration and earth observation in recent years, systematically promoting space technology through incremental research and development and radical innovation. The second in a series of webinars aiming to strengthen the opportunities for bilateral cooperation between Italy and the United Arab Emirates saw speakers discuss novel ideas and collaboration topics in technology development to support international space missions in different domains. At Khalifa University, we’re proud to showcase our faculty expertise, especially in space exploration and Earth observation.

exploration and earth observation in recent years, systematically promoting space technology through incremental research and development and radical innovation.

The UAE and Italian scientific communities have both experienced unprecedented success in space

I joined this webinar to discuss the areas of research KUSTIC is focusing on.

KU TIMES 78

The second in a series of webinars aiming to strengthen the opportunities for bilateral cooperation between Italy and the United Arab Emirates saw speakers discuss novel ideas and collaboration topics in technology development to support international space missions in different domains. Khalifa University recently launched the KU Space Technology and Innovation Center (KUSTIC), in June 2020, of which I am the Director.

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

DR. SEAN SWEI

One such area is space robotics, investigated by Prof. Lakmal Seneviratne and Prof. Jorge Dias from the KU Center for Autonomous Robotics Systems (KUCARS). The recent growth in low cost unmanned systems provides opportunities for new and cost-effective unmanned rovers for space exploration and space observations. This allows the continuous monitoring of assets deployed in space and to other planets via autonomous vehicles operating cooperatively to provide flexible and persistent surveillance solutions.

Researchers in this area are looking at dealing with communications delays for remotely controlled rovers.

Robots in space are a long way from teams on Earth, resulting in a delay in communications between them and so solutions that balance autonomy with long-distance command and control are required to conduct scouting missions on distant planets.

by Dr. Mohammed Abou-Khousa, Dr. Prashanth Marpu, and Dr. Khaled AlWahedi at KU. With the advent of small and nano satellites, deep space vehicles, and high speed networks, there is an increasing demand for low-volume and lightweight antennas that can function optimally under harsh space conditions, wherever the mission may take them.

In this project, new antenna systems founded on novel design concepts will be developed to address these needs.

Specifically, 3D metal printing and machine learning algorithms will be used to realize new optimized antennas.

We are also considering sustainable astronomy in the era of large satellite constellations. Low-orbit broadband satellite constellations are growing dramatically, and due to their relative proximity to Earth, they appear extremely bright, posing a serious threat to observational astronomy.

Dr. Elena Fantino is leading a team of researchers to develop an automated system to accurately predict satellite transits across the field of view from Earth and then developed scheduling solutions that mitigate the negative impact on observations. Astronomers foresee a swarm of 40,000 low-Earth orbit satellites in the near future, and unless successful mitigation actions are adopted, the scientific capabilities of current and future observatories will be severely compromised.

Finally, Dr. Yahya Zweiri and Dr. Jorge Dias join me in proposing work on

Another area is Next Generation Antenna (NGA) systems, investigated

robotic in-space assembly of large space structures. In order to support

long-term human presence in the solar system, large flexible space infrastructure needs to provide basic operational and functional needs in space, such as communication antennas, observatories, and solar power stations. Materials made of a large number of physical components but with a small number of distinctive part types can offer highly repetitive patterns in size, dimension, and shape that make them viable solutions for autonomous robotic in-space assembly. Our project will demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of building an ultralarge space infrastructure through collaborative robotic in-space assembly techniques. This research will have significant impact on future human expansion on the Moon, Mars and beyond.

At Khalifa University, we’re proud to showcase our faculty expertise, especially in space exploration and Earth observation.

Innov-Italy UAE aims at improving the opportunities for bilateral cooperation between the UAE and Italy in six high-innovation sectors, including cybersecurity, space, smart cities and sustainable mobility, life sciences, food technologies, and renewable energy.

Dr. Sean Swei is Professor of Practice in Aerospace Engineering and Director of the KU Space Technology and Innovation Center at Khalifa University.

79 KU TIMES

PUBLISHED PAPERS A list of the latest scientific publications by KU faculty, researchers and students 1. Title: First Year Medical Students' Perceptions of the Impact of Wearing Scrubs on Professional Identity: A Narrative Analysis in the United Arab Emirates Journal: British Medical Journal Open KU Author: Dr. Sara Sorrell, Assistant Professor and Assistant Dean, Clinical Skills & Simulation Training Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33148751/ 2. Title: Association Between Genetic Variants at Chromosome 9p21 and Risk of Coronary Artery Disease in Emirati Type 2 Diabetes Patients Journal: Gene Reports KU Author: Dr. Habiba AlSafar, Director of the Khalifa University Center for Biotechnology and Associate Professor of Genetics and Molecular Biology Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S245201442030306X 3. Title: Rapid and Efficient Removal of Perfluorooctanoic Acid from Water with Fluorine-Rich Calixarene-Based Porous Polymers Journal: ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces KU Author: Dr. Dinesh Shetty, Assistant Professor of Chemistry Link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.0c13400 4. Title: Fast and Efficient Removal of Paraquat in Water by Porous Polycalix[n]arenes (n= 4, 6, and 8) Journal: Journal of Materials Chemistry A KU Author: Dr. Dinesh Shetty, Assistant Professor of Chemistry Link: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2020/ta/d0ta01907k#!divAbstract 5. Title: Comparing Health Effects of Radon in Manitoba and Prince Edward Island Journal: Radiation Protection Dosimetry KU Author: Dr. Mo’tassem Al-arydah, Assistant Professor of Mathematics Link: https://academic.oup.com/rpd/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/rpd/ncaa147/5943967 6. Title: Molecular and Isotopic Evidence Reveals the End-Triassic Carbon Isotope Excursion is Not From Massive Exogenous Light Carbon Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) KU Author: Dr. Calum Peter Fox, Post Doctoral Fellow, Earth Science Link: https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/11/10/1917661117 7. Title: Enhanced Expression of Immune Checkpoint Receptors During SARS-CoV-2 Viral Infection Journal: Molecular Therapy: Methods & Clinical Development KU Author: Dr. Habiba AlSafar, Director of the Khalifa University Center for Biotechnology and Associate Professor of Genetics and Molecular Biology Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7658590/ 8. Title: Synthesis, Crystallography, Microstructure, Crystal Defects, Optical and Optoelectronic Properties of ZnO:CeO2 Mixed Oxide Thin Films Journal: Photonics KU Author: Dr. Issam Qattan, Associate Professor of Physics Link: https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6732/7/4/112 9. Title: The Effect of Long-term Dehydration and Subsequent Rehydration on Markers of Inflammation, Oxidative Stress and Apoptosis in the Camel Kidney Journal: BMC Veterinary Research KU Author: Dr. Abdu Adem, Professor of Pharmacology Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33228660/ KU TIMES 80

PUBLISHED PAPERS

10. Title: Investigating the Solid-state Assembly of Pharmaceutically-relevant N,N-Dimethyl-O-Thiocarbamates in the Absence of Labile Hydrogen Bonds Journal: CrystEngComm KU Author: Dr. Sharmarke Mohamed, Assistant Professor of Chemistry Link: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2020/CE/D0CE01336F#!divAbstract 11. Title: Micro-RNAs in the Regulation of Immune Response Against SARS COV-2 and Other Viral Infections Journal: Journal of Advanced Research KU Author: Dr. Noora AlHajri, Epidemiology & Population Health Instructor Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2090123220302393 12. Title: The Recombination Potential between SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV from Cross-species Spill-over Infections Journal: Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health KU Author: Dr. Abdulrahim A. Sajini, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Link: https://www.atlantis-press.com/journals/jegh/125946349 13. Title: Black Patients Have Higher Burden of Comorbidities but Lower Risk of 30-Day and One-Year Mortality After Thoracic Endovascular Aortic Repair Journal: Journal of Vascular Surgery KU Author: Dr. Noora AlHajri, Epidemiology & Population Health Instructor Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33278540/ 14. Title: Perfect Impedance Matching with Meta-Surfaces Made of Ultra-Thin Metal Films: A Phenomenological Approach to the Ideal THz Sensors Journal: Materials KU Author: Dr. Fedor Vasilievich Kusmartsev, Visiting Professor, Department of Physics Link: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/13/23/5417 15. Title: Asymptotic Properties of a a φ-Laplacian and Rayleigh Quotient Journal: Commentationes Mathematicae Universitatis Carolinae KU Author: Dr. Waldo Arriagada, Assistant Professor of Mathematics Link: https://cmuc.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/cmuc2003/abs/arihu.htm 16. Title: An Algebraic Note on Print Gallery (Accepted) Journal: Applied Mathematics E-Notes KU Author: Dr. Waldo Arriagada, Assistant Professor of Mathematics 17. Title: New Multi-Step Iterative Methods for Solving Systems of Nonlinear Equations and Their Application on GNSS Pseudorange Equations Journal: Sensors KU Author: Dr. Kalyanasundaram Mathu, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Mathematics and Dr. Mo'tassem Al Arydah, Assistant Professor of Mathematics Link: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/20/21/5976 18. Title: Ionone Is More than a Violet’s Fragrance: A Review Journal: Molecules KU Authors: Lujain Aloum, Lecturer, Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics; Dr. Eman Alefishat, Associate Professor of Pharmacology; Dr. Abdu Adem, Professor of Pharmacology; and Georg Petroianu, Professor and Chair, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics & Associate Dean for Research Link: https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/25/24/5822/pdf 19. Title: Partitions of Correlated N-Qubit Systems (Accepted) Journal: Quantum Information Processing KU Authors: Dr. Simon Phoenix, Associate Professor of Physics; Dr. Berihu Teklu, Assistant Professor of Mathematics; and Dr. Faisal Shah Khan, Visiting Scholar, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science 20. Title: Enhanced Removal of Aqueous Phenol with Polyimide Ultrafiltration Membranes Embedded with Deep Eutectic Solvent-Coated Nanosilica Journal: Chemical Engineering Journal KU Authors: Dr. Jisha A. Kuttiani, Visiting Research Fellow, Chemical Engineering; Chahd M. Chabib, Undergraduate Student/Research Assistant, Chemical Engineering; Dr. Maguy Abi Jaoude, Assistant Professor of Chemistry; Dr. Emad Alhseinat, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering; Dr. Satish Teotia, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Physics; Dr. Shashikant Patole, Assistant Professor of Physics; Dr. Dalaver H. Anjum, Assistant Professor of Physics; and Dr. Issam Qattan, Associate Professor of Physics Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1385894720341358 81 KU TIMES

PUBLISHED PAPERS

21. Title: Insights into the Composite Scale Formation and Coprecipitation Behavior of CaSO4 and SrSO4 at Different Salinity Levels Journal: Surfaces and Interfaces KU Authors: Dr. Emad Alhseinat, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering; Dr. Maguy Abi Jaoude, Assistant Professor of Chemistry; Afra Alkatheeri, Research Associate, Chemical Engineering; Ismail Darawsheh, Research Assistant, Chemical Engineering Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2468023020308671 22. Title: New Prediction of Elastic Scattering Cross Sections Ratio Re+e− Based on Phenomenological Two-Photon Exchange Corrections Journal: Journal of Physics: Conference Series (27th International Nuclear Physics Conference (INPC2019) 29 July - 2 August 2019, Glasgow, UK) KU Author: Dr. Issam Qattan, Associate Professor of Physics Link: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/1643/1/012192 23. Title: Variables Associated with Poor Health-related Quality of Life Among Patients with Dyslipidemia in Jordan Journal: Quality-of-Life Research KU Author: Dr. Eman Alefishat, Associate Professor of Pharmacology Link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11136-020-02726-9 24. Title: Patients' Preferences Regarding Osteoarthritis Medications: An Adaptive Choice-Based Conjoint Analysis Study Journal: Patient Preference and Adherence KU Author: Dr. Basem Al-Omari, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7765685/ 25. Title: Imaging of Organic Signals in Individual Fossil Diatom Frustules with NanoSIMS and Raman Spectroscopy Journal: Marine Chemistry KU Author: Dr. Gobind Das, Associate Professor of Physics Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304420320301602?via%3Dihub 26. Title: Application of Aberration-corrected Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy in Conjunction with Valence Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy for the Nanoscale Mapping of the Elastic Properties of Al–Li–Cu Alloys Journal: Microscopy Research and Technique KU Author: Dr. Dalaver H. Anjum, Assistant Professor of Physics Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jemt.23646 27. Title: Effect of Humic Acid on CO2-Wettability of Sandstone Formations Journal: Journal of Colloid and Interface Science KU Author: Dr. Muhammad Arif, Assistant Professor of Petroleum Engineering Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S002197972031729X 28. Title: X-ray Tomography Imaging of Shale Microstructures: A Review in the Context of Multiscale Correlative Imaging Journal: International Journal of Coal Geology KU Author: Dr. Muhammad Arif, Assistant Professor of Petroleum Engineering Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0166516220306376 29. Title: Groundwater Characterization in Arid Regions Using Seismic and Gravity Attributes: Al Jaww Plain, UAE Journal: Frontiers in Earth Science KU Author: Dr. Pier Paolo G. Bruno, Former KU Associate Professor of Geophysics Link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348154824_Groundwater_characterization_in_arid_regions_using_seismic_and_gravity_attributes_ Al_Jaww_Plain_UAE 30. Title: The Anatomical Relationship of the Common Peroneal Nerve to the Proximal Fibula and Its Clinical Significance When Performing Fibular-based Posterolateral Reconstructions Journal: Archives of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery KU Author: Dr. Natalie Keough van Niekerk, Assistant Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology Link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00402-020-03708-9 31. Title: Seismic Complex Ray Tracing in 2D/3D Viscoelastic Anisotropic Media by a Modified Shortest-path Method Journal: GEOPHYSICS KU Authors: Dr. Bing Zhou, Associate Professor of Earth Sciences & Dr. Jian-Lu Wu, Postdoctoral Fellow Link: https://library.seg.org/doi/abs/10.1190/geo2020-0113.1 32. Title: A New Generalized Stiffness Reduction Method for 2D/2.5D Frequency-domain Seismic Wave Modeling in Viscoelastic Anisotropic Media Journal: GEOPHYSICS KU Authors: Dr. Quingjie Yang, Postdoctoral Fellow; Dr. Bing Zhou, Associate Professor of Earth Sciences; Dr. Mohamed Kamel Riahi, Assistant Professor of Mathematics; and Dr. Mohammad Al-Khaleel, Assistant Professor of Mathematics Link: https://library.seg.org/doi/abs/10.1190/geo2020-0143.1 KU TIMES 82

PUBLISHED PAPERS

33. Title: Generalized Stiffness Reduction Method to Remove the Artificial Edge-effects for Seismic Wave Modeling in Elastic Anisotropic Media Journal: Geophysical Journal International KU Authors: Dr. Bing Zhou, Associate Professor of Earth Sciences and Moosoo Won, Researcher, Department of Earth Science; Link: https://academic.oup.com/gji/article-abstract/220/2/1394/5637863?redirectedFrom=fulltext 34. Title: A Novel Electrode Array for Resistivity Imaging to Assess Groundwater Resource: Field Test Journal: Journal of Environmental Engineering and Science KU Author: Saif Ullah, Lab Specialist, Department of Earth Sciences; Dr. Bing Zhou, Associate Professor of Earth Sciences; and Muhammad Asim Iqbal, Lab Specialist, Department of Earth Sciences Link: https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi/abs/10.1680/jenes.19.00056 35. Title: A Full-range Gradient Survey for 2D Electrical Resistivity Tomography Journal: Near Surface Geophysics KU Authors: Dr. Bing Zhou, Associate Professor of Earth Sciences; Dr. Youcef Bouzidi, Associate Professor of Earth Sciences; Saif Ullah, Lab Specialist, Department of Earth Sciences; and Muhammad Asim Iqbal, Lab Specialist, Department of Earth Sciences Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/nsg.12125 36. Title: Explicit Q Expressions for Inhomogeneous P- and SV-waves in Isotropic Viscoelastic Media Journal: Journal of Geophysics and Engineering KU Author: Dr. Bing Zhou, Associate Professor of Earth Sciences Link: https://academic.oup.com/jge/article/17/2/300/5680466 37. Title: The Middle East and the Quad Plus Journal: Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs, Vol. 3 No. 5 (2020) pp. 269-284 KU Author: Dr. Brendon Cannon, Assistant Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences Link: https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Portals/10/JIPA/journals/Quad%20Plus%20Special%20Issue.pdf 38. Title: Lipid Control and Its Associated Factors Among Patients with Dyslipidemia in Jordan Journal: International Journal of Clinical Practice KU Author: Dr. Eman Alefishat, Associate Professor of Pharmacology Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33400313/ 39. Title: Immune System Response during Viral Infections: Immunomodulators, Cytokine Storm (CS) and Immunotherapeutics in COVID-19 Journal: Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal KU Author: Dr. Noora Al-Hajri, Epidemiology & Population Health Instructor Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1319016421000049 40. Title: A Comprehensive Guide to the Pharmacologic Regulation of Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2), the SARS-CoV-2 Entry Receptor Journal: Pharmacology & Therapeutics KU Author: Dr. Dietrich Lorke, Professor & Chair of the Department of Anatomy and Cellular Biology Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33275999/ 41. Title: Phonon Dynamics and Transport Properties of Copper Thiocyanate and Copper Selenocyanate Pseudohalides Journal: ACS Omega KU Authors: Dr. Nirpendra Singh, Assistant Professor of Physics; Dr. Dalaver Anjum, Assistant Professor of Physics; Dr. Gobind Das, Associate Professor of Physics; and Dr. Shashikant Patole, Assistant Professor of Physics Link: https://europepmc.org/article/med/33195916 42. Title: Superior Anchoring of Sodium Polysulfides to the Polar C 2 N 2D Material: A Potential Electrode Enhancer in Sodium-Sulfur Batteries Journal: Langmuir KU Author: Dr. Nirpendra Singh, Assistant Professor of Physics Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33095585/ 43. Title: Ultralow Lattice Thermal Conductivity in Double Perovskite Cs2PtI6: A Promising Thermoelectric Material Journal: ACS Applied Energy Materials KU Author: Dr. Nirpendra Singh, Assistant Professor of Physics Link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsaem.0c02236# 44. Title: Bulk and Monolayer Bismuth Oxyiodide (BiOI): Excellent High Temperature P-type Thermoelectric Materials Journal: AIP Advances KU Author: Dr. Nirpendra Singh, Assistant Professor of Physics Link: https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.5133711 83 KU TIMES

College of Arts & Science College of Arts & Science

LEADER IN LEADER IN RESEARCH RESEARCH

College of Medicine & Health CollegeScience of Medicine & Health Science

The highly-ranked Khalifa University offers fully accredited degrees to all nationalities through its 3 academic colleges, 13 bachelor’s, 16 master’s and 2 PhD programs, offering plenty of opportunities for students to explore theirdegrees intereststoand learn from The highly-ranked Khalifa University offers fully accredited all nationalities award-winning teachers. through its 3 academic colleges, 13 bachelor’s, 16 master’s and 2 PhD programs, offering plenty of opportunities for students to explore their interests and learn from As Abu Dhabi’s research-intensive university, Khalifa University gives students a award-winning teachers. chance to study in-depth with expert faculty and researchers on the leading-edge of discovery in science, engineering, and medicine to solve real-world problems.

As Abu Dhabi’s research-intensive university, Khalifa University gives students Our a students develop cleaner energy,faculty find new to produce sustainably,of chance tohelp study in-depth with expert andways researchers on water the leading-edge create smarter diagnostic tools, and better waysreal-world to use AI to make data discovery in science, engineering, anddiscover medicine to solve problems.

Our insightful. students help develop cleaner energy, find new ways to produce water sustainably, create smarter diagnostic tools, and discover better ways to use AI to make data Study beside our award-winning faculty and help deliver real solutions, transform insightful. lives, and change the world.

Study beside our award-winning faculty and help deliver real solutions, transform lives, and change the world.

Facebook: Khalifa University

Twitter: @KhalifaUni

Instagram: @khalifa_university

Facebook: Khalifa University

Twitter: @KhalifaUni

Instagram: @khalifa_university

KU TIMES 84

College of Engineering College of Engineering