2015 november beacon

State of the University brings together KAUST faculty, students and staff 3

The 2016 Winter Enrichment Program is coming soon!Page 6

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

November 2015/Muharram, 1437Volume 6, Issue No. 2

جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية ثول، المملكة العربية السعودية

www.kaust.edu.sa

Intelligent networksand the human elementPage 10

New faces on campusPage 12

Global Expo 2015 Page 16

KAUST EntrepreneurshipCenter receives High Impact AwardPage 14

Smart cities tackling theproblems of tomorrowPage 8

Uncovering the ‘recipe of life’ Page 4

اكتشاف أسرار عملية استنساخ الحمض النووي

KAUST expands innovationprogram for Saudi companies and nonprofits Page 15

THE BEACON | NOV 20152

The third Sci-Café of the fall will take place on Tuesday, November 10 from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. in the Clean Combustion Research Center Lab (bldg. 7). The theme for the event is "How do you Innovate Fuels, Flames and Engines?" Professors Bill Roberts, Mani Sarathy and Robert Dibble are the faculty panelists. Stay tuned to The Lens for more information—TheLens.kaust.edu.sa.

On Wednesday, November 11, the CEMSE Distinguished Lecture Series will welcome Professor Tommaso Calarco of the University of Ulm in Germany for a lecture on Future Quantum Information Technologies. The event starts with a light lunch at 11:30 a.m. and a lecture that runs until 1:00 p.m. Visit cemse.kaust.edu.sa for more information.

The Solar Future 2015 Symposium will take place from Saturday, November 7 to Wednesday, November 11 in the Conference Center (bldg. 19). The event will combine both emerging and mature technologies that will pave the way to the future of solar energy at high-efficiency and low cost. Twenty institutions from across Europe, the U.S. and Asia will be in attendance, including the U.S. National Laboratories (NREL, LANL), government-funded institutions (IMEC, HZB, ZSW) and prestigious universities such as Stanford, Princeton, MIT and EPFL, all with core competencies in energy and solar photovoltaics. For more information, visit https://sperc.kaust.edu.sa/workshop.

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences 3rd Arab-American Frontiers Symposium U.S. NAS-KAUST Frontiers of Sensor Science Symposium will be held on December 5, 6 and 7. The event will assemble U.S. and Arab scientists, engineers and medical professionals to discuss major scientific advances. A wide array of topics will be covered under the overarching theme of "Sensing Technologies, Networks and Applications,” and the event will facilitate scientific exchange and dialog between researchers in Arab countries and in the U.S.

KAUST's sixth annual Commencement ceremonies will be held on December 18, 2015 along the Discovery Walk between Al-Khawarizmi (bldg. 1) and the University Library. KAUST Trustee Lubna S. Olayan, deputy chairperson and chief executive officer of Olayan Financing Company, has been named the 2015 Commencement Speaker.

Registration is open for UQAW 2016 - Advances in Uncertainty Quantification Methods, Algorithms and Applications Workshop, which will run from January 5 to 10. For more information, visit sri-uq.kaust.edu.sa.

The Winter Enrichment Program will begin on January 9, 2016 and will run through January 22. KAUST's seventh WEP event will feature over 100 events focused on sustainability and climate change. Open registration will start on November 15. Stay tuned to TheLens.kaust.edu.sa for the latest information, or visit wep.acadox.com.

In brief

The BeaconVolume 6, Issue No. 2

PUBLISHED BY MARKETING COMMUNICATIONSKing Abdullah University of Science and TechnologyThuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The Beacon StaffManaging Editor: Nicholas DemilleArabic Editor: Salah Sindi English Editor: Caitlin ClarkDesign Lead: Hazim AlradadiDesigner: Omnia AttallahWriters: David Murphy, Meres J. WecheTranslator: Adel AlrefaiePhotographer: Ginger Lisanti

The Beacon is published monthly.

© King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

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A special thank you to Anna Roik of the Red Sea Research Center for her photo of Ivan Gromicho diving with a whale shark. The photo appeared on the cover of the October 2015 Beacon.

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

October, 2015/Muharram, 1437Volume 6, Issue No. 1

جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية ثول، المملكة العربية السعودية

www.kaust.edu.sa

Are transparent monolayer electronics the future? Page 14

Was 'Finding Nemo' a documentary? Page 6

Ocean's carbon pump reaches new depths Page 10

Red Sea Facts Page 4

Lessons of marine animal movement Page 12

www.kaust.edu.sa 3

Jamaliah Aburabi’e and Liliana Perez Manriquez, Ph.D. students from KAUST’s Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Research Center, won best poster presentation awards at the Euromembrane 2015 conference held in Aachen, Germany from September 6-10.

Out of 500 posters showcased at the event, only five were given best poster presentation awards, with the KAUST students winning two. Both Aburabi’e and Perez Manriquez belong to the research group of KAUST Professor Klaus-Viktor Peinemann.

“It was a great experience to be able to represent KAUST overseas at such an important venue like Euromembrane,” said Perez Manriquez. “Now I’m even more motivated to continue with the hard work.”

“After winning the award, I feel that I’m on the right track to represent the excellent research going on at KAUST internationally,” Aburabi’e added.

Ph.D. students win poster awards

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Abubaker Saeed, a 2010 KAUST master’s degree graduate in Mechanical Engineering, was named the 2015 Young Oil & Gas Professional of the Year at the annual Oil & Gas Middle East & Refining & Petrochemicals Middle East Awards held in Abu Dhabi.

Saeed currently works in Saudi Aramco as a petroleum researcher with the company’s Production Engineering Technology Team at the EXPEC Advanced Research Center in Dhahran.

The judges praised Saeed for his “innovative thinking” and “outstanding research” with Aramco.

Bahi Mashat, a reservoir engineer at Aramco who collected the award for Saeed, noted that “it is very motivating to have such an award and be recognized.” He added that Saeed is “a good example for every young oil and gas professional.”

1,2. KAUST Ph.D. students Jamaliah Aburabi’e (1) and Liliana Perez Manriquez (2) won two of five poster presentation awards at the Euromembrane 2015 conference in Aachen, Germany.

On Chemistry World - KAUST researchers create the blackest material ever made http://buff.ly/1NZmg8d

From the Frontiers blog – KAUST Professor Carlos Duarte is featured in "The world's finest wilderness lies beneath the waves" - http://goo.gl/3AO2rt

From the FEP team – Enrichment in the Fall (FEP) 2015 was a huge success. Relive the art and the science of large marine animals on the move vhttp://goo.gl/B2nt13

On KAUST Discovery – Researchers discover some unexpected things with tiny droplets and ultra high-speed photography - http://goo.gl/PKRFl0

From the Economist - President Chameau spoke at the Economist Higher Education Forum in New York City recently. Search for #HigherEdForum on twitter or follow @KAUST_News for all the details.

Accolades

KAUST alumnus wins Oil & Gas Award

Here’s a roundup of KAUST-related content online you shouldn’t miss.


Since he was a child, KAUST Ph.D. student Mohamed Elshenawy has enjoyed tackling difficult questions and learning the details of how things work.

“I found out about the processes that duplicate and maintain the integrity of our cells’ genomic DNA at an early age through high school and university textbooks,” he said. “My interest in the field of DNA replication, recombination and repair began early in my life.”

Elshenawy came to KAUST in 2009 from Cairo, Egypt, where he completed his bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical science at Ain Shams University. In 2011, he received his master’s degree in Biological Engineering from KAUST and began his Ph.D. at the University in Professor Samir Hamdan’s DNA replication and recombination lab.

“My research interest focuses on unraveling the molecular mechanism that coordinates and synchronizes the termination of DNA replication and chromosomal segregation,” he explained. “The past 50 years of research into DNA replication have accumulated a wealth of information, and the field now goes deep into the detail of how this process works. This is what I love about my area of research.”

Unraveling E. coli replication In a study recently published in the journal Nature, Elshenawy, Hamdan and a team of researchers from the University of Wollongong in Australia unraveled a key mystery of the DNA replication process through the examination of the genetic material of the bacterium Escherichia coli.

Before a bacterium like E. coli can divide, it makes a copy of its genetic material, which is in the form of circular DNA molecules that look like bunched rubber bands. During the replication process, the two strands of DNA making up the circular DNA molecule unwind and separate to become templates for generating new strands.

To ensure the process is well regulated, the bacterium has set up “roadblocks,” or termination sites on the DNA,

to ensure the permanent stoppage of replication forks, Y-shaped structures formed between the strands as the DNA molecule splits.

In the Nature study, the researchers showed why termination sites are able to permanently stop replication forks in vitro. In contrast, in living bacteria, more than 50 percent of the replication forks that moved towards the termination site continued synthesis without stopping.

Studying termination sites A termination site consists of a 23-DNA base pair termination sequence called Ter. This sequence is bound

Uncovering the ‘recipe of life’

www.kaust.edu.sa 5

1. Professor Samir Hamdan (L) and Ph.D. student Mohamed Elshenawy (R) work together in the lab using single-molecule imaging to further examine DNA replication termination in the bacterium E. coli.

2. KAUST Ph.D. student Mohamed Elshenawy led a study uncovering the mysteries of DNA replication that was recently published in the prestigious journal Nature.

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to the protein terminus utilization substance, or Tus. Tus-Ter allows the progression of replication forks from one direction but not the other. The polarity sets up a “trap” that allows the first arriving fork to enter but not to leave the terminus region until the other fork has arrived.

Elshenawy, Hamdan and the team suspected that the energy from movement (or kinetics) might be acting on the termination sites. Using single-molecule imaging, they recorded molecular movies that zoomed in on the fate of E. coli replication forks as they approached a termination site from either direction.

Their results showed that the efficiency of fork arrest is weakened by kinetic competition between the rate of strand separation by the helicase motor at the fork and the rate of rearrangement of Tus-Ter interactions that maintain Tus’s strong grip on the DNA. This means that faster-moving forks beat Tus-Ter rearrangement and displace Tus, while slower ones are effectively blocked.

Replication mystery revealed

“This resolves a longstanding mystery that has clouded our understanding of DNA replication, and also has important implications for all domains of life,” said Elshenawy. “The study provides the first example of how the intrinsic heterogeneity in the rate of the replisome – the multi-protein DNA replication complex – could change the biological outcome of its commu-nication with protein-DNA barriers.

“This phenomenon extends beyond the field of DNA replication, since encounters such as these happen in other processes, including DNA repair and recombination and in transcription and epigenetics regulation. Our work raises important questions that researchers in other fields should start to examine.”

“We have demonstrated that the evolution of different responses to average rates of molecular motors may actually regulate the communication between different processes,” Elshenawy added. “Our study provides important knowledge on the fundamental processes of life that ensure the faithful copying and passage of genetic material containing the recipe of life in cells from parent to daughter cells.”

اكتشاف أسرار عملية استنساخ الحمض النووي

DNA أخيرًا دراسة عن عملية استنساخ الحمض النوويNature نشرت مجلة قام بها طالب الدكتوراه محمد الشناوي والبروفيسور سمير حمدان، أستاذ

مشارك في العلوم الحيوية في جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية، وفريق من الباحثين من جامعة ولونغونغ في استراليا. وتكشف الدراسة

النقاب عن أحد أهم الغاز عملية استنساخ الحمض النووي DNA من خالل فحص المادة الوراثية إلحدى أنواع البكتيريا التي يطلق عليها علميًا

. Escherichia coli

وأظهرت الدراسة أن 50 % من عمليات استنساخ الحمض النووي DNA في البكتيريا الحية ال تتوقف عن مواقع نهاية االستنساخ بل تستمر دون توقف وهو عكس ما يحصل في العادة. ويقول الطالب محمد الشناوي : "تقدم

الدراسة أول مثال من نوعه يشرح كيف لمعدل غير متجانس من الجسم النسخي )replisome ( - وهو آلة جزيئية معقدة تقوم بتنفيذ عملية نسخ

الحمض النووي – القدرة على تغيير النتيجة البيولوجية للتواصل مع حواجز بروتين الحمض النووي".

وبين الطالب محمد أهمية فهم التفاصيل الدقيقة للبنية الجزيئية وديناميكيات استنساخ الحمض النووي والذي يعد من األمور األساسية في

فهمنا لكثير من األمراض، إضافة لمساعدتنا على تطوير األدوية الجديدة التي تستهدف عملية استنساخ الحمض النووي في عالج األمراض المختلفة.

ويعقب الطالب محمد الشناوي على ذلك بقوله: "تزود دراستنا الباحثين بالمعلومات القيمة عن العمليات األساسية للحياة وفي مقدمتها عملية

نسخ وانتقال المادة الوراثية من الخلية األم إلى الخاليا الوليدة".

التحق الطالب محمد الشناوي بجامعة الملك عبداهلل في عام 2009 قادمًا من القاهرة، مصر، حيث أنهى درجة البكالوريوس في العلوم الصيدالنية

من جامعة عين شمس في عام 2011، وحصل على درجة الماجستير في الهندسة البيولوجية من جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية. ويكمل اآلن

دراسته لدرجة الدكتوراه في مختبر البروفيسور سمير حمدان ألبحاث استنساخ الحمض النووي في الجامعة حيث ترتكز اهتماماته البحثية على كشف

اآللية الجزيئية التي تعمل على تنسيق ومزامنة إنهاء عملية استنساخ الحمض النووي والكروموسومات المعزولة.

6 THE BEACON | NOV 2015

9-22 JAN 2016

1. WEP 2016 speaker Dr. Kip Thorne.

2. Dhahran al-Janoub in Saudi Arabia features in the “Discover Saudi Arabia – the Asir Region” WEP exhibition. Photo by Scott Berdahl.

3. An African drumming class will be held as part of WEP 2016.

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#WEP2016

www.kaust.edu.sa 7

From January 9 to 22, 2016, the University will hold the seventh annual Winter Enrichment Program (WEP). WEP will feature 14 fascinating and entertaining days of educational, recreational and cultural events for the entire KAUST community.

The 2016 program will focus on two of the most pressing issues facing the planet today: climate change and sustainability.

Over 100 lectures, exhibitions, workshops, special events and shows will shed light on these important issues, and the University will host over 70 international experts for WEP in an atmosphere of lively intellectual exchange.

A highlight of the program is the evening keynote lectures, where KAUST will welcome some of the most outstanding minds in science and business, including His Excellency Abdullatif A. Al-Othman, Governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), Nobel laureate Dr. James D. Watson and world-renowned astrophysicist and Hollywood science advisor Dr. Kip Thorne.

WEP 2016 will also feature an international climate symposium, a range of climate and sustainability-

related theme days, alumni lectures, film screenings, a business leadership lecture series and week-long entrepreneurship programs.

During WEP, the University’s campus will transform into a hub for the exploration of the intersection between art and science, featuring pop-up exhibitions and a pre-opening performance for the KAUST community on Saturday, January 9, an absolutely must-see event.

The program will wrap up with a closing evening gala extravaganza featuring Khusugtun, an award-winning group of Mongolian folk musicians, who will perform music incorporating the breathtaking throat singing style of their forefathers.

Throughout the WEP program, the entire KAUST community has the chance to find new and exciting ways to engage with science, technology, development and best practices in the field of environmental sustainability.

Registration for WEP 2016 will start on November 15, 2015. To register, please visit wep.acadox.com.

The 2016 Winter Enrichment Program is coming soon!

"2009 was the first time in history that more than 50% of the world's population lived in cities. It's expected that by 2030 we'll see the urban population grow from today's 3.5 billion to 4.7 billion," said Rainer Speh, chief technology officer (CTO) at Siemens Ltd, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He recently shared this data with a group of KAUST students and scientists as part of a Saudi Initiatives Company Day held at the University.

As a founding member of the KAUST Industrial Collaboration Program (KICP), Siemens has over the years repeatedly relied on its synergy with KAUST and the University’s pool of research partners and talented candidates to actively seek solutions to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems through cutting-edge research and technology.

Speh focused his talk on “Smart Cities.” The reality is that with a growing world population increasingly converging inside cities, there is also a resulting increase in the consumption of energy. Cities account for two-thirds of the world’s energy consumption and 60% of the drinking water and generate up to 70% of the CO2 emissions.

Smart cities essentially aim to use digital technologies or information and communication technologies (ICT) to efficiently measure and manage limited energy resources. “Smart cities are driven by technologies and active people,” Speh noted. Technologies that help steer today's urbanization toward sustainability include intelligent traffic solutions, green buildings, water management and a smart grid infrastructure.

Challenges for the Kingdom and the region Interestingly, the urban population growth will not come primarily from today's major cities, such as Shanghai, Mexico City and Beijing. While those cities are getting bigger, the major growth in the next ten to fifteen years will be seen in emerging single-digit million population cities such as Riyadh and Jeddah.

This is part of what Speh refers to as global megatrends. “We look at the larger issues such as the global megatrends that are impacting the consequences of the future and find solutions to solve these issues,” he explained. For example, the population of emerging countries is getting younger, while the industrialized countries are getting older. This represents both a challenge and an opportunity, according to Speh. As Saudi Arabia’s population gets younger, coupled with the growth in the country's population, this demographic trend must inform future urban planning in the Kingdom.

With an 85-year history operating in the Kingdom, Saudi Arabia is among the biggest countries in Siemens’ operations. Among other activities, Siemens is currently working on a major project to build a driverless subway system in Riyadh.

Electrification, automation and digitizationSiemens points out that by the year 2000, about two billion gigabytes of data had been accumulated worldwide. Today, the same volume of information is generated in a single day. Digitization is one of the most important megatrends. As urban populations increase, it’s no longer sufficient for city administrators to only focus on keeping the streets clean and managing zoning regulations. Cities must now be able to gather and use data about energy consumption, resource allocations, urban flows and transportation patterns in order to positively affect the lives of residents.

Data-generating sensors are now ubiquitous within urban landscapes worldwide. Coupled with the rapid proliferation of Internet-connected devices, the amount of urban data now available provides us with the ability to make cities more efficient and enjoyable places to live.

This paradigm-shifting digital transformation is a major pillar of Siemen’s corporate strategy. It’s also why Siemens’ partnership with KAUST through collaborative research and as the recruitment of outstanding scientists working on sensor technologies and in other fields is so valuable.

“It makes good sense for a company like Siemens to be focusing on areas that are showing potential for growth. Our research tells us that there are three areas that show potential for growth moving forward: electrification, automation and digitization,” Speh said.

From the electrification perspective, the goal is to design products that generate, distribute and utilize electrical energy in the most efficient way possible. Automation technology assists in streamlining various types of processes in the manufacturing of some of these and other products. Bring all this together, digitization provides optimized software solutions and intelligent data analysis to seamlessly connect the physical and virtual worlds and successfully manage the resources of expanding urban sectors.

“Managing urban areas has become one of the most important development challenges of the 21st century. Our success or failure in building sustainable cities will be a major factor in the success of the post-2015 UN development agenda,” said John Wilmoth, director of UN DESA’s Population Division.

Matching Saudi talent with career opportunitiesSaudi Initiatives established the In-Kingdom Career Launch Program in 2010. By providing impactful career opportunities,

Smart cities tackling the problems of tomorrow

By Meres J. Weche

8 THE BEACON | NOV 2015

By 2030 we'll see the urban population grow from today's 3.5 billion to 4.7 billion"

— Rainer Speh

the program ensures that outstanding students, research scientists and postdoctoral fellows have meaningful career options after their time at KAUST. The program brings leading companies to the University and introduces students to potential future employers by offering them a comprehensive look at a company’s operations, needs and opportunities for careers aligned to their KAUST field of study.

The program’s October 2015 Career Fair brought nine leading employers to campus and conducted more than 200 interviews. Since its inception, the program has supported more than 300 students, researchers and postdoctoral fellows in finding meaningful employment throughout the Kingdom in both academia and industry.

Recent placements have included faculty positions, engineers and managers at leading Saudi organizations. Through these and other ongoing efforts, Saudi Initiatives advances KAUST’s mission to serve as a catalyst for innovation, economic development and social prosperity in Saudi Arabia.

www.kaust.edu.sa 9


Modern technology has offered cities and societies in general structured systems such as power grids, the Internet, mobile networks and various other engineered infrastructures. As the trend moves towards the development of smart cities, a growing number of sensors are available to capture all types of data from these interactive systems in order to maximize the efficiency of network interactions. However, we are still far from a reality where the world is ruled by intelligent machines. The human element remains a crucial factor in the overall equation.

KAUST recently hosted a conference entitled “Human-Machine Networks and Intelligent Infrastructures” which was aimed at examining these complex and interconnected systems. Co-sponsored by KAUST’s Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) and the KAUST Industry Collaboration Program (KICP), the conference was organized jointly by ProfessorJeff S. Shamma from Electrical Engineering and Assistant Professor Meriem Laleg from Applied Mathematics and Computational Science. The symposium attracted a prestigious group of local and international speakers from institutions such as Harvard, Saudi Aramco, Georgia Tech and MIT.

A smart grid In a smart grid, appliances decide how much energy to use and when to use it. An individual may decide to install a smart meter in his or her house in order to be part of the smart grid.

“However, that individual has to agree to have a smart meter in the first place, so while the engineering technology is the meter, the human still needs to be have the incentive to agree to have that technology in his or her house," Shamma explained.

This is essentially what motivated the conference on the topic of large-scale systems and their many components interacting with each other. “There’s not necessarily a single overseer of the whole system dictating the actions of the components. Some of those components are human users,” Shamma added.

The large systems, multi-component systems, represent a combination, or a blend, of engineered devices and humans.

A popular term currently used is the field is “cyber-physical systems,” but it is gradually giving way to “cyber-physical-social” systems. Dr. Pramod Khargonekar, Assistant Director for Directorate of Engineering at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), gave a keynote address on the topic of these cyber-physical-social systems and addressed major challenges, emerging trends and opportunities.

Is the Internet really an intelligent infrastructure? Professor Constantine Dovrolis from Georgia Institute of Technology, a speaker at the conference, examined the network interactions regulating the world of the Internet. His main premise was that most of the problems relating to Internet networks are attributable to humans. He cited some of the major players, such as Comcast, Sprint or Cogent, who administer the main autonomous systems, or nodes, within of the Internet’s overall infrastructure that we all use.

The negotiations, contracts and administrative discussions between these service providers regarding the interconnections between users of these independent systems are entirely done by humans. Connectivity problems between these nodes are not necessarily attributable to routers executing native protocols, but rather often because of disagreements between service providers. Dovrolis presented charts demonstrating how often end-users of respective networks were unable to access peer platforms due to disputes between competing providers.

It’s a combination of competition and collaboration. There’s the end-user, but there’s also the people who created those autonomous systems. They have a vested interest for their system to work with other competitors, but market share considerations often come in between.

By Meres J. Weche

Intelligent networks and the human element 1

www.kaust.edu.sa 11

Influencing the actions of a few for the collective goodBecause the human factor has such an impact on the cyber-physical infrastructures, it’s important to find ways of understanding and even predicting human action in the overall equation. Dr. Anas Alfaris, another speaker representing King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) and MIT, gave a talk at the conference entitled “City dynamics: A big data analytics platform for cities.” He shared the results of a study conducted in the city of Riyadh to shed light on the causes of congestion in the road network using mobile phone usage patterns.

Human decision-making is a major pillar of cyber-physical social systems. “We need to figure out some balance between what is personally desirable and mutually desirable,” said Shamma. For instance, a driver makes a decision daily to take a particular route to arrive at a destination based on what road is the most beneficial for them. Would that same person take a different route if data

informed him or her that changing course would benefit overall traffic congestion? Human nature would dictate not.

If it were possible to influence a fraction of commuters to alter their behavior and allow the rest to decide with their natural dynamics, how much of a fraction would city administrators need to shift to positively alter overall commuting patterns? In a study by Walid Krichene from the University of California, Berkeley, another speaker at the event, researchers observed how simulations and analysis demonstrated that not many people are needed to shift the tide to a desirable commuting pattern.

The collection of such data helps government bodies to plan for the construction of bus or metro systems in response to not just today’s traffic patterns, but also in anticipation of traffic trends five to 10 years from now.

“The intent is to use this data to build models of how things evolve so that the resources that are put in place today will still be effective years from now,” said Shamma.

1. KAUST Professor of Electrical Engineering Jeff Shamma co-organized the recent Human-Machine Networks and Intelligent Infrastructures conference.

2. KAUST and international participants at the recent Human-Machine Networks and Intelligent Infrastructures conference held at the University.

3. The large systems, multi-component systems, represent a combination, or a blend, of engineered devices and humans.

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Robert W. DibbleDr. Robert W. Dibble recently joined KAUST as professor of mechanical engineering in the Clean Combustion Research Center. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of California and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, with both degrees in chemical engineering. Dibble’s research interests focus on combustion, and he has investigated a wide range of combustion-related topics over the years, including turbulent flows, gas turbines, microturbines, spark-ignited engines and diesel engines.

Dibble’s research into emission improvement from diesel engines when oxygenates are added to diesel fuel won him the prestigious Caldwell Award from the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). The award was largely given for efforts in bringing basic chemical kinetics to assist in the understanding of the combustion of dimethyl ether, a new alternative fuel.

Since 1990, Dibble has been on the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on thermodynamics and combustion, and also teaches the thermofluids laboratory class. With over 100 journal publications and seven patents in his name, Dibble has also co-authored Combustion, a textbook now in its fourth edition.

Noreddine GhaffourDr. Noreddine Ghaffour joined KAUST’s Water Desalination & Reuse Center (WDRC) in July 2010 as a senior research scientist. He is currently a research professor in the WDRC. Prior to joining KAUST, he spent seven years as a senior research and development and capacity building project manager at the Middle East Desalination Research Center (MEDRC) in Al-Khuwair, Oman.

Ghaffour has over 20 years of experience in the field of water treatment technologies, and specializes in the areas of membrane and thermal-based desalination processes and related fields, including renewable energy-driven and innovative energy-efficient desalination technologies. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from Montpellier University (France) in 1995, and is the author of over 150 publications.

Raphaël HuserRaphaël Huser joined KAUST in January of 2014 as a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Marc Genton’s Spatio-Temporal Statistics & Data Science research group. The group works on the statistical analysis, modeling, prediction and uncertainty quantification of spatio-temporal data, with applications in environmental and climate science, renewable energies, geophysics and marine science.

Huser is now assistant professor of applied mathematics and computational science and principal investigator of the Extreme Statistics Research Group within KAUST’s Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Science and Engineering (CEMSE) Division.

Huser's main research interests are concerned with statistics of extreme events, risk assessment, spatio-temporal statistics and statistical approaches for large datasets, with a particular focus on environmental applications, such as the prediction of extreme flooding, droughts and wind gusts. He develops statistical models for rare events, as well as efficient inference methods to fit them to data. Huser received his master’s degree in applied mathematics and his Ph.D. in statistics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). In August, he won the 2015 Johann Heinrich Lambert Award for Young Statisticians from the Swiss Statistical Society.

Noreddine Ghaffour

Raphaël Huser

Robert W. Dibble

New faces on campusBy David Murphy

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In the annual State of the University address on October 15, KAUST President Jean-Lou Chameau highlighted the achievements of the University’s faculty, students and staff from the past year and discussed KAUST’s past, present and future with the audience.

“It is my third year here at KAUST, and although I’ve been in academia for over 36 years, I still enjoy the beginning of the year, with its excitement, new students and meeting new people,” Chameau said. “It is also an exciting time to look back on what happened over the past year and look forward to the future.”

Chameau noted that over a year ago, he was asked what his aspirations were for the University.

“I want KAUST to become a destination – a destination where things happen and where people feel they can come to make these important things happen,” he said. “However, to create great achievements, you need to have strong values and a roadmap to get there. These are all things that KAUST has.”

He outlined that the KAUST roadmap covers talent, responsibility, stewardship, excellence and creating impact.

“This is ‘destination KAUST,’” he said. “You are all entrepreneurial, free-spirited and want to do great

things for KAUST. Your actions over the past year tell a story of our progress and achievements. We are on a journey together, and we have the right values and roadmap to make a difference.”

As part of this continued journey, Chameau encouraged faculty, students and staff to continue their dedication to holding themselves to the highest standards and serving as stewards of the University and Saudi Arabia's resources.

Through the responsible use of these resources and through stewardship, the University will continue to produce excellent research and have increasing international impact, he said.

Chameau added that KAUST is on the way to realizing King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud’s vision of becoming a modern-day House of Wisdom.

“We are on the way to becoming ‘destination KAUST’—a place for cutting-edge scientific and technological education and research,” he said. “Through our discoveries that address global challenges, we work to spread knowledge to the world for the betterment of humanity.”

By Caitlin Clark

State of the University brings together KAUST faculty, students and staff


KAUST Entrepreneurship Center receives

High Impact AwardKAUST hosted the region’s first ever UBI Global Benchmarking Conference and Award Ceremony on October 14, 2015. The KAUST Entrepreneurship Center was named one of four High Impact Programs during the conference, which was developed to facilitate UBI’s recognition of the region’s top university-affiliated incubators.

“KAUST values the vital role that business incubators play in developing a robust innovation ecosystem,” said KAUST Vice President of Innovation and Economic Development Mark Crowell. “Fostering entrepreneurship at KAUST is about more than just starting new companies, it's about acceleration and sustainable impact.”

The UBI Global Benchmarking Conference was supported by the Islamic Development Bank, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, the Badir Program for Technology Incubators and the Saudi Business Incubator Network. Over 100 people attended with participation from 10 countries, including Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Sweden and the U.K.

High impact incubationA High Impact Incubation Program is a successful business incubator or accelerator that is managed,

affiliated or associated with a university that has a high impact on its ecosystem and provides higher value to startup clients than regional or global peers. High Impact Programs are differentiated by improved outcomes on measures such as economy enhancement, access to funds and a range of post incubation performance indicators.

The High Impact Award nominates the KAUST Entrepreneurship Center for inclusion in a special summit to be held in Sweden in June of 2016, where KAUST is slated to attend as one of the top 100 University Business Incubators in the world.

About UBI GlobalUBI Global is a thought leader in performance analysis of business incubation around the world. It helps university business incubators and business accelerators become more efficient and competitive through a comprehensive benchmark where more than 400 incubation programs in over 70 countries participate.

www.kaust.edu.sa 15

1. Panel discussion (L to R): Simon Bond (Innovation Director, SETsquared Partnership), Tuba Ozlem (Co-Founder & CEO, Qotuf AlRiyadah), Ozan Sonmez (Startup Accelerator Lead, Entrepreneurship Center at KAUST), John Mercer (Executive Consultant, Badir Program for Technology Incubators).

تكريم مركز جامعة الملك عبداهلل لريادة األعمال

The REVelate corporate innovation workshop developed at KAUST has been expanded into a larger suite of modules called “Innovation Academy.” The program is designed for Saudi-based companies, nonprofits and government organizations to develop novel processes, design thinking and intrapreneurship to benefit their corporate missions and support the development of a knowledge economy in Saudi Arabia.

The initial REVelate workshop combines elements of new product and service creation and incubation of new ideas within an existing organization. Over three days, teams from medium and large organizations receive executive education in creativity, intrapreneurship and design.

Previous participants include teams from AlSafwa Cement Company, the Islamic Development Bank, Takamol, the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) and Abdul Latif Jameel.

“The REVelate program has grown to meet the increasing demand for impactful curriculum for companies and organizations in the Kingdom since it began in October 2014,” said Gordon McConnell, Head of KAUST’s Entrepreneurship Center. “This program offers teams an opportunity to accelerate their new business concepts for implementation, and we have seen significant progress by these teams. We attribute this to a distinctive ‘learning-by-doing’ component within the program.”

REVelate and the additional programs featured in KAUST’s Innovation Academy will assist Saudi organizations in effectively promoting innovative thinking by exposing motivated participants to the right stimuli.

“Many Saudi organizations want to find new solutions to old problems and explore potential markets to grow revenue and profitability,” said Imad Abukhalaf, Manager of the Industry Engagement team at KAUST. “The KAUST Innovation Academy helps accelerate the development of key methodologies and systems within these organizations to foster a more innovative corporate culture.”

The upcoming REVelate cohort takes place from November 24 to 26. Registration is open until November 3. Find out more at innovation.kaust.edu.sa/REV.

KAUST expands innovation program for Saudi companies and nonprofits

14 أكتوبر 2015 – تم اختيار مركز جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية لريادة األعمال ضمن أفضل أربع برامج لحاضنات األعمال في أول مؤتمر

لمنظمة UBI Global ألفضل حاضنات األعمال تأثيرًا في المنطقة والذي استضافته جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية.

وقام برعاية المؤتمر عدد من المنظمات الرائدة في السعودية مثل البنك اإلسالمي للتنمية، ومدينة الملك عبدالعزيز للعلوم والتقنية، وبرنامج بادر لحاضنات التقنية، والشبكة السعودية لحاضنات األعمال. وحضر المؤتمر

أكثر من 100 شخص من 10 دول، بما في ذلك المملكة العربية السعودية وهولندا والسويد والمملكة المتحدة.

وقال مارك كرويل، نائب الرئيس لالبتكار والتنمية االقتصادية بهذه المناسبة: " تقدر جامعة الملك عبداهلل دور حاضنات األعمال الحيوي في تطوير

بيئة ابتكار قوية ومؤثرة. وبالنسبة لنا في جامعة الملك عبداهلل فإن دعم وتشجيع ريادة األعمال ال يقتصر فقط على دعم الشركات الناشئة بل يتجاوز

ذلك الى رعاية وتطوير برامج تسريع األعمال واالستدامة".

كما أن حصول مركز جامعة الملك عبداهلل لريادة األعمال على جائزة منظمة UBI Global ألفضل حاضنات األعمال تأثيرا رشحه لنيل جائزة التأثير العالي " The High Impact Award " في القمة التي ستعقد في السويد في

شهر يونيو من عام 2016، والذي ستكون جامعة الملك عبداهلل حاضرة فيه كواحدة من أفضل 100 جامعة حاضنة لألعمال في العالم.

برنامج حاضنات االعمال عالية التأثيرويعّد برنامج حاضنات االعمال عالية التأثير من برامج التسريع الناجحة التي

تقوم الجامعة بإدارتها أو المرتبطة بجامعة الملك عبداهلل والتي تؤثر على بيئتها خصوصًا في مجال ريادة األعمال والشركات الناشئة.

UBI Global نبذة عن منظمةهي منظمة عالمية رائدة في مجال تحليل أداء حاضنات األعمال في جميع

أنحاء العالم. كما أنها تساعد حاضنات األعمال وبرامج تسريع األعمال على تحسين عملياتها وأدائها لتصبح أكثر فاعلية وتنافسية من خالل معيار شامل

يضم أكثر من 400 برنامج لحضانة األعمال في أكثر من 70 دولة.

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KAUST's Global Expo was held on Friday, October 16. The event gathered graduate students and the wider community to celebrate the international diversity of the graduate student community on campus. It also provided an opportunity to indulge in food, enjoy performances and participate in cultural activities.

Graduate students hosted nearly 20 booths representing a range of countries. From the booths they shared samples of their national cuisine and cultural items, with some booths including activities such as calligraphy and art. Over 1,000 people attended the event over the course of the evening.

The Global Expo included the "Spine Souk,” with the University's Spine hosting a bazaar with 22 booths providing services and selling collectibles and gift items, including arts and crafts, paintings, jewelry and Arabic calligraphy. The Kids’ Corner proved popular with face painting and activities for children.

Prizes were awarded for “Best Booth,” and among the graduate student national booths, the winners were Tunisia (first place), China (second place) and Nigeria (third place).

The evening's stage program included live music by the band Icon from Yanbu, lively Arabic music from East Band and a tribute band, The Beatles Experience. In addition, the graduate student-led music group Angklung Ensemble performed, and student Zihao Wang gave a fascinating performance of Chinese traditional flute music. Music was also provided by DJ Jake.

Global Expo 2015

Karen Walter is a budget specialist in KAUST’s Finance Department. Walter has lived in the U.S. since 2005, but she is originally from Viña Del Mar, Chile. She came to KAUST from Colorado, where she received her bachelor’s degree in

business administration with a minor in economics from the University of Colorado Boulder.

“Accounting is my passion,” Walter said. “As a Budget Specialist, I enjoy having the opportunity to work within all

areas of the University and like getting to know the business operations side of KAUST. I am working on several projects in Finance to improve business processes and create efficiencies in the quality of reporting.”

She cites the opportunity to work in an ever-evolving organization as one of the main reasons for her move to KAUST. “I came here for the opportunity to work in an engaging environment and organization. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute to the vision and mission of KAUST and to collaborate with people from all over the world,” she said.

She is also quick to highlight the positives of life at the University. “KAUST has given my husband and me the opportunity of a lifetime to travel to places we had never dreamt of beforehand,” she noted. “We are making friends from all over the world and interacting with different cultures. I am amazed how friendly and polite people are here, and the Saudi hospitality is second to none.”

My University Karen Walter

This month’s submission comes from Raju Abraham, a Seed Fund consultant in KAUST’s Water Desalination and Reuse Center. Abraham went to Cairo, Egypt during the recent Eid al-Adha break and stopped to read The Beacon with one of the world’s most iconic landmarks – the pyramids of Giza – in the background.

The Giza pyramids were built on a rocky plateau on the west bank of the Nile and were connected by causeways to different mortuary temples in the valley below. The three pyramids were constructed as tombs for Old Kingdom pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty.

According to Egyptologists, approximately 5.5 million tons of limestone, 8,000 tons of granite and 500,000 tons of mortar were used in the 20-year construction of the Great Pyramid. It covers about 13 square acres and reaches 450 feet.

“The Great Pyramid was the tallest manmade structure for 3,800 years,” Abraham said. “What better way to spend a break than seeing the pyramids, these magnificent wonders of the ancient world?”

Where do you read The Beacon?

Photos by Ryan Yangyang.

2015 november beacon

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