2015 September Beacon

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

September, 2015/Thul-Qedah, 1436Volume 5, Issue No. 12

جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية ثول، المملكة العربية السعودية

www.kaust.edu.sa

Sixth convocation welcomes students to KAUSTPage 13

Community story TBD to go here Page 16

KAUST and NESMA to open embroidery center in ThuwalPage 14

New faces on campus Page 12

Where do you read the Beacon – Paris, France Page 16

A culture of collaboration to bolster innovationPage 10

Balloon-borne surveys of the atmospherePage 8

New Shaheen XC40 ranked seventh globally Page 4

الحاسوب شاهين الجديد يحتلالمرتبة السابعة عالميًا

THE BEACON | SEP 20152

The Orientation Expo and Bazaar held on August 20 featured great entertainment and information for the KAUST community and new students. Over 50 booths representing graduate student-led groups and associations, different KAUST offices, campus services and on-campus retail outlets provided information to visitors, and East Band and Dreams, two bands from Jeddah, treated the community to live performances. Also on hand were art, clothing and home furnishing dealers to help new students settle into their surroundings.

On August 25, Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. James Calvin, faculty speaker Dr. Wolfgang Heidrich and student speaker Maha Khalil welcomed new students to campus during Convocation 2015.

The KAUST Schools (TKS) plan to host a series of Back to School Nights. The Elementary School event will take place on August 31; the Early Childhood Center event is on September 2; and the Secondary School’s event will be held on September 9. For more information, visit tks.kaust.edu.sa.

The new academic year’s first Sci-Café will take place on September 9 from 5:15 – 7:00 p.m. in the University Library. The theme for the event is “How do we innovate supercomputing?” Two additional Sci-Cafés are planned for later in the semester. Stay tuned to The Lens—thelens.kaust.edu.sa—for more information.

The KAUST Communications Department is now Marketing Communications—Marcom. For more information or to submit a request,

please visit marcom.kaust.edu.sa. The new Marcom website has downloadable templates and information about support for your conferences, symposia and much more.

The Human-Machine Networks and Intelligent Infrastructure conference will take place from Monday, October 5 to Wednesday, October 7 in the Engineering Science Hall (building 9). The event brings together leading researchers to discuss topics and applications including energy, transportation and communications. A distinguished speaker will present each day, and there will be a poster session for students and post-doctoral fellows. For more information, visit http://goo.gl/sOawxu

The annual State of the University event will be held Thursday, October 15 at 9:30 a.m., Auditorium (bldg. 20). A breakfast reception will follow.

Enrichment in the Fall (FEP) begins on Friday, October 16. The year’s theme is “Large Marine Animals on the Move,” and is inspired by work from KAUST’s Red Sea Research Center. An opening night extravaganza will be held Sunday, October 18. FEP 2015 will include marine-themed movies, a visit to King Abdullah Economic City’s port and a live musical performance by Grammy-winning artist Paul Winter.

The Partners for Learning (PFL) program from TKS will offer a session on Wednesday, October 28. PFL keeps parents informed and involved in their children’s education at KAUST. For more information, please visit tks.kaust.edu.sa.

In brief

The BeaconVolume 5, Issue 12

PUBLISHED BY THE COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENTKing Abdullah University of Science and TechnologyThuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The Beacon StaffManaging Editor: Nicholas DemilleArabic Editor: Salah Sindi English Editor: Caitlin ClarkDesigner: Hazim AlradadiWriters: 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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@KAUST_News

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Dr. Jean-Luc Bredas, KAUST Distinguished Professor and Director of the University’s Solar and Photovoltaic Engineering Re-search Center (SPERC), has been nominated for a 2016 American Chemical Society (ACS) Award in the Chemistry of Materials. Bredas will be honored with the award at the 251st ACS National Meeting in San Diego, Califor-nia (U.S.) on March 15, 2016.

The award is sponsored by the American chemical company E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. (DuPont). It was established by the company in 1988 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the commercialization of nylon and the discovery of Teflon, and also recognizes outstanding achievements in the field of the chemistry of materials. Consider-able emphasis is also placed on nominees’ work as mentors and colleagues to their fellow researchers.

The ACS National Meeting & Exposition aims to give a greater understanding of the role chemistry plays in global health and safety, the economy and the environment, and pro-vides the opportunity for attendees to share ideas with leading experts in the field.

Cover: The Messe Frankfurt Forum with the Messeturn in the background, Frankfurt, Germany.

Left to right: NASA LaRC postdoc Noel Baker, KAUST engineer Ilia Shevchenko, and NASA LaRC postdoc Tobias Wegner preparing to launch the weather balloon. Tobias Wegner is in communication with the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) in Jeddah.

From KAUST Discovery - Genetic bee-havior – Learn about the set of genetic mechanisms that control whether bees behave as foragers or nurses - http://goo.gl/mv8IHd

From KAUST News – KAUST and NESMA to open embroidery center in Thuwal – Read about how an exciting agreement with NESMA Holding Co. will help create jobs in Thuwal – Watch a video about the pro-ject from NESMA - https://goo.gl/PDJ1oV

From KAUST TV – FalconViz: Aerial 3D mapping and smart drones – From disaster relief to urban planning to documenting and preserving cultural heritage sites, FalconViz brings unique capabilities with aerial imaging using the latest in drone tech-nology – Watch a video about this KAUST startup - https://goo.gl/mWL2Xd

On KAUST Official – Follow KAUST on Facebook where student researchers are contributing to research in Nature - https://goo.gl/Tq2UJv

On Nature online - Replisome speed determines the efficiency of the Tus−Ter replication termination barrier –http://goo.gl/2ZTyVF

Dr. Lijo Francis, a research scientist in KAUST’s Water Desalina-tion and Reuse Center (WDRC), won the Young Academics Award for 2015 at a July workshop organized by the Italian Institute on Membrane Technology – National Research Council (ITM-CNR; Italy), in collaboration with the European Membrane Society (EMS).

The workshop focused on seawater desalination using alternative membrane technolo-gies. Francis presented his research at the conference and won the award for his contri-butions to membrane science and technology.

The award is Francis’ fourth during his time at KAUST. He previously won two Seed Fund awards in 2012 and a best research paper award from the European Desalination Society in 2014.

Accolades

Dr. Jean-Luc Bredas nominated for 2016 ACS award

Here’s a roundup of KAUSTcontent from around the web.

Francis selected for Young Academics Award

Shaheen XC40, KAUST’s new Cray system, is the sev-enth fastest supercomputer in the world according to the TOP500 list announced on July 13 at the Internation-al Supercomputing Conference in Frankfurt, Germany.

“Shaheen XC40 reaffirms KAUST’s commitment to enabling our researchers and partners with high per-formance computing resources,” said KAUST President Jean-Lou Chameau, “it will further enhance our edu-cation and research endeavors and support our vision to be a destination for talent and have global impact in science and technology.”

The TOP500 list is the semiannual ranking of the world’s most powerful supercomputers and bases its rankings on the highest score measured using the Linpack bench-mark suite, a special-purpose computer code that scores application runs in quadrillions of floating-point operations per second, or petaflops. For the July 2015 list, Shaheen XC40 achieved more than 5.5 petaflops per second on the Linpack benchmark, using nearly 200,000 processing cores. The system also includes 17.6 petabytes of Sonex-ion Lustre storage and 790 terabytes of memory.

Shaheen XC40’s predecessor, a Blue Gene/P system called Shaheen, is an IBM system in use since KAUST opened in 2009. The first Shaheen was used in a wide range of fields ranging from global climate modeling to the investigation of plasmoids caused by solar wind to petroleum reservoir modeling and bioinformatics of salt and drought-tolerant plants. With a peak performance of 191 teraflops, the first Shaheen ranked as the 14th most powerful supercomputer in the world in 2009.

Supercomputing for national collabora-tion and impactA number of Saudi institutions use KAUST’s Shaheen and are expected to continue to accelerate their research on the upgraded Shaheen XC40. Organizations such as King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals and King Saud Univer-sity already utilize KAUST’s supercomputing capabilities to develop their work and examine new fields of research, fur-ther contributing to economic diversification for Saudi Arabia.

The nation’s petrochemical industry also continues to be a major user of high performance computing (HPC) in the region, with companies like Saudi Aramco and Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) using KAUST’s supercom-puting resources to enhance their business in oil and gas, and in chemistry and chemical catalysis research.

New Shaheen XC40 ranked seventh globally

By Michelle D’Antoni

Shaheen XC40 will contribute to the enhancement of Saudi Arabia’s major industries and facilitate the nation’s transition towards a knowledge-based economy,”


حصل نظام الحاسب اآللي الخارق الجديد لجامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية شاهين XC40 على الترتيب السابع ضمن قائمة لموقع "توب " 500 والتي تضم أسرع 500 حاسوب خارق في العالم . وتم اإلعالن عن

هذه القائمة خالل مؤتمر الحوسبة الفائقة الدولي في فرانكفورت الذي يقام حاليًا في ألمانيا. وقد حرصت جامعة الملك عبد اهلل للعلوم والتقنية منذ افتتاحها على وضع بنية تحتية متطورة لخدمة البحث العلمي، وذلك

من حيث إنشاء المعامل المتقدمة وتجهيزها بأفضل وأحسن األجهزة العالمية، مع وضع الخطط المحكمة التي تضمن االستخدام األمثل

لهذه المعامل واألجهزة والمعدات، مع الحفاظ عليها بالصيانة والتطوير المستمر بما يضمن للجامعة مكانتها العالمية ومقدراتها التنافسية

األكاديمية والبحثية. يقع الحاسوب الخارق شاهين في قلب هذه البنية البحثية المتكاملة للجامعة كما يشكل عامودها الفقري.

استخدام متقدموتستخدم جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية الحاسب اآللي الخارق

شاهين في التحليالت الرياضية والنمذجة والمحاكاة مع تطبيقات العمليات الفيزيائية و الكيميائية والبيولوجية والبيئية، وعلوم المواد،

والتنقيب و إدارة مكامن النفط، باالضافة إلى معالجة البيانات الكبيرة بما في ذلك المعلومات البيولوجية واالحصاء والحوسبة المرئية والفائقة.

كما أن االبحاث والتجارب التي تقوم بها جامعة الملك عبداهلل تعتمد

بشكل اساسي على عمليات حوسبة متفوقة وعالية األداء وذلك مثل العمليات التي يقوم بها

مركز ابحاث االحتراق النظيف مثل إجراء مئات من

تفاعالت االحتراق لتحويل الوقود األحفوري إلى ماء وثاني أكسيد الكربون. وتهدف معظم أبحاث

االحتراق التي تجرى في مركز أبحاث االحتراق النظيف إلى الوصول الستخدام أمثل للطاقة من الوقود عبر ابتكار طرق فعالة الستغالل زيوت

الوقود الثقيلة والتخلص من الرواسب النفطية التي يصعب إحراقها، وبالتالي انتاج وقود سهل الحرق وال يستهلك مواد كثيرة ومنخفض

التكلفة.

قدرات عاليةوتشمل قائمة "توب 500" الترتيب نصف السنوي ألقوى الحواسيب

الخارقة في العالم والتي كان النصيب األكبر منها لحواسيب من الواليات المتحدة االمريكية، تليها أوروبا ثم آسيا. وللمرة الخامسة على التوالي،

احتفظ الكمبيوتر العمالق Tianhe-2 التابع للجامعة الوطنية الصينية لتقنية الدفاع بالترتيب األول كأسرع كمبيوتر خارق في العالم. واعتمد

الجامعة تقتني حاسوب خارق جديد )شاهين XC40( يحتل

المرتبة السابعة في قائمة أسرع حواسيب خارقة في العالم

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“Shaheen XC40 will contribute to the enhancement of Saudi Arabia’s major industries and facilitate the nation’s transition towards a knowledge-based economy,” said KAUST Vice Pres-ident for Research Jean M. Fréchet. “The impact of investments like Shaheen and Shaheen XC40 reaches far beyond HPC and into all areas of science. KAUST offers its facilities and out-standing scientific expertise to help strengthen Saudi Arabia’s position as a fast-rising hub for research and innovation.”

Making discoveries fasterKAUST’s new Shaheen XC40 performs approximately 29 times faster than its older sister on the Linpack benchmark. It boasts a Cray Sonexion 2000 storage system, a Cray Tiered Adaptive Storage (TAS) system and a Cray Urika-GD graph analytics appliance. Enhancements scheduled for the fall of 2015 will add a DataWarp burst buffer providing over 1 terabyte/second of bandwidth. There is an option for next-generation processors and accelerators to be added at the two-year mark.

“The most important feature of the new system is not its pow-er or its power efficiency, but its usability for our scientists and engineers in their discovery and design,” said David Keyes, di-rector of KAUST’s Extreme Computing Research Center. “We’ve re-entered the upper echelon in HPC to be used by scientists and engineers in many disciplines. Shaheen XC40 will serve KAUST’s primary research areas, including photovoltaic engi-neering, oceanography, reservoir modeling, water desalination, and climate prediction. Shaheen XC40 represents our contin-ued efforts to offer practical HPC systems that meet the priori-ties of science codes.”

Among the top ten supercomputers on the TOP500, the United States has the most machines, followed by Japan and China. For the fifth consecutive time, Tianhe-2, a supercomputer de-veloped by China’s National University of Defense Technology, retained its position as the world’s number one system. Saudi Arabia has a total of seven machines among the top 500: Mak-man-2 (#28), Faris (#84) and Makman (#151) operated by Saudi Aramco; SANAM (#126) and Aziz (#360) operated by KACST; and KAUST’s founding machine, Shaheen (#411) and newest Shaheen XC40 (#7).

التصنيف العالمي في القائمة على نتائج برنامج قياس األداءحيث حقق شاهين XC40 سرعة تجاوزت 5.5 بيتا فلوب في الثانية وذلك باستخدام ما يقرب من 200000 نواة معالجة. ويشمل

النظام أيضا 17.6 بيتابايت من وحدات التخزين ومساحة ذاكرة تخزين بحجم 790 تيرابايت. أما نظام شاهين السابق الذي اعتمدته جامعة الملك عبداهلل منذ افتتاحها في عام 2009

فقد احتل المرتبة 14 في ترتيب أقوى الحواسيب الخارقة في العالم في عام 2009 ، وقد تم استخدامه في مجموعة واسعة من المجاالت مثل نمذجة المناخ العالمي، ونمذجة اآلبار

النفطية وتحليل المعلومات الحيوية للنبات المقاوم للملوحة والجفاف.

النخبة في مجال الحوسبة عالية األداءوتشير األرقام الى أن نظام الحاسب اآللي الجديد شاهين XC40أسرع من ناحية األداء من النظام السابق بتسعة وعشرين مرة، وهو مدعوم بنظام تخزين متطور، ومعالجة رسوميات

متفوق، كما تم إضافة خيار لتحديثه كل سنتين بمعالجات ومسرعات الجيل القادم. ويقول ديفيد كيز، مدير مركز أبحاث الحوسبة الفائقة بجامعة الملك عبداهلل: "تمكنا بوجود شاهين الجديد من

العودة مرة أخرى إلى ساحة النخبة في مجال الحوسبة عالية األداء )HPC( بما يحقق الفائدة الكبيرة للعلماء والمهندسين في العديد من التخصصات في جامعة الملك عبداهلل. وسيخدم شاهين الجديد جميع مجاالت األبحاث الرئيسية للجامعة بما في ذلك الهندسة الضوئية، وعلم

المحيطات، والنمذجة المتطورة، وتحلية المياه، والتنبؤات المناخية.

التعاون الوطنيولن تقتصر خدمات شاهين الجديد XC40 على جامعة الملك عبداهلل فقط بل ستستفيد منها عدة مؤسسات وجهات وطنية لتسريع أبحاثهم مثل جامعة الملك فهد للبترول والمعادن، وغيرها من الجهات والتي بالفعل تستخدم القدرات الحاسوبية الخارقة لجامعة الملك عبداهلل لتطوير عملها

ودراسة مجاالت جديدة لألبحاث من أجل المساهمة في التنويع االقتصادي للمملكة العربية السعودية. أيضًا ستستفيد صناعات البترول والغاز والبتروكيماويات في المملكة من الحوسبة

عالية األداء التي يقدمها شاهين الجديد خصوصًا شركات مثل شركة أرامكو السعودية والشركة السعودية للصناعات األساسية )سابك( وذلك لتعزيز أعمالهم في مجال التنقيب عن النفط والغاز، وفي أبحاث الكيمياء والحفز الكيميائي. ويقول نائب الرئيس التنفيذي للجامعة المهندس نظمي

النصر : “سيساهم شاهين XC40 في تعزيز الصناعات الرئيسية في المملكة وتسريع التوجه نحو االقتصاد المعرفي وتأكيد التزام جامعة الملك عبداهلل بتقديم كافة التسهيالت والخبرات العلمية

المتميزة للمساعدة في تعزيز مكانة السعودية كمركز فاعل وواعد لألبحاث واالبتكار".

الحواسب الخارقة والترتيب العالميتتألف جميع الحواسب اآللية الخارقة اليوم من عدة وحدات حاسوبية متوازية تحتوي على

االف المعالجات الفردية وترتبط مع بعضها البعض بشبكة اتصال فائقة السرعة. ولكن هذا ال يعني أن أي حاسب آلي يتبع هذا التصميم يمكننا أن نصفه بالحاسب الخارق. ففي الواقع ال

يوجد تعريف مطلق ودائم لوصف الحاسب اآللي الخارق، حيث يتطور أداء الحواسيب اآللية بصورة سريعة جدًا في فترات وجيزة. يذكر أن منظمات مختلفة تتبنى عملية ترتيب الحواسيب

اآللية الخارقة من أشهرها موقع توب 500 الذي يعتمد معايير قياسية تبين قدرة وتفوق الحاسب اآللي، االمر الذي يعزز اسم ومكانة الجهاز في العالم. ومن المعروف أن أجهزة

الحاسب اآللي تدخل مرحلة التقاعد قبل وقت طويل من تعطلها نظرًا لصعوبة مجاراتها للتغيرات والتطورات المتسارعة في التقنية خصوصا في مجال استهالك الطاقة وتوافق البرامج. لهذا ال يمكن ألي نظام حاسوبي أن يظل في نفس الترتيب خصوصًا بظهور نظم

جديدة أخرى متطورة وحديثة. فعندما أطلقت جامعة الملك عبداهلل نظام شاهين القديم في شهر يونيو 2009 احتل على الفور المركز الرابع عشر في قائمة توب 500 ولكنه مرجح الى أن يخرج تمامًا من القائمة بحلول عام 2016. وهذا ينطبق تمامًا على نظام شاهين الجديد حيث لن

يستمر في ترتيبه الحالي لوقت طويل ولكنه سيعود للتنافس ضمن أفضل الحواسيب الخارقة في العالم في منتصف عام 2018 بعد حصوله على التحديثات الالزمة حسب خطة التطوير

المجدولة والمدرجة له.

The most important feature of the new system is not its power or its power efficiency, but its usability for

our scientists and engineers in their discovery and design,”

Download a Template.Visit marcom.kaust.edu.sa

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1. ISC General Co-Chair, Thomas Meuer.

2. The Messe Frankfurt Forum with the Messeturn in the background, Frankfurt, Germany.

3. A view inside the Messe Frankfurt Forum.

4. Manager for Cray Middle East and North Africa, Jean Tachiji, Director of the KAUST Extreme Computing Research Center and Director of the KAUST Core Labs and Major Facilities, Justin Mynar.

5. From left to right: KAUST Computational Scientist, Saber Feki, KAUST Computational Scientist, Bilel Hadri, Cray Manager, Jean Tachiji, KAUST Director of Core Labs, Justin Mynar, KAUST Computational Scientist, Sam Kortas and KAUST Director of the Extreme Computing Research Center, David Keyes.

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Aerosols are fine solid particles or liquid droplets in the atmosphere that can be produced naturally or from anthropogenic sources (pollutants). “We understand that they affect climate seriously; so they’re becoming more and more important as a research subject,” said KAUST Earth Science and Engineering Professor, Georgiy L. Sten-chikov.

The leading aerosol of interest to Stenchikov’s research on the Arabian Peninsula is dust. “Dust affects all aspects of life on the peninsula. It affects atmospheric chemistry, air quality, industrial activities and impacts the energy balance on regional and global scales.”

Dust represents, among other things, a challenge to so-lar energy implementation as it disrupts the efficiency of conventional solar panels. Understanding the chemical and optical properties of dust is important not only to mitigate the negative effects of dust aerosols but also to recognize the positive effects of dust deposition.

“Deposition of dust in the Red Sea provides nutrients for marine organisms and actually feeds the Red Sea ecosys-tem. So it’s important to know what chemicals are going in there,” said Stenchikov.

Conducting balloon-borne measurements Recently, KAUST collaborated on a project with NASA’s Langley Research Center (LaRC) to launch six weather bal-loons with the support of the Coastal & Marine Laboratory (CMOR) to an altitude of 35 kilometers. The launches took place from the CMOR premises. NASA LaRC is one of the biggest centers focusing on satellite observations and the analysis of climate and mechanisms of aerosols and impact of volcanic eruptions on climate.

Two young NASA postdocs from the Langley Research Center—Tobias Wegner and Noel Baker—came to KAUST to conduct the experiment with Stenchikov and his team, which includes engineer Illia Shevchenko and postdoc Jish-

prakash Puthan Purakkal. Together they equipped the bal-loons with two sets of lightweight instruments to measure meteorological properties and to characterize the aerosols’ optical properties.

In addition to a radiosonde, which monitors temperature, relative humidity and pressure, an instrument called CO-BALD (Compact Optical Backscatter Aerosol Detector) was also attached. COBALD uses high power LEDs in blue and near infrared spectral range to detect the backscatter of light from atmospheric aerosols all the way from the surface to the stratosphere.

“Everything that’s in the atmosphere will scatter a light back. Because we have two wavelengths we can get an idea of the size of the particles. Particles of different sizes will scatter light more or less light in the different wavelengths. So if it scatters more on the blue channel it’s indicative of small particles; if it scatters more on the near infrared channel, it’s indicative of bigger particles,” Wegner said.

Balloon-borne surveys of the

atmosphereBy Meres J. Weche

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www.kaust.edu.sa 9

1. Left to right: NASA LaRC postdoc Noel Baker, KAUST engineer Ilia Shevchenko, and NASA LaRC postdoc Tobias Wegner preparing to launch the weather balloon. Tobias Wegner is in communication with the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) in Jeddah.

2. Before being launched, the balloon is inflated to an original diameter of 1.2 to 2 meters. At the height of its ascent, it will measure up to 10 meters in diameter.

3. Ilia Shevchenko (left) and Tobias Wegner preparing to inflate the balloon.

The bigger picture

Stenchikov’s experiment is part of a bigger project initiat-ed in 2011. NASA’s Langley Research Center discovered an aerosol layer that formed over the Asian Monsoon region but lacked the high-resolution images needed to study it fully. A team lead by NASA’s Dr. Duncan Fiarlie and Dr. Jean-Paul Vernier conducted a 10-day field experiment in India last year to obtain in-situ measurements using weather balloons. The team’s fieldwork sought to better understand and char-acterize the aerosol optical properties and size distribution of the Asian Tropopause Aerosol Layer (ATAL).

Interestingly, Vernier’s fieldwork served to test the hypothe-sis that, through a phenomenon called deep convection, big summer storm clouds carry emissions and pollutants from the surface all the way up into the stratosphere. The satellite data also indicated that the monsoon aerosol layer may get trans-ported all the way to the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

One of the objectives of the NASA LaRC team that came to KAUST to launch the six balloons was to determine how much of the aerosol gets actually transported. But the results of the experiments require further investigation to make definite conclusions on the effect of the monsoon system outflow.

Up in the air: coordinating with air traffic control It was necessary to obtain permission from the General Au-thority of Civil Aviation (GACA) before launching the six weath-er balloons. The balloons had to cross the path of airplanes below 14 kilometers, both on ascent and descent.

“It’s a relatively complex operation, more complex than we thought, because this area is an area of intensive aviation oper-ations,” said Stenchikov. “The team was in constant communica-tion with flight control to inform them of precisely when the bal-loons were launched, as well as the exact moment they passed through the flight pattern.”

“We can make a case for where approximately the balloon will travel on its vertical ascent based on weather forecasts and wind movements,” said Noel Baker. The Jeddah Airport air traffic control authorities asked the team to create a website to track the balloons’ movements in real time. The small desk the team set up at the CMOR building was essentially mission control—indicating airline traffic over Jeddah and the forecasted travel path of each balloon.

It takes about 45 minutes for a balloon to reach an altitude of 14 kilometers, at which point it is safely out of Jeddah’s airspace. As the balloon ascends, it grows larger. From an orig-inal diameter of 1.2 to 2 meters at the earth’s surface, a balloon can get as big as 10 meters across. Once it has reached it’s peak altitude of around 35 kilometers, it bursts, sending it’s payload earthwards into the Red Sea using a small parachute.

In addition to the experiments in India and at KAUST, balloons have also been launched in China. “The idea is to study the aerosol layer in the upper troposphere and to understand how this aerosol could mix into the stratosphere,” said Stenchikov. “The stratosphere is the chemical reactor of our global climate system. The chemicals present there will determine how the aerosols we are studying will be processed by photochemical reactions.”

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Have a Story to Tell?


“Industry engagement is an integral component not only of Innovation and Economic Development’s mission, but also the mission of KAUST,” said Imad Abukhalaf, manager of KAUST’s Industry Engagement Office (IEO). “We really think of ourselves as integral enablers to accomplishing KAUST’s mission.”

The IEO is responsible for all facets of industry engagement and is industry’s gateway to KAUST. The office actively re-cruits partner companies who are interested in setting up a base on-campus in the University’s Research and Technol-ogy Park. The state-of–the-art Core Labs and KAUST itself are great selling points for potential industrial partners.

“If I had to name our relationship with the IEO, I would call them a one-stop-shop,” said Dhaval Shah, Director of the Corporate Research & Innovation (CRI) Center at KAUST and the New Material Solutions group at the Saudi Basic Indus-tries Corporation (SABIC).

The IEO helped SABIC decide where to set up their research center during KAUST’s early days, and they continue to help identify areas of interest for research faculty, draft research proposals and assist SABIC in the next phase of their expan-sion. In Shah’s mind, these activities make the IEO an invalu-able resource.

The nexus of research and industry“Once industry prospects visit the University and meet with professors, they are immediately impressed,” said Abu-khalaf. “It’s at this point that they form an in-depth under-standing of how KAUST research can play a key role in add-ing long-term value to their business and R&D endeavors.”

SABIC, for example, is interested in focusing on areas the company believes will be critical for future business value and research activities. These initiatives are funded through sponsored research in collaboration with a select group of KAUST faculty. Five SABIC Chairs have been established and are currently occupied by faculty members concentrat-ing on SABIC’s core topic areas.

As Shah explained, “We rely on faculty members to ad-vise us through spontaneous interactions. We have invited them to our facilities and they’ve given talks to educate our scientists. Overall, we’ve been quite pleased in terms of our interactions.”

Building a bridge between faculty and industryAnother important responsibility of the IEO is to connect KAUST faculty with suitable industry partners by assessing and identifying viable pathways between research interests and business models.

“The industrial engagement team has provided exception-al help in connecting us with corporate partners,” Burton Jones, KAUST Professor of Marine Science, said. “They bridge the gap by assessing the interests and pathways among potential corporate partners and working with us to develop the business model for the interaction that is required to accompany the scientific proposal.”

In addition to working collaboratively with various research groups, the IEO works closely with KAUST’s Research Centers to foster successful relationships with a number of companies operating in the Kingdom, including Alstom, GE and Boeing.

“The IEO has been very helpful in identifying opportunities

A Culture of Collaboration to

Bolster InnovationBy Meres J. Weche

Marcom is Your Starting Point.Visit marcom.kaust.edu.sa

www.kaust.edu.sa 11

for KAUST’s Clean Combustion Research Center [CCRC], and even led an effort to develop the business model for a large-scale combustion test facility,” said Professor William Roberts, Director of the CCRC. “It takes time and delicate persistence to develop these relationships if they are to mature into funded projects, which all three of these have.”

Nurturing students as future leadersIndustry-sponsored research activities have been another great way for partners to engage with KAUST students and post-doctoral fellows. Partnering companies benefit in terms of research output while at the same time identifying top tal-ent to hire.

“Quite a few of SABIC’s hires have come through research pro-jects,” said Shah. “We’ve hired around 50 people over the past five years to work in different sectors around the region.”

Pablo Carrasco Zanini provides a great example of a student presented with a career opportunity via the IEO-hosted career fairs. Zanini has a background in mechatronics engineering and specialized in design, control and dynamics during his

master’s degree in mechanical engineering at KAUST. After finishing his master’s in 2011, he was recruited to join Saudi Aramco’s Intelligent Systems Lab, where he puts to use both his education and his passion in robotics.

As a mechanical research engineer and a project leader in the Intelligent Systems Team within Saudi Aramco’s Research and Development Center, Zanini and his team of multi-disciplinary colleagues focus on business-driven research. In fact, almost all of them are recent KAUST graduates. Using robotic tools, they identify Saudi Aramco’s various operational challenges and ad-dress how to solve them through the use of intelligent systems.

The team has been faced with the challenge of devising better ways to inspect the integrity of steel operational assets. “Aspects like corrosion for a company like Saudi Aramco are a tremendously large challenge, so robotic tools in that field are needed all the time,” Pablo explained.

The KAUST Industry Collaboration ProgramThe KAUST Industry Collaboration Program (KICP) is currently comprised of about 40 members and is directed by the IEO. It is a membership-based program that serves as a network of strategic industry partners who benefit from access to the Uni-versity’s research resources and facilities.

Each KICP member is assigned a dedicated subject matter expert called an Industry Collaboration Officer. Like an account manager, this person is responsible for managing the rela-tionship and being responsive to the company’s needs with respect to KAUST.

The office has two main teams: the business team, tasked with generating company leads, and the scientific arm, responsi-ble for handling technical discussions with industry through faculty and research centers,” said Loay Alfi, IEO’s business development manager.

“The main criterion for industry to be accepted into the pro-gram is the alignment of their R&D needs with KAUST’s re-search capabilities and offerings. This way we ensure a win-win situation for both the company and KAUST,” said Mario Blanco, IEO’s industry collaboration manager.

“Achieving our objectives necessitates team work not only with faculty, but with other industry stakeholders on campus. We work very closely with the Office of Sponsored Research, Saudi Initiatives, Core Labs, and Graduate Affairs, to a name a few,” said Abukhalaf.

1. Left to right: Dr. Paul Simon Maher, Industry Collaboration Officer (ICO), Dr. Mario Blanco, Manager Industry Collaborations, Marcus Lentz, Industry Collaboration Officer (ICO) and Dr. Anika Trebbin, Business Analyst.

2. Hashim Al-Zain, Business Development Specialist, (IEO) (left) and Loay S. Alfi, Business Development Manager (IEO).

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New faces on campusBy David Murphy

J. Carlos SantamarinaJuan Carlos Santamarina is a Professor of Earth Science and Engineering in the Physical Science and Engineering Division, and Associate Director of the newly created Upstream Petroleum Engi-neering Research Center (UPERC). Santamarina studied civil engineering at the Universidad Na-cional de Córdoba, Argentina, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1982. He completed his master’s degree at the University of Maryland*in 1984 and received his doctorate from Purdue University in 1987. Before he joined KAUST, Santamarina was a professor of Civil and Envi-ronmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Santamarina’s research at KAUST explores the scientific foundations of geomaterial behavior and subsurface processes using particle-level and pore-scale experiments, combined with numerical methods and high-resolution process monitoring systems. This conceptual and ex-perimental framework is advancing the study of phenomena and the development of solutions in energy geotechnology with contributions to re-source recovery (petroleum, methane hydrates), energy geo-storage, and geological storage of energy waste (carbon geological storage, fly ash and nuclear waste).

(Dr.) Santamarina is a member of both Argentin-ian National Academies of Science and Engi-neering, and has served in multiple committees at the U.S. National Academies. He was the 2012 British Geotechnical Association (BGA) tour-ing lecturer, and delivered the 50th American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Karl Terzaghi Lecture in 2014. He has also authored two books and over 200 publications.

Wolfgang FischleProfessor of Bioscience Wolfgang Fischle recently joined KAUST from the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany. Fischle was a NET fellow of the Euro-pean Network of Excellence “The Epigenome”

and was a faculty member of the Excellence Cluster at the University of Göttingen.

Fischle earned his Ph.D. from the University of Tübingen, Germany after an extended research stay at the J. David Gladstone Institutes at the University of California, San Francisco. During his Ph.D., he received a scholarship from the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation. As a postdoc-toral fellow, he was funded by a scholarship from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.

His research aims to uncover a detailed molecu-lar understanding of how chemical modifications of chromatin are functionally translated in a cellular environment. He focuses on special-ized proteins, RNAs and small cellular signaling molecules. To address the complex interplay of these factors from multiple angles, Fischle is applying highly interdisciplinary approaches.

Daniel PeterDaniel Peter is an Assistant Professor in the Earth Sciences and Engineering Division, and is also affiliated with the Extreme Computing Research Center. Prior to joining KAUST, he was a senior scientist at the Institute of Geophysics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) and at the Department of Computer Science, Universita della Svizzera italiana (USI Lugano). Peter’s research at KAUST focuses on the development of new algorithms in seismic wave propagation and applications in seismic tomography across all scales.

Peter received his master’s degree in physics and his Ph.D. in geophysics from the Swiss Fed-eral Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich).

The main motivation behind his research is to obtain increasingly realistic simulations of ground motion and to improve images of Earth’s interior and locate natural resources. Such techniques and solvers can be applied to hydrocarbon exploration as well as regional- and global-scale seismic tomography.

Wolfgang Fischle

Daniel Peter

J. Carlos Santamarina

1. KAUST Vice President for Academic Affairs, Professor James Calvin. 2. Maha Khalil, doctoral student in the Red Sea Research Center.

3. Director of the Visual Computing Center, Professor Wolfgang Heidrich.

www.kaust.edu.sa 13

KAUST welcomed 250 new master’s degree and Ph.D. students to the start of the academic year at the sixth annual Convocation on August 25.

Speaking on behalf of President Jean-Lou Chameau, James Calvin, Vice President of Academic Affairs, said the start of the new semester is “truly one of the best times of the year,” bringing with it to campus “new energy, new ideas and a fresh view of the world.”

Each year, Calvin continued, the KAUST community is enriched by new students coming to the University from all over the world “for one purpose—to advance science and technology.” Every individual adds to KAUST’s “international DNA,” he said, “[making] us distinctive, and it is fundamental to our success as a global research university.”

Calvin advised the new students to remember they are now part of a unique, international environment where they will work with scientists and engineers “equally committed to making a difference and doing things that matter” for Saudi Arabia and the world.

Student speaker Maha Khalil, an Egyptian Ph.D. stu-dent in the Red Sea Research Center who completed her master’s degree at KAUST, described her first jour-ney from Jeddah’s airport to KAUST as one of great anticipation. “I was impatient to finally see the inside of KAUST, which had only been a 3-D graphic on my computer screen,” she said.

She said her five years at KAUST have given her the ability to “do good science and communicate it,” but added that her most valuable lessons have not been academic ones—rather, they are “life lessons learned from personal experiences and relationships with countless wonderful people” at KAUST.

She advised the new students to enjoy the many opportunities KAUST provides, and to look at every experience at the University “as a gift—an opportunity to grow and learn something new about the world and yourself.”

KAUST Professor of Computer Science Wolfgang Heidrich, the final speaker at the event, told the stu-dents about the five main components it takes to be successful in graduate school.

“You must explore…find your passion…aim high…work hard…and manage your time,” he said. “You are in an envious position at KAUST.” By developing those strong skills, he noted, the students will not only suc-ceed, but will experience personal growth, learn much and enjoy their time at the University.

Sixth convocation welcomes students to KAUSTBy Caitlin Clark

“do good science and communicate it,”

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KAUST and NESMA to open embroidery center in Thuwal

جامعة الملك عبداهلل ونسما توقعان اتفاقية إنشاء مركز للخياطة والتطريز في ثول


(Left to right) NESMA President Saleh Al-Turki, KAUST President Jean-Lou Chameau, KAUST Executive Vice President for Administration and Finance, Mr. Nadhmi Al-Nasr and KAUST Vice President for Saudi Initiatives Dr. Najah Ashry.

اتفاقية مع جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية القابضة وقعت شركة نسما إلنشاء مركز خياطة وتطريز فى منطقة ثول، وتأتى هذه المبادرة فى إطار تعزيزجهود جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية وشركة نسما فى مجال

المعيشي في المستوى المسؤولية االجتماعية، ومساهمًة منهما في رفع المنطقة، ومساعدة السيدات العامالت فى الحصول على دخل ثابت وتغطية

االحتياج المحلي من منتجات التطريز والخياطة ال سيما في الزي الرسمي. واستمرارًا فى تحقيق رؤية شركة نسما: "مصنع في كل قرية" والمشاركًة

فى توفير الفرص الوظيفية للكوادر النسائية وذوي اإلعاقة في ثول وفي المحيطة. القرى

ويحتوي المركز على نفس األقسام الموجودة في مركزي جدة وخليص التابعين لشركة نسما وهى قسم الخياطة، قسم التطريزااللكتروني، قسم التصميم، قسم الطباعة الحرارية، وسيتم تدريب السيدات على تشغيل تلك

األقسام، وستبلغ طاقة المركز مستوى يكفى لتدريب وتوظيف 60 سيدة عند الوصول بالمركز لطاقته االستيعابية الكاملة.

وعبر الشيخ صالح التركي رئيس شركة نسما عن فخره بهذا المشروع مؤكدًا أن "رسالة المشروع تكمن في خلق فرص وظيفية مجدية للسيدات ورفع المستوى

المعيشي ألهالي ثول".

من جهته اعتبر نظمي النصر نائب رئيس جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية، أن مساهمة الجامعة في هذا المشروع جزء من استراتيجية الجامعة لتطوير

بلدة ثول وتوفير فرص عمل كريمة لالهالي.

واشار النصر إلى حرص الجامعة واهتمامها منذ اللحظة التي وضع فيها حجر األساس على تطوير وتنمية وتحديث بلدة ثول، واشرفت الجامعة على كل

مشروعات التنمية الجديدة في ثول، وذلك انطالقًا من المسؤولية االجتماعية التي تضطلع بها الجامعة تجاه المكان وأهله وجميع سكانه كما هو شأن

الجامعات العالمية والمؤسسات العلمية العريقة. وهذا األمر أساس ثابت لدى القيادة الرشيدة حيث التنمية وإسعاد الناس هي محور اهتمام خادم الحرمين

الشريفين الملك سلمان بن عبدالعزيز حفظه اهلل.

وكانت جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية قد تولت، إنشاء أولى مراحل التطوير ، التي شملت إنشاء مرفأ للصيادين على أحدث وأرقى المستويات

،وكورنيش ثول بجميع مرافقه وتجهيزاته. باالضافة إلى مشاريع البنية التحتية القائم العمل فيها على قدم وساق.

KAUST recently signed an agreement with NESMA Holding Co. to open an embroidery center in the village of Thuwal. This initiative is part of KAUST and NESMA’s commitment to social responsibility and to raising the standard of living in the region. This initiative is also a realization of NESMA’s vision to establish “a factory in every village" and to participate in creating job op-portunities for Saudi women, as well as people with disabilities.

The new center will be comprised of the same departments found in NESMA’s centers in Jeddah and Khulais—sewing, electronic embroidery, design and thermal printing. All employ-ees will be trained to operate the individual sections and, at full capacity, the center will be able to employ up to 60 women.

NESMA President Saleh Al-Turki expressed his delight about the agreement by saying, "the main objective of the project is to create meaningful career opportunities for Saudi women and to help raise the standard of living for the people of Thuwal."

Mr. Nadhmi Al-Nasr, KAUST Executive Vice President for Admin-istration and Finance, said that KAUST’s contribution is part of the University's mission to help develop Thuwal village, which

includes creating good job opportunities. Al-Nasr also pointed out how KAUST has continually been committed to the devel-opment and modernization of the village since the University’s founding.

KAUST has supervised all new development projects in Thuwal and the University cultivates a great sense of social responsi-bility towards the people of its host town, as is the case for all well-established international universities and scientific institu-tions. Al-Nasr explained how such a fundamental commitment is of great importance to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who pays considerable interest to the development and welfare of the people of Saudi Arabia.

KAUST has taken the lead in helping to develop Thuwal, with projects such as the establishment of a modern port for fish-ermen, a beautifully built cornice and various other ongoing infrastructure projects.

Translated from the Arabic language article published August 11, 2015 in Al-Riyadh newspaper.

www.kaust.edu.sa 15


The Amateur Astronomy Association holds regular observation events throughout the year. The student led group recently kicked off the Fall 2015 semester with an event focused on the Moon and Saturn.

Around 75 participants gathered to peer into the heavens, learn about telescope assembly and more. Participants also ob-served the night sky using a specialized set of night binoculars.

“Everyone really enjoyed the event until the clouds showed up. Kids and adults alike found it surreal to watch Saturn’s charac-teristic rings,” said Lakshmi Selvakumaran.

The group plans to hold a star cluster viewing night to observe the Andromeda Galaxy, Orion Nebula and the Seven Sisters. All graduate students and KAUST community members are welcome to join the Amateur Astronomy Association. The group holds regular meetings, training sessions and night sky observations.

To join contact [email protected]

Astronomy club observation nights

Vanessa Robitzch Sierra is a doctoral student studying the biogeography of coral reef fishes under Professors Michael Berumen and Xabier Irigoyen in KAUST’s Reef Ecology Lab. Sierra’s research focuses on studying the population ge-

netics, connectivity and local adaptation of coral reef fish populations. Through this, she examines

why certain species populate one area versus anoth-er, and what drives patterns of endemism among the fish.

“I am in love with the Red Sea and all its undiscovered secrets and life forms,” Sierra said.

Sierra came to KAUST from Germany, where she received her bache-lor’s and master’s degrees in biology and international aquatic tropical ecology, respectively. To complete her master’s degree thesis, she carried out research in coral genetics at KAUST’s Red Sea Research Center, later deciding to join the Center for her Ph.D. studies.

“Saudi Arabia is a great place in which to study marine science because it is one of the only countries in the world having such expansive ac-cess to the Red Sea. Here, we also have the needed infrastructure and resources to explore this unique marine environment,” Sierra said.

My University Vanessa Robitzch Sierra

This month’s submission comes to us from Lijo Francis, a research scientist in the Water Desalination and Reuse Center. Francis took time out to read the latest Beacon in front of one of the world’s most famous monuments, the iconic Eiffel Tower.

When Gustave Eiffel’s compa-ny built Paris’ most recogniz-able monument for the 1889 World’s Fair, many regarded the massive iron structure with skepticism. Built on the Champ-de-Mars, in central Paris, the Eiffel Tower has three levels for visitors, with restaurants on the first and second. The third level observatory's upper platform is 276 m (906 ft.) above the ground, the highest accessi-ble observatory platform open to the public in the European Union.

It is repainted every seven years and welcomes more visitors than any other paid monument in the world—an estimated 7 million people per year, with some 500 employees responsi-ble for its daily operation.

If you’d like to be featured in upcoming issues, take a photo wherever you read The Beacon and send it to the editor at [email protected]

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2015 September Beacon