2017 May Beacon

May 2017 Shaban, 1438 Volume 8, Issue No. 5 ‫جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية‬

‫ المملكة العربية السعودية‬،‫ثول‬

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

www.kaust.edu.sa

‫تغير المناخ‬ ّ ‫الحد من‬ ّ ‫باستخدام الكربون األزرق‬

Mitigating climate change with blue carbon Page 6

Building an HPC ecosystem in the Kingdom Page 10

An algorithm for success Page 14

Tiptoeing to inspiration Page 24

Facing change through innovation at the 8th annual KIAB meeting Page 16

A student’s journey from KAUST to Stanford Page 26

The new combustion conversation Page 18 Recognized for technology and innovation Page 22

Bay Area Alumni dinner marks first of many events Page 27

In brief

The University Library offers a variety of trainings and classes designed to help researchers and students get the most from the Library’s wide array of resources and to improve their research skills. Sessions are available to all members of the KAUST community. To reserve your seat, visit libguides.kaust.edu.sa/libtraining.

The Beacon Volume 8, Issue No. 5

Omar Knio, professor of applied mathematics and computational science, will serve as the chair of the Winter Enrichment Program (WEP) 2018. The ninth WEP, which will run from January 14 to 25, 2018, and the satellite programs in the spring and the fall will be under his leadership, energy and expertise. WEP creates a lively and engaging atmosphere, taking the KAUST community away from regular activities and bringing community members together with eminent guests from around the world. The University leadership and the Enrichment Program team thank Knio for his commitment to WEP 2018 and the community. WEP 2018 is now open for proposals—submit yours at wepproposals.kaust.edu.sa by May 14.

The Chemical Warehouse launched the Consumables Return Program to enhance the utilization of lab consumables by the KAUST research community. Researchers may donate unutilized laboratory consumables that can be used by fellow researchers to the Chemical Warehouse.

These items can then be ordered from the Chemical Warehouse as free of cost. You can order the returned lab research consumables through the Sciquest catalog as part of the usual warehouse items ordering process. For more details, call 808-0768 or email MRP.Team@kaust.edu.sa.

The Analytical Chemistry Core Lab held a seminar on High Resolution and Accurate Mass Spectrometry (HRAMS) on March 20.

The seminar featured speaker Dr. Matthias Witt from FTMS Applications, Bruker Daltonik GmbH, and covered important topics in the area of high-resolution and accurate mass spectrometry. It also introduced the new 9.4T SolariX XR FT-ICR MS in the Analytical Chemistry Core Lab.

PUBLISHED BY MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The Beacon Staff Managing Editor: Nicholas Demille Arabic Editor: Salah Sindi English Editor: Caitlin Clark Designer: Omnia Attallah Writers: David Murphy, Meres J. Weche Translator: Adel Alrefaie Photographers: Ginger Lisanti, Lilit Hovhannisyan The Beacon is published monthly. © 2017 King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

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THE BEACON | MAY 2017

The KAUST community held the 2017 Parade of Nations and picnic on March 2, celebrating the over 100 different nationalities making up the University. Watch a video of the event's colorful displays by scanning the QR code above. Video by Timothy Bowes.

The KAUST Materials Research Society student chapter organized a virtual lecture on “Academic résumés, cover letters and CV writing” on March 22 at 3:00 p.m. in the Student Center (building 18). The lecture was based on pre-recorded content delivered at the 2016 MRS Fall Meeting and Exhibit in Boston, Massachusetts, by Melanie Parker, the executive director of Global Education & Career Development at MIT. The event was cosponsored by Graduate Affairs and the KAUST Solar Center.

Alumni Affairs launched Rapport, an exciting networking and news portal exclusively for the KAUST global alumni community, on April 10 in the Student Center (building 18). Rapport offers a range of features, including a directory, online mentoring, the latest KAUST news and more. Alumni will be able to keep in touch with each other and seek out professional opportunities or career help and advice. For further information, contact Alumni Affairs at alumni@kaust.edu.sa.

The KAUST Visual Computing Center (VCC) hosted the KAUST Research Conference: Visual Computing - Modeling and Reconstruction from April 10 to 12, bringing visual computing experts from KAUST and abroad to the University's campus to discuss computer graphics and topics in geometry and simulation.

The conference featured internationally renowned keynote speakers, invited talks by faculty and researchers from KAUST, other international universities and industry and a student poster session. The event also included a VCC Open House on April 12 from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. in Al-Khawarizimi (building 1).

IT Research Computing held a training in the MedeA simulation environment on April 11.

The simulation environment encompasses the applications VASP, LAMMPS, Gaussian, GIBBS and MOPAC and makes them easy to use. Users of these applications were invited to join the training. The training took place from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the Engineering Science Hall (building 9), Applied Math and Computer Lab (room 2223). It included a hands-on session, and the speakers were Xavier Rozanska, Rene Windiks and Alexander Mavromaras from Materials Design Inc. (France).

From April 14 to 19, the third Enrichment in the Spring program took place on the KAUST campus. The program explored the theme of "Pioneers" through a large array of events, including lectures, exhibitions and workshops that took the KAUST community on an adventure to discover new territories. International and inKingdom speakers shared their experiences of pioneering and gave insightful perspectives into their areas of knowledge.

The Spring 2017 semester's Community Concert took place on April 24 from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the Auditorium (building 20) and featured musicians from the KAUST community performing with the chorus, the orchestra and the Angklung Ensemble. The concert included original lyrics and music sung by the chorus, a special performance by the chorus with the Angklung Ensemble and the classical fun “Toy Symphony,� a musical work with parts for toy instruments performed by the orchestra.

The KAUST Research Conference: Predictive Complex Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) will be held from May 22 to 24 in the Engineering Science Hall (building 9). The conference will focus on cuttingedge research in the field of algorithmic development for CFD and multi-scale complex flow simulations. The workshop will gather top scientists from academia and industry in the multidisciplinary field of CFD to present and discuss their work. The conference's poster session will provide the opportunity for individuals to present their research and will offer an excellent venue for extended informal discussion with conference attendees.

The KAUST Supercomputing Core Lab collaborated with ANSYS and their Middle Eastern partner Fluid Codes to host a one-day workshop on April 16 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the University Library about ANSYSbased engineering applications using the Shaheen II supercomputer. The workshop aimed to engage industrial partners and educate engineering students.

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Accolades Hong Im inducted into National Academy of Engineering of Korea Hong Im, KAUST professor of mechanical engineering from the University's Clean Combustion Research Center (CCRC), has been inducted into the National Academy of Engineering of Korea (NAEK) as an international member.

1.

Hong Im, KAUST professor of mechanical engineering, was recently inducted into the National Academy of Engineering of Korea (NAEK). File photo.

2. Ahmed Bader, a KAUST

postdoctoral fellow, won the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Communications Society Young Professionals Best Innovation Award in March. Photo by Meres J. Weche.

3. A KAUST team participated in

the ground robotics challenge of the Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC) in Abu Dhabi in March.

Im was selected for his significant contributions in the theory and computational modeling of combustion phenomena. In particular, he has been recognized as one of the pioneers in direct numerical simulations (DNS) of turbulent combustion utilizing massively parallel supercomputers since the 1990s. Since 2013, he has been a core faculty member of the CCRC, leading state-of-theart computational research activities towards advanced power generation at higher efficiencies and lower emissions.

The National Academy of Engineering of Korea was inaugurated on October 30, 1995, and was established for the purpose of promoting the more efficient development of engineering and technology. The Academy acknowledges and honors engineers with outstanding achievements in technological development.

"It is a great honor to be part of such a select group of engineering leaders in Korea. This also gives me the opportunity to contribute to future engineering technology development in my motherland, which has grown from scratch to a major innovator during my lifetime," stated Im.

Postdoctoral fellow wins IEEE award Ahmed Bader, a postdoctoral fellow in the University's SRI - Center for Uncertainty Quantification in Computational Science & Engineering, won the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Communications Society (ComSoc) Young Professionals (YPs) Best Innovation Award in March in San Francisco, California, U.S. According to IEEE's ComSoc website, the award "provides a platform for ComSoc YPs to be recognized for their innovative ideas and to inspire all YPs to contribute their very best to the field."

Bader received the award at the ComSoc YPs luncheon event at the IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (IEEE WCNC 2017), the world's premiere wireless event that brings together professionals from academia, industry, governmental agencies and other independent institutions to discuss the advancement of wireless communications and networking technology. Bader's work on the design, development and commercialization of a novel mobile ad hoc networking technology won him the award.

After receiving his bachelor's degree from the University of Jordan (Amman, Jordan) in 2003, Bader earned a master's degree from The Ohio State University (U.S.) in 2006. He then received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Telecom ParisTech (France) in 2013. He has worked for more than 10 years in the wireless industry, previously holding positions at Emerson and Siemens.

Bader joined KAUST in 2013 and currently spearheads multiple applied research projects at the University, with several of these leading to patent-pending technologies. He is also a co-founder of Insyab Wireless, a Dubai-based company designing realtime connectivity solutions for unmanned systems. His research interests lie mainly in the domain of largescale wireless networks.

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THE BEACON | MAY 2017

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KAUST team wins third place in international robotics challenge A team from KAUST won third place in the ground robotics challenge of the inaugural Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC) organized by Khalifa University and held in Abu Dhabi in March.

Students and postdoctoral fellows from the KAUST Robotics, Intelligent Systems & Control (RISC) laboratory directed by Jeff Shamma, professor of electrical engineering, led the team, working with researchers from the Image and Video Understanding Lab (IVUL) of Professor Bernard Ghanem and researchers from the Computational Vision Lab (CVL) of Professor Ganesh Sundaramoorthi.

The MBZIRC competition aims to push the limits of autonomous robotics and accelerate the development of this rapidly growing area of technology, attracting participants from top robotics labs worldwide. This year, MBZIRC consisted of three challenges and a triathlontype “Grand Challenge,” all taking place in an outdoor arena involving both aerial robotics and mobile ground robotics.

The KAUST team performed best in Challenge 2, in which an autonomous ground vehicle was required to locate and navigate to a remote panel, identify a valve stem on the panel and finally grasp the appropriate tool among many to turn the valve—all without human intervention.

“The newly established RISC lab found itself competing against top international robotics labs, including the University of Bonn, ETH Zurich, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Georgia Tech and many more,” Shamma said. “Our team members worked very hard leading up to and during the event. It was an incredible experience and we look forward to representing KAUST at future competitions.”

The next MBZIRC will be held in 2019, featuring themes to inspire new technological advancements in the field.

Representatives from over 30 of the University's industry partners visited the KAUST campus on March 1 and 2 for the eighth annual meeting of the KAUST Industry Advisory Board (KIAB). Visit some of their key Twitter accounts to learn how their business intersects with the research ongoing at KAUST. Established in 1974, the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) works to fulfill Saudi Arabia's growing water demand. With help from SWCC, the Kingdom is now the world's leader in producing desalinated water from seawater. Learn more @swcc_ksa.

Since 2008, the Saudi National Water Company (NWC) has provided water and wastewater services for the Kingdom through following the latest international standards. Visit them @nwc_media.

Saudi Aramco's long history dates back to 1933, when Saudi Arabia granted an oil concession to Standard Oil of California. It established a subsidiary, the California Arabian Standard Oil company (Casoc), to manage the concession.

In 1938, Casoc discovered Saudi Arabia's first commercial oil field at Dhahran, and in 1944 the company’s name was changed to the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco). In 1988, the Kingdom completed the purchase of Aramco from its U.S. shareholders and created Saudi Aramco.

Learn more about this world-leading energy company by following @Saudi_Aramco.

The Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) believes in "Chemistry that Matters™." Established in 1976 and headquartered in Riyadh, SABIC is one of the world's top petrochemical companies, with business areas grouped into chemicals, polymers, performance chemicals, fertilizers, metals and innovative plastics. Learn more @SABIC. Ma'aden, the Saudi Arabian Mining Company, was founded in 1997 and is dedicated to developing the Kingdom's mineral resources. The company works in gold, phosphate, aluminum and industrial minerals. Visit them @MaadenKSA.

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@KAUST_News

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KAUST Official

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Mitigating climate change with blue carbon

By Caitlin Clark Blue carbon, or the carbon sequestered and stored in coastal and marine ecosystems, including seagrasses, mangroves, salt marshes and seaweed and in the sediments below, is one of the most effective mechanisms for climate change mitigation and improving the status of coastal ecosystems.

The KAUST Red Sea Research Center’s (RSRC) Research Workshop: Blue Carbon on March 20 and 21 focused on the role of these ecosystems in climate change mitigation and adaptation, featuring a series of international expert speakers and panelists from academia, specialized research organizations, including the Regional Organization for the Conservation of the Environment of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden (PERSGA), and Saudi Aramco discussing blue carbon initiatives and their importance around the world.

We must carefully design rehabilitation schemes and conserve our natural resources at the same time, rehabilitating areas that are important for climate change mitigation in a sustainable way.”

- Dr. Osama Faqeeha, Saudi Arabia’s deputy minister for environment from the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture

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THE BEACON | MAY 2017

Benefits of blue carbon Found on every continent except Antarctica, blue carbon ecosystems cover approximately 49 million hectares of the globe’s surface and sequester carbon dioxide (CO2) at much higher rates per unit area than terrestrial forests. Their soils can sequester carbon for extremely long periods—even up to millennia, as in the marine environment, they are safe from the forest fires that return carbon deposited in soils back to the atmosphere.

Blue carbon ecosystems generate multiple benefits—they regulate coastal water quality; provide habitats for fisheries and endangered marine species; protect from storms, floods and sea level rise; prevent shoreline erosion; and provide sources of food and ecotourism opportunities for coastal communities. When degraded, destroyed or converted to other land use, the ecosystems are sources of greenhouse gases, emitting their stored carbon in the form of CO2 into the oceans and the atmosphere.

Blue carbon ecosystems are being destroyed at rates of 340,000 to 980,000 hectares per year, making them some of the world’s most threatened ecosystems. It is estimated that 67 percent, 35 percent and 29 percent of the globe’s mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrass meadows, respectively, have already been lost, with a further 30 to 40 percent of seagrasses and tidal marshes and almost all unprotected mangroves expected to be lost in the next 100 years.

Loss of these ecosystems is estimated to result in 0.15 to 1.02 billion tons of CO2 released per year, with their destruction mostly occurring due to human activities such as coastal development, agriculture and aquaculture, mangrove forest exploitation and land and marine sources of pollution.

‫تغير المناخ باستخدام‬ ‫الحد من ّ‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫الكربون األزرق‬ ‫يعتبر الكربون األزرق‪ ،‬أو الكربون الذي تعزله األنظمة اإليكولوجية الشاطئية‬ ‫والبحرية وتخزنه في األعشاب البحرية وأشجار المانغروف والسبخات الملحية‬ ‫الحد من تغير المناخ‬ ‫والطحالب البحرية والرسوبيات في األسفل‪ ،‬أحد أهم آليات‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫في العالم‪.‬‬ ‫عقد مركز أبحاث البحر األحمر في جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية ورشة‬ ‫بعنوان‪" :‬الكربون األزرق"‪ .‬وتناولت الورشة‪ ،‬التي ُعقدت في ‪ 20‬و‪ 21‬مارس‪ ،‬دور‬ ‫تغير المناخ‪ .‬وشهدت الورشة‬ ‫هذه األنظمة اإليكولوجية في التكيف‬ ‫والحد من ّ‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫مشاركة عدد من المتحدثين الدوليين الخبراء وأعضاء لجان حوارية من الوسط‬ ‫األكاديمي ومؤسسات أبحاث مختصة كالهيئة اإلقليمية للمحافظة على بيئة البحر‬ ‫األحمر وخليج عدن (برسجا) وشركة أرامكو السعودية‪ ،‬ناقشوا مبادرات الكربون‬ ‫األزرق وأهميتها في مختلف أنحاء العالم‪.‬‬

‫فوائد الكربون األزرق‬ ‫توجد األنظمة اإليكولوجية للكربون األزرق في جميع القارات‪ ،‬ما عدا القارة‬ ‫القطبية الجنوبية‪ ،‬وتغطي مساحة تصل إلى ‪ 49‬مليون هكتار من سطح األرض‪.‬‬ ‫وتحتجز هذه األنظمة غاز ثاني أكسيد الكربون بمعدالت تفوق بكثير معدالت‬ ‫احتجازه في الغابات البرية بالنسبة لوحدة المساحة‪ ،‬ناهيك عن قدرة ترتبها على‬ ‫االحتفاظ بالكربون لفترات طويلة ً‬ ‫جدا تصل إلى ألفي عام‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫موطنا للثروات السمكية‬ ‫تنظم هذه األنظمة جودة المياه الشاطئية؛ وتقدم‬ ‫واألنواع البحرية المهددة باالنقراض؛ وتحمي من العواصف والفيضانات وارتفاع‬ ‫مستوى البحر؛ وتمنع تآكل الشريط الساحلي؛ وتوفر للمجتمعات الساحلية مصادر‬ ‫ً‬ ‫وفرصا للسياحة البيئية‪ .‬وعندما تتحلل أو تُ دمر أو تتحول إلى استخدام بري‬ ‫للغذاء‬ ‫آخر‪ ،‬تصبح مصادر لغازات الدفيئة‪ ،‬وتبعث الكربون المخزن فيها على شكل ثاني‬ ‫أكسيد الكربون (‪ )CO2‬إلى المحيطات والجو‪.‬‬

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‫ويجري تدمير األنظمة اإليكولوجية للكربون األزرق بمعدالت تتراوح بين ‪340,000‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫سنويا‪ ،‬مما يجعلها من األنظمة اإليكولوجية المعرضة ألكبر‬ ‫و‪ 980,000‬هكتار‬ ‫تهديد في العالم‪ .‬ويقدر بأن ‪ 67‬بالمئة من أشجار المانغروف و‪ 35‬بالمئة من‬ ‫المد ّية و‪ 29‬بالمئة من مروج األعشاب البحرية في العالم‪ ،‬قد‬ ‫السبخات الملحية‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫ضاعت‪ ،‬ناهيك عن توقع فقدان ما يتراوح بين ‪ 30‬و‪ 40‬بالمئة من األعشاب البحرية‬ ‫ً‬ ‫تقريبا في الـ‬ ‫المد ّية‪ ،‬وجميع أشجار المانغروف غير المحمية‬ ‫والسبخات الملحية‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫‪ 100‬عام المقبلة‪.‬‬ ‫ويتوقع أن يؤدي فقدان هذه األنظمة البيئية إلى إطالق ما يتراوح بين ‪0.15‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫علما أن تدمير هذه األنظمة‬ ‫سنويا‪،‬‬ ‫و‪ 1.02‬مليار طن من ثاني أكسيد الكربون‬ ‫يحدث بصورة رئيسية بفعل األنشطة البشرية كالتطوير الساحلي والزراعة‬ ‫واالستنبات المائي واستغالل غابات المانغروف ومصادر التلوث البرية والبحرية‪،‬‬ ‫تغير المناخ‪.‬‬ ‫أي كافة األنشطة التي تتفاقم بسبب ّ‬

‫الكربون األزرق من أجل العالم‬ ‫قال كارلوس دوارتي‪ ،‬أستاذ العلوم البحرية ومدير مركز أبحاث البحر األحمر في‬ ‫جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية‪ ،‬وأستاذ كرسي طارق أحمد الجفالي ألبحاث‬ ‫البحر األحمر‪" :‬يكتسي موضوع الكربون األزرق أهمية كبيرة للمملكة والعالم"‪ .‬وأشار‬ ‫إلى كيفية توضع األنظمة اإليكولوجية للكربون األزرق‪ ،‬بما فيها المانغروف‪ ،‬على‬ ‫طول السواحل البحرية الغربية والشرقية في المملكة العربية السعودية‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫جيدا على بيئة المملكة العربية السعودية‪ ،‬وهذا أمر‬ ‫وأضاف‪" :‬لقد جرى الحفاظ‬ ‫ينبغي أن يستمر ألجيال‪ .‬وبصورة فريدة من نوعها‪ ،‬لم تفقد أشجار المانغروف في‬ ‫المملكة‪ ،‬بل كانت مساحتها تزداد بنسبة تبلغ حوالي ‪ 30‬بالمئة‪ .‬ويعود هذا إلى‬ ‫الجهود التي بذلتها المملكة في مجال تطبيق استراتيجيات المحافظة والترميم‪،‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫مثال"‪.‬‬ ‫باإلضافة إلى جهود مؤسسات في القطاع الصناعي كشركة أرامكو‬

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‫‪1. Carlos Duarte, KAUST professor of‬‬

‫‪marine science, director of the University's Red Sea‬‬ ‫‪Research Center (RSRC) and the Tarek Ahmed Juffali‬‬ ‫‪research chair in Red Sea ecology, was a keynote‬‬ ‫‪speaker at the RSRC's Blue Carbon workshop.‬‬

‫‪2. Professor J. Boone Kauffman from Oregon State‬‬

‫‪University noted that blue carbon ecosystems have‬‬ ‫‪an important value for the world during his workshop‬‬ ‫‪presentation on March 21.‬‬

‫‪3, 4. Workshop speakers Tomohiro Kuwae (3) from‬‬

‫‪the Port and Airport Research Institute, Japan, and‬‬ ‫‪Oscar Serrano (4) from the School of Science, Edith‬‬ ‫‪Cowan University, Australia, talked to the KAUST‬‬ ‫‪audience about blue carbon topics.‬‬

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5 Blue carbon for the world “Blue carbon is very important to the Kingdom and the world,” stated workshop speaker Carlos Duarte, KAUST professor of marine science, director of the RSRC and the Tarek Ahmed Juffali research chair in Red Sea ecology. Duarte noted how blue carbon ecosystems—including mangroves—lie along Saudi Arabia’s east and west coasts.

“Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea environment has been well-preserved, and this is something that should continue for generations,” he said.

“Uniquely, in Saudi Arabia, mangroves in the Red Sea have not been lost but have been increasing at an area of about 30 percent. This is due to efforts from Saudi Arabia implementing conservation and restoration strategies and industry efforts from Saudi Aramco, for example. In contrast, about 90 percent of mangroves on the Arabian Gulf coast have been lost, with mangroves only protected inside Saudi Aramco’s precincts.”

Mangroves are the most important natural CO2 storage source—or “sink”—in the Kingdom. In recognition of this and as part of Saudi Aramco’s Corporate Biodiversity Plan, the company recently finalized plans for a mangrove eco-park in Rahima Bay on the Arabian Gulf coast, planting 10,000 mangrove seedlings there. At completion, the park is expected to protect 63 square kilometers of mangroves, salt marshes and seagrasses.

In 2015 alone, the company planted a total of 400,000 mangrove seedlings and has now planted over 900,000 seedlings along the shores of Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, aiming to reach a total of 2 million in 2017.

“Saudi Aramco’s massive mangrove planting scheme is extremely important,” Duarte said. “We are also partnering with Aramco to produce their blue carbon report, which is the world’s first industryled blue carbon report. We believe these efforts have led to Saudi Arabia being the only region where mangroves are increasing instead of decreasing.”

Restoring Saudi Arabia’s ecosystems Keynote speaker Dr. Osama Faqeeha, Saudi Arabia’s deputy minister for environment from the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, noted the Kingdom has ambitious plans to continue preserving its coastal and marine ecosystems.

“We want to restore the Kingdom’s natural flora that has suffered from logging, grazing and other human activities, but we want to do this very carefully, including taking into account water scarcity,” he said. “We have an initiative to plant 4 million mangrove trees over the next four years, expanding our planting of the trees in the Kingdom.

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THE BEACON | MAY 2017

“We must carefully design rehabilitation schemes and conserve our natural resources at the same time, rehabilitating areas that are important for climate change mitigation in a sustainable way.

Partners like Saudi Aramco, KAUST and NGOs are important enablers of our strategy.”

International conservation efforts Outside of Saudi Arabia, countries such as the United States and Australia have undertaken extensive blue carbon ecosystem restoration and protection measures. Some of these include policymaking, coastal management strategies and the development of tools used for restoring and conserving coastal ecosystems.

One system coming into use internationally is developing protocols for including coastal carbon services in carbon markets, which would encourage higher levels of private investment in costal habitat conservation efforts.

Income can be generated by conserving these ecosystems for their sequestration potential, and it is believed they could be comparable to, or even exceed, income generated by methods that degrade or destroy the ecosystems, such as agriculture, aquaculture or coastal development.

Paul Lavery, professor of marine ecology at Edith Cowan University (Australia), discussed some of these schemes in his workshop presentation, noting, “One of the major goals of the blue carbon community has been to make government and industry aware of the blue carbon crediting scheme. With Australia holding around 12 percent of the blue carbon habitats worldwide, it is one of the nations with the greatest potential to benefit from developing blue carbon schemes.”

Experts from the International Blue Carbon Initiative state that “voluntary carbon markets seem likely as a source of financial support for coastal ecosystem conservation and restoration activities,” pointing out that a number of mechanisms must be deployed in the future to preserve these ecosystems and the carbon that lies in their plant bodies, root systems and rich soils.

Increasing blue carbon awareness “We must engender local and international support for blue carbon ecosystems,” said conference speaker J. Boone Kauffman, a professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University (U.S.). “We are still lagging behind in terms of awareness when it comes to these ecosystems, but they can help meet the goals of national emission reduction strategies, and they have an important ‘keystone’ value in nature.”

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‫‪The KAUST Red Sea Research Center’s Research‬‬ ‫‪Workshop: Blue Carbon on March 20 and 21 focused‬‬ ‫‪on the role of blue carbon ecosystems in climate‬‬ ‫‪change mitigation and adaptation and featured talks‬‬ ‫‪and panel discussions by experts in the field.‬‬

‫‪6. Saudi Arabia's east and west coasts feature‬‬ ‫‪extensive mangrove populations—an important‬‬ ‫‪part of blue carbon ecosystems—that the country is‬‬ ‫‪working to preserve. Photo courtesy of Saudi Aramco.‬‬ ‫‪7. Seagrass meadows in the Red Sea are important‬‬ ‫‪components of the world's blue carbon ecosystem.‬‬ ‫‪Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.‬‬

‫‪8. A young Saudi boy helps to plant mangroves along‬‬ ‫‪Saudi Arabia's eastern coast as part of Saudi Aramco‬‬ ‫‪and Saudi Arabia's mangrove population restoration‬‬ ‫‪efforts. Photo courtesy of Saudi Aramco.‬‬

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‫‪8‬‬ ‫تعتبر أشجار المانغروف أهم مصدر طبيعي‪ ،‬أو "حوض"‪ ،‬لتخزين غاز ثاني أكسيد الكربون في‬ ‫ً‬ ‫واعترافا منها بهذا‪ ،‬وفي إطار خطة التنوع الحيوي فيها‪ ،‬وضعت أرامكو السعودية‬ ‫المملكة‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫مؤخرا خططا إلنشاء منتزه بيئي ألشجار المانغروف في خليج الرحيمة على شاطئ الخليج‬ ‫العربي‪ ،‬وزرعت ‪ 10‬آالف شتلة لشجرة المانغروف هناك‪ .‬ومن المتوقع للمنتزه لدى إكماله‬ ‫أن يؤمن حماية ‪ 63‬كيلومتر مربع من أشجار المانغروف والسبخات الملحية واألعشاب البحرية‪.‬‬ ‫لقد زرعت الشركة‪ ،‬في عام ‪ 2015‬لوحده‪ ،‬ما يصل إلى ‪ 400‬ألف شتلة مانغروف‪ ،‬وزرعت‬ ‫ً‬ ‫حاليا أكثر من ‪ 900‬ألف شتلة على طول سواحل محافظة الشرقية في المملكة العربية‬ ‫السعودية ليصل العدد اإلجمالي للشتالت المزروعة إلى مليوني شتلة في ‪.2017‬‬ ‫وقال دوارت‪" :‬تكتسي خطة زراعة المانغروف بكثافة‪ ،‬التي تتبعها شركة أرامكو‪ ،‬أهمية‬ ‫ً‬ ‫أيضا مع أرامكو في إعداد تقريرهم عن الكربون األزرق‪ ،‬وهو أول تقرير‬ ‫بالغة‪ .‬ونحن نشترك‬ ‫في العالم يجري إعداده في القطاع الصناعي‪ .‬ونعتقد أن هذه الجهود قد أدت إلى جعل‬ ‫المملكة العربية السعودية المنطقة الوحيدة في العالم التي تزداد فيها أعداد أشجار‬ ‫ً‬ ‫عوضا عن نقصانها‪.‬‬ ‫المانغروف‬

‫ترميم األنظمة اإليكولوجية في المملكة العربية السعودية‬ ‫أشار المتحدث الرئيسي الدكتور أسامة فقيها‪ ،‬وكيل وزارة البيئة والمياه والزراعة لشؤون‬ ‫ً‬ ‫خططا طموحة لمواصلة‬ ‫البيئة في المملكة العربية السعودية إلى أن المملكة تملك‬ ‫الحفاظ على أنظمتها اإليكولوجية الساحلية والبحرية‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫كثيرا من قطع األشجار والرعي‬ ‫قال‪" :‬نرغب في استعادة الحياة النباتية الطبيعية التي تضررت‬ ‫شح المياه بعين‬ ‫وغيرها من األنشطة البشرية‪ ،‬ولكننا ينبغي أن ننجز ذلك بحرص شديد مع أخذ ّ‬ ‫االعتبار‪ .‬لدينا مبادرة لزراعة ‪ 4‬ماليين شجرة مانغروف في غضون السنوات األربعة المقبلة‪،‬‬ ‫وتوسيع زراعة هذه األشجار في المملكة"‪.‬‬ ‫وأضاف‪" :‬يجب أن نصمم خطط التأهيل بعناية‪ ،‬دون استنزاف مواردنا الطبيعية في الوقت‬ ‫تغير المناخ على نحو مستدام‪ .‬ويعتبر شركاء‬ ‫ذاته‪ ،‬وأن نعيد تأهيل المناطق الهامة للحد من ّ‬ ‫مثل شركة أرامكو السعودية وجامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية والمنظمات غير‬ ‫الحكومية من مقومات تمكين هذه االستراتيجية"‪.‬‬

‫الجهود الدولية للحفاظ على البيئة‬ ‫لقد أجرت بلدان أخرى‪ ،‬كالواليات المتحدة األمريكية وأستراليا‪ ،‬عمليات ترميم موسعة‪،‬‬ ‫واتخذت تدابير لوقاية النظام اإليكولوجي للكربون األزرق‪ .‬وتشمل هذه التدابير وضع‬ ‫سياسات واستراتيجيات اإلدارة الساحلية‪ ،‬وتطوير أدوات تستخدم لترميم األنظمة اإليكولوجية‬ ‫الساحلية والحفاظ عليها‪.‬‬

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‫‪www.kaust.edu.sa‬‬

‫‪7‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫عالميا يتضمن وضع بروتوكوالت إلضافة‬ ‫ومن المزمع وضع نظام جديد قيد االستخدام‬ ‫خدمات الكربون الساحلي في أسواق الكربون‪ ،‬ما من شأنه أن يشجع على زيادة استثمار‬ ‫القطاع الخاص في جهود المحافظة على المواطن الساحلية للنباتات‪.‬‬ ‫ومن الممكن تحقيق األرباح عن طريق المحافظة على هذه األنظمة اإليكولوجية‪ ،‬التي‬ ‫تمتاز بقدرتها على تخزين الكربون األزرق و‪ /‬أو إمكانية احتجازه‪ ،‬وقد تضاهي أو ربما تتجاوز‬ ‫األرباح الناتجة عن األنشطة التي تؤدي إلى تحلل األنظمة اإليكولوجية وتدميرها كالزراعة‬ ‫واالستنبات المائي والتطوير الساحلي‪.‬‬ ‫وناقش بول الفيري‪ ،‬أستاذ اإليكولوجيا البحرية في جامعة إيدث كوان (أستراليا)‪ ،‬بعض هذه‬ ‫ً‬ ‫مشيرا إلى أن "أحد األهداف الرئيسية‬ ‫الخطط في عرضه الذي قدمه في إطار ورشة العمل‪،‬‬ ‫لمجتمع الكربون األزرق كان جعل الحكومة والقطاع الصناعي يدركان أهمية القروض الخاصة‬ ‫بالكربون األزرق‪ .‬وتعتبر أستراليا‪ ،‬التي تضم حوالي ‪ 12‬بالمئة من مواطن الكربون األزرق في‬ ‫العالم بأكمله‪ ،‬من أكثر البلدان المرشحة لالستفادة من وضع خطط خاصة بالكربون األزرق"‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫مصدرا‬ ‫ويقول خبراء من المبادرة الدولية للكربون األزرق‪" :‬قد تبدو أسواق الكربون الطوعية‬ ‫للدعم المالي للمحافظة على األنظمة اإليكولوجية الساحلية وأنشطة ترميمها"‪ ،‬مشيرين‬ ‫إلى ضرورة نشر عدد من اآلليات في المستقبل لحماية هذه األنظمة والكربون الموجود في‬ ‫نباتاتها وجذورها وتربتها الغنية‪.‬‬

‫رفع الوعي بالكربون األزرق‬ ‫قال البروفيسور جي‪ .‬بون كوفمان‪ ،‬المتحدث في المؤتمر‪ ،‬وهو أستاذ جامعي في قسم‬ ‫الثروات السمكية والحياة البرية في جامعة والية أوريغون (الواليات المتحدة األمريكية)‪:‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ودوليا لألنظمة اإليكولوجية للكربون األزرق‪ .‬فما زلنا متأخرين‬ ‫محليا‬ ‫دعما‬ ‫"ينبغي أن نحشد‬ ‫ً‬ ‫على صعيد الوعي بأهميتها‪ ،‬علما أن من شأنها المساعدة على تحقيق أهداف االستراتيجيات‬ ‫الوطنية على صعيد تخفيض االنبعاثات‪ ،‬ناهيك عن أهميتها في الطبيعة"‪.‬‬

Building an HPC ecosystem in the Kingdom

By David Murphy

The University held the seventh High Performance Computing (HPC) Saudi Arabia event—the premier regional event in the field—from March 13 to 15. The three-day conference aimed to create a space where researchers and industry representatives could meet, share ideas and experiences and discuss cooperation and collaboration.

The 2017 event focused on coordinated efforts for the advancement of an HPC ecosystem in the Kingdom. The first two days of the event included keynote speeches, invited talks, lightning talks, poster presentations, a vendor exhibition and an open discussion aimed at drafting an action plan for setting up an HPC ecosystem in Saudi Arabia.

Each plenary session commenced with a keynote talk, with speakers including Steven E. Koonin, director, NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP); Thomas Schulthess, director, Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) at Lugano; and Dr. Robert G. Voigt, a senior member of the technical staff at the Krell Institute.

The conference was a great chance to observe significant HPC interests in the Kingdom. There were lots of discussions on ways to enhance the HPC ecosystem in the Kingdom, and it was clear that KAUST can play a leading role in several of them.”

- Dr. Jysoo Lee, director of the KAUST Supercomputing Core Laboratory

Collaboration is key In his welcome address, Dr. Jysoo Lee, director of the KAUST Supercomputing Core Laboratory, praised the people behind the computing research—the people who help create the ecosystems, machinery and technology.

“The research we have and the people we have really makes KAUST special, and the Shaheen system is what we can be proud of,” Lee said. “What we are trying to do is to help and serve both KAUST and the Kingdom. Since you are here in KAUST, I want you to look at the opportunities and what can be done together."

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operations of urban systems, noting how HPC technology enriches the bustling cityscape that is New York City and how it can contribute to broader global issues.

“We need technologies and methodologies to analyze data about cities—there is science to be done here. Cities have been one of the most complex things that humans have created.

Cities are what matter, and by the end of the century, about three-fourths of humanity will be in cities.” Koonin said.

“If you want to change the energy system, technology is great, but the social factor is what you have to work on in the long run. It's not just about energy, it's about everything else that happens in a city. You need to understand infrastructure, environment and people to instrument a city,” he continued.

“Cities are built for people by people. You can't understand a city unless you understand its people. You can try understand one dimension of a city or you can focus on just one city and try discover its various dimensions. One of the biggest challenges is fusing different data sources into usable data. If you can take all of this data and analyze it through data-driven models, you can learn many things. We need to 'own' the data by having an intimate familiarly with it,” Koonin added.

How to make HPC mainstream Merle Giles, formerly of The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and now CEO of Moonshot Research LCC, described how needs differ in research computing. Giles discussed how he harnessed the various methodologies from his previous workplace in his new company.

“For 20 years or more, enterprise has treated HPC as a hobby— what we do in our new company is similar to what we did in NCSA, which is serve others and help others do what they know how to do better,” he said.

“A 'valley of death' exists in both the academic and industry sectors and nobody funds the middle, which is innovation.

We are left to our own practices to move through this middle ground," he added. "Some differences between research computing and the commercial side are also the differences between macro and micro economics. There is a big difference between high-level macroeconomics and the company level microeconomics. KAUST is an example of a clustering effect of a macroeconomic policy. The microeconomic effect is down to the level of the firm. I don't know any boardroom that talks about HPC—HPC has been in the R&D basement forever."

‘There is science to be done here’

On tackling the question of how to take HPC mainstream, Giles said, “Reducing time-to-impact is essential, and HPC plays a big part in this. The key to success is being obsessed with the customer. The customer wins in this game.”

In his opening keynote talk entitled "Better Cities through Data Acquisition and Analysis," Koonin highlighted his work and the work of CUSP in the field of urban science and systems.

He described how the center uses informatics to study the

“We have to know what goes on in HPC and we have to know about the companies. The HPC community is where we can solve things, and it may be the only way to peek under the hood and know how it works,” he concluded.

THE BEACON | MAY 2017

‫‪1. A total of 333 people attended the High‬‬ ‫‪Performance Computing (HPC) Saudi Arabia‬‬ ‫‪event held on the KAUST campus from March‬‬ ‫‪13 to 15.‬‬ ‫‪2. Jeff Nichols, acting director of the National‬‬

‫‪Center for Computational Sciences at the‬‬ ‫‪National Leadership Computing Facility at Oak‬‬ ‫‪Ridge National Lab (ORNL), speaks during the‬‬ ‫‪seventh HPC Saudi conference.‬‬

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‫بناء النظام اإليكولوجي للحوسبة‬ ‫عالية األداء في المملكة‬ ‫عقدت جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية الدورة السابعة من فعالية‬ ‫الحوسبة عالية األداء في المملكة العربية السعودية‪ ،‬وهي أهم مناسبة‬ ‫إقليمية في هذا المجال‪ ،‬وذلك من ‪ 13‬إلى ‪ 15‬مارس‪ .‬ويهدف المؤتمر‪،‬‬ ‫الذي ُعقد على مدار ثالثة أيام‪ ،‬إلى إنشاء منصة تتيح للباحثين وممثلي‬ ‫القطاع العملي اللقاء وتبادل األفكار والخبرات ومناقشة التعاون والتنسيق‬ ‫فيما بينهم‪.‬‬ ‫لقد ركزت فعالية ‪ 2017‬على الجهود المنسقة الرامية إلى النهوض بنظام‬ ‫إيكولوجي للحوسبة عالية األداء في المملكة‪ .‬واشتمل اليومان األوالن من‬ ‫الفعالية على كلمات رئيسية وكلمات لمدعوين وكلمات خاطفة‪ ،‬باإلضافة‬ ‫إلى عروض تقديمية لملصقات ومعرض للموردين ومناقشة مفتوحة تهدف‬ ‫إلى وضع خطة عمل أولية إلعداد نظام إيكولوجي للحوسبة عالية األداء في‬ ‫المملكة العربية السعودية‪.‬‬ ‫افتتحت كل جلسة من الجلسات العامة بكلمة رئيسية من متحدثين كستيفن‬ ‫إي كونين‪ ،‬مدير مركز جامعة نيويورك للعلوم الحضرية والتقدم العمراني؛‬ ‫وتوماس شولتس‪ ،‬مدير المركز الوطني السويسري للحوسبة الفائقة في‬ ‫لوغانو؛ والدكتور روبرت جي فويت‪ ،‬أحد كبار أعضاء طاقم العمل الفني في‬ ‫معهد كرل‪.‬‬

‫أهمية التعاون‬ ‫أثنى الدكتور جايسو لي‪ ،‬مدير المختبر األساسي للحوسبة الفائقة في جامعة‬ ‫الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية‪ ،‬في كلمته على من يقفون خلف أبحاث‬ ‫الحوسبة‪ ،‬أي الذين يساعدون على إنشاء األنظمة اإليكولوجية واآلالت والتقنية‪.‬‬ ‫"تتميز جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية باألبحاث التي تجريها‬ ‫وقال‪:‬‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫ً‬ ‫معلما يبعث على‬ ‫وبالطاقات البشرية التي تتمتع بها‪ ،‬كما يمثل نظام شاهين‬ ‫االعتزاز‪ .‬ونحن نسعى لمساعدة الجامعة والمملكة وخدمتهما‪ .‬وطالما أنكم‬ ‫موجودون هنا في جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية‪ ،‬فأنا أهيب بكم‬ ‫التفكير بالفرص المتاحة وبما يمكن أن ننجزه ً‬ ‫معا"‪.‬‬

‫"هناك علم ينبغي إنجازه هنا"‬ ‫وفي كلمته الرئيسية االفتتاحية بعنوان "مدن أفضل من خالل اكتساب البيانات‬ ‫وتحليلها"‪ّ ،‬‬ ‫سلط كونين الضوء على عمله وعمل مركز جامعة نيويورك للعلوم‬ ‫الحضرية والتقدم العمراني في مجال العلوم واألنظمة الحضرية‪ .‬ووصف كيف‬ ‫ً‬ ‫مشيرا‬ ‫يستخدم المركز تقنية المعلومات في دراسة عمليات األنظمة الحضرية‪،‬‬ ‫إلى أن تقنية الحوسبة عالية األداء تثري منظر مدينة نيويورك الصاخبة‪ ،‬وتسهم‬ ‫ً‬ ‫نطاقا‪.‬‬ ‫في إيجاد حلول لقضايا عالمية أوسع‬ ‫قال كونين‪" :‬نحتاج إلى تقنيات ومنهجيات لتحليل بيانات المدن‪ ،‬فثمة علم‬ ‫ينبغي إنجازه هنا‪ .‬لقد كانت المدن من أعقد األشياء التي اخترعها البشر‪.‬‬ ‫فالمدن هي ما يهمنا‪ ،‬وبحلول نهاية هذا القرن‪ ،‬سيكون حوالي ثالثة أرباع‬ ‫سكان العالم يعيشون في المدن"‪.‬‬

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‫‪www.kaust.edu.sa‬‬

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‫ً‬ ‫أيضا أن نراعي‬ ‫وأضاف‪" :‬إذا أردنا تغيير نظام الطاقة‪ ،‬فالتقنية رائعة‪ ،‬ولكننا ينبغي‬ ‫العامل االجتماعي على المدى الطويل‪ .‬وال يتوقف األمر على الطاقة لوحدها‪،‬‬ ‫بل على كافة جوانب ما يجري في مدينة ما‪ .‬وينبغي أن نفهم البنية التحتية‬ ‫والبيئة والناس إذا أردنا تنظيم المدن"‪.‬‬ ‫وأضاف‪" :‬يبنى البشر المدن من أجل البشر‪ .‬وال يمكن فهم مدينة ما إن لم‬ ‫نفهم سكانها‪ .‬ومن الممكن السعي لفهم بعد واحد لمدينة ما‪ ،‬أو التركيز على‬ ‫عد دمج مختلف مصادر‬ ‫مدينة واحدة والسعي الستكشاف أبعادها المختلفة‪ُ .‬‬ ‫وي ّ‬ ‫البيانات في قاعدة بيانات واحدة قابلة لالستخدام من التحديات الكبرى‪ .‬وإذا‬ ‫ً‬ ‫موجهة بالبيانات‪،‬‬ ‫كان‬ ‫ممكنا أخذ كل هذه البيانات وتحليلها باستخدام نماذج ّ‬ ‫فمن الممكن معرفة أشياء كثيرة‪ .‬وينبغي أن نملك البيانات من خالل الحفاظ‬ ‫على ارتباط وثيق بها"‪.‬‬

‫كيف يمكن إعداد الجانب الرئيسي للحوسبة‬ ‫عالية األداء‬ ‫ً‬ ‫سابقا في المركز الوطني لتطبيقات‬ ‫وصف ميرل جايلز‪ ،‬الذي كان يعمل‬ ‫الحوسبة الفائقة (‪ ،)NCSA‬والرئيس التنفيذي الحالي لشركة "مونشوت لألبحاث‬ ‫إل سي سي" كيف تختلف الحاجات في حوسبة األبحاث‪ .‬وناقش جايلز كيف‬ ‫استفاد من المنهجيات المختلفة من عمله السابق في شركته الجديدة‪.‬‬ ‫وقال‪" :‬كانت الشركة تتعامل مع الحوسبة عالية األداء كهواية طوال عشرين‬ ‫ً‬ ‫عاما أو أكثر‪ ،‬إذ أن ما نقوم به في شركتنا الجديدة يشبه ما قمنا به في المركز‬ ‫الوطني لتطبيقات الحوسبة الفائقة (‪ ،)NCSA‬الذي يخدم اآلخرين ويساعدهم‬ ‫على القيام بما يعرفونه بطريقة أفضل"‪.‬‬ ‫(واد من الموت) في كل من القطاعين األكاديمي والعملي‪،‬‬ ‫وأضاف‪" :‬يوجد ٍ‬ ‫وال أحد يمول المنطقة الوسطى أي اإلبداع‪ .‬لقد تُ ركنا لطرق عملنا الخاصة كي‬ ‫نتنقل عبر هذه األرض الوسطى‪ .‬فبعض الفروقات بين حوسبة األبحاث والجانب‬ ‫ً‬ ‫أيضا الفروقات بين االقتصاد الكلي والجزئي‪ .‬فهناك فرق كبير بين‬ ‫التجاري هي‬ ‫االقتصاد الكلي عالي المستوى واالقتصاد الجزئي على مستوى الشركة‪ .‬وتمثل‬ ‫ً‬ ‫نموذجا لألثر التجميعي لسياسة اقتصاد‬ ‫جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية‬ ‫كلي‪ .‬وينزل أثر االقتصاد الجزئي إلى مستوى المؤسسة‪ .‬ولم أسمع بأي قاعة‬ ‫اجتماعات لمجلس اإلدارة تتحدث عن الحوسبة عالية األداء‪ ،‬فقد جرت العادة على‬ ‫تركها في قبو األبحاث والتطوير إلى األبد"‪.‬‬ ‫وفي معرض إجابته على سؤال عن كيفية التعامل مع الجانب األساسي للحوسبة‬ ‫عالية األداء‪ ،‬قال جايلز‪" :‬يكتسي تخفيض زمن التأثير أهمية كبيرة‪ ،‬كما أن الحوسبة‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫كبيرا في هذا‪ .‬ويتمثل مفتاح النجاح باالهتمام الكبير‬ ‫دورا‬ ‫عالية األداء تلعب‬ ‫بالعمالء‪ .‬فالعميل هو الطرف الرابح في هذه اللعبة"‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫قائال‪" :‬ينبغي أن نعرف ما يجري في الحوسبة عالية األداء‪ ،‬وأن‬ ‫واختتم كالمه‬ ‫نعرف ما يجري في الشركات‪ .‬وتتمثل الوظيفة األساسية لمجتمع الحوسبة‬ ‫عالية األداء في إيجاد حلول للمشاكل‪ ،‬وقد يكون استراق النظر إلى كيفية عمل‬ ‫الشركات السبيل الوحيد لذلك"‪.‬‬

4

3 ‘Taking charge of change’ Raed Al-Rabeh, manager of EXPEC Network Operations at Saudi Aramco, spoke about how there is a complex plethora of new technologies with new disciplines and modes of operations available to all developers, industry and computing researchers. He discussed how by virtue of this, a whole new plane of possibility in HPC is now attainable that was unthinkable a few years ago. Al-Rabeh also discussed the need to adjust to these changes in the HPC landscape and to adapt to avoid the risk of being left behind.

“It's not about change—it's about us taking charge of change and making good use of it," he said. “In HPC, you have to understand the architecture and go to very low levels of understanding to get the most out of the system. You have to be a scientist with a strong background in computer engineering or an electrical engineer to get the most out of it. The HPC challenges are not that different from the IT challenges, but they go to a different level.”

“We need to spot opportunities to make good use of our systems—gone are the days when research was funded just for the sake of research. Research is now funded if it drives new opportunities that are close to home—the industry and the society and where we live, not some theoretical question out there in space. Innovation must happen as a regular process, and agility is critical, “ he added.

“Our customers aren't interested in becoming computer scientists or experts so they can use products. They expect the products to work. Technology requires resources and the knowledge is not very widespread. We need to spread the knowledge and bring it up-to-speed, and we need to embrace the change and be aware of it to give us the advantage,” he noted.

“We need alignment between business and research, with research doing what business needs. This kind of alignment fuels the research, and then products of the research are deployable and usable. Especially in the Kingdom, very few companies realize the applications of HPC,” Al-Rabeh concluded.

Following on from Al-Rabeh, Sreekanth Pannala from the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) highlighted the role HPC plays in SABIC and how it aids the company's goals and productivity rates for the Kingdom.

“We look towards our capabilities from a computing perspective—we look at novel solutions from an HPC perspective to make things faster,” Pannala said.

‘We must move forward’ In his keynote talk, Schulthess reflected on the goals and baseline for exascale computing and how a capable exascale computing system requires an entire computational ecosystem behind it.

“It's amazing to see so many people engaged with HPC in the Middle East.

Globally, we have to figure out what we want to accomplish in particular areas. Today, the fastest supercomputers sustain 20 to 100 petaflops on HPL, and investment in software allows mathematical improvements and changes in architecture,” Schulthess said. “I don't know what that architecture will be in five to 10 years, but we must move forward with it."

In his presentation, Muhammad El-Rabaa, an associate professor at the Department of Computer Engineering at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), outlined how new applications have propelled HPC to the forefront of computing.

“New applications have catapulted HPC from narrow scientific applications domain to the mainstream—applications like the cloud, pocket processing, machine learning, searches, analytics, business logic, etc. Computing platforms have continuously evolved with new platforms continuing to emerge,” he said.

He also highlighted the increasing role of field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), an integrated circuit that can be configured after manufacturing.

“Instead of building one chip, you can now have a few chips, as it is more economical. Several hi-tech executives say that FGPAs will constitute 20 percent of data centers by 2020,” he added.

A fast-moving world Jeff Brooks, director of supercomputing product management at Cray, discussed the upcoming technology shifts in the marketplace and the implications for systems design in the exascale era.

12

THE BEACON | MAY 2017

“Systems with millions of cores will become commonplace. We are trying to invest more in data work, make it work better and scale it out.

We want to couple analytics with simulation,” Brooks said. "Another thing that is coming is small, fast memories—systems with millions of cores— will become commonplace. This is a fast-moving world, but by working together you can solve problems you couldn't do before."

Delivering scientific solutions Jeff Nichols, acting director of the National Center for Computational Sciences at the National Leadership Computing Facility at Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL), discussed the several scientific areas that require an integrated approach and the effort in creating an exascale ecosystem that enables successful delivery of important scientific solutions across a broad range of disciplines.

“We need to think about how we're being connected to the data that is generated from the sensors all around us. Our Compute and Data Environment for Science (CADES) provides a shared infrastructure to help solve big science problems. We try to connect our data to our in-silico information from the top down.”

“We have to think about the type of data we are actually deploying on these systems. This is a very complicated workflow scenario we have to come up with. We have four pillars which are: application development, software technology, hardware technology and exascale systems. The Oak Ridge leadership computing facility is on a well-defined path to exascale. We're interested in our ecosystem delivering important and critical science for the nation and the world,” he said.

Patricia Damkroger, vice president of the Data Center Group at Intel, spoke on the convergence of simulation and data.

“At Intel, we look at the whole ecosystem. There will be new systems and new workloads and we will need to figure out what is the underlying architecture and hardware that makes those systems work. It’s a question of how can we create a common architecture for data and simulation. The world is changing, and without analytics and AI workloads, we will drown in data,” she said.

Educating computational scientists Voigt opened the final plenary session of the event with his keynote presentation entitled "The Education of Computational Scientists." His talk centered on providing a historical perspective of the challenges of educating future computational scientists based on his career experiences.

“One might argue that scientific computing began in the 1950s, and in 1982, computational science was recognized. Computational science takes on a discipline of its own, and there is an opportunity to learn about aspects of computational science through exploring multidisciplinary searches,” Voigt said.

“Computational science involves the integration of knowledge and methodologies. There is now an explosion of data and new areas of science and engineering. There are also rapidly changing computer architectures,” he added.

A leading role in HPC The third day of the conference offered eight tutorials on emerging technical topics of interest, such as advanced performance tuning and optimization offered by Allinea, Intel and Cray; the best practices of HPC procurement by RedOak; and SLURM workload management by SchedMD. The most popular were “HPC 101,” which offered a step-bystep guide on how to use Shaheen II, and NVIDIA’s tutorial on the popular topic of deep learning.

A total of 333 people attended the High Performance Computing Saudi Arabia event, making it one of the biggest conferences held at KAUST. “The conference was a great chance to observe significant HPC interests in the Kingdom. There were lots of discussions on ways to enhance the HPC ecosystem in the Kingdom, and it was clear that KAUST can play a leading role in several of them,” noted Lee.

‫"تولي مسؤولية التغيير"‬ ‫تحدث رائد الرابح‪ ،‬مدير إدارة عمليات شبكة مركز كمبيوتر التنقيب وهندسة البترول (‪)EXPEC‬‬ ‫في شركة أرامكو السعودية عن وجود الكثير من التقنيات الجديدة المعقدة التي تمتاز بمجاالت‬ ‫وأنظمة تشغيل جديدة متاحة لكافة المطورين والقطاعات والباحثين في الحوسبة‪ .‬وناقش‬ ‫ً‬ ‫كليا في الحوسبة عالية األداء‪ ،‬لم يكن يخطر‬ ‫كيف أن هذا أسهم في توفير مستوى جديد‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ببال أحد قبل عدة أعوام‪ .‬كما ناقش الرابح أيضا أهمية ضبط هذه التغييرات في المشهد العام‬ ‫التكيف بغية تجنب خطر التخلف عن ركب التقدم"‪.‬‬ ‫للحوسبة عالية األداء‪ ،‬وضرورة‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫ً‬ ‫جيدا‪ .‬ومن الممكن باستخدام‬ ‫قال‪" :‬ال يتعلق األمر بالتغيير فقط‪ ،‬بل بتولي مسؤوليته واستثماره‬ ‫الحوسبة عالية األداء فهم الهيكل العام والوصول إلى مستويات دقيقة ً‬ ‫جدا من الفهم للحصول‬ ‫ً‬ ‫عالما يملك معلومات واسعة في هندسة‬ ‫على الفائدة القصوى من النظام‪ .‬وينبغي أن تكون‬ ‫الحاسب اآللي أو الهندسة الكهربائية كي تتمكن من تحقيق الفائدة القصوى منه‪ .‬فتحديات‬ ‫ً‬ ‫مختلفا"‪.‬‬ ‫الحوسبة عالية األداء ال تختلف عن تحديات تقنية المعلومات‪ ،‬ولكنها تبلغ مستوى‬ ‫وأضاف‪" :‬يجب أن نحدد فرص االستفادة من أنظمتنا‪ ،‬فقد ولى الزمن الذي كان يجري فيه‬ ‫ً‬ ‫حاليا تمول إذا كانت تثمر عن فرص جديدة‬ ‫تمويل األبحاث من أجل األبحاث فقط‪ .‬فاألبحاث‬ ‫قريبة من المنزل والقطاع والمجتمع الذي نعيش فيه‪ ،‬ال األبحاث التي تجيب عن سؤال نظري‬ ‫في الفضاء‪ .‬ويجب أن يتحقق االبتكار كعملية منتظمة‪ ،‬كما أن السرعة هامة ً‬ ‫جدا"‪.‬‬ ‫وأشار‪" :‬ال يهتم عمالؤنا بأن يصبحوا علماء أو خبراء في الحاسب اآللي بحيث يمكنهم استخدام‬ ‫المنتجات‪ .‬هم يتوقعون من المنتجات أن تعمل‪ .‬وتتطلب التقنية الموارد‪ ،‬ناهيك عن أن المعرفة‬ ‫ً‬ ‫كثيرا‪ .‬وينبغي أن ننشر المعرفة وأن نجعلها تواكب إيقاع التطور‪ ،‬وأن‬ ‫ليست واسعة االنتشار‬ ‫نتبنى التغيير وندركه كي نحصد الفائدة المنشودة"‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫قائال‪" :‬نحتاج إلى تأمين االنسجام بين األعمال واألبحاث‪ ،‬حيث تقوم‬ ‫واختتم الرابح كلمته‬ ‫األبحاث بما تحتاجه األعمال‪ .‬ويغذي هذا النوع من االنسجام األبحاث‪ ،‬ومن ثم تصبح منتجات‬ ‫األبحاث قابلة للنشر واالستخدام‪ .‬وخاصة في المملكة العربية السعودية حيث ال يستخدم إال‬ ‫عدد ضئيل من الشركات تطبيقات الحوسبة عالية األداء"‪.‬‬ ‫ومتابعة لكلمة الرابح‪ّ ،‬‬ ‫سلط سريكانث باناال من الشركة السعودية للصناعات األساسية (سابك)‬ ‫الضوء على الدور الذي تلعبه الحوسبة عالية األداء في (سابك)‪ ،‬وكيف تساعد على تحقيق‬ ‫أهداف الشركة ورفع معدالت اإلنتاجية في المملكة‪.‬‬ ‫"نحن نتطلع إلى إمكانياتنا من منظور الحوسبة‪ ،‬أي أننا نهتم بحلول جديدة من منظور الحوسبة‬ ‫عالية األداء لتسريع تنفيذ المهام"‪.‬‬

‫ً‬ ‫قدما"‬ ‫"علينا أن نمضي‬ ‫تمعن شولتز في كلمته الرئيسية في أهداف ومنطلق الحوسبة من مرتبة إكسا (‪exascale‬‬ ‫‪ ،)computing‬وكيف أن نظامها يتطلب نظام حوسبة إيكولوجي كامل يسانده‪.‬‬ ‫قال شولتز‪" :‬من المذهل رؤية الكثير من المهتمين بالحوسبة عالية األداء في الشرق األوسط‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫حاليا‪ ،‬تجري الحواسب الفائقة ما‬ ‫عالميا‪ ،‬يجب علينا أن نعرف ما نريد إنجازه في مجاالت محددة‪.‬‬ ‫يتراوح بين ‪ 20‬و‪ 100‬بيتا فلوبس (عملية نقطة عائمة لكل ثانية) بحسب مقياس الحواسب عالية‬ ‫األداء (‪ ،)Linpack‬ويتيح االستثمار في البرمجيات إجراء تحسينات رياضية وتغييرات في الهيكلية‪.‬‬ ‫وال أعرف كيف سيكون شكل تلك الهيكلية في غضون ‪ 5‬أو عشر سنوات‪ ،‬ولكننا يجب أن‬ ‫ً‬ ‫قدما بها"‪.‬‬ ‫نمضي‬ ‫وفي عرضه التقديمي‪ ،‬شرح محمد الربع األستاذ المشارك في قسم هندسة الحاسب اآللي في‬ ‫جامعة الملك فهد للبترول والمعادن (‪ )KFUPM‬بإيجاز كيف أسهمت التطبيقات الجديدة في‬ ‫وضع الحوسبة عالية األداء في صدارة الحوسبة‪.‬‬ ‫وقال‪" :‬لقد أسهمت التطبيقات الجديدة في نقل الحوسبة عالية األداء من نطاق التطبيقات‬ ‫العلمية الضيقة إلى تطبيقات االتجاه السائد كالسحابة ومعالجة الجيب والتعلم اآللي وعمليات‬ ‫البحث والتحليالت ومنطق األعمال ‪...‬إلخ‪ .‬لقد واصلت منصات الحوسبة تطورها باستمرار مع‬ ‫استمرار ظهور منصات جديدة"‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫أيضا على الدور المتزايد لمصفوفات البوابات المنطقية القابلة للبرمجة‬ ‫كما سلط الضوء‬

‫ً‬ ‫"عوضا عن بناء رقاقة‬ ‫(‪ ،)FPGAs‬وهي دارة متكاملة يمكن تعريفها بعد تصنيعها‪ .‬وأضاف‪:‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫حاليا استخدام بضع رقاقات‪ ،‬فهذا اقتصادي أكثر‪ .‬ويقول عدة مديرين كبار‬ ‫واحدة‪ ،‬يمكن‬ ‫مختصين بالتقنية العالية إن مصفوفات البوابات المنطقية القابلة للبرمجة (‪ )FPGAs‬ستمثل ‪20‬‬ ‫بالمئة من مراكز البيانات بحلول عام ‪."2020‬‬

‫التغير‬ ‫عالم سريع‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫ناقش جيف بروكس‪ ،‬مدير إدارة منتج الحوسبة الفائقة في "كراي" التطورات التقنية القادمة‬ ‫في السوق وعواقب ذلك على تصميم األنظمة في حقبة الحوسبة من مرتبة إكسا‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫قال بروكس‪" :‬ستصبح األنظمة التي تحوي ماليين األنوية ً‬ ‫مألوفا‪ .‬ونحن نسعى لالستثمار‬ ‫أمرا‬ ‫أكثر في عمل البيانات‪ ،‬وتحسين عمله وتكبير حجمه‪ .‬ونريد أن نقرن بين التحليل والمحاكاة‪ .‬وثمة‬ ‫ً‬ ‫شيء آخر قادم سيصبح ً‬ ‫مألوفا‪ .‬إنه الذاكرة الصغيرة السريعة‪ ،‬وهي أنظمة تحوي ماليين‬ ‫أمرا‬ ‫األنوية‪ .‬لقد بات العالم يتطور بخطوات متسارعة‪ ،‬ولكننا نستطيع من خالل العمل ً‬ ‫معا إيجاد‬ ‫ً‬ ‫سابقا"‪.‬‬ ‫حلول للمشاكل التي عجزنا عن حلها‬

‫تقديم حلول علمية‬ ‫ناقش جيف نيكوالس‪ ،‬المدير باإلنابة للمركز الوطني للعلوم الحسابية ومنشأة حوسبة القيادة‬ ‫الوطنية في مختبر أواك ريدج الوطني (‪ )ORNL‬المجاالت العلمية العديدة التي تتطلب منهجية‬ ‫متكاملة والجهود الالزمة إلنشاء نظام إيكولوجي من مرتبة إكسا يتيح تقديم حلول عملية‬ ‫ناجعة في مجموعة واسعة من االختصاصات‪.‬‬ ‫"ينبغي أن نفكر كيف يتم وصلنا بالبيانات التي يجري توليدها من الحساسات التي تحيط بنا‪.‬‬ ‫وتزودنا "بيئة الحساب والبيانات من أجل العلوم" ببنية تحتية مشتركة تساعدنا على إيجاد حلول‬ ‫ً‬ ‫حاسوبيا من القمة إلى القاعدة"‪.‬‬ ‫لمشاكل علمية كبيرة‪ .‬ونسعى لوصل بياناتنا إلى معلوماتنا‬ ‫ً‬ ‫عد هذا من‬ ‫وأضاف‪" :‬علينا أن نفكر بنوع البيانات التي ننشرها‬ ‫فعليا على هذه األنظمة‪ُ .‬‬ ‫وي ّ‬ ‫سيناريوهات تدفق سير العمل المركبة ً‬ ‫جدا التي ينبغي أن نخرج بها‪ .‬لدينا أربعة ركائز هي‪ :‬تطوير‬ ‫التطبيق وتقنية البرمجيات وتقنية المعدات الحاسوبية واألنظمة من مرتبة إكسا‪ .‬وتعمل منشأة‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫وصوال إلى مرتبة إكسا‪ .‬ونحن مهتمون‬ ‫جيدا‬ ‫حوسبة القيادة في أواك ريدج على مسار محدد‬ ‫ً‬ ‫علوما هامة وحاسمة لألمة والعالم"‪.‬‬ ‫بأن يقدم نظامنا اإليكولوجي‬ ‫وتحدثت باتريسيا دامكروغر نائب رئيس مجموعة مركز البيانات في "إنتل" عن اقتراب ظهور‬ ‫المحاكاة والبيانات‪.‬‬ ‫وقالت‪" :‬نتطلع في إنتل إلى النظام اإليكولوجي بأكمله‪ .‬ستظهر أنظمة وحموالت عمل‬ ‫جديدة‪ ،‬ويجب أن ندرك الهيكل الداعم والمعدات الحاسوبية الالزمة لتشغيل هذه األنظمة‪.‬‬ ‫ويمكن تلخيص المسألة بكيفية إنشاء هيكل مشترك للبيانات والمحاكاة‪ .‬فالعالم يتغير‪ ،‬وال شك‬ ‫بأننا سنغرق في بحر البيانات من دون التحليل وحموالت الذكاء الصناعي"‪.‬‬

‫تثقيف علماء الحوسبة‬ ‫افتتح فويت الجلسة العامة الختامية للفعالية بعرضه التقديمي الرئيسي الذي عنوانه "تثقيف‬ ‫علماء الحوسبة"‪ .‬وركزت كلمته على تقديم منظور تاريخي لتحديات تثقيف علماء الحوسبة‬ ‫ً‬ ‫استنادا إلى تجربته المهنية‪.‬‬ ‫المستقبليين‬ ‫قال فويت‪" :‬يمكن القول إن الحوسبة العلمية بدأت في خمسينات القرن العشرين‪ ،‬وجرى‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫خاصا بها‪،‬‬ ‫اختصاصا‬ ‫االعتراف بعلم الحوسبة في ‪ .1982‬وتأخذ العلوم الحاسوبية على عاتقها‬ ‫وهناك فرصة للتعلم عن جوانب العلوم الحاسوبية من خالل استكشاف عمليات البحث متعددة‬ ‫االختصاصات"‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫حاليا زيادة‬ ‫وأضاف‪" :‬تنطوي العلوم الحاسوبية على تكامل بين المعرفة والمهنجيات‪ .‬وهناك‬ ‫ً‬ ‫أيضا هياكل حواسب‬ ‫هائلة في حجم البيانات ومجاالت جديدة في العلوم والهندسة‪ .‬وهناك‬ ‫التغير"‪.‬‬ ‫آلية سريعة‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫ً‬ ‫حافال بجلسات تعليمية حول المواضيع التقنية الهامة الناشئة‬ ‫كان اليوم الثالث من المؤتمر‬ ‫ومنها استخدام مسرعات الحساب (معالجات الكزيون وفاي ووحدة معالجة البيانات) والحوسبة‬ ‫المتوازية وتطبيقات الحوسبة عالية األداء والتعلم المتعمق‪.‬‬

‫‪3. Dr. Robert G. Voigt, a senior member of the‬‬ ‫‪technical staff at the Krell Institute, speaks‬‬ ‫‪during the seventh HPC Saudi conference on‬‬ ‫‪the KAUST campus.‬‬ ‫‪4. Jysoo Lee, director of the KAUST‬‬

‫‪Supercomputing Core Lab, speaks during the‬‬ ‫‪HPC Saudi event in March of 2017.‬‬

‫‪13‬‬

‫‪www.kaust.edu.sa‬‬

An algorithm for success

By Nicholas Demille

In October of 2016, NASA Senior Scientist Mark Carpenter packed his suitcase and headed for the airport. His goal was to explore a research question that had intrigued him for years: Carpenter wanted to see if researchers could harness the power of the world's fastest computers to simulate the movement of objects through three-dimensional space in lifelike, dynamic atmospheric conditions (wind, water, collisions, etc.). The physics of such situations are understood when holding atmospheric conditions constant, but they are not known with a great degree of certainty under changing conditions—something that enormous computer-generated simulations could begin to provide if powered by the right algorithms.

The confluence of gamechanging infrastructure, excellent researchers and a growing track record of pioneering research outcomes has truly transformed KAUST into a global destination.”

- Dr. Teofilo Abrajano, KAUST OSR director "Ten to 15 years ago, we were happy to understand what happens to the wing of an airplane under normal conditions," Carpenter said. "Now, because of the growth in computing power, we are looking to model what happens to the entire plane under many different conditions. We want to solve the flight envelope from take off and landing to cruising and more."

As an applied mathematician, Carpenter excels at algorithm development—this is what he has worked on at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, U.S., for over 30 years. It was the pursuit of world-changing algorithm development and global supercomputing power that made Carpenter board a plan and head for one of the few places in the world where both things exist in equal measure—Thuwal, Saudi Arabia.

14

THE BEACON | MAY 2017

Putting a research powerhouse on the map In the early 2000s, the late Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud set a plan in motion to grow the Saudi economy, including the establishment of a Saudi Arabia-based international university of science and technology modeled on the centuriesold Arab traditions of the House of Wisdom. However, King Abdullah wasn't looking just to bring the science in a big way— he was looking to help reframe some of the global imagination about where science is done at the highest levels and by whom.

Fast forward to 2015 when a meeting of computational scientists and industry leaders formally announced that the seventh fastest supercomputer in the world was at KAUST. It's a monumental leap for any institution anywhere, made more surprising by the University's location in Thuwal. Equally as important for Carpenter's work, the team that operates and optimizes the supercomputer is also one of the world's most progressive when it comes to algorithms for large systems of linear algebraic equations.

Amidst the noise and excitement of an international research conference in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., KAUST Assistant Professor Matteo Parsani spoke about his work with Carpenter and how a grant from CRDF Global brought them back together to do something they had originally dreamed up during their time at Langley.

"We've come so far in our ability to work with colleagues around the world. Skype is good, but it doesn’t really work for the type of research that we do," said Parsani. "Our work is about standing together, writing out equations and coming up with ideas, doing proofs and pair programming. It is a different feeling when you do research in the same room, working on the same whiteboard compared to when you do it over Skype. The distance is damaging to the creative process.”

Facilitating collaboration In April of 2016, the U.S. non-profit CRDF Global began taking applications for a KAUST Visiting Scholar Fellowship Program administered by the KAUST Office of Sponsored Research (OSR). The aim was to "facilitate collaborative research projects between Saudi and U.S. researchers and encourage academic exchange between the Saudi and the U.S. science community," according to the CRDF website. The 2016 fellowships, of

1

1.

NASA Senior Scientist Mark Carpenter speaks at a conference in Atlanta, Georgia, in early 2017.

2. KAUST Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics and

Computational Science Matteo Parsani works with NASA scientist Mark Carpenter on collaborative research. Photos

by Nicholas Demille.

2 which four were awarded in total, provided resources for U.S. researchers to travel to the Kingdom.

One of the four fellowships was awarded to Carpenter, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and former visiting professor at Uppsala University and TU Delft.

“This has happened because KAUST has built a reputation,” said Dr. Teofilo Abrajano, KAUST OSR director. "The confluence of game-changing infrastructure, excellent researchers and a growing track record of pioneering research outcomes has truly transformed KAUST into a global destination."

According to the website, "CRDF Global is an independent nonprofit organization that promotes international scientific and technical collaboration through grants, technical resources, training and services. CRDF Global believes that the world’s scientists and innovators must work together to help solve today’s global challenges in such areas as global health, nuclear, biological and chemical security, and the water, food, energy nexus," which, for anyone familiar with KAUST, is an obvious fit.

"I just want to point out that KAUST is already such a powerhouse that it draws this level of people. This is really the coalescence of numerous factors (highly cited researchers, world-class labs, global rankings, etc.). If all of these things hadn't been individually put in place, these people wouldn't have come here” KAUST has ties to some of the world's most prestigious and storied scientific institutions. A number of KAUST faculty members, including Professor David Keyes, director of the Extreme Computing Research Center (ECRC), and Parsani are former participants in the NASA Langley mission and have conducted research there.

"I have known Dr. Carpenter for over 30 years," said Keyes. "He could have been a professor, but he preferred the long-term horizon for computational aerodynamics research at NASA. True to his hidden calling, he turned into a mentor as soon as he landed at KAUST. His office became populated by some of our talented Ph.D. students in numerical analysis and computer science."

Carpenter lived on the KAUST campus for much of the Fall 2016 semester while he worked with various members of the ECRC team, including Parsani.

"We look at every visitor as a potential future employer of our students and an ambassador. In a short time, Mark planted seeds for the long term," said Keyes.

Looking forward Carpenter and Parsani develop algorithms for the next generation of computational fluid dynamics solvers. They are looking to write efficient algorithms that will allow researchers to more easily compute and understand the way that fluid materials—such as air and water—flow around objects in physical space.

"We model fluid dynamics with high-performance computers, so we create the algorithms that will help do this modeling in the next generation of computers," said Carpenter.

"After the first month, we had many choices and we had to narrow down to deliver on four or five different paths toward an algorithm. It was a highly productive time," Parsani said. "From the numerical analysis point of view, we are close to having a complete answer, and that is really exciting."

"As often happens with research, we knew what we wanted to work on, but in the end, we came up with quite a number of ideas," said Carpenter.

Carpenter has plans to return to KAUST in May of 2017 to wrap up some of the research that he started with Parsani and others and to promote wider application of it. He also has plans to take part in an OSR-sponsored conference on KAUST campus.

"The Predictive Complex Computational Fluid Dynamics conference we have in May will bring many people working in CFD to KAUST to try and merge ideas and move the discipline forward," said Parsani.

"When it comes to this type of collaboration, there is both a near-term benefit and a long-term benefit," said Carpenter. "The KAUST ECRC is packed with people doing things that are closely related to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in both direct and indirect ways that have a big impact on my research."

www.kaust.edu.sa

15

Facing change through innovation at the 8th annual KIAB meeting

1

By Caitlin Clark and Lauratu Osu

The KAUST Industry Advisory Board (KIAB) meeting, an annual signature meeting that puts the University’s research, education and economic development activities in front of the eyes of industry, took place on March 1 and 2 on the University’s campus.

Over the last eight years, KIAB has served as a major platform for identifying avenues of collaboration with and between members of the KAUST Industry Collaboration Program (KICP).

Whether it is through sponsored research agreements or utilizing our laboratories, office spaces or pilot testing and scale-up facilities, KAUST works with industry partners to problem-solve and accomplish their goals for growth in the region.”

-Tristan Walker, KAUST vice president of Innovation and Economic Development KIAB, which is chaired by KAUST President Jean-Lou Chameau, consists of a board of executive-level industry representatives that convenes to discuss the latest research activities at KAUST. The meeting provides an opportunity for KICP members to provide guidance and recommendations on research topics relevant to industry needs. Members include Saudi and international organizations and corporations with a focus on advancing research and development in the Kingdom.

The 2017 meeting featured a number of unique speakers, presentation sessions and group panel discussions from both industry and academia, with KAUST welcoming the Saudi National Water Company (NWC) as the newest KICP member at the table.

Emphasizing the importance of innovation Echoing throughout the 2017 meeting was the importance of technology in a changing world. KIAB opening keynote speaker Mutlaq Al-Morished, CEO of the National Industrialization Company (TASNEE), outlined the development and growth of the chemical industry in Saudi Arabia and the steps industry in the Kingdom must take to remain resilient.

“When the environment changes, companies need to change,” said Al-Morished. “The chemical industry lives and dies by technology. As we see more changes in technology and innovation, we must not shy away from asking hard questions

16

THE BEACON | MAY 2017

and we must not be risk-adverse. We must encourage openmindedness and think outside of the box.”

Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Ibrahim, CEO of the NWC, discussed establishing sustainable value through strong partnerships and the challenges of change and growth in the future in his keynote address.

“The use of technology in the water sector has been overlooked,” he said. “There is great room where we can participate and use technology as much as possible. Technology is basically a tool, and we need to build more human capital to allow for more sustainable operations in the Kingdom.”

Science meets business The work of KAUST Professors Mark Tester, Gilles Lubineau, Wolfgang Heidrich and Matthew McCabe made up the KAUST research highlights shared during the 2017 meeting. In their presentation sessions and in a panel discussion, the professors emphasized the need for both academia and industry to be open-minded and welcome to change as they talked about their research activities.

Tester’s work at KAUST centers on growing salt-tolerant plants using brackish water or partially desalinized seawater and discovering the genes that allow certain crop plants to grow in difficult environments.

“We need to generate a new type of agriculture for the next 40 years when we are going to require an increase in food production,” said Tester. “Presently one-third of global food production is produced under irrigation, and about 70 percent of the world’s water is used in agriculture. Although there is a lot of water out there, most of it is salty or brackish, presenting a challenge for food production.”

Developing human capital KIAB speaker Dr. Najah Ashry, vice president of the University’s Saudi Affairs, noted KAUST prides itself on the quality of its graduates, who are highly sought after internationally and locally— but added that the quality of students attracted to attend KAUST also plays a major role in this.

Her presentation highlighted the KAUST-supported government initiatives and the KAUST-led initiatives that focus on nurturing talent from Saudi Arabia. In particular, the KAUST Gifted Student Program (KGSP) prepares and supports a select number of Saudi high school students for science-related undergraduate degrees before they continue their studies at KAUST at the graduate level.

Three students from this program have recently graduated from the University with Ph.D. degrees.

‫مواجهة التغيير من‬ ‫خالل االبتكار‬ ‫استضافت الجامعة في األول والثاني من شهر مارس االجتماع السنوي الثامن للمجلس االستشاري‬ ‫الصناعي لجامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية (‪ ،)KIAB‬وهو المنتدى الرئيسي الذي يعمل على‬ ‫تحقيق المواءمة بين األنشطة األكاديمية والبحثية وأنشطة التنمية االقتصادية في الجامعة مع‬ ‫القطاع الصناعي‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫سنويا لمناقشة آخر أنشطة األبحاث في‬ ‫ويعقد المجلس‪ ،‬الذي يترأسه رئيس الجامعة جان‪-‬لو شامو‪،‬‬ ‫ُ‬ ‫جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية‪ ،‬وتقديم إرشادات عامة وتوصيات بشأن مواضيع األبحاث ذات‬ ‫الصلة‪ .‬ويضم المجلس في عضويته مؤسسات وشركات سعودية ودولية تركز على النهوض باألبحاث‬ ‫والتنمية في المملكة العربية السعودية‪.‬‬

‫‪2‬‬

‫وشارك في اجتماع هذا العام عدد من المتحدثين المميزين من القطاعين الصناعي واألكاديمي‪،‬‬ ‫قدموا العديد من العروض التقديمية وحلقات النقاش‪ ،‬كما رحبت الجامعة بشركة المياه الوطنية‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫جديدا في المجلس‪.‬‬ ‫عضوا‬ ‫السعودية (‪)NWC‬‬

‫‘التفكير خارج الصندوق’‬ ‫وفي كلمته االفتتاحية الرئيسية‪ ،‬قدم المهندس مطلق المرشد‪ ،‬الرئيس التنفيذي لشركة التصنيع‬ ‫الوطنية (‪ )TASNEE‬لمحة موجزة عن تطور الصناعة الكيماوية ونموها في المملكة العربية‬ ‫السعودية والخطوات التي ينبغي للقطاع الصناعي في المملكة اتخاذها بغية الحفاظ على مرونته‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫أيضا‪ .‬فالصناعة مرنة وستبقى مرنة‪ ،‬ولكننا ينبغي‬ ‫وقال‪" :‬عندما تتغير البيئة‪ ،‬فعلى الشركات أن تتغير‬ ‫أن نحافظ على خطوط تواصل جيدة مع مجالس إدارتنا وموظفينا‪ ،‬وأن نتأكد من مساندة الجميع‬ ‫لهذه التغييرات‪ .‬وال يجوز اختزال اإلدارة بالمديرين التنفيذيين لوحدهم‪ ،‬بل ينبغي أن تشمل الفريق‬ ‫بأكمله‪ ،‬وأن يتحلى المديرون التنفيذيون والفرق بعقل منفتح إلفساح المجال أمام االبتكارات‬ ‫الجديدة"‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫قائال‪" :‬يتوقف نجاح الصناعة الكيماوية أو فشلها على التقنية‪ .‬ونحن إذ نشهد تغييرات‬ ‫وتابع كالمه‬ ‫مستمرة في التقنية واالبتكار‪ ،‬علينا أال نخشى طرح األسئلة الصعبة‪ ،‬وأال نتهيب اإلقدام على‬ ‫المخاطرة‪ .‬أرجو أن تشجعوا على انفتاح العقل والتفكير خارج الصندوق"‪.‬‬

‫الربط بين القطاعين األكاديمي والصناعي‬ ‫شدد أساتذة جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية مارك تيستر وجيل لوبينو وولفانغ هيدريتش‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫ً‬ ‫أيضا في عروضهم التقديمية وحلقات النقاش على أهمية انفتاح القطاعين‬ ‫وماثيو مكيب‬ ‫األكاديمي والصناعي وضرورة الترحيب بالتغيير‪ ،‬وذلك في إطار حديثهم عن اختصاصاتهم البحثية‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫عاما المقبلة عندما تظهر الحاجة‬ ‫مخصصا لألربعين‬ ‫جديدا من الزراعة‬ ‫نوعا‬ ‫وقال تيستر‪" :‬يجب أن نطور‬ ‫إلى زيادة إنتاج الغذاء‪ .‬وفي الوقت الحالي‪ ،‬تتكفل الزراعة المروية بإنتاج ثلث إجمالي الغذاء‬ ‫كميات‬ ‫العالمي‪ ،‬كما يذهب حوالي ‪ 70‬بالمئة من مياه العالم إلى الزراعة‪ .‬وعلى الرغم من وجود‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫ً‬ ‫تحديا يواجه إنتاج الغذاء"‪.‬‬ ‫كبيرة من المياه‪ ،‬إال أن معظمها مياه مالحة أو آسنة‪ ،‬مما يمثل‬ ‫ويركز عمل تستر في جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية على زراعة نباتات مقاومة للملوحة‬ ‫باستخدام مياه آسنة أو مياه البحر التي خضعت إلى تحلية جزئية‪ ،‬واكتشاف الجينات التي تسمح‬ ‫لنباتات محاصيل محددة بالنمو في بيئات قاسية‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫حاليا ثورة ُم َم ّكنة بعلم الجينومات‪ .‬وتمنحنا هذه الثورة‪ ،‬بفضل القدرة على‬ ‫وقال‪" :‬تواجه الزراعة‬ ‫ً‬ ‫فرصا هائلة لالبتكار‪ ،‬وتساعدنا على اكتشاف‬ ‫ترتيب الجينومات بالتسلسل مقابل مئات من الدوالرات‪،‬‬ ‫الجينات الموجودة في النباتات "القوية" غير الموجودة في النباتات "الحساسة"‪ .‬ويمكننا من خالل‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫أيضا أن نواصل توسيع أبحاثنا نحو الصناعة"‪.‬‬ ‫تماما‪ ،‬كما يجب‬ ‫ذلك إنشاء نظام زراعة جديد‬

‫تغذية المملكة العربية السعودية‬ ‫وفي إطار عرضه التقديمي الرئيسي‪ ،‬تناول الدكتور عبد الرحمن اإلبراهيم‪ ،‬الرئيس التنفيذي لشركة‬ ‫المياه الوطنية السعودية‪ ،‬مسألة تأسيس قيمة مستدامة من خالل عالقات شراكة وثيقة‪ ،‬باإلضافة‬ ‫إلى تناوله تحديات التغيير والنمو في المستقبل‪.‬‬ ‫وقال‪" :‬تغذي شركتنا المملكة العربية السعودية بالمياه‪ ،‬ونحن نعتزّ بأننا نخدم هذا البلد‪ .‬ولن تكون‬ ‫شركة المياه الوطنية بمنأى عن التغيير‪ ،‬إذ أنها ستخضع لعملية إعادة هيكلة رئيسية‪ ،‬ألننا ال يمكن أن‬ ‫نكون خبراء في جميع المجاالت"‪.‬‬

‫‪3‬‬ ‫‪“At KAUST, we look into the holistic development of students,‬‬ ‫‪and we want to make sure our students are critical and global‬‬ ‫‪thinkers. We focus on how we can best develop our talent, as‬‬ ‫‪we know that there is much KAUST can offer in terms of talent‬‬ ‫‪development and talent-matching. This is evident through‬‬ ‫‪our approximately 330 graduates who are now working in‬‬‫‪Kingdom,” Ashry said.‬‬

‫‪Bringing people together‬‬ ‫‪Bridging the gap between industry and research is essential‬‬ ‫‪in addressing global challenges. KAUST recognizes this as‬‬ ‫‪an important step in fulfilling its mission and provides many‬‬ ‫‪opportunities for industry engagement.‬‬ ‫‪“At KAUST, we provide several platforms to encourage‬‬ ‫‪industry and academia partnerships in finding common‬‬ ‫”‪solutions to problems faced in an ever-changing world,‬‬ ‫‪said Tristan Walker, KAUST vice president of Innovation and‬‬ ‫‪Economic Development. “Whether it is through sponsored‬‬ ‫‪research agreements or utilizing our laboratories, office spaces‬‬ ‫‪or pilot testing and scale-up facilities, KAUST works with‬‬ ‫‪industry partners to problem-solve and accomplish their goals‬‬ ‫”‪for growth in the region.‬‬

‫‪1. The KAUST Industry Advisory Board (KIAB), consisting‬‬

‫‪of executive-level representatives from industry, met on‬‬ ‫‪the KAUST campus on March 1 and 2 to discuss the latest‬‬ ‫‪research activities at the University and how these align with‬‬ ‫‪industry needs.‬‬

‫‪2. (From left to right) Tristan Walker, KAUST vice president of‬‬

‫‪Innovation and Economic Development; Mohamed Eddaoudi,‬‬ ‫‪KAUST distinguished professor of chemical science and‬‬ ‫‪director of the Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials‬‬ ‫‪Center; Jean-Marie Basset, KAUST distinguished professor of‬‬ ‫;‪chemical science and director of the KAUST Catalysis Center‬‬ ‫‪and Atieh Abu Raqabah, general manager of SABIC Corporate‬‬ ‫‪Research and Development, speak at the KIAB event.‬‬

‫‪3. Members of KIAB spoke about the University's research‬‬ ‫‪and their business goals at the 8th annual KIAB meeting.‬‬ ‫‪Photos by Helmy H. Alsagaff.‬‬

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The new combustion conversation

By David Murphy

The 2017 KAUST Research Conference: New Combustion Concepts, which took place from March 6 to 8, successfully brought leading experts from academia, national laboratories and industry to the KAUST campus to discuss all matters related to new combustion concepts.

The three-day conference, which was organized by the Clean Combustion Research Center (CCRC), investigated combustion research centered around specific areas, including plasma-assisted; electrically assisted; advanced engine; novel engine; and new combustion technology. The event featured 21 invited contributions from renowned combustion experts, along with a poster session.

Also on the first day of the conference, Yiguang Ju from Princeton University discussed the kinetic effects of plasma on ignition and flame stabilization.

“Plasma can enhance combustion, particularly at a low temperature—there is magic to plasma-assisted combustion applications. It seems like plasma really works and works efficiently, and coupling plasma with combustion enhances the ignition process," Ju explained. "With plasma, you can break down the ignition limits, and it is more effective to activate low-temperature chemistry and enable cool flames and engine-ignition control. Plasma directly enhances ignition and can reduce minimum-ignition energy, but it seems to have less impact on flames."

“For engine applications, development of high-pressure volumetric, nonequilibrium plasma discharge is the key,” he added.

This conference was a bit of an experiment in that we brought together two communities that don’t ordinarily have much overlap. I think it was remarkably successful in generating conversations and potential collaborations.”

‘The embodiment of fundamental chemistry’

- William Roberts, director of the KAUST Clean Combustion Research Center

“I personally try to contribute by predicting the chemistry. There are several motivations for ion chemistry. Flames contain positive ions, negative ions and electrons that are produced by a chemi-ionization process. People have been looking at flames for a long time, and the rates are poorly known for many of these reactions,” he noted.

In his opening address, Professor William Roberts, director of the CCRC, welcomed the guests and spoke of the need to promote international collaboration with the global research community to discover new ideas towards clean and efficient combustion systems.

“We look forward to building relationships—we have to work extra hard to build collaborations here because of our location. It's harder to build collaborations here than in the U.S. or Europe,” he said.

Mechanisms behind energy conversion Igor Adamovich, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Ohio State University, spoke about energy conversion in transient molecular plasmas at high specific loading in his conference opening presentation.

“We want to find out the mechanisms behind energy conversion. When it comes to electron detection and electron temperature measurements, measurements in a flame are more challenging,” Adamovich said.

Following on from Adamovich, Anne Bourdon from the Laboratoire de Physique de Plasmas at École Polytechnique presented her address on plasma-assisted applications. Bourdon spoke on her team’s work examining the influence of fuel on the nanosecond discharge structure in different fuel/air mixtures.

“Our research is quite a challenge from a numerical point of view.

Fuel doesn't change as many things in comparison to air. Through our research, we are trying to give more conclusive results to the combustion community,” Bourdon said.

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THE BEACON | MAY 2017

Mani Sarathy, KAUST associate professor of chemical engineering, described the ongoing work and cutting-edge research carried out in the CCRC and the role his research plays in it. His conference presentation was centered on filling the gaps between neutral and ion chemistry in premixed flames.

“You always have to start at a fundamental level—we try to make models to predict behavior. I like to work with different types of fuels for different applications. Our models tell a story that can be used to understand the combustion process. Our models need to be the embodiment of some fundamental chemistry that is happening,” Sarathy said.

Re-examining old concepts Joseph Shepherd, C. L. "Kelly" Johnson professor of aeronautics and mechanical engineering at Caltech, explained his research involving hot surface ignition experiments and modelling.

“It's not always clear what ignition is—we have spent the last 20 years or so working on ignition and things that happen in industrial facilities connected to accidental ignition. The area of low-temperature chemistry is often in play, and temperature is often used as a criterion for auto ignition. We are examining what it means to have a very large transition that takes place over large surface areas,” Shepherd explained. “I am talking about old combustion, but I hope some new concepts will come from re-examining these old concepts.”

An ability to manage current challenges Day two of the conference saw Staffan Lundgren from Volvo Group Truck Technology in Sweden describe the need for high-efficiency diesel engines for long-haul trucks. Lundgren and his team created a Super Truck combustion system needed to meet the challenges of European heavyduty transport, and he recounted his team’s efforts in exploring the need for, and usage of, alternative fuels in the future, such as electro fuels and sun fuels.

“We have created a new piston shape and the dual compression/ expansion engine. We work with high-loaded engines for marine applications, for example, and we also work to produce truck-racing engines. With aerodynamics and rolling resistance, you can downsize the engine,” Lundgren said.

‫مفاهيم االحتراق الجديدة‬ ‫نجح مؤتمر األبحاث‪" :‬مفاهيم االحتراق الجديدة ‪ ،"2017‬الذي عقد في جامعة الملك‬ ‫رواد من الوسط األكاديمي‬ ‫عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية من ‪ 6‬إلى ‪ 8‬مارس‪ ،‬في جمع خبراء ّ‬ ‫والقطاع الصناعي ومن مختبرات وطنية في حرم الجامعة لمناقشة كافة الشؤون‬ ‫المتعلقة بمفاهيم االحتراق الجديدة‪.‬‬ ‫تناول المؤتمر‪ ،‬الذي نظمه مركز أبحاث االحتراق النظيف (‪ ،)CCRC‬واستمر على مدار ثالثة‬ ‫أيام‪ ،‬أبحاث االحتراق التي تتمحور حول مجاالت محددة تشمل التطبيقات التي تجري‬ ‫بمساعدة البالزما؛ والتطبيقات التي تجري بمساعدة الكهرباء؛ والمحرك المتطور؛ والمحرك‬ ‫الجديد؛ وتقنية االحتراق الجديدة‪ .‬وألقيت في المؤتمر‪ ،‬الذي شهد ‪ 15‬مساهمة من خبراء‬ ‫ً‬ ‫فضال عن جلسة ملصقات‪.‬‬ ‫احتراق معروفين‪ ،‬خمس محاضرات رئيسية‪،‬‬ ‫ورحب البروفيسور وليام روبرتس مدير مركز أبحاث االحتراق النظيف في كلمته االفتتاحية‬ ‫بالضيوف‪ ،‬وتحدث عن أهمية تشجيع التعاون الدولي مع مجتمع األبحاث العالمي بهدف‬ ‫اكتشاف أفكار جديدة تسهم في تصميم أنظمة احتراق نظيفة عالية الكفاءة‪.‬‬ ‫وقال‪" :‬نحن نتطلع إلى بناء عالقات‪ ،‬وعلينا أن نعمل بدأب لبناء عالقات تعاون هنا بسبب‬ ‫موقعنا‪ .‬فبناء عالقات تعاون في هذه المنطقة أصعب من بنائها في الواليات المتحدة‬ ‫األمريكية أو أوروبا"‪.‬‬

‫اآلليات الكامنة خلف تحويل الطاقة‬ ‫تحدث البروفيسور إيغور أداموفيتش‪ ،‬من قسم الهندسة الميكانيكية والفضائية الجوية في‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫جامعة أوهايو الحكومية‪ ،‬في كلمته الرئيسية االفتتاحية في المؤتمر‪ ،‬عن تحويل الطاقة‬ ‫في البالزما الجزيئية العابرة عند حمل نوعي مرتفع‪.‬‬ ‫وقال أداموفيتش‪" :‬نطمح إلى إيجاد آليات تحويل الطاقة‪ .‬وتزداد عملية إجراء القياسات في‬ ‫الهواء صعوبة عندما يتعلق األمر بكشف اإللكترون وقياسات درجة حرارة اإللكترون"‪.‬‬ ‫ومتابعة لكلمة أداموفيتش‪ ،‬ألقت آن بوردون‪ ،‬من مختبر فيزياء البالزما في معهد البوليتكنيك‪،‬‬ ‫كلمتها التي تناولت التطبيقات التي تجري بمساعدة البالزما‪ .‬وتحدثت آن عن عمل فريقها‬ ‫في دارسة تأثير الوقود على بنية الطرد من مرتبة النانو ثانية في أنواع مختلفة من مزيج‬ ‫الوقود‪ /‬الهواء‪ ،‬والتحديات األساسية في مجال أبحاثها‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫تحديا من وجهة نظر عددية‪ .‬فالوقود ال يتغير مثل أشياء كثيرة‬ ‫وقالت بوردون‪" :‬تمثل أبحاثنا‬ ‫مقارنة بالهواء‪ .‬ونحن نحاول من خالل أبحاثنا أن نقدم للمهتمين بمجال االحتراق نتائج حاسمة"‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫أيضا‪ ،‬ناقش يغوانغ جو من جامعة برينستون اآلثار الحركية‬ ‫وفي اليوم األول من المؤتمر‬ ‫للبالزما على االحتراق واستقرار اللهب‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫كثيرا بدعوتي إللقاء كلمة في جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم‬ ‫قائال‪" :‬سررت‬ ‫وشرح جو‬ ‫والتقنية عن اآلثار الحركية على البالزما‪ .‬يمكن للبالزما أن تعزز االحتراق‪ ،‬وخاصة عند درجات‬ ‫الحرارة المنخفضة‪ ،‬فهناك سحر في تطبيقات االحتراق بمساعدة البالزما‪ .‬ويبدو أن البالزما‬ ‫ناجحة وتعمل بكفاءة‪ ،‬كما أن اقتران البالزما باالحتراق يعزز عملية االشتعال‪ .‬ويمكن‬ ‫باستخدام البالزما تجزئة حدود االشتعال‪ ،‬كما يعتبر تفعيل الكيمياء منخفضة درجة الحرارة‬ ‫أكثر فاعلية‪ ،‬ويفسح المجال أمام التحكم باللهب معتدل الحرارة واالشتعال في المحرك‪.‬‬ ‫وتعزز البالزما االشتعال مباشرة‪ ،‬ويمكنها تخفيض طاقة االشتعال الدنيا‪ ،‬ولكنها ذات تأثير‬ ‫أقل على اللهب"‪.‬‬ ‫وأضاف‪" :‬بالنسبة لتطبيقات المحرك‪ ،‬فإن تطوير طرد حجمي المتوازن عالي الضغط للبالزما‬ ‫ً‬ ‫مهم ًا"‪.‬‬ ‫جانبا‬ ‫عد‬ ‫ُي ّ‬ ‫ّ‬

‫‪19‬‬

‫‪www.kaust.edu.sa‬‬

‫"تجسيد الكيمياء األساسية"‬ ‫ووصف البروفيسور ماني ساراثي‪ ،‬األستاذ المشارك في الهندسة الكيميائية في جامعة‬ ‫الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية‪ ،‬العمل المتواصل واألبحاث المتطورة التي تجري في مركز‬ ‫أبحاث االحتراق النظيف‪ ،‬والدور الذي تلعبه أبحاثه فيه‪ .‬وركز عرضه التقديمي في المؤتمر‬ ‫ً‬ ‫مسبقا‪.‬‬ ‫على ردم الهوة بين كيمياء الجسيمات المتعادلة واأليونات في اللهب الممزوج‬ ‫ً‬ ‫دائما البدء من مستوى أساسي‪ ،‬فنحن نسعى لصناعة نماذج للتنبؤ‬ ‫قال ساراثي‪" :‬ينبغي‬ ‫بالسلوك‪ .‬أحب العمل على أنواع مختلفة من الوقود لتطبيقات مختلفة‪ .‬وتروي نماذجنا‬ ‫تجسد نماذجنا بعض الكيمياء‬ ‫قصة يمكن استخدامها في فهم عملية االحتراق‪ .‬وينبغي أن ّ‬ ‫األساسية التي تحدث"‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫شخصيا المساهمة عن طريق التنبؤ بالكيمياء‪ .‬هناك دوافع عدة لكيمياء‬ ‫قائال‪" :‬أحاول‬ ‫وأشار‬ ‫األيونات‪ .‬فاللهب يحوي أيونات موجبة وسالبة وإلكترونات يجري إنتاجها من خالل‬ ‫عملية تأيين كيميائية‪ .‬لقد قضى الناس ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫طويال وهم يراقبون اللهب‪ ،‬إال أن سرعة هذه‬ ‫زمنا‬ ‫ً‬ ‫جيدا"‪.‬‬ ‫التفاعالت ما زالت غير معروفة‬

‫إعادة النظر في مفاهيم قديمة‬ ‫شرح جوزيف شيبرد‪ ،‬أستاذ "سي‪ .‬إل‪ .‬كيلي جونسون" في علم الطيران والهندسة‬ ‫الميكانيكية في كالتيك أبحاثه عن تجارب اشتعال السطح الحار ونمذجته‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫تقريبا ونحن‬ ‫عاما‬ ‫دائما ما هو االشتعال‪ ،‬فقد قضينا آخر عشرين‬ ‫وقال شيبرد‪" :‬من غير الواضح‬ ‫ندرس االشتعال وما يحدث في المرافق الصناعية على صعيد االشتعال العرضي‪ .‬ويمتاز‬ ‫ً‬ ‫وغالبا ما تستخدم درجة الحرارة كمعيار‬ ‫مجال كيمياء درجات الحرارة المنخفضة باألهمية‪،‬‬ ‫لالشتعال الذاتي‪ .‬ونحن بصدد دراسة معنى حدوث انتقال كبير ً‬ ‫جدا على مساحات واسعة‪.‬‬ ‫أنا أتحدث عن االحتراق القديم‪ ،‬ولكنني أتمنى أن تظهر بعض المفاهيم الجديدة من إعادة‬ ‫النظر في هذه المفاهيم القديمة"‪.‬‬

‫قدرة على إدارة التحديات الحالية‬ ‫شهد اليوم الثاني من المؤتمر كلمة لستافان لوندغرين من تقنية الشاحنات في مجموعة‬ ‫فولفو في السويد‪ ،‬شرح فيها أهمية استخدام محركات ديزل عالية الكفاءة في الشاحنات‬ ‫ذات مسافات السحب الطويلة‪ .‬لقد ابتكر لوندغرين وفريقه نظام احتراق لشاحنة فائقة‪،‬‬ ‫يتصدى لتحديات الخدمة الشاقة في أوروبا‪ ،‬وشرح المجهود المتفاني المتواصل الذي بذله‬ ‫فريقه في دراسة أهمية أنواع الوقود البديلة واستخدامها في المستقبل‪ ،‬كأنواع الوقود‬ ‫الكهربائية والشمسية‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫جديدا للمكبس والمحرك ثنائي االنضغاط‪ /‬التمدد‪.‬‬ ‫شكال‬ ‫وقال لوندغرين‪" :‬لقد ابتكرنا‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫أيضا على إنتاج‬ ‫مثال‪ ،‬كما نعكف‬ ‫ونعمل على المحركات عالية الحمولة للتطبيقات البحرية‪،‬‬ ‫محركات لشاحنات السباق‪ .‬ومن الممكن تخفيض حجم المحرك من خالل تحسين الجوانب‬ ‫األيروديناميكية وتخفيض مقاومة التدحرج"‪.‬‬

‫وأضاف‪" :‬ينبغي إيجاد حل للتحكم باالنبعاثات‪ ،‬وأن تكون كميتها مقبولة‪ .‬لقد بدأنا في‬ ‫ً‬ ‫تحديا‪،‬‬ ‫عد هذا‬ ‫الوقت الحالي بمرحلة االنبعاثات فائقة االنخفاض حتى بالنسبة للشاحنات‪ُ .‬‬ ‫وي ّ‬ ‫ألن تشغيل النظام عند درجات الحرارة المنخفضة ليس بالمهمة السهلة‪ .‬ويفتح التطور السريع‬ ‫ً‬ ‫آفاقا جديدة لرفع الكفاءة‪ .‬وعالوة على ذلك‪ ،‬فاختيار الوقود‬ ‫على صعيد تقنيات المحرك‬ ‫البديل األفضل مهمة صعبة‪ ،‬وما زال أمامنا الكثير من العمل المثير الذي ينبغي إنجازه"‪.‬‬

1 “You need to find a solution for emission control and find a solution where emission is acceptable. We are now running into ultra-low emissions, even for trucks. This is a challenge because making the system work at lower temperatures is difficult. Rapid advances in engine technologies are enabling new efficiency opportunities. It is a challenge to select the best alternative fuels and there is still a lot of interesting work to do,” he noted.

Advances in technology Robert Wagner, director of the Fuels, Engines and Emissions Research Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, analyzed reactivity stratification enabled combustion in his conference talk.

“One thing that has really resonated with me is how technology has changed over the last 10 years. Engines have changed a lot and much progress has been made with them. Technology advances are driving faster and smarter controls. With all of the technology advances, we have new areas that we can investigate,” Wagner stated.

“There are now improved sensors, increased onboard computing power and more flexible components. Also, there are many unintended benefits from hybrid configurations. Things have exploded in what we are able to do,” he added.

Wagner went on to discuss low temperature combustion (LTC) and how it blends the best characteristics of diesel and SI combustion for high efficiency with low emissions.

“Reactivity controlled compression ignition makes use of two fuels, and this provides flexible control over combustion phasing and rate—a multi fuel approach expands reactivity stratification potential. Rapid advances in engine technologies are enabling new efficiency opportunities,” he said.

Combustion’s key role Cherian Idicheria from General Motors opened the final day of the event by covering low-temperature plasma ignition and the area of corona ignition tests. Idicheria was followed by Derek Dunn-Rankin from the University of California, Irvine, who discussed the electrical aspects of flames, burning hydrates and miniature combustors.

“When we try to make a hydrate, it doesn't form sweetly. You never know what you are going to get. It takes eight to 20 hours to get a hydrate—this is a typical nucleation frustration problem,” Dunn-Rankin said.

In his presentation “High-flying combustion: keeping airplanes safe,” Jason Damazo from The Boeing Company described in the crucial role combustion plays in air travel and transport in the 21st century. He also highlighted the combustion research areas of interest to Boeing, including jet engines, rocket engines, fuels development and safety.

“We do structure interaction and combustion and we look at proving that things are safe to various types of combustion and explosion loading. We prove whether or not different safety components related to combustion are viable,” Damazo explained.

He noted that air travel is by far the safest mode of transport and travel compared to the other standard forms of transport (the likelihood of death from an airplane crash is one in 11 million versus rail at one in 500,000 and automobile at one in 8,000).

“Airplanes have a very impressive track record and they are also built to survive crashes. In fuel system development, a lot of systems have gone into making planes safe. If a new technology can make planes safer, that is what really resonates. Developing a quantitative interest in safety is both hard and fun,” he said.

20

THE BEACON | MAY 2017

2 “To show to the FAA (U.S. Federal Aviation Administration) that a system is safe, we compare it to an old system that has been flying for years. A new aircraft has to be shown that it is as safe as its predecessors. There must be at least two independent methods of preventing catastrophic failure when othersystems do fail.

“Improving the regulations of how safe is safe has been one of our success stories from a quantitative standpoint. The threat of all ignition sources is not identical and we look at what causes ignition for a range of different mechanisms. The temperature required to cause ignition changes rapidly with the size of the heat source. Boeing seeks to acquire a quantitative understanding of ignition under a range of operating conditions,” Damazo added.

An electric future?

In his conference address, Lucien Koopmans from Volvo and Chalmers University, Sweden, discussed the Euro 7 diesel emission system and low cooling loss combustion (LCLC) and posed the question of whether the internal combustion engine will eventually be replaced by electric motors.

“There are too many hurdles for electrical vehicles right now—electric cars are quite expensive in Europe at around €76,000 compared to a combustion engine vehicle at €58,000. The cost of electric vehicles is so high, so there must be some combustion in the future—but you have to have that technological solution as well, ” he said.

“The future is very unpredictable and the share of electrification differs widely in year the 2030 in different scenarios. There is a lot of media attention towards getting rid of internal combustion engines, especially in Europe. We have to do something about the perception of internal combustion engine vehicles—we have to make these cars better. Fifty percent engine efficiency over the whole driving cycle should be our challenge,” Koopmans added.

“We have to think on a system level here—we have to regard the internal combustion engine as part of vehicle consumption/performance. The internal combustion engine has to become an alternative to the electric motor, and then you might survive for the future,” he concluded.

Wayne Eckerle, V.P. of corporate R&T, Cummins (U.S.) echoed the sentiments of Koopmans as he spoke about the move from carbon-based fuels to clean, renewable fuels, but cautioned that the move will take time and further research and development.

“No new fuels are coming, but electrification is coming, so we are looking to make lower-cost fuel systems as electrification is becoming a way of life,” Eckerle said.

‘Successful in generating conversations and potential collaborations’ Roberts brought the New Combustion Concepts conference to a close by thanking all those who had helped to host and create the conference as well as the international guests for attending and collaborating over the duration of the conference.

“This conference was a bit of an experiment in that we brought together two communities that don’t ordinarily have much overlap. I think it was remarkably successful in generating conversations and potential collaborations,” Roberts said.

‫‪3‬‬ ‫تطور التقنيات‬ ‫حلل روبرت واغنر‪ ،‬مدير مركز أبحاث الوقود والمحركات واالنبعاثات في مختبر أواك ريدج‬ ‫الم َم ّكن بتراتبية التفاعلية في كلمته في المؤتمر‪.‬‬ ‫القومي االحتراق ُ‬ ‫تغيرت فيه التقنية أثناء األعوام العشرة األخيرة اهتمامي‬ ‫وقال واغنر‪" :‬لقد أثار النحو الذي ّ‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫كثيرا‪ ،‬وأحرز تقدم كبير في هذا الميدان‪ ،‬ناهيك عن أن التطورات‬ ‫تغيرت المحركات‬ ‫حقا‪ .‬لقد ّ‬ ‫ذكاء‪ .‬وعلى الرغم من هذه التطورات‬ ‫سرعة‬ ‫أشد‬ ‫التقنية دفعت باتجاه تصميم أنظمة تحكم‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫ً‬ ‫التقنية كلها‪ ،‬مازال لدينا مجاالت جديدة يمكننا دراستها"‪.‬‬

‫‪2‬‬

‫ً‬ ‫حاليا حساسات متطورة وطاقة حوسبة ذاتية متزايدة ومكونات أكثر مرونة‪.‬‬ ‫وأضاف‪" :‬يوجد‬ ‫ً‬ ‫كما أثمرت األشكال الهجينة أيضا عن عدة فوائد غير المقصودة‪ .‬لقد حدثت ثورة على صعيد‬ ‫ما يمكننا فعله"‪.‬‬ ‫وتابع واغنر حديثه لمناقشة االحتراق منخفض درجة الحرارة وكيف يمزج بين أفضل خواص‬ ‫آن‬ ‫احتراق الديزل واالحتراق ذاتي االشتعال لتحقيق كفاءة عالية وانبعاثات منخفضة في ٍ‬ ‫ً‬ ‫معا‪.‬‬ ‫وقال‪" :‬يستفيد االشتعال باالنضغاط المسيطر على تفاعليته من استخدام نوعين من الوقود‪،‬‬ ‫تحكما ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫مرنا بطور االحتراق ومعدله‪ ،‬أي أن منهجية الوقود المتعدد توسع‬ ‫ويتيح هذا‬ ‫ً‬ ‫فرصا‬ ‫إمكانيات تراتبية التفاعلية‪ .‬ومن شأن التطورات السريعة في تقنيات المحرك أن تتيح‬ ‫جديدة لرفع الكفاءة"‪.‬‬

‫الدور الرئيسي لالحتراق‬ ‫افتتح شيريان إيديشيريا من "جنرال موتورز" اليوم األخير من المؤتمر بتغطية اشتعال البالزما‬ ‫عند درجات الحرارة المنخفضة ومجال اختبارات اشتعال الهالة‪ .‬وبعد ذلك‪ ،‬ناقش ديريك‬ ‫دن‪-‬رانكن من جامعة كاليفورنيا في إيرفين الجوانب الكهربائية للهب وحرق الهيدرات‬ ‫والمشعالت الصغيرة‪.‬‬ ‫قال دن‪-‬رانكن‪" :‬ال تتشكل الهيدرات بسهولة‪ ،‬وال يمكن ً‬ ‫أبدا أن نعرف ما الذي سنحصل عليه‪.‬‬ ‫ويستغرق الحصول على الهيدرات ما يتراوح بين ‪ 8‬ساعات وعشرين ساعة‪ ،‬وهذه مشكلة‬ ‫نموذجية إلحباط التنوي"‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫وفي عرضه التقديمي "االحتراق الذي ّ‬ ‫عاليا‪ :‬إبقاء الطائرات بأمان"‪ ،‬وصف جيسون‬ ‫يحلق‬ ‫دامازو من شركة بوينغ الدور الحاسم الذي يلعبه االحتراق في السفر والنقل الجوي في‬ ‫ً‬ ‫أيضا على مجاالت أبحاث االحتراق التي تهتم بها‬ ‫القرن الحادي والعشرين‪ .‬وألقى الضوء‬ ‫بوينغ‪ ،‬ومنها المحركات النفاثة والمحركات الصاروخية وتطوير الوقود والسالمة‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫قائال‪" :‬نجري احتراق وتفاعل البنية ونتطلع إلى إثبات أن عدة أنواع من‬ ‫وشرح دامازو ذلك‬ ‫االحتراق وتحميل االنفجار تمتاز بمستوى أعلى من األمان‪ .‬ونحن نثبت مدى فعالية مكونات‬ ‫السالمة المختلفة المرتبطة باالحتراق"‪.‬‬

‫كمية‪.‬‬ ‫أضاف دامازو‪" :‬لقد كان تحسين أنظمة السالمة لدينا أحد قصص نجاحنا من وجهة نظر‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫فالتهديد الذي تمثله كافة مصادر االشتعال غير متماثل‪ ،‬ونحن نبحث في أسباب االشتعال‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫علما أن درجة الحرارة المطلوبة لحدوث االشتعال تتغير‬ ‫وفقا لمجموعة مختلفة من اآلليات‪،‬‬

‫كمي لالشتعال في‬ ‫بسرعة مع ّ‬ ‫تغير حجم المصدر الحار‪ .‬وتسعى بوينغ للحصول على فهم ّ‬ ‫ظل مجموعة من ظروف التشغيل"‪.‬‬

‫مستقبل كهربائي؟‬ ‫وفي معرض كلمته في المؤتمر‪ ،‬ناقش لوسين كوبمانس من جامعة فولفو وشالمرز في‬ ‫السويد نظام "يورو ‪ "7‬النبعاثات الديزل واالحتراق الذي يمتاز بضياعات تبريد منخفضة‪ ،‬وإن‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫ستحل محل محركات االحتراق الداخلي في نهاية المطاف‪.‬‬ ‫كانت المحركات الكهربائية‬ ‫وقال‪" :‬تعترض سبيل المركبات الكهربائية عقبات كثيرة في الوقت الحالي‪ .‬فالسيارات‬ ‫ً‬ ‫قياسا بالسيارات‬ ‫الكهربائية باهظة الثمن‪ ،‬ويبلغ ثمنها في أوروبا حوالي ‪ 76‬ألف يورو‬ ‫التي تعمل بمحركات االحتراق التي يبلغ ثمنها حوالي ‪ 58‬ألف يورو‪ .‬إن كلفة المركبات‬ ‫الكهربائية مرتفعة ً‬ ‫جدا‪ ،‬ولذلك يجب أن نبقي على بعض محركات االحتراق في المستقبل‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ولكن عليكم أن تضعوا ذلك الحل التقني في الحسبان أيضا"‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫وأضاف كوبمانس‪" :‬من الصعب ً‬ ‫كبيرا‬ ‫تفاوتا‬ ‫جدا التنبؤ بالمستقبل‪ ،‬وتتفاوت حصة الكهربة‬ ‫ً‬ ‫وفقا لسيناريوهات مختلفة‪ .‬وهناك اهتمام إعالمي كبير بالتخلص من محركات‬ ‫في ‪2030‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫شيئا إزاء االنطباع السائد عن اآلليات‬ ‫االحتراق الداخلي‪ ،‬وخاصة في أوروبا‪ .‬وعلينا أن نفعل‬ ‫التي تعمل بمحركات االحتراق الداخلي‪ ،‬وينبغي أن نجعل هذه السيارات أفضل‪ ،‬وأن نضع‬ ‫نصب أعيننا رفع كفاءة المحرك إلى ‪ 50‬بالمئة على مدار دورة القيادة بأكملها"‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫قائال‪" :‬علينا التفكير على مستوى النظام هنا‪ ،‬وأن نعتبر أن محرك االحتراق‬ ‫واختتم كالمه‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫بديال‬ ‫جزءا من استهالك‪ /‬أداء المركبة‪ .‬وينبغي أن تصبح محركات االحتراق الداخلي‬ ‫الداخلي‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ممكنا"‪.‬‬ ‫للمحرك الكهربائي‪ ،‬وعند ذلك يغدو النجاح في المستقبل‬ ‫وردد وين إكيرل‪ ،‬نائب رئيس شركة كومينوس (الواليات المتحدة األمريكية) لشؤون األبحاث‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫والتقنية صدى كالم كوبمانس‪ ،‬وتحدث عن االنتقال من الوقود الكربوني إلى طاقات‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫طويال ويستلزم الكثير من‬ ‫وقتا‬ ‫حذر من أن هذا االنتقال يستغرق‬ ‫متجددة نظيفة‪ ،‬ولكنه ّ‬ ‫األبحاث والتطوير‪.‬‬ ‫وقال إيكيرل‪" :‬ال تلوح أية أنواع وقود جديدة في األفق‪ ،‬ولكن الكهربة قادمة‪ ،‬ولذلك‬ ‫ً‬ ‫نظرا إلى أن الكهربة باتت نمط حياة"‪.‬‬ ‫نحن نتطلع إلى صناعة أنظمة وقود أخفض كلفة‬ ‫اختتم وليام روبرتس‪ ،‬مدير مركز أبحاث االحتراق النظيف في جامعة الملك عبداهلل‬ ‫للعلوم والتقنية‪ ،‬مؤتمر مفاهيم االحتراق الجديدة‪ ،‬بتقديم الشكر لجميع من ساعدوا على‬ ‫استضافة المؤتمر وتأسيسه‪ ،‬كما شكر الضيوف الدوليين على حضورهم وتعاونهم خالل‬

‫أيام المؤتمر‪.‬‬

‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫وأشار إلى أن السفر ً‬ ‫قياسا بأشكال‬ ‫أمانا إلى حد بعيد‬ ‫جوا يعتبر وسيلة النقل والسفر األكثر‬ ‫النقل القياسية األخرى (يبلغ احتمال الوفاة من اصطدام طائرة ‪ 1‬من كل ‪ 11‬مليون مقابل‬ ‫‪ 1‬من كل ‪ 500‬ألف في القطارات و‪ 1‬من ‪ 8‬آالف في النقل بالسيارات)‪.‬‬ ‫وقال‪" :‬تمتاز الطائرات بسجل حافل‪ ،‬وهي مصنوعة لتنجو من حوادث االصطدام‪ .‬أما على‬ ‫ً‬ ‫أمانا‪ .‬ويتمثل‬ ‫صعيد تطوير نظام الوقود‪ ،‬فقد ذهبت أنظمة كثيرة إلى جعل الطائرات أكثر‬ ‫ً‬ ‫أمانا‪ .‬فبناء اهتمام‬ ‫النجاح الحقيقي في إيجاد تقنية جديدة قادرة على جعل الطائرات أكثر‬ ‫آن ً‬ ‫معا"‪.‬‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫كمي بالسالمة أمر صعب وممتع في ٍ‬ ‫ً‬ ‫نظاما ما آمن‪ ،‬فإننا نقارنه مع نظام قديم كان‬ ‫"كي نثبت إلدارة الطيران الفيدرالية أن‬ ‫ً‬ ‫مستخدما في الطيران لسنوات‪ .‬وينبغي إثبات أن الطائرة الجديدة تحقق مستوى األمان‬ ‫نفسه الذي كانت تتمتع به سابقاتها‪ .‬كما ينبغي توفر طريقتين مستقلتين على األقل لمنع‬ ‫اإلخفاق الكارثي عندما تخفق األنظمة األخرى‪.‬‬

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‫‪1. William Roberts, director of the University's Clean Combustion‬‬ ‫‪Research Center (CCRC), addressed attendees of the 2017‬‬ ‫‪KAUST Research Conference: New Combustion Concepts for his‬‬ ‫‪closing remarks.‬‬ ‫‪2. Professor Igor Adamovich from the Department of Mechanical‬‬

‫‪and Aerospace Engineering at Ohio State University spoke about‬‬ ‫‪energy conversion during the research conference.‬‬

‫‪3. The New Combustion Concepts research conference brought‬‬ ‫‪together leading experts from academia, national laboratories‬‬ ‫‪and industry to discuss matters related to combustion.‬‬

Recognized for technology and innovation

By Nicholas Demille

A KAUST delegation attended the 2017 Saudi Water & Environment Forum (SWEF) in Riyadh from February 12 to 14, where the University was recognized with the Technology & Innovation Award. Professor TorOve Leiknes accepted the award on behalf of KAUST from the Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture His Excellency Abdulrahman Al-Fadley; Deputy Minister for Water Dr. Mohammed Al-Saud; and the Water Minister of Singapore His Excellency Masagos Zulkifli.

The conference was organized by H.E. Al-Fadley, and the event included a keynote address, an exhibition and a strategic conference. KAUST was involved in several key aspects. The University had a large booth presence in the exhibition hall, where Arabic and English language information was available and there were demonstrations of research from the University's Water Desalination and Reuse Center (WDRC). The University also sponsored a series of technical sessions that featured lectures from KAUST Professors Himanshu Mishra, Peiying Hong and Pascal Saikaly.

Expert panel participation KAUST speakers were involved in several panel discussions that included appearances by Professor Kim Choon Ng and TorOve Leiknes. Ng talked about a number of topics like recent advances in adsorption cooling and desalination research and the MEDAD facility in Riyadh.

Leiknes spoke about the burgeoning field of urban agriculture, highlighting the need for cities to bring the production of food closer to the consumption of food as urban density grows larger and as a means of reducing costs and increasing the security of supply.

"New concepts and technology in urban agriculture are emerging as a solution to provide food to a world population that is increasingly gathering in urban and peri-urban environments," Leiknes said. "Agriculture in general exerts a large demand on freshwater sources, and there is a need to find solutions for this water demand in urban agriculture. Wastewater is a readily available non-conventional source in urban environments, where new technologies and strategies are needed to meet the water demand for urban agriculture."

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THE BEACON | MAY 2017

1 WDRC-sponsored technical sessions The WDRC sponsored two days of technical sessions at the forum, with KAUST speakers at the sessions including Mishra, Hong and Saikaly. Mishra gave a talk about a new water-saving technology that he developed with a team of researchers at the University.

"Agriculture consumes nearly 70 percent of the global supply of fresh water," Mishra said. "Our superhydrophobic sands dramatically reduce evaporative losses from topsoils and enhance crop yields. This strategy could be exploited for orchards."

The talks gave the KAUST researchers the opportunity to discuss some of their latest findings as well as answer questions from academic peers and industry. The KAUST speakers were joined by technical presenters from Dow, UVGermi, Xylem, BĂźrkert Fluid Control Systems and AMIANTIT. The WDRC also sent a team of students to Riyadh to take part in the technical sessions and to speak with visitors on the convention floor. The group included KAUST master's degree students Aniela Zarzar, Joel Reihmer and Adair Gallo Junior, who all work in Mishra's lab. Reihmer researches hydrophobic sand with Mishra, and he showcased his project at the booth.

Moustapha Harb, a Ph.D. student from Hong's lab, also assisted with the technical sessions and spoke with industry representatives. Harb is set to defend his Ph.D. dissertation at the end of March 2017.

WDRC hosts global experts From March 27 to 29, the WDRC hosted the conference "Changing Paradigms of Wastewater Treatment: From Waste to Resource." The aim of the event was to highlight the critical role of efficient and innovative technologies and microbes to recover resources (water, nutrients and energy) from wastewater in a safe and sustainable manner.

Global increases in water demand and decreases in both the quantity and quality of fresh water resources are the driving forces behind the development of sustainable water use practices. An adequate supply of safe fresh water is not only needed for drinking and sanitation but also for industrial and agricultural activities. The water challenge is complicated as it is interrelated to two other grand challenges—energy and food security; this is known as the water-energy-food nexus.

‫‪1. A KAUST delegation received the 2017‬‬

‫)‪Saudi Water & Environment Forum (SWEF‬‬ ‫‪Technology & Innovation Award in Riyadh in‬‬ ‫‪February.‬‬

‫‪2. KAUST Assistant Professor Peiying Hong‬‬ ‫‪(left) and KAUST Associate Professor Pascal‬‬ ‫‪Saikaly stand on the convention floor at SWEF‬‬ ‫‪2017 in Riyadh.‬‬ ‫‪3.‬‬

‫‪KAUST Professor Kim Choon Ng speaks‬‬ ‫‪during a panel session at SWEF 2017 in Riyadh.‬‬ ‫‪Photos by Nicholas Demille.‬‬

‫جامعة الملك‬ ‫عبداهلل تحصد جائزة‬ ‫التقنية واالبتكار‬ ‫حضر وفد من جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية "المنتدى السعودي للمياه‬ ‫والبيئة ‪ "2017‬في الرياض‪ ،‬وذلك من ‪ 12‬إلى ‪ 14‬فبراير‪ ،‬حيث ُمنحت الجامعة‬ ‫جائزة التقنية واالبتكار‪ .‬وتسلم البروفيسور توروف ليكنيس الجائزة نيابة عن الجامعة‬ ‫من معالي وزير البيئة والمياه والزراعة المهندس عبد الرحمن الفضلي ووكيل وزارة‬ ‫البيئة والمياه والزراعة الدكتور محمد السعود ومعالي وزير المياه في سنغافورة‬ ‫ماساغوس ذو الكفلي‪.‬‬ ‫واشتمل المؤتمر‪ ،‬الذي ّ‬ ‫نظمته وزارة المياه والبيئة والزراعة على كلمة رئيسية‬ ‫ومعرض ومؤتمر استراتيجي‪ .‬وشاركت جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية في‬ ‫المؤتمر من خالل جوانب رئيسية عديدة‪ .‬وكان لها حضور كبير من خالل جناحها في‬ ‫قدمت المعلومات باللغتين العربية واإلنكليزية‪ ،‬إلى جانب‬ ‫صالة المعرض‪ ،‬حيث ّ‬ ‫عروض إيضاحية من أبحاث مركز أبحاث تحلية وإعادة استخدام المياه‪ .‬كما حرصت‬ ‫ً‬ ‫أيضا على رعاية سلسلة من الجلسات التقنية التي اشتملت على محاضرات‬ ‫الجامعة‬ ‫قدمها أساتذة الجامعة البروفيسور هيمانشو ميشرا والبروفيسور بيينغ هونغ‬ ‫والبروفيسور باسكال صيقلي‪.‬‬

‫المشاركة في فريق الخبراء‬ ‫شارك متحدثو جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية في العديد من حلقات‬ ‫النقاش‪ ،‬ومنها مشاركة البروفيسور كيم شون نغ وتوروف ليكنيس‪ .‬ومن الجدير‬ ‫بالذكر أن البروفيسور نغ تحدث عن عدد من المواضيع التي تشمل التطورات األخيرة‬ ‫في أبحاث التبريد باالمتزاز والتحلية‪ ،‬وعن منشأة شركة "ميداد" (‪ )MEDAD‬للتحلية‬ ‫متعددة اآلثار والتحلية باالمتزاز في الرياض‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫مسلطا‬ ‫ومن جانبه‪ ،‬تحدث البروفيسور ليكنيس عن ميدان الزراعة الحضرية المزدهر‬ ‫الضوء على أهمية إنتاج الغذاء بالقرب من مناطق استهالكه في المدن‪ ،‬وذلك في‬ ‫ً‬ ‫وسعيا لتخفيض النفقات وتعزيز أمن التوريد‪.‬‬ ‫ظل ازدياد الكثافة السكانية في المدن‪،‬‬ ‫وقال ليكنيس في سياق عرضه التقديمي‪" :‬لم تعد الزراعة الحضرية مجرد مفهوم‪،‬‬ ‫ألنها باتت قيد االختبار في مراكز حضرية ضخمة في مختلف أنحاء العالم"‪ .‬وإلى‬ ‫ذلك‪ ،‬فقد تناول الحاجة إلى إعادة استخدام المياه المعالجة على نطاق أوسع‬ ‫كجزء من الحل اإلجمالي للجفاف ولتلبية الطلب المتزايد من المستخدمين‪.‬‬ ‫ينص ّب تركيزنا‪ ،‬من خالل ما نملكه من معرفة وتقنية‪ ،‬على‬ ‫وقال ليكنيس‪" :‬ينبغي أن ّ‬ ‫جودة المياه ال على تاريخها"‪.‬‬

‫مركز أبحاث تحلية وإعادة استخدام المياه يرعى‬ ‫جلسات تقنية‬ ‫حرص مركز أبحاث تحلية وإعادة استخدام المياه (‪ )WDRC‬في جامعة الملك عبداهلل‬ ‫للعلوم والتقنية على رعاية يومين من الجلسات التقنية في المنتدى‪ .‬وكان من‬ ‫بين متحدثي الجامعة هيمانشو ميشرا وبينغ هونغ وباسكال صيقلي‪ .‬وتحدث‬

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‫‪www.kaust.edu.sa‬‬

‫‪2‬‬

‫‪3‬‬ ‫البروفيسور ميشرا عن التقنية الجديدة للحفاظ على المياه التي طورها باالشتراك‬ ‫مع فريق من الباحثين في الجامعة‪.‬‬

‫قال ميشرا‪" :‬تستهلك الزراعة حوالي ‪ 70‬بالمئة من المياه العذبة في العالم‪ .‬وتخفض‬ ‫رمالنا فائقة المقاومة للرطوبة فواقد التبخر من األجزاء العلوية من التربة وتعزز إنتاج‬ ‫المحاصيل بصورة كبيرة‪ .‬ويمكن استغالل هذه االستراتيجية في البساتين"‪.‬‬ ‫منحت الكلمات التي استمرت حوالي نصف ساعة كل باحثي جامعة الملك‬ ‫ً‬ ‫فضال عن‬ ‫عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية فرصة الحديث عن بعض مكتشفاتهم األخيرة‪،‬‬ ‫اإلجابة على أسئلة نظرائهم من الوسطين األكاديمي والصناعي‪ .‬وانضم إلى‬ ‫متحدثي الجامعة متحدثون آخرون من شركة "داو" و"يوفي جيرمي" (‪)UVGermi‬‬ ‫و"كسايلم" (‪ )Xylem‬و"بوركيرت ألنظمة التحكم بالجريان" و"أميانتيت"‪ ،‬قدموا‬ ‫ً‬ ‫عروضا تقديمية‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫فريقا من الطالب إلى الرياض‬ ‫أرسل مركز أبحاث تحلية وإعادة استخدام المياه‬ ‫للمشاركة في الجلسات التقنية وللتحدث مع الزوار على أرض المعرض‪ .‬وكانت‬ ‫أنيال زرزر وجويل ريمر وأدير غالو جونيور الذين‬ ‫المجموعة تضم طالب الماجستير ّ‬ ‫ً‬ ‫جميعا في مختبر ميشرا‪ .‬وكان طالب الدكتوراه مصطفى حرب من مختبر‬ ‫يعملون‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫أيضا للمساعدة في الجلسات التقنية والتحدث مع ممثلي القطاع‬ ‫موجودا‬ ‫هونغ‬ ‫الصناعي‪ .‬ويذكر أن رايمر يعمل مع ميشرا في مشروع الرمال المقاومة للرطوبة‬ ‫الذي ُعرض في الجناح‪ .‬ومن المزمع أن يدافع حرب عن أطروحته لدرجة الدكتوراه‬ ‫في نهاية شهر مارس‪.‬‬

‫مركز أبحاث تحلية وإعادة استخدام المياه يستضيف‬ ‫خبراء عالميين‬ ‫يستضيف مركز أبحاث تحلية وإعادة استخدام المياه مؤتمر "تغيير نماذج معالجة‬ ‫مياه الصرف الصحي‪ :‬من مخلفات إلى موارد" وذلك من ‪ 27‬مارس على ‪ 29‬مارس‪.‬‬ ‫ويهدف المؤتمر إلى تسليط الضوء على الدور الهام الذي تلعبه التقنيات المبتكرة‬ ‫والجراثيم في استرداد الموارد (المياه والغذاء والطاقة) من مياه الصرف الصحي‬ ‫على نحو آمن ومستدام‪.‬‬ ‫تعتبر زيادة الطلب العالمي على المياه وتراجع جودة وكمية مصادر المياه العذبة‬ ‫عد التزويد‬ ‫القوتين المحركتين لتطوير ممارسات االستخدام المستدام للمياه‪ .‬وال ُي ّ‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ضروريا من أجل الشرب والنظافة فحسب‪ ،‬بل لألنشطة‬ ‫المالئم بالمياه العذبة اآلمنة‬ ‫ً‬ ‫تحد معقد مترابط مع تحديين آخرين‬ ‫الصناعية والزراعية‬ ‫أيضا‪ .‬إن تحدي المياه ٍ‬ ‫ً‬ ‫أيضا بالترابط بين المياه‬ ‫كبيرين أال وهما الطاقة واألمن الغذائي من خالل ما يعرف‬ ‫والطاقة والغذاء‪.‬‬

Tiptoeing to inspiration

By Nicholas Demille In 1990, Theo Jansen drafted an opinion piece for a local Dutch newspaper. In it, he argued that a new creative vision had to be used to save the Dutch population from inundation. The Netherlands is a country long accustomed to solving massive challenges through creative engineering—namely with dykes, levies, pumps and the natural dunes on which Jansen spent much of his early life. That opinion piece changed his life. In truth, it was a sign that he had descended into a kind of mania.

"I painted for many years, until one day I got the idea to build a flying saucer. It was four meters wide and it could fly. So I launched it over the town, and the people on the streets really thought that there was a UFO flying over. I was on television and I was famous in my country for a few months. After that I could not paint anymore...that's when I had the idea for the Strandbeests," Jansen said during his 2017 Winter Enrichment Program (WEP) keynote address.

With the University's Spring Enrichment Program having run from April 14 to 19, we look back at Theo Jansen's visit to campus during the 2017 Winter Enrichment Program (WEP).

Jansen visited the KAUST campus in early January for WEP, delivering a keynote address and taking part in several workshops, and he was interviewed as part of the WEP on Air series streamed live on Facebook.

24

THE BEACON | MAY 2017

Theo Jansen, creator of the Strandbeests, moving sculptures made from different materials, spoke at KAUST during the 2017 Winter Enrichment Program (WEP).

Going against the grain Jansen's office is a strip of coastline in the north of the Netherlands, and it is there that he assembles his heaving Strandbeest creations. Imagine grotesque piles of orange electrical tubing seemingly thrown together for odd visual effect sitting motionless on the sand—they serve no discernible purpose and no attempt seems to have been made to put them to any obvious use. Jansen runs around them frantically—adjusting, tweaking, coaxing. Then, all at once and in a manner most confounding, they spring to life and wander across the beach as if by their own free will.

at these animals on the beach, this might make people more aware of the climate and of the Earth."

An infectious meme Jansen's critical insight was a set of 13 numbers that are the basis for ratios that allow the creatures to walk elegantly upon hundreds of small feet. It's not a feat that can be explained—you must simply watch them walk to fully appreciate the magic of the math.

With the advent of the internet and 3-D printing, Jansen has been able to turn his critical insight into a virtual wave of strange walking creatures. His hope is that people are inspired to make the creatures their own with their own materials and with their own purpose.

Every day I wake up with ideas.

Then I go to my studio and the tubes push me in a different direction— they don't want to do what I want to do...The path is not very straight; it is unpredictable...At the end, when the animals are finished, they are so much better than I could have imagined.”

"I put all my secrets up on my website, and now students from all over the world are recreating my Strandbeests," Jansen said during his WEP on Air interview. "Now these things are being 3-D printed in all corners of the world. This is totally out of control. There is an evolution happening on the internet. People are infected by the meme of the Strandbeest. They are building things, not being conscious that they are just a tool in the reproduction of the Strandbeest."

- Theo Jansen, Dutch artist and creator of the Strandbeests

Jansen hates labels, and he talks glowingly of a time when people created things free from the restraints of labels. The problem with labels, according to Jansen, is that people start to adopt them, and in doing so, restrict their free ability to create.

Jansen is an anachronism. He's a relic from a time before startup culture made its way into our daily lives. He moves in the opposite direction. In fact, he seems to delight in the complete uselessness of his inventions.

Jansen is the creator of the Strandbeests—a pointless herd of quasi-living sculptures. He himself said they "steal your heart and waste your time."

"Strandbeest" is a neologism of the Dutch word for beach (strand) and beest (similar to the English word beast). Their strange, hypnotic effect on observers has come to fulfill a higher purpose—inspiration.

"It started off with a purpose. In the beginning I wanted to gather sand and build up dunes to protect the country from the rise of sea levels, but during the process I was so much more intrigued by the process of evolution that I forgot all about saving the country," Jansen said. "It might be useful that they just clean up beaches or plastics. Another idea is that while looking

Jansen on creative thinking "You would think that restricting [the materials] would also restrict the possibilities, but I have found just the opposite. Our brains are pretty good, but they are quite similar. So if you have been thinking of something, then someone else has been thinking the same thing," Jansen said.

He is not, however, an advocate for complete freedom. In fact, in an interesting paradox, Jansen advocates for the freedom to be while advising that people restrict their options so that they might delve more deeply into one creative endeavor that will help develop more original ideas.

"Every day I wake up with ideas. Then I go to my studio and the tubes push me in a different direction—they don't want to do what I want to do. Then the next morning I have a different idea, but it is based on the experience with the material. The path is not very straight; it is unpredictable. I get advice from the tubes, and somehow I discovered that the advice I get from the tubes is better than my ideas. At the end, when the animals are finished, they are so much better than I could have imagined," he said.

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A student’s journey from KAUST to Stanford 1

By Meres J. Weche

Cindy Catherine Orozco Bohorquez, a native of Colombia, earned her M.S. degree at KAUST in 2014, and is now in the second year of her Ph.D. at Stanford University. There, she focuses on computational and mathematical engineering.

While attending Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia for her undergraduate studies, Orozco Bohorquez started with civil engineering, but she then developed a keen interest in mathematics. After earning bachelor's degrees in both disciplines, she looked for an opportunity to combine both passions for her master's degree. She chose to come to KAUST, where she could study applied mathematics and work in mathematical applications for civil engineering.

The KAUST journey Orozco Bohorquez initially heard about the University through former KAUST faculty member Victor Calo—who later became her advisor—while taking summer courses in Colombia.

“I feel that studying at KAUST was one of the best experiences of my life because everything was totally different than I expected," she said. “At KAUST, I met people from all over the world.”

One of the main advantages of being at KAUST, Cindy noted, is the small "science-town" atmosphere, where it’s possible to interact and collaborate with people from many different scientific disciplines, like electrical engineering, biology and others. This unique environment allows for valuable cross-disciplinary growth.

“It's amazing—it's not only about working collaboratively, but also about developing bonds and friendships. For example, one of my closest friends from KAUST recently visited me in Colombia. This is something that I never thought about four years ago,” she said.

Settling into the heart of Silicon Valley After completing her KAUST master's degree, Orozco Bohorquez looked for an opportunity to explore mathematical applications for a broader range of areas and disciplines. Her program at Stanford focuses on the

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more general methods that can be applied not only to engineering and physics but also medicine, biology and finance.

“Silicon Valley is an amazing place where you can see where technological developments are headed 20 years from now,” she said.

In Silicon Valley, innovators can come up with an idea and immediately find avenues to commercialize it. However, Orozco Bohorquez is not interested in joining the Valley’s startup scene—her heart is in the application of mathematics in a variety of fields, and she hopes to pursue those aspirations in an academic career.

“I’m more a fan of teaching and being able to explain concepts to people who are not familiar with mathematics, such as how useful these can be and how people can approach their product development efforts with mathematics,” she said.

She believes that being a professor in academia isn’t just about spending time in the classroom or doing research—it should also involve actively collaborating with industry.

“I learn a lot by working with companies,” she said. “It's not just about making products or working behind a desk—you can continue to do research that has an impact on industry.”

Sharing her KAUST experience “When I arrived at Stanford, nearly everyone knew about KAUST and many people had friends connected with the University. Everyone asked me about KAUST,” Orozco Bohorquez said. As an enthusiastic KAUST ambassador and alumna, she told them, “The research community there is amazing. All the professors there have connections all over the world."

“Being at KAUST is not only about being in Saudi Arabia, a different country than you are used to, but it's about the professors and the environment. For example, in applied math, the ratio between professors and students is basically one to one. Most of my courses were with three students and one professor, so the interaction you have with your professor is amazing. Since it was a small community, I could interact in a more friendly way than even in Stanford,” she noted.

1. Cindy Catherine Orozco Bohorquez completed her M.S.

degree at KAUST in 2014 and is now in the second year of her Ph.D. at Stanford University. Photo by Alexis De Berry.

2. Bay Area KAUST alumni gathered for dinner in San Francisco on April 1, marking the first of many alumni events to come in the area.

Bay Area Alumni dinner marks first of many events

By Michelle Ponto More than a dozen Bay Area KAUST alumni gathered to mark the first of many alumni events in the area on April 1 in San Francisco.

There are 184 graduates currently living in the United States, and of these, 47 are located throughout California. What makes these grads unique is that many of them are from the University's founding class and are considered as KAUST pioneers.

“This group of alumni selected KAUST before we had a campus and before we had faculty,” said David Yeh, director of international affairs at KAUST. “As my colleague Brian Moran has often reflected, 'They are geniuses as they had the foresight to see what we were going to be before we even realized it.'''

The Bay Area alumni were among the first 200 students to attend KAUST, coming from all over the world and representing the start of the international spectrum of what the University is today. The dinner reacquainted them with each other and was the start of future global alumni engagement in the area and beyond.

'A heritage no one else can claim' “These early students didn’t give up—either on us or on themselves.

They challenged themselves to do better and better. They share a heritage that no one else can claim, and that’s pretty unique.

They helped form what KAUST is today with their insight and contributions into what we could become as a community. They laid the foundation as the two founding classes of scholars and discoverers,” Yeh said.

2 Berkeley. Others are working at organizations including Acumen, DataFox, Pinterest, Triple Ring Technologies, Oracle America and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Some are carrying forward the entrepreneurship and innovation practices that are so important at KAUST by either starting their own businesses or working for startups.

Throughout the dinner held at Roy’s Restaurant in San Francisco, alumni and KAUST colleagues shared stories and updates and solicited feedback about how KAUST Alumni Affairs can design Bay Area events, communicate with alumni and provide interesting networking opportunities.

The launch of an alumni platform With over 1,275 KAUST graduates spread out around the world, the University's Alumni Affairs is making it a priority to reinvigorate alumni engagement. This April, the team launched Rapport, a new online alumni community, and they plan to increase alumni involvement in a number of ways over the next three years.

“We are looking for alumni volunteers to work as ambassadors at student recruitment fairs. We are also looking for global chapter leaders and speakers—both virtual and in-person—to talk at KAUST events,” Yeh said.

A KAUST U.S. alumni chapter is planned to launch within the year, along with a U.S. alumni-organized KAUST reunion planned for the summer of 2017.

A number of the alumni are now postdoctoral fellows at Stanford University, Sandia National Labs and the University of California,

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My University Dinesh Mahalingam Dinesh Mahalingam, a Ph.D. student in the University’s Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering (BESE) Division, was born and grew up in Ooty, India.

“Ooty is a popular tourist destination during the summer in India,” he said. “Although I moved to a different city in India for college, Ooty is my home— but before coming to KAUST, I spent all my life in India.

KAUST was my first foreign trip.”

At KAUST, Mahalingam focuses his research work on nanostructured polymeric membranes for filtration and purification applications. His double master’s degree in chemistry and nanoscience and technology helps him in his studies, and he also spends time assisting his fellow students as the president of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) KAUST student chapter. When not studying, he loves to play sports like cricket and volleyball and listens to both Indian and Western music.

“KAUST provides opportunities to really explore science because of the University’s amazing research facilities and dedicated faculty members. Being here shapes competent graduate students and leaders and is an experience in ‘unity in diversity.’ Here, you can experience so many multicultural perspectives, and everyone respects these perspectives,” he noted.

Where do you read The Beacon?

This month’s submission comes from David Keyes, professor of applied mathematics and computational science and the director of the University’s Extreme Computing Research Center.

Keyes read The Beacon at Longyearbyen, the world's northernmost permanently settled town and the largest populated area on the territory of Svalbard.

Flowers bloom at Yanbu Flower and Garden Festival

By Raheena Abdurehim Every spring, Yanbu, a quaint coastal town about 200 kilometers from KAUST, hosts one of the biggest flower festivals on Earth. How big? The festival's signature attraction, a flower carpet spanning 16,134 square meters and featuring more than 1.8 million flowers of 14 different types, broke the Guinness World Record for the world's largest flower carpet on March 14.

The Yanbu Flower and Garden Festival, held from March 3 to 19, has become a destination for garden enthusiasts and nature lovers from all over the Kingdom. Locally adaptable plants, flowers and all sorts of gardening equipment were available, and this year, the festival focused on recycling by showcasing gardens that were entirely made out of old tires, plastic bottles, caps and cans. Even the two-story viewing stations around the festival were built exclusively from recycled materials.

Other highlights at the festival included a butterfly garden with over 12,000 butterflies, a traffic and safety park for children, inflatables and edible delicacies from around the Kingdom.

The festival was hosted by the Royal Commission of Yanbu.

Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole located in the high Norwegian Arctic. Administratively, the archipelago is not part of any Norwegian county but forms an unincorporated area administered by a governor appointed by the Norwegian government.

The town, which was previously known as Longyear City until 1926, was established by and named after John Munro Longyear, a wealthy American businessman who established the Arctic Coal Company and began coal mining operations in the region in 1906. The area was eventually called Longer City and was later “Norwegianized” to Longyearbyen.

“Due to its location, Longyearbyen receives no direct sunlight daily during four months of the year. It is also the principal site where the world stores seed samples deep underground in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault— samples of all the world's agricultural DNA under land that never thaws.

For the first time ever, some seeds were recently withdrawn from this bank to replant parts of Syria,” Keyes said.

Keyes was of part of a KAUST group including past and present students who attended the the 24th International Conference on Domain Decomposition Methods (DD XXIV) in Spitsbergen, Svalbard, from February 6 to 10.

“I gave a talk at the conference, and a KAUST alumnus from my group now working in Switzerland and many KAUST visitors were also in attendance,” he added.

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Beautiful live flowers and decorations and exhibits made entirely out of recycled materials were a treat for the eyes at the Yanbu Flower and Garden Festival, held from March 3 to 19 in Yanbu this year. Photos by Raheena Abdurehim.