Gaining Global Attention and Innovating to Reduce Food Waste

KAUST PhD student Asrar Damdam continues to accumulate international accolades and venture capital funding for her on-campus startup

Asrar Damdam has been included in the prestigious Forbes Middle East 30 Under 30 list of innovators for 2021, in recognition of the potential of her sustainability technology startup Uvera. Her company aims to prolong the shelf life of fresh foods without using chemicals, and in doing so takes direct aim at the UN Sustainable Development Goal to end hunger. The UN estimates that about a third of all food produced – 1.3 billion tons worth $1 trillion annually – currently goes to waste.

Damdam’s eureka moment came while studying under KAUST Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Xiaohang Li in 2018. Li was teaching a course on optimizing the efficiency of ultraviolet LED semiconductors, and while studying for the course Damdam found a paper on the bacteria- and pathogen-killing effect of UV light on food. She built a prototype device, and by June 2019 had founded Uvera.

Uvera’s first product will be a device in which UV light shines on food to kill bacteria and pathogens. It will extend their shelf life by 97% on average within 30 seconds. The use of UV-C light for food treatment was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, and a patent is pending. Damdam has been fundraising in Silicon Valley to ensure commercial sustainability for her product. As of September 2021, the goal was to raise $3 million for manufacturing, which is to take place in Taiwan and China. Her first investment came from the US venture capitalist Tim Draper. The product is projected to be ready for commercialization by the end of 2022.

Damdam is a PhD student in the KAUST Sensors Group, and she is no stranger to global recognition. She has been named among six winners of the 7th L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Middle East Regional Young Talents program. This recognition came for building a reconfigurable silicon-based electronic platform specifically designed for a heart-assistive device. It matches a heart’s shape and rhythmic expansions and contractions during the cardiac cycle. Students like

ASRAR DAMDAM Founder and CEO of Uvera, and KAUST PhD student

OUR COMPANY IS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW WE CAN RAISE THE THRESHOLD OF WOMEN’S ACHIEVEMENTS AND INSPIRE WOMEN IN THE STEM DISCIPLINES TO PERSEVERE, IN ADDITION TO REDUCING FOOD WASTE AND ELEVATING ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY.

DRAPER UNIVERSITY

“Asrar is solving important problems through her company Uvera, which has large market potential to store food longer without refrigeration. This simple solution has the potential to feed many people that aren’t being reached through the existing supply chain.”

Tim Draper, Venture Capitalist and Founder of Draper University

Damdam are an invaluable resource as the Kingdom works toward its Vision 2030 goals because they achieve progress in multiple areas of the national project. Damdam’s scholarship and startup combine to diversify the economy of Saudi Arabia, as well as make it an innovative society that is globally competitive across multiple disciplines.