The focus of the global community at the recent Conference of Parties (COP22) negotiations was on addressing progress to-date on the ambitious goals set in the Paris Agreement. To meet these goals over the coming years, we will need significant action from government, industry and communities in the short term, and interventions and innovations from the next generation of sustainability leaders in the medium- and long-term. And to ensure today’s youth become tomorrow’s sustainability leaders, we must fully leverage the power and responsibility of education to raise awareness and empower young people to address climate change challenges. This is precisely the purpose of Masdar Institute. As the world’s first graduate-level university dedicated to providing real-world solutions to issues of sustainability, the Institute is leading the way in youth engagement to build the next generation of climate change leaders. Education has two obvious effects on the fight against climate change. Firstly, it impacts individuals’ general awareness of the issue, and secondly, it determines how enabled they are to develop the necessary solutions and innovations to overcome climate change. In fact, so important is education to the fight against climate change that Article 6 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is wholly dedicated to education, training, public awareness and access to information related to climate change. The link between education and awareness is obvious. A Yale University research paper based on a Gallup World Poll survey of residents of 119 countries found that 40% of adults worldwide reported never having heard of climate change. That figure rises to more than 65% in some countries like India and Egypt. While national factors behind these figures are as diverse and complex as the polled nations, the report authors asserted that: “educational attainment tends to be the single strongest predictor of public awareness of climate change.” And while awareness of climate change is important, general awareness does necessarily equate to concern, especially in countries where climate change is part of the political debate, like in the US. This solidifies the importance of ensuring that the information shared about climate change is as accurate as possible, and that the public is educated enough to understand the scientific concepts at its core. A high basic scientific literacy in the population can help increase a community’s ability solve and adapt to climate change by enabling members to make informed decisions about climate, and the factors that impact it, like pollution. The second effect of education on the fight against climate change – our ability to solve and mitigate its impacts – is more difficult to remedy. This requires the development of a quality educational infrastructure, from primary through to higher education, that has a strong focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). A STEM-focused education will provide students with both the understanding of the cause and effects of climate change, and also, the tools and knowhow to solve them. Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, and Christiana Figueres, former Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, beautifully articulated the economic value of education in a comment piece, saying: “education provides the skills people need to thrive in the new sustainable economy, working in areas such as renewable energy, smart agriculture, forest rehabilitation, the design of resource-efficient cities, and sound management of healthy ecosystems.” Additionally, new research published in the journal Science suggests that investing in education could even be a better way to reduce vulnerability to climate change-related disasters, like cyclones and floods. The report asserted that improving education can give people the skills and knowledge to better prepare for and recover from natural disasters. The paper cited how improving the education of people in Cuba helped them more quickly respond to hurricane alerts and recover from the impact of the storm. The report’s authors conclude that educated people have a better awareness of risk, which gives them the knowledge and skills to adapt flexibly. An example of the link between education and climate change awareness is Japan, where 46.4% of the population has undergone tertiary education and 98.9% are ‘climate change aware’. These benefits of education, and the impact they have on awareness and the response to global climate change, is why Masdar Institute has put such a strong emphasis on developing the UAE’s capacity to understand and tackle climate change. The Institute contributes to the development of the UAE’s next generation of climate change talent through its graduates, students and outreach programs such as the Young Future Energy Leaders (YFEL), which is enhancing the expertise of young sustainability leaders through real world engagement. Select Masdar Institute students and members of YFEL attended the COP22 meetings to learn from the negotiations and develop the skills and networks needed in their future roles as energy leaders in decarbonizing the environment. More critically, Masdar Institute focuses on developing the human and intellectual capital required to solve the diverse set of problems posed by climate change. We require all our faculty and students to continue with their engagement in research that respond to real-world sustainability challenges, like the need to capture and sequester carbon in an affordable and efficient manner, and the value of developing sustainable and efficient energy supplies. The result so far is nearly 550 highly-trained graduates, 14 patents, five spin-off companies. We also engage with industry and academic leaders from around the world in research of direct relevance to known and anticipated issues of sustainability in areas of water, energy, advanced materials and smart systems. These activities help develop the tools, skills and professionals needed to tackle climate change in local and international industries and government. Going forward, Masdar Institute renews its commitment to partner with more UAE and Gulf based universities, government bodies, and companies to improve awareness of climate change and sustainability issues. We also renew our commitment to excellence in education, as we know that scientific vigor and academic discipline is critical to developing meaningful innovations. It is our shared duty to educate the UAE’s people, both young and old, on the seriousness of climate change while using STEM education to enhance our ability to overcome the challenges of this global environmental challenge.

Dr. Behjat Al Yousuf is Interim Provost at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology

20 November 2016 This op-ed originally appeared in print in Gulf News on 17 November 2016

 

Utilizing software to reduce barriers to education, expand healthcare delivery and assist social welfare is Masdar Institute alumnus Abdul Fattah Popoola’s passion.

Popoola – a Class of 2013 MSc in Computing and Information Science alumnus– was attracted to the creativity of software engineering and its profound potential to drastically improve people’s lives.

“Software development simultaneously offers an intellectually challenging and stimulating experience while also allowing engineers to be artistic in their composition of tools; it also comes with the added advantage of building tools that make life better for all,” Popoola said.

In his spare time, the young Nigerian works to improve his software skills to leverage data in creative ways, hoping to develop innovative software tools that may make lives easier. He also hones his skills at his day job at Microsoft, where he is working to make lives easier in a different way; through architecting easy-to-use dashboard systems that will help businesses owners better manage their data.

Popoola has been working at the US-based tech giant for the last 3 years since his graduation from Masdar Institute. He has consistently progressed in his role, from a software development test engineer to his current position of Software Engineer II for Microsoft’s PowerBI Dashboards and Reports Team.

“In my current role I am responsible for building features that help users meet their goals while also contributing to an improved engineering system and software delivery process,” Popoola explained. “I work with a great team of individuals, and we each add value to the team through our varying strengths. I really enjoy contributing by bringing in new ideas and also learning from the deep knowledge and expertise of my colleagues.”

While at Microsoft, Popoola has worked on teams that shipped highly-demanding features to users, organized recurring training sessions, helped with the adoption of a new control system, and delivered new helper tools. The expert software developer also participates in code reviews and in promoting best practices across the organization.

Popoola credits MI for instilling in him not only a wide range of computing skills in critical areas like machine learning, artificial intelligence, game theory, algorithms, distributed systems and software engineering, but also the leadership skills that he leverages every day within his Microsoft team and his wider community of family and friends.

One such MI project that helped inculcate in Popoola teamwork and leadership skills that he has been able to transfer to the workplace was a team engineering project on bitcoins, a form of digital currency that is created from an open-source software.

“Participating in the software project on bitcoins was a really good exercise – it showed glimpses of what commercial software engineering across large teams would be like,” he explained.

During his graduate studies at MI, Popoola was able to follow his passion and research a topic close to his heart – how to improve communications during a natural disaster. With support from faculty, classmates, and an international team of collaborators, Popoola developed a prototype information verification web platform based on crowd-sourcing that was able to verify the validity, or truthfulness, of information provided by people on social media during a time of crisis in a city.

Popoola’s innovative thesis research (which was published in a conference proceeding for the 22nd International World Wide Web Conference in 2013) led to the creation of an open-source framework for analyzing road networks of cities, which can be used by city planners to conduct city complexity modelling, map analysis and information dissemination prediction.

Another way in which Popoola gives back to his community is through his blog, called “CodeKraft,” which he maintains to make software development and programming languages interesting and relatable to his readers at https://abdulapopoola.com.

Although his research was not all smooth sailing, as the development of new software-based systems rarely are, he greatly appreciates the valuable life lessons imparted through these challenges.

“Masdar Institute helped me come to appreciate the value of grit, determination and perseverance while working towards a goal. My time at MI taught me not to ever give up, even if all appears to be lost,” he shared.

Popoola says he looks forward to further improving his technical skills, deepening his computer science knowledge and participating in some high-impact projects inside and outside of his workplace.

Erica Solomon
News and Features Writer
12 December 2016

 

Unlocking the potential of Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries (VRFB) to meet the challenging demands of grid-level renewable energy storage requires ongoing innovation. That is why I am working with a team of faculty and researchers here at Masdar Institute to explore how best to leverage the unique properties of a promising advanced material as an electrode in a VRFB to help achieve the desired battery performance required for renewable energy storage and dispersal.

A VRFB is a rechargeable battery composed of two tanks of electrolyte fluids separated by a membrane. As the charged electrolytes flow through the battery, it transmits an electrical charge, which can be fed onto the electrical power grid. An advantage of VRFB is that its capacity is limited only by the size of the tanks used to store its electrolytes, which means that it can be made large enough to store as much electrical energy as required for a given renewable energy power plant. Vanadium is also easily able to handle the give and take of electrons that is crucial to a rechargeable battery, making it a very stable source element, allowing a VRFB to be discharged and recharged thousands of times, maintaining their near unchanging battery performance for long-discharge applications.

Batteries need to be able to perform efficiently in applications requiring high-energy or high-power storage solutions. High-energy is required for peak shifting and backup power on the grid, and high-power is required for frequency regulation. VRFBs are unique in that they have decoupled power and energy ratings. However, current VRFB configurations are not able to provide cost-competitive, short duration power performance required for the renewable energy-powered electricity grid. Our research currently focuses on improving the power rating of a VRFB, which means that the electrode’s electrochemical performance and efficiency must be improved.

In response to this need, scientists have been exploring the use of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) deposited on a carbon substrate as the VRFB electrode, rather than the conventional materials. MWCNTs consist of multiple rolled layers of graphene, which itself is a thin layer of pure carbon in a repeating pattern of hexagons that offers unique mechanical, thermal and electrical properties. While that electrode configuration had demonstrated potentially good efficiency in lab testing, it was uncertain if the carbon substrate was the cause of this benefit or the MWCNT coating. Additionally, because the coating deposition is not exact – producing random layers of CNTs – replicating such an electrode and its findings would prove difficult. Unreproducible results of this kind are of limited benefit for commercial applications.

To answer the question of the source of improved efficiency in a VRFB with MWCNT enabled electrode, my team collaborated with a research group led by Dr. Rashid Abu Al-Rub to replace the less predictable MWCNT-coated carbon substrate with a similar material that is more exact – buckypaper. Dr. Rashid’s group prepared the buckypapers and our group tested them in the battery. Buckypaper, which is named after the hollow carbon molecule buckminsterfullerene, is a thin sheet composed of an aggregate of carbon nanotubes, and as such, does not require deposition of a MWCNT layer. Instead, it offers a more predictable and structured electrode.

Our research resulted in two beneficial findings, which were recently published in the scientific journal Electrochimica Acta. On the scientific side, we answered the question of whether MWCNTs are electrochemically active towards vanadium redox. Our experiments showed that, yes, the vanadium was active on the buckypaper on both sides of the battery, meaning it is a useful material as an electrode. On the commercial side, our research showed that buckypaper is even more suitable as an electrode for VRFB. In fact, the buckypaper electrode demonstrates the same performance as the state-of-the-art electrodes reported in the literature, without the further expensive functionalization like thermal treatment, that the others require. This makes buckypaper potentially easier to commercially integrate.

With this research, we take another step closer to developing the energy storage systems and technologies that can help make a fully solar energy-powered grid in the Middle East that is able to provide variable renewable energy on demand.

Dr. Saif Al Mheiri is Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Dr. Rashid Abu Al-Rub is Associate Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Ibrahim Mustafa is a PhD student, Ivan Lopez MSc graduate, Hammad Younes is Post-Doctoral Fellow, and Rahmat Agung Susantyoko is a Post-Doctoral Researcher, all at Masdar Institute.

Continued advances in solar and wind energy technologies coupled with supportive policy frameworks has made solar and wind energy cost competitive on an unsubsidized basis with fossil-fuel based power generation in in many parts of the world. 

For example, the unsubsidized cost of electricity produced by utility-scale solar PV has fallen to just 4.9 to 6.1 US cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) in 2016 representing approximately an 85% decline since 2009. And this price decline is being echoed in the UAE, with Dubai’s Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park – the largest single-site project to generate electricity from solar energy in the world – planned to deliver electricity below a record-breaking 3 US cents per kWh when operations commence near the end of this decade.

Yet despite rapid price reductions in the cost of generating electricity from the sun and wind, there are still many challenges ahead of integrating very large amounts of variable renewable energy sources into the electrical grid. The intermittent nature of solar and wind energy cause operational challenges for grid operators, requiring the need for system balancing and energy storage technologies, the latter particularly important as the share of electricity from intermittent renewable energy sources approaches 15 to 20%.

One of today’s leading commercially proven storage technologies is thermal energy storage (TES). TES systems coupled with concentrating solar power (CSP) is a promising source of solar power for large-scale power generation that uses solar thermal energy to drive steam turbines for electricity production. Although CSP is more expensive today than solar PV, it is capable of producing constant power for extended periods of time, making it well suited for “on-demand” solar power and grid integration. The Masdar Institute Solar Platform (MISP), which was launched last year, facilitates the research and development (R&D) of cutting-edge, regionally-tailored CSP and TES technologies needed to make CSP with TES an increasingly cost-competitive option for solar power generation with long-duration dispatch, and make stand-alone TES a commercial solution for applications such as process heat and thermal desalination.

However, to achieve the UAE’s ambitious target of generating 24% of its energy mix from renewable sources by 2021, research and development of a range of potential energy storage solutions, including batteries, which can store the electrical energy generated by PV panels, is critically needed. This is particularly important in light of rapidly growing PV installations worldwide, with global PV capacity reaching nearly 300 Gigawatts (GW) by the end of 2016, and UAE-based utility-scale PV projects expected to reach 1.35 GW by 2020 based on current plans.

Directly storing electricity generated by PV can be accomplished using electrochemical energy storage systems, or batteries, which convert electricity into chemical energy for storage. This energy is then transformed back into electrical energy when needed. Batteries have made substantial progress in both technology and cost in the past several years with recent figures from the US Department of Energy showing that lithium-ion batteries, which is the dominant battery technology deployed today for large-scale energy storage, have declined in cost by about 60% between 2007 and 2014 and costs will continue to decline from both economies-of-scale in production and improved productivity from deployment. However, further work needs to be done to ensure the robustness of battery systems in all climates and also for batteries to provide long-duration discharge needed for many grid-scale storage applications.

Addressing the critical need for affordable, reliable and regionally-optimized battery technologies, Masdar Institute has partnered with Masdar and TÜV Rheinland to launch the Electrical Energy Storage Solutions Hub (EESSH), which expands on the innovative energy storage-focused R&D that is already being explored at Masdar Institute to provide a platform for local and global industry players to test and demonstrate a range of electrical energy storage technologies in the UAE.

The hub will enable real-time simulation of various micro-grid scenarios, enabling researchers and companies to optimize electric storage technologies – which include batteries, flywheels, and capacitors – and ensure their applicability to real-world scenarios. More specifically, at the current phase of development it will provide a test bed for electricity storage technologies that can store around 10 kWh of electricity.

Novel energy storage systems, which include batteries being tested at the EESSH and TES systems being developed at the MISP, can provide the UAE with valuable contributions to the rapidly growing global energy storage market, which is now worth more than US$100 billion per year.

While Masdar Institute’s leading-edge energy storage research is helping to establish regionally and robust energy storage systems, the innovative storage technologies needed to make reliable renewable energy-powered electric grids a reality will not be achieved in isolation. Rather, it will depend upon the collaboration of professionals and energy experts – collaborations that are catalyzed at events like Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW). For the past seven years, ADSW has spotlighted the growing renewable energy market, showcasing PV and CSP energy generation and storage systems and bringing together global representatives from academia, industry and government, to facilitate the development of next-generation energy technologies and systems needed to achieve sustainable development around the world.

I look forward with great excitement to the inspiring discussions and collaborations that will result from ADSW, which will contribute towards making energy storage, and in turn, on-demand solar and wind energy, an economically viable option for consumers and businesses across the world.

Dr. Steve Griffiths is Vice President of Research at Masdar Institute of Science and Technology.
27 December 2016
This op-ed was first published in Gulf News on 26 December 2016.

Steven Meyers, a Masdar Institute Class of 2011 MSc in Mechanical Engineering graduate, has followed his graduation with a steady pursuit of excellence and advancement of his sustainable engineering credentials and today is working to reduce the world’s carbon footprint by studying how renewable energy systems can replace traditional fossil fuel sources for industrial process heating applications.

Meyers had joined Masdar Institute’s first class after already having completed a BS and MSc in Mechanical Engineering from Penn State University and today his pursuit of specialized education in renewable energy has taken him to the University of Kassel in Germany, where he is completing a PhD in Solar and Systems Engineering. His doctorate research is focused on the integration of solar and renewable heating systems for industrial processes to minimize fossil fuel use and carbon emissions.

Process heating – which provides the hot air, steam and water needed to carry out processes such as drying, washing, pasteurization and sterilization found in the food and beverage, textile, brick, paper, metal fabrication, and agriculture industries – can significantly contribute to high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide – the primary greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. In the United States alone it accounts for over 35% of the energy consumed by the national manufacturing sector. That is why Meyers has dedicated his professional life’s work to finding ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from process heating by replacing fossil fuel-driven heating systems with renewable technologies, such as solar thermal, PV, and/or heat pumps.

“I became interested in low carbon industrial process heat because it is a ‘sleeping giant’ in terms of potential for greenhouse gas reduction. The global demand for heat is on par with that of electricity, though it is rarely recognized as a way to reduce emissions. By combining this need with my experiences as a solar engineer, I plan to realize renewable heat projects in an industrial setting after I finish my PhD later this year,” Meyers explained.

Despite the technical feasibility and socio-economic benefits of using renewable heat in industrial processes, actual deployment levels remain quite low.

“This is one reason why I am working to develop renewable heating technology integration guidelines to enable greater adoption of renewable heating plants in both existing and new industrial plants,” Meyers commented.

Meyers’ determined efforts to increase the development of renewable energy have been repeatedly recognized, and these achievements can be attributed to the complementary blend of skills, experience and specialized knowledge gained during his studies at Masdar Institute.

While at MI, Meyers was selected as a St. Gallen Leader of Tomorrow in 2010 and 2012, and in 2012 he earned a spot on the prestigious Forbes “30 under 30” list. He has also published over 5 papers on his research for international journals. More recently, Meyers was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Solar Energy Society (ISES).

Meyers pursued his second Master’s degree from MI in order to gain specialized knowledge that would transfer into practical skills required for the renewable energy sector, focusing his thesis research on thermal and optical characterization of Masdar Institute’s solar beam down tower.

“When I arrived at Masdar Institute, I wanted to gain valuable experience in a specific renewable energy discipline because previously I was just a general mechanical engineer. During my two years in Abu Dhabi, I was able to learn a great deal about solar thermal energy, both in the classroom and in the field at the Masdar Institute Solar Platform, which is a concentrating solar power and thermal energy storage testing research facility. The skills I honed during my studies were quite valuable, helping me to secure job offers after Masdar Institute and my current PhD research position,” Meyers explained.

He is especially grateful for the guidance and support he received from his advisors at Masdar Institute, Associate Professors Dr. Peter Armstrong and Dr. Matteo Chiesa, commenting that “they were instrumental in helping me start my career in solar and renewable energy.”

After he graduated from MI, Meyers had a brief stint at Areva Solar in California as a controls engineer.

Following that, he was a solar engineer at Saudi Aramco for two years, where he worked to develop concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies for the state-owned oil company. He also worked as a visiting scientist at Sunvapor in California, where he contributed to the development of solar steam and heating systems for industrial process heat demand.

A self-described ‘lifelong sustainability champion’, Meyers says his studies and experiences at MI helped transform his passion into actionable skills and insights. He is now proud to be applying and advancing those foundational abilities and insights to make energy-intensive manufacturing processes more sustainable.

Erica Solomon
News and Features Writer
31 January 2017

Haleimah AlZeyoudi, a Masdar Institute Class of 2013 MSc in Computer and Information Science graduate, began her studies at MI with a hunger to use digital technologies to make UAE’s cities smarter, healthier and more prosperous. When she decided that such technologies could be easily adapted to transform another key sector targeted for innovation by the UAE – education– she launched her own initiative to make learning fun and easy through virtual, individualized learning tools.

“The ultimate aim of my work is to make it easy for the next generation to learn with love,” AlZeyoudi explained. Advancing education in this way can help the UAE more effectively achieve its prosperity and human capital development goals, she shared.

“Education is a powerful tool that greatly influences all of humankind. If you invest in educating people, you will be investing in the future leaders who will determine the direction the country takes. That is why I want to influence the future of education in UAE and contribute to it with ideas and new techniques,” she said.

AlZeyoudi has titled her initiative TechNEdu (which stands for “technology in education”), under which she has been working to develop advanced modes of teaching and learning to decrease the workload of teachers while simultaneously improving student achievement and understanding. In support of this since 2013 she has been working to develop custom-tailored websites, mobile applications, computer games, and Xbox games that are designed to meet the exact needs of a teacher and his/her students for a particular purpose.

One of the products AlZeyoudi developed is an Xbox game for kindergarten classes at a private school in Abu Dhabi. “The teacher asked us for a way to motivate kids to do physical exercises to prepare their hand muscles for writing. In response, we developed a game that has funny sketches of the body and instructions for performing the exercises,” AlZeyoudi shared.

Another application developed through the TechNEdu initiative was for a fine arts classroom in a primary school. The app involves teaching a group of students how to work together to draw a picture virtually. AlZeyoudi credits the programming training she received – which included developing programs for mobile apps and for a hands-free motion control gaming system called Xbox Kinect during her thesis research, which was focused on developing human mobility detection systems to improve a building’s energy performance – with inspiring many of the programs she has developed through TechNEdu.

As a young mother of three, AlZeyoudi did not have to look far to see the need for transformative tools that would make learning fun and meaningful for the child and instruction easy and effective for the teacher.

“In my family, seven members are teachers and every day I would hear their stories of boring teaching methods and the amount of effort required to teach students. I would also hear stories of students who weren’t satisfied with their teachers’ instructional techniques. When my oldest son joined kindergarten, I started to look for some teaching applications but I couldn’t find many options available. That is why I decided to create my own,” she explained.

Equipped with advanced computer science and programming skills and an entrepreneurial spirit, AlZeyoudi launched the TechNEdu initiative with an unshakable determination that has kept her motivated even in the most challenging of times. For the first three years of operation, she was the soul developer of many of the 42 learning and educational apps and programs developed. While financing and operating her initiative was daunting at times, the challenge inspired AlZeyoudi to push through the difficulties and work even harder to achieve her goals.

“Being the only engineer to develop apps and program games requires lots of time and effort. Sometimes that delayed estimated delivery times of the product. But these challenges kept me going and strengthened my determination to finish each project,” AlZeyoudi shared.

“Each product has meant something special for me. Each visit and meeting with teachers, which involved gathering ideas and brainstorming the final design, was an incredible experience and opportunity, from which I grew professionally and personally. Working during my free time and overnights definitely paid off when I saw kids smiling during the apps’ demonstrations,” she added.

AlZeyoudi is driven by a keen desire to give back to her country. TechNEdu, she reasoned, is an ideal platform that leverages her skills in computer science, programming and smart systems to advance the UAE’s prosperity and growth.

The tech-savvy and ambitious UAE national plans to expand her initiative to the global market by incorporating more instructional best-practices into TechNEdu’s portfolio of games and programs, with the hopes that eventually the digital learning tools may influence global education reform efforts.

AlZeyoudi’s continuous aspirations for self-improvement have also culminated in the publication of two Arabic novels (Sa’aeesh and Bentezar Weladah, which are roughly translated as “I Will Live” and “Waiting for Birth”), with a third book of poems currently in progress. She is also pursuing a doctorate degree in computer science from New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) so that she can continue pursuing her goal of unlocking the transformative potential of digital technologies to improve education, energy and other key economic sectors in the UAE.

AlZeyoudi’s dedication and highly driven personality demonstrates MI’s commitment to attracting and cultivating the very best and brightest innovators and instilling in them the passion, confidence and know-how to change the world.

Erica Solomon
News and Features Writer
04 June 2017

 

Current Masdar Institute PhD student and Class of 2014 MSc in Electrical Power Engineering graduate Abdullah Alshimmari’s talent for recognizing unmet market needs has resulted in his establishment of two companies focused on smart systems automation and food that aim to advance sustainability and wellbeing in the UAE.

In 2016 Alshimmari founded AMS Technology and Internet Services Ltd., a smart systems, web design and digital marketing company based out of Masdar City, and he will be opening a healthy organic food restaurant and café called Healthaholic within the next two months in Abu Dhabi on Muroor Road. While the entrepreneurial ventures are in two diverse sectors, at their core they share a focus on food and technology to cultivate a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle for UAE residents and businesses.

AMS Technology and Internet Services Ltd.’s current focal product is a web application called foodAte. The app offers the basic online restaurant ordering service, where customers can easily order food from restaurants using the foodAte platform, plus some additional unique functions.

One function helps reduce restaurant food waste by collecting and analyzing data on the amount and type of food being stocked/prepared and ordered by individual restaurants.

“That information is then used to form recommendations for the restaurant to reduce its food waste while increasing its sales. For instance, if a restaurant sees that it is only selling 10-15 of the 30 orders of soup it prepares a day, it can reduce its stock of prepared soup, and thus reduce its wastage. Conversely it may see that customers are ordering more than it had been preparing for, so it can better stock its kitchens and reduce last-minute preparations,” he explained.

It is estimated that nearly 3.27 million tons of food worth more than USD3.54 billion is wasted in the UAE every year. This wasted food represents not only wasted money, but is also a sustainability issue, as, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), food loss and waste accounts for about 3.3 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions.

A second unique foodAte function allows users to track the delivery drivers who are delivering their food, which Alshimmari says give it a competitive edge in the food ordering app market.

“Some other food delivery apps can provide real-time tracking of the delivery driver’s location on a map only if the delivery driver is provided by them. However, foodAte is the only one which is able to track the orders regardless of who the driver is. This will give customers an incentive to use foodAte over other apps. And the more customers that use foodAte, means the more information we can gather to improve restauranteurs’ food conservation efforts,” Alshimmari added.

The UAE national is also working closely with leading commercial airliners to incorporate a similar smart food ordering system into their operations to reduce food wastage of in-flight meals. The system will allow airline passengers to order their meals in advance, which can reduce the airline’s food wastage significantly while increasing customer satisfaction.

“Currently airlines tend to stock large amounts of their various meal options, to make sure they have enough for everyone and there are always extras that go to waste. With my system, airlines can ask their passengers to review their menu options and select their choice when booking their flight. Then the correct amount of meals can be stocked. This can reduce the cost of wasted food, as well as the fuel cost of transporting the unnecessary meals,” he explained.

The smart ordering system would also be helpful in rapidly analyzing and evaluating customer meal preferences on certain flights, which would help the airline better align its options to customer preferences for improved customer experience.

“For example, if the system is seeing that a certain flight doesn’t have a large uptake of the fish option, then the airline can replace it with something that the customers prefer more,” Alshimmari added.

Alshimmari was inspired to develop AMS Technology and Internet Services after seeing the need for greater automation and smart systems in the UAE’s current market to make lives easier and to bolster local businesses.

“Take foodAte as an example – it was developed to bridge several gaps in the online ordering systems in addition to providing a valuable service with the lowest service charge as we introduce automation in several processes,” he explained.

Alshimmari’s keen eye on meeting market gaps also resulted in his development of Healthaholic, which also touches on his interest in food, health and sustainability.

“I developed Healthaholic in response to the need for a restaurant in our community that serves healthy and tasty food while integrating sustainability in its operations. The theme of Healthaholic is ‘healthy for the body and healthy for the environment,” Alshimmari explained.

The result is a restaurant that uses organic ingredients to meet the needs of health-conscious consumers, while utilizing recycled materials in its own functions and products. The FAO says that organic agriculture is more sustainable in the long-term because it protects soil and water resources from contamination by pesticides, has a lower energy demand, promotes biodiversity, and prohibits the use of genetically modified organisms.

The organic and sustainable restaurant idea won financial support from the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development, which invests in small and medium enterprises that meet certain innovation criteria and are founded by UAE nationals.

The serial entrepreneur said two MI courses – Management and Entrepreneurship for Engineers and Technology Strategy – helped him shape and pursue his business ideas.

Another opportunity that further inspired his entrepreneurial interests was an internship at Chiyoda Corporation in Yokohama, Japan. During his internship, which was organized as part of the collaborative Masdar Institute-Japan International Cooperation Center’s (JICE) annual internship program, Alshimmari learned about different international markets, with a focus on sustainable energy contracting.

“Although the focus of my internship at Chiyoda Corporation was not directly related to my startups, the exposure to international markets was a valuable experience and it encouraged me to shift my focus from the local market to the global one,” he remarked.

Alshimmari’s success is an excellent example of MI’s efforts to nurture innovation and entrepreneurship among its students with the goal of supporting local industry and the regional economy. Small- and medium-sized enterprises account for 60% of the UAE’s non-oil economy and 90% of business overall, which signifies their importance to the UAE’s prosperity.

Alshimmari also credits his success to an innate drive to make the most out of each day, as well as his tremendously supportive team.

“Knowing the value of the 24 hours I enjoy each day, and being able to manage this time wisely, has been the key to being able to accomplish my studies and businesses concurrently. The other thing is to have the right team; I would never have been able to handle all the work without them.”

As Alshimmari’s companies grow towards his aim, he will directly support the UAE’s economy and national development goals. The serial entrepreneur expects to see both of his companies grow in size and scope over the next five years.

AMS Technology and Internet Services Ltd. and Healthaholic are two of several companies established by alumni, faculty, and Young Future Energy Leaders program graduates, which are being highlighted as part of Masdar Institute’s ten year anniversary campaign to show the impact the Institute has had on the UAE and wider world since it was established in 2007.

 

Zarina Khan, Senior Editor and Erica Solomon, News and Features Writer     

06 April 2017

The desire to utilize the sustainable engineering focused skills developed at Masdar Institute to help bring sustainable development to marginalized communities around the world is what inspired two alumni and MI’s former dean of research to set up their own company.

“We were all involved in energy access-related research while at MI, where Kyle and I were part of Dr. Scott Kennedy’s research group. Over time we realized we had overlapping interests and a similar approach to understanding development issues and the role energy access plays in achieving development objectives. Towards the end of our time at MI, we knew that we wanted to continue working together on tackling these issues,” shared Ayu Abdullah, Class of 2013 MSc in Engineering Systems and Management.

She and fellow Class of 2013 graduate Kyle Weber partnered with Dr. Scott Kennedy, the former MI dean of research, to establish Energy Action Partners (ENACT) in 2014.

ENACT works to positively impact individuals and communities through direct engagement and collaborative programs in energy and capacity building. To achieve that, it provides community energy systems, short courses on energy and social enterprise and consulting services to ensure that the lessons and experience gained from their work are effectively applied to broader energy and development-related projects.

The inspiration behind this trio of services came from the team’s previous experiences in rural sustainable energy projects, which they felt focused too much on transplanting products and systems without enough involvement from the people who would use, maintain and advance those sustainable solutions.

“After visiting and studying numerous projects to bring electricity access to developing communities, we realized that there was a fundamental flaw in how many of these projects were designed,” explained Dr. Kennedy, Executive Director of ENACT.

“Proponents would say that the projects’ objectives were to improve the lives of the members of the community, but they assume that simply by providing the infrastructure the other aspects of development would naturally happen on their own. We recognized that a new approach to energy access was needed whereby the human development objectives have the highest priority, and the process by which energy systems are planned, designed and managed must be adapted to meet this objective. We founded our organization to develop, demonstrate and promote energy access initiatives that prioritize community development and local capacity building,” he added.

The goal of ENACT’s activities is to lead disruptive innovation of the current energy sector, which often views marginalized communities as passive recipients of technology and is dominated by a desire to scale infrastructure as opposed to addressing actual local needs and concerns.

“We want to spread tools and methods that empower communities to play a central role in energy system planning and design, while also allowing them to strengthen their existing institutions and leverage local norms and practices in energy system management,” Dr. Kennedy said.

The group has led initiatives with that goal in mind in Somaliland, Indonesia, India, and Malaysia.

“In Somaliland, ENACT planned and worked with a local team from Golis Solar, a retailer, installer, and servicer of wind and solar energy equipment in Somaliland, to install a solar thermal water heater system at a medium sized hotel in Hargeisa,” recalled Weber, who is Technical Advisor at ENACT.

“This technology, while mature in many other parts of the world, had largely not reached this region, but after we installed the system in this hotel and proved the technology could work, we noticed that the equipment began to be more readily available and is now sold in many shops in Hargeisa. Although the impact is perhaps somewhat limited (most people in this region do not require hot water for showering), it is very promising to see this environmentally-friendly technology be adopted so quickly,” he added.

In Ladakh India, Central Java Indonesia and Sabah Malaysia, ENACT has delivered specialized courses on energy and social enterprise by experts and practitioners in the field of energy and human development. These courses are aimed at inspiring and engaging young professionals, entrepreneurs and youth passionate about social change and interested in the provision of energy services.

The founding ENACT team said that being able to see the real impact of their projects and courses in the communities they are delivered in inspires them to continue and advance their work.

“ENACT alumni have reported positive impacts, particularly regarding the role of our programs in equipping them with practical knowledge in community engagement and development, social entrepreneurship and energy access. Some of them have gone on to be strong advocates of sustainable energy and community-based energy systems,” said Abdullah, who is ENACT Regional Director for Southeast Asia.

“More encouragingly, since heading up our Kuala Lumpur office, I now regularly see the familiar faces of our past participants at energy-related events or actively involved in local social entrepreneurship initiatives. I believe that as we continue to run these courses, we will have helped to grow a cadre of enthusiastic energy entrepreneurs who prioritize community participation and positive human development outcomes,” she added.

Over the past two years ENACT has been evolving and growing its operations. It has gone from a volunteer-driven organization to adding dedicated staffers and interns to allow it to scale up its activities and funding.

One critical lesson the ENACT team has learned over the years is the importance of collaboration and partnerships.

“We’ve recognized that partnerships are critically important for a small startup organization with large ambitions. Now we actively partner with educational institutions to have a wider reach for our courses, we partner with energy project developers to implement our methods in community engagement, and we continue to seek partnerships with firms and organizations in related fields of software development, energy finance, research and development and others,” Dr. Kennedy shared.

The team are grateful for the network and experiences they gained at MI, which brought them together and gave them the fundamental skills to pursue their sustainable development ideals.

“MI was very helpful for developing my understanding of complex systems dynamics, which in a startup and development field is extremely important. Being able to understand the local context and plan how best to allocate limited resources to realize the maximum intended impact is a challenge that must be overcome in order for any success to be achieved,” Weber said.

The ENACT team advise MI students, faculty and researchers looking to embark on their own entrepreneurial initiatives to first find their ‘partners in action’ who have the necessary skills and will share part of the responsibilities of developing and launching a company.

“Entrepreneurship can be very challenging and requires the right set of skills among a team of people. It’s never a solo effort,” Dr. Kennedy concluded.

Zarina Khan
Senior Editor
3 May 2017

Throughout history we’ve observed a very strong connection between energy systems and economic development. The first industrial revolution began in the middle of the 18th century and was driven by mechanical production enabled by water and steam energy. The second industrial revolution, also known as the technological revolution, was a period of rapid industrialization in the late 19th century that leveraged the availability of electrical energy and petroleum to grow industries and increasingly connect societies. The 3rd industrial revolution, which began in the 20th century, has been characterized by new uses of energy in automation and is now evolving into what is being termed as the 4th industrial revolution, which is a revolution characterized by increasingly strong integration of computation, networks, and physical systems. In the clean technology (or cleantech) sector, the technology platforms of the 3rd and 4th industrial revolutions are creating entirely new ways of supplying, transmitting and consuming energy, thus changing how the sector fundamentally operates.

As an illustration of this trend, the 2017 Global Cleantech 100 ranking released by the Cleantech Group in early 2017 shows that companies involved in the internet-of-things (IoT) are at the forefront of energy innovation. Simply put, IoT connects the physical world to the information world through the ability to collect vast amounts of data about people, places and things and then communicate these data to analytical platforms that support real-time actions based on the past as well as potential future states of a system. This cycle of “sense, analyze, actuate” is yielding unprecedented opportunities for cleantech innovation.

In highlighting the role of IoT in cleantech, the Global Cleantech 100 report describes 14 cleantech companies that are considered part of the “internet-of-everything” and are advancing cleantech through innovation in wireless communications, software analytics, intelligent buildings, lighting and smart homes. Sigfox (France), for example, is not an energy company but rather an innovator in IoT communications. Specifically, Sigfox has created a proprietary, Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN) approach that provides the long distance and ultra-low power mobile communication capabilities essential for connecting millions of IoT devices across broad geographical areas.

Actility (France), another company highlighted in the Global Cleantech 100 report, sits at the nexus of IoT and cleantech by leveraging of an LPWAN standard called LoRaWAN (Long-Range WAN) to provide products and services for machine-to-machine (M2M) and smart grid applications. Other companies highlighted in the report under the umbrella of the “internet-of-everything” are Geli (United States), a provider of software solutions to design, automate and manage energy storage systems and Space-Time Insight (United States), a provider of situational intelligence via real-time visual analytics software that generates actionable insights from big data and IoT. Enevo (Finland) is recognized in the report for using IoT to provide waste logistics solutions for smart cities, Breezometer (Israel) is recognized for providing dynamic air quality data in real-time to support environmental sustainability in smart cities and tado (Germany) is recognized for providing software that allows users to control heating and cooling systems directly from their smart phones. These are just a few examples of the growing number of cleantech companies that are part of a “digital and distributed” paradigm that is shaping the global energy system.

At the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, our research strategy reflects the inevitable impact of the 3rd and now 4th industrial revolutions on the energy sector. Specifically, we have developed a strategy that focuses on solutions for energy and water through R&D and innovation in novel materials, intelligent systems and data science.

In recognition of the importance of IoT in our future energy system, we have recently launched a Center of Excellence on Radio Frequency/5G Communications in collaboration with the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) based in the US. The center is focused on developing transceivers equipped with integrated circuits embedded with hundreds of antennas capable of high-speed data transfer at the bandwidth frequencies being opened up for 5G networks, which are networks that will complement LPWAN technologies in pushing forward IoT. Similarly, in January 2017 we signed an agreement with Huawei (China) to undertake IoT R&D that will provide real-time prediction and warnings for a variety of health risks for city occupants, thereby improving their overall health. Applications will be built on Huawei’s IoT Platform, which orchestrates the data collected from multiple types of sensors that measure occupancy patterns, human vital signs and body temperature and environmental data. We will grow these partnerships and develop new ones like them in order to advance not just cleantech, but the energy industry more broadly. In essence, it is our ambition to build partnerships and undertake R&D that is focused on the platform technologies that are at the heart of current and future generations of industrial revolution in the UAE and globally.

Dr. Steve Griffiths is Vice President of Research and Interim Associate Provost of Masdar Institute of Science and Technology.

21 May 2017

This op-ed was first published in Issue 31 of Innovation and Tech in May 2017.

Earth and Mars have a lot more in common than you may realize. Both have polar ice caps, seasonable weather changes and observable weather patterns. The planets’ similarities and differences offer a unique research opportunity as they relate to climate change, and how each planet evolved given their unique circumstances.

The Martian atmosphere is of particular interest to the scientific community, as it relates to issues of meteorology, atmospheric origin and evolution, atmospheric dynamics, and chemical stability. The atmosphere on Mars is composed mostly of carbon dioxide and has far less pressure than that of earth – equivalent to only about 1% of Earth’s pressure at sea level. The pressure, temperature, vapour, and atmospheric composition result in a constantly dusty atmosphere.

Being able to gather and assess high quality and detailed data on critical parameters of the Martian atmosphere would allow scientists to compare Mars with Earth, which could help us understand the atmospheric evolution of not only Mars, also of Earth. That is why Mars is of particular interest to the international scientific community, and is a focus of the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM), which has a goal of sending an unmanned probe to Mars by 2020.

In response to the great scientific value of Mars and expected data produced from UAE’s successful probe, Khalifa University’s Research Center for Renewable Energy Mapping and Assessment (ReCREMA) is concentrating on the Martian lower atmosphere and meteorology as part of the center’s focus on planetary and interstellar research.

In particular, we are responding to the technical goals of the mission, which intends to use three imagers and spectrometers — Emirates eXploration imager (EXI), Emirates Mars Infrared Spectrometer (EMIRS) and Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS) — to characterize the state of the Martian lower atmosphere by measuring its key constituents. We are working to develop the skills and insights required to analyse the data obtained from EMM’s imagers/spectrometers. We hope to optimise the use and analysis of these data for the characterisation of the spatial structure and variability of the Martian atmospheric constituents.

The EMM instrumentation are scheduled to undertake extensive and continuous imaging of the Martian atmosphere, which would allow us to advance identification of the dust-loading mechanisms, quantification and characterisation of the mass of Martian airborne material. This would facilitate a better understanding of the color differences resulting from the solar phase angle when using reflectance spectroscopic from EMIRS and EMUS and multicolour imaging from EXI in applying corrections when inferring composition measurements.

The temperature profiles of Martian latitudes throughout its seasons will also be obtained, which, when analysed and integrated with analog, seasonal and spatial thermal tidal amplitudes, can be synthesized into Mars global climate and circulation models. Data that will be obtained over continuous and long periods of time would inform on the interannual climatic variability, quasi-periodic climate variations, and long-term climate change. This would result in an improved knowledge of the Martian climate, which is expected to significantly improve predictions of Mars’ atmospheric circulation and meteorology.

Our goal is to build local capacity in atmospheric modelling methodologies for the Martian lower atmosphere, to extend the satellite image processing knowledge developed at Khalifa University to the specific characteristics the Martian land cover and atmosphere. Given the in-house expertise developed at ReCREMA in dust mapping and modelling, special focus has also been given to broaden the acquired knowledge to the modelling of dust storms on planet Mars and relate them to the surface mineralogy and meteorology.

By developing these capabilities, the planetary and interstellar research at the ReCREMA is expected to contribute to the development of the science and technology sector in the UAE and enhance UAE’s contribution to the international and global space science community.