Read on to enjoy the second edition of the AUS Office of Research and Graduate Studies newsletter—home to all the latest news and developments from our faculty and graduate students.
Dr. Mohamed El-Tarhuni is Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies at American University of Sharjah.
He is a Professor of Electrical Engineering in the College of Engineering.
At AUS, our researchers are advancing knowledge across many areas of fundamental importance to our economy, culture, environment and well-being. This newsletter provides insight into some of the research and scholarly activity taking place at AUS.
The stories included in this edition cover the colleges and school at AUS: College of Art, Architecture and Design, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Engineering and School of Business Administration. The research detailed is as diverse as our academic units themselves, with stories covering scientific breakthroughs in the area of caustic waste management through to how documentary-making skills are empowering women impacted by trauma. We also use this newsletter as an opportunity to showcase recent sabbaticals undertaken by AUS faculty, emphasizing the importance of cross-institutional collaboration. Furthermore, some of the recent achievements and activities of our graduate students are highlighted in this newsletter.
This edition is being published as we celebrate the university’s Silver Jubilee. This occasion serves as a timely reminder of the many research outcomes the university’s faculty members have achieved over the past 25 years. To discover more about the accomplishments of AUS over the course of its history, I invite you to visit our special Silver Jubilee web page: www.aus.edu/jubilee.
We trust you enjoy this edition of our newsletter.
AUS researchers develop femtosecond laser-based technique for efficient hydrogen production
Researchers in the AUS College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Physics have developed a novel method employing state-of-the-art femtosecond laser technology to improve the hydrogen generation efficiency of copper electrodes when their surface is processed with an intense femtosecond laser. Hydrogen has long been known as a low-carbon fuel, with electrochemical water splitting for efficient hydrogen production considered a critical step in the hydrogen economy. Proton exchange electrolysis and alkaline exchange electrolysis are the top contending technologies for green hydrogen production by converting electric energy to chemical energy.
Fish movement inspires underwater vehicle propulsion
The mechanism by which fish propel themselves through water has been the inspiration for new underwater robotic technology developed by Dr. Mehdi Ghommem and Dr. Lotfi Romdhane, faculty members of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Their research includes the design, implementation and performance analysis of bio-inspired underwater robots, actuated via hybrid propulsion mechanisms, and equipped with tiny sensors and electronics. Such robots have the potential to serve as substitutes for human divers and conventional submersibles to perform tasks such as environmental monitoring, inspection of underwater structures, search and rescue operations, monitoring of aquatic animals, and tracking of small and hidden objects in confined aquatic spaces.
In recent years, the UAE has been at the forefront of smart city development. Governments across the Emirates have been investing in smart city technologies with the potential to make their cities safer, more efficient and more sustainable. Professor Vian Ahmed of the AUS Department of Industrial Engineering has been keenly following the uptake of smart city innovations across the country, with a view to shaping educational campuses to become ‘smarter,” and contribute to the UAE’s broader goals for smart city development.
Family businesses are the most dominant economic actors in the UAE and hold enormous social importance across the Arab world. Understanding how these businesses operate, and the impact that they have not only economically, but on family units themselves, has been at the center of research undertaken by Dr. Rodrigo Basco, Professor in the AUS School of Business Administration and Chair of the Sheikh Saoud bin Khalid bin Khalid Al-Qassimi Chair in Family Business.
Dr. Taleb Ibrahim of the AUS Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Dr. Mustafa Khamis of the AUS Department of Biology, Chemistry and Environmental Sciences have led a multidisciplinary team from across the university to tackle the removal of pollutants from wastewater. The research demonstrates how interdisciplinary work across different fields of science can help overcome issues of critical national importance, such as the preservation of water in areas of significant water scarcity.
Simplifying technical plans for domestic construction
In the UAE, and throughout the Arab region, many families chose to build their own homes, rather than buy their home from a builder or developer. Often, such builds are overseen by a family member who does not have a great deal of experience or knowledge regarding the technical drawings produced for a build by an architect or engineer. Hiring someone on a long-term basis to interpret these drawings is often difficult and costly.
Technology transfer expert Dr. Vaibhav Sharma has joined the AUS Office of Research and Graduate Studies (ORGS), leading the university’s Technology Transfer Unit (TTU) that sits within the office. Dr. Sharma brings a wealth of experience with him, having worked at Imperial College London as a technology transfer executive for several years and having been involved in establishing a successful London-based start-up. He is a graduate of University College London.
AUS professor named curator for UAE’s contribution at International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia
Faysal Tabbarah, Associate Dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Design and Associate Professor of Architecture, has been appointed curator for the UAE's participation in the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in 2023. “The Laboratory of the Future” is this year’s Biennale theme, which is being curated by Ghanaian-Scottish architect, academic, educator and best-selling novelist, Lesley Lokko.
Dr. Mohammad Al-Sayah, Professor in the AUS Department of Biology, Chemistry and Environmental Sciences, has spent a semester at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) conducting research that will help in the fight against antibiotic resistance. Dr. Al-Sayah was hosted by the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering for his one-semester sabbatical, working with well-known global expert in biomolecular engineering, Professor Hadley Sikes.
Dr. Zahid Khan of the AUS Department of Civil Engineering undertook sabbatical leave over the course of 2021 and 2022 at the University of Waterloo in Canada. As well as working with the University of Waterloo during his sabbatical, Dr. Khan also collaborated with the University of York in Canada and Centrale Lille in France.
The focus of Dr. Khan’s sabbatical research was the dynamic characterization of sand treated with Microbially Induced Calcite Precipitation.
Dr. May Zaki, Associate Professor in Linguistics and Arabic at AUS, has spent a semester at the University of Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, furthering research in the corpus-based and computational analysis of modern Arabic literature.
Working with colleagues at Wolverton University’s Research Group in Computational Linguistics, Dr. Zaki’s sabbatical has aided the creation of a digital corpus of modern Arabic literature.
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