KACST & KAUST Discuss a Number of Projects in Fields of Solar Energy and Nanotechnology

King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology KACST held lately the first scientific meeting of its type with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) to discuss scientific researches performed by KAUST in collaboration with Stanford University and Cornell University in USA.

KACST targets coordination and cooperation with all governmental bodies and sectors and universities including KAUST. KACST also works to foster scientific research, develop technology and offers support to researchers and research centers in universities and other institutions as an integral part of its mission to develop and promote scientific research in the kingdom. KACST also works to get final products from researches to benefit both the public and private sectors.

At the beginning of the scientific meeting, Dr. Ammar Alnahawi, Assistant of the manager of KAUST International Cooperation Center for Scientific Research, identified the role of the center in supporting scientific research in the university on particular and in the kingdom in general. He pointed that KAUST offers support in the form of grants for five years through global research partnership with Stanford University, Cornell University, Oxford University and Texas A&M University in various fields in Applied Mathematics, Molecular Photovoltaic Cells, Nano-materials and Computational Science.

In the second lecture of this meeting, Dr. Michel Magi   from Stanford University reviewed the study supported by KAUST about solar cells that can be constructed by using organic molecules pointing that ultra-nano technology is used in this study to reduce the cost of solar cells by ten folds.

Then Dr. Ei Shoi from Stanford University talked about the study he carries out supported by KAUST about restructuring solar cells by using nano technology and changing their physical features indicating that the objective of this study is enhancing the efficiency of solar cells through changing their internal construction.

Dr. Aram Amacian from Cornell University presented a synopsis about his research that deals with organic cells or what is called nano solar cells explaining some theories that indicate the possibility of changing the organic structure of some of the basic materials to adapt them to the technology of the nano solar cells by changing their internal atomic construction to raise the efficiency of such cell and achieve the optimal benefit of using them.

KAUST is considered an advanced march of pushing the wheel of national development ahead, boasting their achievements and strengthening the performance and competitiveness of the national economy besides increasing qualified national cadres to enable them to play an active role in the progress of the kingdom.

At the end of the meeting, the audience were given the chance to participate in the discussion and enrich the discourse about this vital topic besides benefiting from their points of view as the audience included a good number of specialists in this effect.