KAUST: Technological advancement will contribute to the prosperity and development of Saudi Arabia and the world

How the newly-established King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) can contribute to the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) inside and outside of Saudi Arabia is its biggest challenge- agreed the 17 strong panel of world experts in computer science, e-science, data intensive supercomputing, and internet scale systems who attended the KAUST IT Summit held Sunday at Saudi Aramco in Dhahran.

Among the experts were Prof. Peter Lee, Vice Provost for Research and Head of Computer Science Department, Carnegie Mellon; Dr. Jack Breese, Former Director for Microsoft Research and Dr. Lawrence Roberts, the "founding fathers of the Internet" as well as other IT leaders from leading universities, businesses and research institutions, including Amazon.com, Argonne National Laboratory, University of California - San Diego (UCSD), University of Washington, SAP and Yahoo!.

Focusing on key global IT trends affecting capacity to create a World-Class Research Institute, the experts addressed the problem of efficiently connecting data, computers, and people with the goal of enabling derivation of novel scientific theories and knowledge, essential to conduct 21st century science and engineering research and education at KAUST.

The summit has been set up to design the university's policies from the ground up, and to move towards more open standards that would spur research. Also discussed were the need to set up and build information and communication technologies infrastructures to support the world-class research and education envisioned at KAUST; identification of partners, and collaborators to support KAUST in the establishment of collaborative research and education with institutions around the world.

"The university will play a role in the new model for technology transfer. Not for the advantage of the university, but for the students and the region." said Dr Ibrahim Al Mishari, former chief information officer at Saudi Aramco.

"This Summit demonstrates KAUST's commitment to convening the best scientific and technological minds to ensure that the independent, merit-based institution can support the enrichment of the Kingdom's human capital and transform the nation into a knowledge economy," said KAUST Interim Provost Ahmad Al-Khowaiter.