Tag Archives: university
Here comes the ultra fuel-efficient car
Here comes the ultra fuel-efficient car Olivia Olarte-Ulherr (olivia@khaleejtimes.com) / 11 June 2013 Despite the lack of industrial facility in the region, engineering students at the Higher Colleges of Technology’s Ruwais Colleges, have finally completed their first ultra fuel-efficient ‘Made in the UAE’ car. The 17-member team is now ready to compete at the Shell Eco-marathon Asia 2013 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in July. According to team leader Abdulazeez Al Mehairi, graduating student of higher diploma in megatronic engineering at Ruwais Colleges, construction of the car took three months and was not without its challenges. “The first challenge was to build a very dynamic system that would enable us to consume less fuel (without affecting) the speed,” he told Khaleej Times. The material is also a challenge as Ruwais does not have the facility to supply their manufacturing needs. “We have to go to Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah,” Abdulazeez explained. Shell Eco-marathon is one of the world’s most innovative and challenging student competitions held annually in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Participants to the challenge have worked together to find solutions in making transportation more efficient while reducing its environmental impact. The marathon has long sparked debates about the future of mobility and inspired young engineers to push the boundaries of fuel-efficiency in vehicles. “The Shell Eco-marathon challenge has created a unique opportunity for our students … to apply their engineering and project management skills to a real-time project with global implications,” said HCT Vice Chancellor Dr Tayeb Kamali. “We feel honoured to be part of the group that will be representing the UAE at Shell’s 2013 Eco-marathon challenge in Kuala Lumpur. As a team we have achieved so much through this process that we feel like winners already,” said Abdulazeez. “Through this experience, we have gained project management skills and have tapped into our creative side to design and construct our fuel-efficient car. We have successfully raised awareness about the campaign and received support from both our university and local communities who we hope to make proud this July,” he added. For the competition, the team needed Dh250,000 which will be used not only for the car construction, but to ship the car to Malaysia, as well as, ticket and hotel of the entire team. “We got $10,000 as support from Shell and sponsorship from Borouge and the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC),” Abdulazeez said. The Ruwais team’s ultra fuel-efficient car will be put on display at various locations in the Western Region during the first two weeks of June, prior to flying it out to Malaysia for the competition. The HCT Ruwais Colleges will join six other teams from the UAE and a number of teams from the region including Egypt, Lebanon and Qatar to compete in Malaysia from July 4 to 7. Continue reading
UAE is a dynamic place
UAE is a dynamic place Amanda Fisher (amanda@khaleejtimes.com) / 10 June 2013 In the first in a series of fortnightly interviews with ambassadors from around the world stationed in the UAE, Khaleej Times speaks with Australian Ambassador Pablo Kang about the challenges of office, the Qantas-Emirates tie-up and the struggle to learn Arabic What is your background? I did a combined arts and law degree at the University of Sydney. In my second to last year I realised I wasn’t cut out to be a lawyer — the only area I did find interesting was public international law. My lecturer had a lot to do with our foreign service and he came to the lecture one day and said the foreign office was interviewing for its graduate programme. I didn’t really know what it was, so I thought I’d give it a go and I got in. In which other countries and in what capacity have you previously worked? I worked for a couple of years in Australia and then I got assigned to London on my first overseas post, where I spent a few years. I came back and worked in Canberra in the Prime Minister’s office, advising in the International Division, before taking up the Deputy Ambassador role in Manila and then being promoted to High Commissioner in Vanuatu. I went back to Canberra for one year before I took up this post. How long have you been in the UAE? For a year and a half. It’s completely different to my other postings. The Philippines was a very big developing country and Vanuatu was a very small developing country and the UAE, I don’t think qualifies as a developing country. In the entire country of Vanuatu there is no traffic lights or shopping malls. Are you here with your family? If so, tell us about them. I’m living here with my wife and five-year-old son. My son is used to moving, when we moved here he was three-years-old and this is the fourth country he has lived in. My wife is very busy. She used to be in event management, but now her time is taken up running the house. What do you think are the successes of the UAE in its relationship with Australia? The UAE is a very dynamic place and one that’s changing all the time. What I really like about it is the drive to diversify the country and not rely on oil, but new industries like tourism and aviation. There are real areas for cooperation, for example with the four-year-old Etihad Rail Project, in terms of how both countries are developing rail in very hot, arid countries. There have been a lot of decisions and meetings about rail, particularly relating to training, with Australians likely to come and train workers here. The whole aviation story here has been such a successful one, and you can see that in the partnership between our airlines, with the Qantas and Emirates tie-up and Etihad owning 10 per cent of Virgin Australia. I think that’s a recognition of the success of Emirates and Etihad in a very short period of time. The dynamics of global aviation are changing and the Gulf carriers are certainly rising. We want to get more investment from the country and the Gulf region into Australia, which we think is an attractive destination. What do you think are the challenges faced by the UAE? Certainly the challenges for the region are obvious in terms of the arc of instability that surrounds the Gulf. The major challenge at the moment is what will happen in the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Syria, as the number of people being killed continue to rise, with so many different groups now fighting. I think there’s a real issue with the role of particular parties, with the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood as a real political force. There’s quite a bit concern about this development and what it means for the Gulf states. Egypt is a major world power so how that political process is handled is important, and of course Iran is an ongoing concern with its nuclear programme and what that means for the balance of power in the Middle East. The UAE and Qatar are havens and we are seeing an increase in the number of people from Saudi who are coming here, whereas in the past they may have travelled to other countries such as Egypt or Syria. Do you think the unrest in the Middle East will damage the way most Australians view this country? The facts don’t show that at the moment. I think people do differentiate the UAE from Syria and we have one of the highest per capita intakes of refugees, second only behind the United States. We have 20,000 refugees enter our shores each year, and Syria refugees are some of a number that we’d look to let in. Arabic is the fifth most widely spoken language in Australia and we have 400,000 Muslims in the country, which is the second fastest growing religion. What is the stance on visa requirements for Emiratis? Every foreign national needs a visa to go to Australia. Every now and then we get approached by some country saying ‘Can we get visa-free status’, but the answer is ‘No, sorry, it’s enshrined in legislation’. In most cases, Emiratis can apply online for a visa which they receive in about eight hours. There are discussions from time to time to further streamline the system. What is your favourite pastime in the UAE? If I’m not working, I’m playing with my son — which can be relaxing or testing. I’m also learning Arabic but my problem is I don’t do it on a regular enough basis. I have studied Mandarin and Japanese and Korean, but this is much harder. The Australian Foreign service actually ranks languages by how hard they are for native English speakers, and the five hardest are Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean and Arabic – they give two years’ full time learning these languages to get to a working level proficiency, whereas the main language of Vanuatu, Bislama, took me six weeks. My son’s learning Arabic and he possibly speaks more than me. Where is your favourite destination in the UAE? My favourite place is the Qasr Al Sarab resort in Liwa, which is just 30 kilometres from the Saudi border. It sits in the middle of these amazing sand dunes and it’s a fantastic place. Interview in abridged form Continue reading
Hotter Planet Will Make Corn Ethanol Unviable
June 5, 2013 If climate change continues at its current pace, in 40 years a hotter planet will lower corn production by 7 percent while requiring a 9 percent increase in irrigation water, putting US biofuel goals out of reach, says a study by University of California, Davis and Rice University researchers. The study, published in the American Chemical Society’s journal, Environmental Science and Technology , says climate change will hinder US goals of producing 15 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022 to blend with fossil fuel, as per the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007. Pedro Alvarez, the head of Rice’s civil and environmental engineering department and lead author of the study, says the cost of water will spiral and outweigh concerns about emissions from fossil fuels, creating a trade-off. For the study, Alvarez’s team built computer simulations based on crop data from the nation’s top 10 corn-producing states: Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Missouri and Kansas. They used estimates of carbon dioxide and other elements from a number of models, including the government’s Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model. The simulations predict crop outcomes over the next 40 years in relation to expectations of climate change. The study found that the Corn Belt states and the Great Lakes region rely primarily on rainfall that would change its patterns, necessitating a 5 percent to 25 percent increase in irrigation, which would in turn require water catchment infrastructure. In the Great Plains region including South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas, which rely heavily on irrigation, drought has already begun affecting farmland. This will lead to a decline in crop yields, even with continued irrigation. The Rice study calculates that the production of 1 liter of gasoline requires 3 liters of water, whereas the production of 1 liter of corn ethanol requires between 350 and 1,400 liters of water from irrigation, depending on the location. This is not the first time Alvarez has raised the red flag — he has been questioning US support of biofuel as a means to cut vehicle emissions since 2010, when he raised the issue in a white paper published by Rice’s Baker Institute of Public Policy . In 2009, Alvarez estimated that it would take 50 gallons of water to grow enough corn in Nebraska to produce the ethanol needed to drive one mile, in an Environmental Science and Technology report. Although the plains and the western US are still in the worst drought in more than 50 years, in April Reuters reported that this year’s corn, soybean and wheat harvest will be better than the summer of 2012. Continue reading
