Emirates Global Aluminium, MIT expand tie-up

Dubai - Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) on Sunday said it would work with the US-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology on six new practical research projects this year.
The new projects extend EGA's partnership with MIT's David H. Koch School of Chemical Engineering Practice, a programme through which post-graduate students apply their academic knowledge and expertise by suggesting 'out of the box' solutions for industrial problems.
Previous MIT research projects at EGA have led to technical and operational improvements at EGA that have saved over $2 million as well as giving EGA technical experts and MIT students opportunities to learn from each other. 
The 2017 projects range from improving maintenance programmes to reducing emissions.
Abdulla Al Zarouni, Vice President Technology Development and Transfer at EGA, said: "We work closely with local and international universities to combine the latest academic thinking with EGA's decades of experience in aluminium smelting in order to find solutions to the industry's technological challenges. We look forward to making new breakthroughs with MIT's engineers later this year."
Dr Hatton said: "Our six projects at EGA this year are challenging, but they each have the potential to advance chemical engineering as well as deliver tangible improvements at EGA. We work with innovative industrial companies in the United States and all over the world, and we are glad that the Middle East's leading aluminium producer is among them."
EGA's academic collaborations in the UAE include Masdar Institute, the American University of Sharjah, Rochester Institute of Technology and Higher Colleges of Technology. Other international academic partners include the University of Auckland in New Zealand and the University of New South Wales in Australia.
waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com