UAE university to equip Emirati engineers for future defence innovations

Khalifa University has teamed up with a global aerospace giant, showcasing strong partnership between the private and public sector

Nandini Sircar

Published: Thu 19 Sep 2024, 4:47 PM

Last updated: Thu 19 Sep 2024, 6:18 PM

Khalifa University has teamed up with a global aerospace giant to equip Emirati engineers for future defence innovations in the UAE.

This was shared by Amal Osman, Vice President, International Business Development at Collins Aerospace in Dubai, who was speaking on Thursday at the WE Empower Summit in Dubai.

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She said, “The partnership with academia is fundamental to creating a pipeline of future talent to help sustain any innovations and help address many issues. One thing that we do and are proud of is that we’ve partnered with Khalifa University. The future generation must have the awareness of technology. We have young Emirati engineers come to our facility in France to find out about different communication devices that they can create to help support the future of Ministry of Defence in the UAE.”

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“I think public and private partnerships are ideal but also the partnership with academia is pretty important to ensure that we have the pipeline to tell it and to help sustain it,” she added.

Amal Osman

Notably, a Khalifa University Aerospace Engineering student recently contributed to the development of a groundbreaking lunar lander and drone, recognised for its cutting-edge technology, while interning at ArianeGroup’s Orbital Propulsion Centre in Germany.

Khalifa University offers a variety of aerospace engineering programs at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, supported by a research centre dedicated to addressing real-world challenges and driving technological innovation.

Fostering strong research and development

Additionally, Osman also highlighted that what really helps facilitate strong and seamless partnerships between the public and private sectors is the vision of UAE's leaders that paves the way for companies to work efficiently.

“One of the awesome parts is bureaucracy rarely exists here. If there's an alignment around vision, if there's alignment around what issue we're trying to solve and what innovations we're trying to create, the road is clear. And I think that's fantastic,” she added.

STEM education is crucial

Meanwhile, UAE Researcher Aisha Alowais shed light on the importance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education which is crucial for astronomy because it provides the foundation for understanding and exploring the universe.

She explained astronomy is deeply rooted in physics, chemistry, and biology. Through STEM education, students learn the fundamental laws of nature, such as gravity, electromagnetic radiation, and thermodynamics, which are essential for understanding celestial phenomena.

The expert from the Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences and Technology, University of Sharjah, also emphasised how the country is making inroads into STEM education.

She said, “Majority of interns who join us in our annual internship STEM programme are female. Even in the Physics department, the number of females outnumbers the number of males. They are encouraged and aware of the opportunity of STEM education and then they are gradually inducted into the industry. Many programmers are women. I always see them active in competitions related to big data or data science. If the number of women in the UAE entering these fields are tracked, a significant increase in numbers can be seen over the years.”

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