KFAS holds course to spread scientific and tech knowledge – 400 people participated

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Photo from the event
Photo from the event

KUWAIT CITY, Nov 4: Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science (KFAS) organized a lecture titled ‘Space Discovery, Inspiration of the Next Generation’, which was given by Dr Charles Elachi to a group of about 400 participants.

According to a press release, Dr Charles Elachi, who was the director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory since 2001, had retired in June 2016 to become professor emeritus at the California Institute of Technology, where he currently serves as the Vice-President and a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Planetary Science.

Dr Elachi, in his opening speech, addressed the young male and female participants in Hamad Al-Essa Hall of KFAS by saying, “Be whatever you want to be, a scientist, an artist or an engineer. Do not be afraid to dream big, for you will achieve it one day”.

During his inspirational scientific lecture, he revealed that he has personally supervised more than 50 space discovery tours to planets such as, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and Titan (or Saturn VI), which is the largest moon of the planet Saturn.

Elachi recounted his personal experience when NASA launched the solar-powered ‘Curiosity Rover’ on Nov 26, 2011 for it to land on Mars on Aug 5, 2012. He said, “In the span of the past few decades, NASA has launched several discovery missions to moons and planets of our solar system with the objective of finding life there because the presence of life in other planets is not impossible”.

He explained the long stages for designing and testing equipments, which takes almost eight years for preparation.

Dr Elachi concluded his lecture by saying, “If you want to achieve your dreams, you have to face the difficulties”.

The lecture was organized as part of KFAS program to spread scientific and technological knowledge, and to encourage and motivate people to participate in science-related fields in order to achieve sustainable development through pure scientific research and application.

In the second part of the lecture, several Kuwaiti researchers presented their scientific projects which they carried out in collaboration with international research centers including NASA with the support of KFAS.

In 2014, the State of Kuwait had participated in the ceremony for the launch of a unique satellite known as SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive), which has the capability for global mapping of soil moisture and freeze or thaw state with unprecedented accuracy, resolution, and coverage.

The production of SMAP research is regarded as a joint project of Kuwait, represented by KFAS, and NASA. It is being executed by a scientific team from the Physics Department of Kuwait University, headed by Dr Hala Al-Jassar, with the cooperation of prominent research centers.

Another project that was discussed was the study of movement and disorder of sediments in the marine environment to determine the water currents and contaminants in the sea. It was presented by Dr Fahad Al-Sanafi from Marine Science Department of Kuwait University, and the project was carried out in collaboration with the Texas University, A & M.

The lecture was concluded by Dr Duaij Al-Rukaibi, a lecturer of Civil Engineering at Kuwait University, who presented a joint project of Kuwait University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in United States of America. The project is about the use of geographic information modeling and remote sensing for measuring the level of earth depression and the associated risks.

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