Emirati innovators showcase Imperial excellence

PhD students Talib Alhinai, Huda Ahli and Sumaya Almansoori presented on their research.

Imperial's rapidly growing academic connections with the United Arab Emirates were showcased at a special event this week.

Five members of UAE’s Federal National Council and other senior officials, visited the College on Tuesday, meeting academics and a group of UAE students. 

Imperial has 14 students from the UAE, while more than 400 alumni live there. The College’s fast growing research ties with UAE have resulted in 58 joint publications with colleagues at Emirati institutions in the last five years. 

Professor Maggie Dallman

The group discussed Imperial’s global research ties – as the UK’s most international university – with Professor Maggie Dallman, Associate Provost (Academic Partnerships), as well as the ways in which the College is cultivating a supportive learning environment for “our amazing international students”.

Professor Nelson Philips, Acting Dean of Imperial College Business School and Abu Dhabi Chamber Chair in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, spoke about his extensive work in business education and research in the UAE. The Business School is a mentor institution for the Abu Dhabi School of Management, supporting MBA and other business education. 

Dr Simon Philbin, Director of Programme gave an update on the Imperial College London Diabetes Centre, which has centres in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Zayed Sports City.  These state-of-the-art facilities provide world-class standards of care to patients in the UAE. 

Imperial's partnerships with UAE are especially strong in healthcare and business

Student success

Three PhD students from the UAE delivered presentations on their groundbreaking work at Imperial. 

Talib Alhinai explained how his work in aerial additive layer manufacturing is paving the way for the advanced autonomous flying robots. Talib’s work with advanced drones was recently celebrated in the Forbes 30 under 30 list of Europe’s most promising entrepreneurs and innovators. He also led the team that won the UAE Drones for Good competition in 2016. 

On the morning of the event, UAE’s The National newspaper profiled Talib’s work to create “drones for good” to help with “agriculture and farming, search and rescue and construction”. 

Huda Ahli spoke about her work in plastic electronics, helping create the next generation of solar cells. Using dye sensitised cells, she is developing low-cost, easy to manufacture, low-weight and printable solar cells that work within a variety of weather conditions. 

Sumaya Almansoori discussed her research into the genetic architecture of diabetes and obesity in populations in both the UK and UAE.