The international engineering conference on hot arid regions organized last week by the King Faisal University (KFU) College of Engineering, failed to come out with recommendations on how to address problems of harsh climatic conditions in hot arid regions. The conference, titled “International Engineering Conference on Hot Arid Regions: Challenges, Opportunities, and Technologies,” was attended by 50 scientists and experts on hot arid lands from United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and Middle East who were carefully screened by the conference organizing committee as to their credentials and expertise on climatic condition on hot arid regions. The international engineering conference on hot arid regions was held under the patronage of Prince Badr Bin Mohammad Bin Jalawi Al-Saud, Governor of Al-Ahsa, who also formally opened the event. “The intention of the conference was to listen to international experts regarding their specific studies and researches with the objective of later on defining the KFU College of Engineering strategic research directions and themes on hot arid regions, particularly in the Kingdom,” said Dr. Abdulmohsen Al-Arafaj, dean of the college. He said that conference was also held to promote the KFU College of Engineering, which was established only in 2007, as a new educational institution that is focusing on research and recruiting quality faculty members. “These new thrusts of the college are aimed to serve the goal of sustainable development of our country in the light of the prevailing climatic condition,” Al-Arafaj said. The KFU College of Engineering, he said, in addressing the issue of hot arid regions, will in future select four strategic research themes, namely, energy, environment, water, and materials. He said to undertake these research themes, the university will establish networking arrangement with international scientific organizations and set up partnerships with academic and industrial organizations. The College of Engineering has already signed a collaboration agreement with Honeywell Company, a Fortune 100 company that invents and manufactures technologies to address tough challenges linked to global mega trends such as safety, security and energy. – SG – Ibrahim Al-Sheddi also contributed to the report __
