Emirati scientists and engineers needed to make space programme a reality

The education and development of Emirati scientists and engineers will need to be a priority in the coming years to ensure the country gains the maximum benefits from its space programme.

New research bodies will need to be established to train the next batch of students, and universities will need to launch new courses to offer specialist training, according to experts.

In March, UAE University became the first institute to offer a programme in aerospace engineering, in cooperation with Mubadala Aerospace.

Such cooperation will likely become more common in future years as the demand to nationalise the growing space agency continues.

The first Emirati to graduate from the International Space University, at MIT in 1988, was Dr Saeed Khalfan Al Dhaheri.

“This is a dream come true,” said Dr Al Dhaheri, a former professor at UAE University who is now an undersecretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“When I was at university in 1988, I was asked when the UAE was going to have a space programme, and now I can see it’s finally becoming a reality.”

He said an education framework was key to supporting the project as a whole.

“We need to look at it in a holistic perspective,” he said. “If this is going to be run by Emiratis we need to build our capabilities. We have some engineers working for YahSat, Thuraya and DubaiSat, but we need more specialist knowledge and we need to increase our understanding of space flights to Mars.

“At universities, we need to establish degrees in aerospace engineering and space flight sciences. There’s a whole eco-system that needs to be built in order to prepare ourselves.”

He said it was inevitable, at first, that the country would rely heavily on skills transferred from foreign expertise.

One of the bodies to make the best use of that model is the Emirates Institute for Advanced Science and Technology (Eiast). It will become a key stakeholder in the new UAE Space Agency and has successfully trained a new generation of highly skilled satellite engineers.

DubaiSat-1 and DubaiSat-2, which launched last year, were both built in Seoul, under a knowledge-sharing arrangement with South Korean company Satrec.

Dozens of Emirati engineers had roles in developing the satellites with a view to developing expertise and ensuring the next satellites are built on UAE soil. A development and testing centre is being built next to Eiast’s mission control and will be ready by the end of next year.

Construction of Khalifa Sat, formerly DubaiSat-3, is scheduled for launch at the start of 2017. Design work began last year and will move to the UAE centre by the start of next year for completion.

Salem Humaid Al Marri, assistant director general for scientific and technical affairs, said currently there were 20 Emirati engineers based out of South Korea, and more than 30 working from Dubai. All had accumulated high-level technical expertise in their fields, thanks in part to the skills-transfer programme.

However, with a rising number of projects demanding highly skilled Emirati engineers, the need for new talent has never been higher.

“We need to double the number of graduates that are coming through,” Mr Al Marri said.

“There’s a lot of demand from initiatives like the UAE Space Agency, Eiast, YahSat and Thuraya, as well as non-space programmes like Strata, Emirates Nuclear and Dewa.

“These are all huge organisations that require engineers, so there’s a lot of competition. There’s a lot of empty spaces for new people to come through and fill.”

mcroucher@thenational.ae

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