DUBAI // The next generation of space engineers are having a taste of the challenges they will face thanks to a new initiative by the team behind Dubai's satellite programme.
The scheme involves the use of CanSats - devices small enough to fit inside a soft-drink can that carry scaled-down versions of the technology used on satellites that orbit the Earth.
Members of the all-Emirati team at the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (Eiast) are giving high school pupils hands-on experience of operating the mini-satellites.
They hope this will act as an investment in the future of scientific research by encouraging more youngsters to follow in their footsteps.
"We feel there is a huge need for science, technology, engineering and maths graduates in the UAE," said the project manager, Ibrahim Al Qasimi.
"We are hoping this will convince the next generation to look at these technical fields."
Pupils from grades 9 to 11 have taken part in two pilot sessions at Eiast's headquarters in Al Khawaneej. Twenty-five boys from Omar bin Al Khattab Model School attended the first session, with 30 pupils from Al Sufouh Girls' School at the second.
The CanSats were lifted 150 metres into the air suspended from weather balloons. They were then released on a parachute and, as they drifted downwards, they transmitted data and images to a laptop ground station.
"The idea of CanSat is to simplify what we do here at Eiast and simulate an actual satellite mission," Mr Al Qasimi said. "We had the students operate the CanSats to show them what to expect after they graduate.
"The students looked at the data that came from the CanSats, which includes temperature, humidity, pressure, altitude and GPS locations.
"They tried to make sense of it and work out why the information was changing throughout the experiment."
A CanSat is divided into a number of layers, known as ports, each of which contains a particular piece of equipment.
Khalid Al Suwaidi, an assistant researcher, said: "The first port has a mechanism to release the CanSat from the balloon and release the parachute.
"The next port has the GPS and the third has the on-board computer, the CPU set which is the mastermind for the whole CanSat.
"There is a power system which regulates the flow of electricity, and the next port calculates the internal and external temperatures, the humidity and the pressure."
The other ports contain a transmitter connected to an antenna and a camera.
Hessa Al Matroushi, an assistant researcher, said: "I sat with the students and explained how the ground station operates. There is an antenna attached to the computer so we can gather the date from the CanSat while it is up in the air.
"We have software which displays the information - we can monitor the temperature, the humidity and the pressure and we can even see the altitude and the orientation of the CanSat."
Some of the images from the CanSat were unclear because interference disrupted the signal.
"We showed that to the students and explained to them what is happening and why the images were not received well, and how to rectify it," Ms Al Matroushi said.
"I am from the image-processing department and that is what we do in reality."
Mr Al Qasimi said the pilot sessions were intended to assess the level of the pupils and that a much larger event involving more schools would be held in the winter.
The use of balloons as launch vehicles proved problematic because of the gusting winds that blew in from the desert, so in future a remote-controlled model helicopter will be used instead.
The CanSats were bought off-the-shelf from a specialist supplier but the team plans to design and build its own.
"We are happy with the ones we started off with but there are a lot of things we could improve," Mr Al Qasimi said. "The camera could be better and we would like to see video instead of still images."
He said the institute hoped to obtain sponsorship so that eventually it could supply every public school with its own CanSat.
"We are hoping to develop the students' skills and problem-solving abilities. Things do go wrong with satellites, and then you have to have a backup plan.
"Once they get to university, they'll be working with research-class satellites that are slightly bigger than CanSat and perform valid missions.
"So we prepare them for university and then the real research will happen."
Eiast was formed by the Dubai Government in 2006 and its first Earth-imaging satellite, DubaiSat-1, blasted into orbit three years later. DubaiSat-2 is due to be launched later this year.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
RESULT
Everton 2 Huddersfield Town 0
Everton: Sigurdsson (47'), Calvert-Lewin (73')
Man of the Match: Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton)
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UFC Fight Night 2
1am – Early prelims
2am – Prelims
4am-7am – Main card
7:30am-9am – press cons
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi
Director: Kangana Ranaut, Krish Jagarlamudi
Producer: Zee Studios, Kamal Jain
Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Ankita Lokhande, Danny Denzongpa, Atul Kulkarni
Rating: 2.5/5
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ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
UAE%20medallists%20at%20Asian%20Games%202023
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Credits
Produced by: Colour Yellow Productions and Eros Now
Director: Mudassar Aziz
Cast: Sonakshi Sinha, Jimmy Sheirgill, Jassi Gill, Piyush Mishra, Diana Penty, Aparshakti Khurrana
Star rating: 2.5/5
