Quantum Materials & Energy Technologies

Summer School

Imagine power that can be stored and then transported across the national power grid without loss of energy. Imagine future computers that can perform calculations a million times faster than today’s most powerful supercomputers at only a tiny fraction of the energy cost. And imagine smart buildings, smart furniture, and smart clothes — all made from materials that can change their properties on demand to carry out the functions we need. This gives you a glimpse of the future use of technologies.

Interdisciplinary plattform for knowledge exchange

Focusing on the future of energy storage and applications, the summer school on ‛Quantum Materials for Energy Technologies’ provided a much-needed interdisciplinary platform for Arab-Arab-German knowledge exchange. Above all, the summer school should enabled students and scientists to meet again in person, to exchange ideas and to deepen already existing and mostly digitally forged connections. The aim was to present current trends of energy materials research at both tutorial as well as state-of-the-art level.

Students successfully established new cooperation opportunities

After an international call for participation, 20 Arab and German students from Egypt, Germany, Jordan, Marocco, and Palestine have been selected to participate in the Summer School. They were trained by an international and interdisciplinary team of experts. In various poster sessions, the students were able to present and discuss their research to an international audience. With the result that new connections could be made between students and supervisors. For instance, a master student from Egypt is preparing a three months stay at Harvard University, Department of Physics. A student from Morocco who has just submitted her PhD thesis starts a postdoc in Sweden at Uppsala University. A PhD student from Palestine prepares a short stay at the University of Heidelberg to conduct experiments for his PhD research. Others are in contact with Drexel University, USA and Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany for possible PhD scholarships.  

Opening up a space for science diplomacy 

The conference was opened by His Royal Highness Prince Abdulaziz bin Talal Al-Saud who is chairman of the board of trustees of the Arab Open University (AOU). He urged to consolidate the new made scientific collaborations and to establish new Arab-Arab-German partnerships in the field of sustainable technology and higher education development.  

The conference Arab Innovation Forum on Sustainability Development Goals (AIFSDG) is taking place parallel to the AGYA Summer School and creates an additional networking effect.