KAUST
“Given your experiences in Qatar, would your university have the ability — and desire — to help us build a new research university in Saudi Arabia?“
This was the question posed by Dr. Nadhmi Al-Nasr, the interim president of newly founded King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, or KAUST, to President Cohon within the first five minutes of their initial encounter in the spring of 2007.
The directness of the question reflected the remarkably frank nature of the discussion that started at a welcoming dinner hosted the night before by our Provost, Mark Kamlet, and others (including me). At dinner, we first learned of Saudi Arabia’s need for world-class research and King Abdullah’s desire to satisfy this need through a $10B+ founding endowment. We learned of the audacious time frame for building the university, with a campus to be built and operating on the western coast of Saudi Arabia (near Rabigh, on the Red Sea) by mid-2009. And we learned that top executives from Saudi ARAMCO, the world’s largest oil company, have been given the task the make this all happen.
Mark Kamlet’s reaction was one of deep skepticism, and to his credit he was blunt with the Saudi visitors about this. Can a world-class research university be built in Saudi Arabia? A $10B endowment is very large by the standard of any US university, but is it enough to build a new research university with ambitions to be “world-class”? And for the future global competitiveness of Saudi Arabia, is this the most sensible way to invest these resources? In response, the KAUST visitors pointed to the rapid development of world-class research institutions in Korea, Singapore, and even Carnegie Mellon. They described their absolute commitment to their goals. And they explained the very large resources they had available. Ultimately, Mark Kamlet’s frankness, coupled with the impressive research presentations the following morning, left the Saudi visitors convinced that Carnegie Mellon could be a valuable partner in the development of KAUST. Hence the direct question posed by Dr. Al-Nasr to President Cohon.
So, what is KAUST and what do we, in the Computer Science Department, have to do with it? For a quick orientation on KAUST, see the article in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Also interesting is a commentary/analysis of KAUST that appeared recently in Nature.
Quoting from one of their founding documents:
“King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is being established in Saudi Arabia as an international graduate-level research university dedicated to inspiring a new age of scientific achievement in the Kingdom that will also benefit the region and the world. As an independent, merit-based institution, KAUST intends to become a major new contributor to the global network of collaborative research. It will enable researchers from around the globe and across all cultures to work together to solve challenging scientific and technological problems. The creation of research collaborations among KAUST, the private sector, and first rank universities and research institutions is central to this mission.”
The university is being built on a large plot of land (over 36 million square meters) on the west coast of Saudi Arabia, on the Red Sea near Rabigh. (See the map below.) A large amount of money has been granted to the university. An independent, self-perpetuating board has been formed and is control of the founding endowment. Another $2B or so is being used to build the campus infrastructure, including the academic buildings and new living facilities. An international search for the founding president of the university is under way. And, importantly, $1B (about $100M/yr for 10 years) is being devoted to a Global Research Partnerships (GRP) program.
It is important to realize that the strategy being pursued by KAUST is different than the one taken by the Education City initiative in Qatar. Unlike Education City, KAUST will not be host to foreign university operations. Taking what is arguably a higher-risk strategy, KAUST will be its own, independent university, with its own faculty, administration, and graduate students. Like the Education City effort, KAUST is taking steps to collaborate with top universities and research institutes in order to establish a credible presence in academia and also to develop the ability to attract top talent. However, it is doing so by planning major research investments in the USA and other parts of the world. The Global Research Partnerships program is designed to provide these collaborations and get KAUST “on the map” as quickly as possible.
There are three elements of the GRP.
- Following closely the template of NSF-style Engineering Research Centers, KAUST will fund several research centers in areas of relevance to KAUST’s mission, at the $25M level (over 5 years). These Centers will be located on foreign campuses (for example, on the CMU campus, possibly). In 2008, 5 of these are expected to be funded.
- Following closely the template of HHMI-style research fellowships, KAUST will fund several Investigator awards, at the level of $10M over 5 years. In the first year, about 12 Investigators are expected to be funded. The purpose of these awards is to allow very distinguished researchers to pursue new research directions that are relevant to KAUST’s mission. Awardees would be expected, also, to visit KAUST for about 3 weeks each year.
- Finally, postdocs at $100K/yr will be funded by KAUST.
I mentioned “research areas of relevant to KAUST’s mission”. These research areas are embodied in four planned research institutes, currently being built on the new KAUST campus. They are energy/environment, biosciences, materials science, and computational science. In putting together the GRP, KAUST has enlisted the consulting help of the Washington Advisory Group, and in effect WAG is now serving the role of a temporary funding agency for the GRP. Last spring a team from ARAMCO visited CMU, to learn about our research activities (particularly in the computing area) and to get a sense of our interest in participating in the GRP. After a positive response, I was asked to host a second visit, this time by the ARAMCO team and the Saudi Oil Minister. We presented two preliminary Research Center concepts, both of which were received extremely well.
Now, with the official announcement of the GRP program, CMU is one of 60 universities worldwide (20 of which are in the USA) invited to submit preproposals for one Center, two Investigators, and three postdocs.
Click here to see our plans to respond to KAUST’s request for proposals. (A CMU id and password will be required to access this site.)
It is fair to ask whether the KAUST initiative is a good one, and whether CMU should get involved. The initiative is certainly an ambitious one, perhaps too ambitious. It states many ideals that we would certainly find laudable. At the same time, it is far from clear whether their goals are achievable in the time frame envisioned, and in a country with such significant cultural, political, and economic disadvantages. There is also the question of how this might affect our relationship with the Qatar Foundation and our ongoing operation in Education City, even though the KAUST initiative would not involve any CMU operation in Saudi Arabia. Finally, there is the issue of politics, including not only the relationship to Israel but more broadly also fundamental human rights and especially the rights of women.
One thing is clear: Our initial response, if made, should be in the computing domain. This is clearly the greatest interest of KAUST in CMU today, and much of what we do in algorithms, systems, language technologies, and machine learning is directly relevant to KAUST’s stated mission.
In contemplating our response, President Cohon suggested that KAUST’s goals represent an attempt to change Saudi Arabia for the better, and that we are better for helping this along rather than turning away. KAUST’s founding documents call for equal access across ethnicities and genders. They promote a merit-based system for hiring and promotions And, concretely, the GRP represents a real attempt to reach out not only to the West but to the entire world.
Therefore, to the extent that collaborating with KAUST is consistent with CMU’s mission and its strategic focus on internationalization, we have been moving forward with a response to participate in the GRP. This response falls squarely on the School of Computer Science, and in large part on the Computer Science Department.
Peter Lee @ October 12, 2007
A couple of interesting statements here:
“Finally, there is the issue of politics, including not only the relationship to Israel but more broadly also fundamental human rights and especially the rights of women.”
“KAUST’s founding documents call for equal access across ethnicities and genders. They promote a merit-based system for hiring and promotions.”
Since Saudi Arabia has a well-known disregard for the rights of non-Muslims, at the very least its founding charter should be required NOT to discriminate on the basis of religion: guarantee equal access, academic merit should not be based on adherence to Islamic (Wahhabi) orthodoxy, etc. Also throw in academic freedom of speech.
CMU should ask itself whether the money is worth it without these guarantees.
Saudi Arabia is a corrupt monarchy with an atrocious civil rights record and no signs that things will improve. If the Saudis want to fund a research center on the CMU campus at a 5 year cost of up to $20 million, one must wonder what they expect us to do for the money. How, exactly, will funding a research center at CMU advance the development of KAUST? Are they simply trying to buy prestige through their association with CMU, or are there hard deliverables associated with this proposal?
And why should we want to take money from a regime as repugnant as the Saudis?
One of the issues we have been struggling with is how to increase diversity in Computer Science and beyond. I think the financial side of KAUST is very exciting, but we should also do “the right thing”. Perhaps we can push this issue by making our proposal involve a significant diversity component, and be headed by a woman.
(To avoid any assumptions, I am a male faculty member.)
In addition, I agree with the PhD alumni with respect to the requirement NOT to discriminate.
Read about Saudi Arabia’s lack of religious freedom here:
http://www.uscirf.gov/mediaroom/press/2007/october/USCIRF_News_Conference_on_Saudi_Arabia.html
‘atrocious’ as used by another commentator isn’t an exaggeration.
All of the comments thus far are very important. While we can’t know for sure how things will play out, there are some things that have been stated clearly by KAUST and Aramco officials. Of the 10 points listed in their founding charter, the third one states:
The first point in the charter states:
The Board, while not yet fully populated, currently is completely dominated by respected academics from the US, Europe, and Asia (in fact with only one Arab so far). Can we take the Saudis at their word? Of course there is not an obvious answer to this question. But so far they appear to be very serious about the cultural and political implications of the project.
Regarding the question of what the Saudis would want from us, for $25M+, I think this is also unknown. Note, however, that the KAUST has adopted the NSF model for proposal submission, review, and selection. What that means, practically, is that our proposals must address the question of “what we will do for KAUST”. So, again, if we believe that the project and the process are honest, then what we put in our proposal is designed to set the parameters of our engagement with KAUST.
With all that said, if we move forward there will be some very interesting tests ahead of us. There is a good chance we would have PIs who are not only Jewish but even Israeli citizens. We will have women involved. (In fact, the KAUST folks have expressed a desire — perhaps unreasonable desire — to go for gender parity.) It seems likely that a research center on our campus that is funded by KAUST might be open to hosting extended visits by KAUST faculty and graduate students. Research papers might have Saudi funding acknowledgments and in some cases even show an affiliation with a KAUST-funded research center. How smoothly this all goes and what impact it will have on Saudi society are open questions.
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For the first time in two decades at CMU, I’m ashamed of this institution for even considering working with the Saudis. No written requirements for equal participation can change the nature of the Saudi society. Until they change, we need to pass on such associations.
Saudi lacks many basics of living. I have no idea why they are going to “advance” rsearch. Their primary education is really bad. It will be a big challenge for them anyway.
Kaust is a critical component of a much larger movement by Saudi leadership to grow their country in a very positive way to be much more than a oil producing nation during the next century. These initiatives are driven by very competent people both in Aramco and Government. To not form a partnership with Kaust would be a loss for all parties.
I have had very well intentioned and involved interactions with KAUST, including their Global Research Partnerships and the fellowships. I now have no doubt that this is yet another waste of huge financial resources that the population of this developing country badly needs. Saudi Arabia’s GDP is $20,000. This is not a rich country, they have an illiteracy problem, human rights problems, no freedom of religion, no freedom of speech, a huge economical chasim between the rich and severely poor. They are better off building their economy from the bottom up, i.e. better educating their population at the elementary, secondary, and college level. Such developments will naturally lead to well earned freedoms that will enable world class Graduate research institutions. This is a mislead out of touch effort by elite ARAMCO officials and intellectuals. This maybe salvage by adding a few Economists to their team, preferrably economists from developing countries such as India, Turkey, Malaysia and Singapore.
Hello Sir,
I am an engg. student planning to pursue my M.S. (computer science) from KAUST university and this article of yours truly helped me feel some positive vibes about the university considering the fact that few people had confused me that standard of teach is not that good in SAUDI when compared to that in India (my homeland). I cannot afford to apply for MS in various US universities due to the heavy fees and hence the 100% scholarship being offered by KAUST and the world class facilities become the major reason why I am eager to pursue my M.S. from this university. Thanks again for the article. Hopefully, I will be able to crack enough scores in GRE and TOEFL so as to be through into this wonderful university. Any other guidance from your side will surely make my day :)
Regards
I am going to join KAUST in sept and am really looking forward to it. My real interest is in the coral ecosystems there and I’m hoping my kids are going to enjoy the outdoors as well
best wishes
Yasmeen
I also think that KAUST needs to be supported even though it means taking the risk to waste some money on this.