Jordan Times
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
King tours exhibition of
students' scientific projects
By Mohammad Ghazal
AMMAN — The government is looking into a scheme
under which companies in the Kingdom will contribute one per cent of their
profits to finance scientific projects and transform into feasible,
money-generating ventures in implementation of His Majesty King Abdullah's
vision.
Speaking to the press yesterday, following the King's visit to an exhibition
displaying scientific projects, Minister of Education and Minister of Higher
Education and Scientific Research Khalid Touqan said the Monarch ordered the
institutionalisation of efforts supporting scientific research.
The minister noted that a law awaiting endorsement entails the creation of a
fund to support scientific research.
“After the endorsement of the law, which is expected in March, the government
will activate a law, which has been shelved for along time, to finance this
fund,” Touqan said.
The law entails deducting 1 per cent of public and private company profits for
this fund.
According to Touqan, the fund seeks to expand activities related to scientific
research and involve the private sector to support scientific projects and help
commercialise these projects and market them.
It is also intended to involve the Kingdom's universities and colleges in the
development process.
Referring to the fair, where mechatronic, industrial, electrical, mechanical and
medical engineering projects created by students from the Kingdom's private and
public universities were on display, Touqan said the event is part of the King's
vision to support scientific research and link it to industry and development
needs.
“Intelligent Autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicle,” one of the projects at the
fair, was created by students from the University of Jordan's engineering
faculty.
“After we came up with the idea for the project, we started thinking about how
to finance it. Then, my colleagues and I went to an office of the King Abdullah
II Design and Development Bureau (KADDB) in the university and told them about
our requirements,” Yara W. Shaban, one of the students who created the project,
told The Jordan Times.
“KADDB financed the first stage of our project at a cost of JD7,500. I am really
grateful to KADDB, which not only financed our project, but also gave us hope
and provided us with an opportunity to implement our project,” said the
engineer.
During a visit to King Abdullah II Fund for Development (KAFD) last week, the
Monarch launched a programme to support scientific research in applied sciences
in order to boost local industries.
The King, who donated the necessary funds for the project, said the programme
should target teaching staff at universities and higher education students who
carry out research aimed at developing products to advance the Kingdom's
industrial sector.
Besides the University of Jordan, the Jordan University of Science and
Technology, Yarmouk University, Balqa Applied University, Philadelphia
University, Al Isra University, Muta University, Hashemite University and Al
Zaytoonah University participated in yesterday's exhibition.
The Jubilee School also took part the event, which was organised by KAFD in
collaboration KADDB.
Touqan said the exhibition would be held annually.