Yousuf Al Shaibani, Director General, Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) • Interview
Given that the future of the UAE’s space sector depends on the capabilities of its future generations, MBRSC has launched initiatives and programs to engage with students of all ages and levels.
Yousuf Al Shaibani
DIRECTOR GENERAL, MOHAMMED BIN RASHID SPACE CENTER (MBRSC) What has been the immediate impact of the UAE’s first human mission into space on the country, and what will be the long-term impacts of building a corps of Emirati astronauts?
The launch of the first Emirati astronaut, Hazza Al Mansouri, on a scientific mission to the International Space Station was a landmark moment for the UAE and the Arab world. While Mission One was undoubtedly a dream come true for each one of us, it also strengthened our position in the global space sector. During his time at the Space Station, Al Mansouri communicated with students in the UAE regularly and provided the very-first tour of the station in Arabic. The results of the experiments conducted by Al Mansouri before, during, and after his spaceflight will serve as valuable insights for students, researchers, and scientists in the UAE and across the world. To inspire the youth, Al Mansouri and Sultan Al Neyadi have been visiting schools across the UAE, sharing their experiences with students. The success of the mission will go a long way in inspiring future generations to pursue space science and other STEM-related fields to drive human progress. Mission One was just the start of our long-term goals of supporting the country’s vision of creating a knowledge economy while contributing to global scientific efforts for space research and exploration. Just months after the conclusion of Mission One, we started our search for the next batch of Emirati astronauts who will represent our country in future space missions.
How does the center contribute to creating a culture of innovation and research in the STEM space?
One of our key objectives at MBRSC is building the nation’s capabilities in space technology and research. Based on our realization that the future of the UAE’s space sector depends on the capabilities of our future generations, we have launched a slew of initiatives and programs to engage with students of different age groups and levels. For instance, the Space Explorer Camp, which is part of our Mars 2117 initiative, is a program for young students to learn about the fundamentals of space science and technology. Meanwhile, the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) encourages graduates to contribute to the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) – Hope Probe, the UAE’s first interplanetary mission, which will be launched in July 2020 on its mission to study the Martian atmosphere. Through our programs and space missions, we are creating an ecosystem for innovation and R&D in the UAE. While we are a young organization, we have grown quickly, and with each project, we have built new capabilities.
How do you see EMM helping build national capabilities in the fields of space sciences and R&D?
The relevance of any space mission transcends its scientific objectives. Its impact on human capital ripples through future generations. EMM – Hope Probe, even before its launch, has helped us build our knowledge base and our capabilities in interplanetary space exploration. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum once said, “The Emirates Mars Mission will be a great contribution to human knowledge, a milestone for Arab civilization, and a real investment for future generations.” Exemplifying the vision of our great leaders, in the past five years, over 100 Emirati engineers, scientists, researchers, and administrators have gained a deep understanding of building a spacecraft that can reach Mars. A team of Emirati analysts are studying existing data from other missions to develop their capabilities so that when the probe starts sending data, our team is ready to analyze it and turn it into valuable insights that can be shared with the global scientific community. The data that we receive from the Hope Probe once it reaches the Martian orbit will provide the first comprehensive picture of the planet, which will benefit generations of scientists and explorers. ✖
What is the mission of DIC, and how has it grown in the last 20 years?
DIC was built in 1999 and turned 20 in October 2019. In two decades, DIC has helped transform Dubai into a regional internet and technology hub, attracting tech giants like Google, MasterCard, Microsoft and IBM, and nurturing homegrown start-ups like Careem and Souq. Our mission is to support Dubai as it builds a knowledge-based economy with technology at the heart of it. Through the ecosystem we have developed here, we are helping Dubai become one of the smartest cities in the world.
How have you built a strategy nimble enough to adapt to changes brought by disruptive technologies?
Our strategy has always been to a create a dynamic, flourishing community that enables business growth with state-ofthe-art infrastructure, modern buildings, and our in5 Tech innovation center to support start-ups and entrepreneurs. We also look after regulations and red tape to improve the ease of doing business in DIC. We are focused on creating a vibrant ecosystem for technology companies of all sizes and for that we need to remain dynamic and ready to seize new opportunities.
How do you enable companies in the ecosystem to grow?
We enable companies to grow with the right infrastructure, regulations and environment. There are more than 1,600 tech companies employing 25,000 professionals in DIC, and we need to ensure our regulations meet their needs and improve ease of doing business for everyone from start-ups to tech giants.
We simplify procedures by providing our business partners with online services to streamline operational requirements, such as visas or trade certificates. We have helped introduce a part-time student permit, which allows students in universities to work in outsourcing companies. It is also important to mention that du, the second communications company in the UAE, was established in DIC and developed to create an infrastructure network in the area. We also continually develop our strategy for building ecosystems. Some 20 years ago, our plan was to attract companies like Microsoft and IBM. It took 10 years to get most of them here, but we succeeded. Now, as an ecosystem, we are developing the next phase of homegrown companies, start-ups, and unicorns.
Dubai has always been a magnet for talent, offering an attractive lifestyle that makes it easy to start a business. It is cosmopolitan, and there is little red tape. However, this is not enough; companies need the best talent to be successful. All the big hubs around the world are fighting for the same talent, and in a way, the ecosystems drive each other. Nevertheless, it is not sustainable to only look for talent from abroad. In Dubai, we have an entrepreneurial spirit, and a recent law has been created to let universities allow students to get entrepreneurial licenses. This allows students to start businesses while they are in university and is a great step to encourage entrepreneurialism. Our business partners have a key role to play in training young staff and creating a talent base. We are proud to host them as Dubai enjoys the ripple effects of innovation.
We are extremely proud of many success stories, such as Careem and Souq. Our ecosystem is a hub not only for larger companies but start-ups as well. Many big tech start-up stories we hear in the region come from DIC—however, there are success stories from TECOM Group’s other business parks too. At the end of 2018, there were over 1,600 companies and 33,500 business professionals in DIC. in5, a platform for start-ups and entrepreneurs, has the highest percentage of women, at 17% compared to other locations, with approximately 180 entrepreneurs and 82 new start-ups. ✖
Industry analyst IDC named NetApp as the leader in All-Flash in EMEA, and Gartner has recognized data fabric as a top technology trend in data and analytics. This is not only a strong validation of NetApp’s vision, but our innovation and capabilities also help customers better manage their data. Only NetApp can deliver a data fabric with consistent data services for data visibility and insights, data access and control, and data protection and security. We help customers modernize their data center by moving away from mechanical legacy disks to flash, for example. Also, NetApp supports customers that have distributed architectures to build their own private/hybrid cloud and lastly enable them to leverage the
The NetApp data fabric provides companies an enterprise data security approach that spans their entire data infrastructure, on and off premise. Additionally, NetApp ONTAP helps build a zero-trust architecture to protect a customer’s data across the hybrid cloud. The data is encrypted at the lowest level, whether it is at rest, moving through the network, or stored in the cloud. This helps provisioning of consistent data security policies across flash, disk, and cloud—with visibility into all customers’ storage devices. As preserving data integrity is also a major concern while adopting cloud into a business strategy, NetApp created Cloud Secure, which provides total visibility into user access and malicious behavior. This allows detection of possible threats and ensures that proper actions are taken against process-violating behaviors. ✖