Saudi Prince visits Warwick at fifth Saudi International conference

Warwick Manufacturing Group hosted the fifth Saudi International Conference 2011 (SICO5) for the first time last week at Warwick University’s campus.

The conference, which took place from June 23 to 26 was organised by the Saudi Students’ Clubs in the UK and Ireland. Amongst many high profile speakers, the conference was also attended by HRH Prince Mohammed Bin Nawaf, Saudi ambassador to the UK, on 24 June.

WMG Director Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya commented that: “I was delighted to welcome The ambassador His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf, and Dr Bakri Assas Rector of Saudi Arabia’s Umm Al-Qura University, and to introduce them to Warwick’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Nigel Thrift and Coventry’s Lord Mayor Councillor Keiran Mulhall.”

The conference is a platform for many areas of study. International academics and Saudi postgraduate students discussed their research papers on the subjects of medical science, health and social studies, engineering, applied science, business and economics, politics and law, education and linguistics, and humanities and ICT.

The program includes paper and poster presentations, professional training workshops, plenary panel discussions and a Saudi exhibition day. Saudi Students’ Club anticipated that the conference would be filled with “the latest research, exciting displays… and lots of networking opportunities for members and guests to reconnect with educators, researchers and colleagues from all over the globe.”

Accepted papers from the conference were published in the conference proceedings, under an ISBN reference. The Saudi Students’ Club also promised that: “Presenters of outstanding papers and posters will be singled out according to scientific committees and judges’ arbitration in each field”.

Speakers included: H.E Professor Khalid Al-Ankary, the minister of higher education in Saudi Arabia and Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, the founder and head of WMG.

The head of Precision Engineering and Surfaces Research Laboratory School of Engineering at the Derek G Chetwynd and the University’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Nigel Thrift also gave speeches.

This is the first year that the university has played host to the conference. In addition to the conference’s core themes in previous years, the 5th conference also included professional development tutorials. A comprehensive exhibition with industrial visits in the local area were also given to emerging patterning technologies and methods, aided by Warwick Manufacturing Group’s involvement in the conference.

Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya also commented on the prestige of the conference, which he noted was “packed with the latest research, with networking opportunities for policy makers, educators, researchers and colleagues from all over the globe.

“What makes it even more remarkable is that it has been entirely organised by highly talented Saudi students.”