 Hello, my name is Faisal Valli. I am here to represent KAUST, KAUST is King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. This university was established in 2009. Okay, I thought maybe you would be distracted with the music. This university was established in 2009. So very young university. We have more than 200 faculty at this moment. And our university is located in Saudi Arabia. Really on the Red Sea shore. And it has a beautiful campus. And if you see in the background, maybe you can see the pictures of the campus. It's a huge campus. The university is offering masters and PhD degrees. Are the students only from Saudi Arabia? No, the students are coming from all over the world. It's not only from Saudi Arabia. Right now, the KAUST has a representation of 110 different countries. People from 110 different countries. It's not only for the students, but there are a lot of research happening. So that means there are a lot of postal and research scientists as well working there. One of the unique things KAUST has is the facilities. They have one of the best facilities in the world in terms of equipment. And scientific equipment. So they have what we call it co-lab facilities. These co-lab facilities are very much directed towards the equipment which are being used for the researcher. For top-notch research. For example, they have transmission electron microscope. They have scanning electron microscope. More than 10 NMRs are there. XPS and supercomputer and so on. And then there is research centers which really focus on different research topics. For example, what we are presenting here today is KAUST Solar Center. So KAUST Solar Center is very much focusing on research related to solar. So it is not only organic solar or perovskite solar or silicon. But what we are trying to do is we are trying to cover the full value chain. We start with materials. We try to make the devices of these materials and then test the devices with equipment. But also we do a lot of outdoor testing as well. Then we go to the industry. We try to understand from industry what are the challenges they are facing in the Middle East or in Saudi Arabia. And then we look into what can we do to address those challenges. So one of the most important things for Solar Center is the flux of the students. So we have, for example, right now more than 35 students. And I am very happy that today we have one of the students who actually come from Greece. And I want to introduce Lazaros. Hello, hello. My name is Lazaros. And I am a new addition to the KAUST Solar Center team. From my experience in KAUST it is like a five month experience. I was stunned about the facilities. I was stunned about the research there. And I am really, really happy to have the chance to work under my professor, Tomas Antopoulos. And do a very unique project that I am part of. As a PhD student in KAUST I can comprehend that there are many, many, many opportunities for me right now and in the near future. And what KAUST offers in my point of view is something unique. Because it gives me the opportunity to work in academia and also links me with the industry and other academic places that can continue my journey. So what I can say in KAUST is I embrace you. You can join for more information. You can also ask whatever question you have in mind. Saudi Arabia in my point of view is a great country. And I am really happy to have the opportunity to be a part of this team. So Faisal will continue with our research team. Okay, so I think the most important thing what I want to show here is in solar center we have a bunch of faculty working. And they are experts on different fields. For example, we have Fredrik Likwai who is our center director. He has a physics background. We have Stefan Devolf who is coming from the material science. We have Martin Hiney. Martin Hiney is a chemist. And so on, if you see, they are working in interdisciplinary research trying to make it sure that they will come up with innovation which is required for the kingdom and for the Middle East. Also, they are trying to come up with some training programs. For example, solar center recently started a PV design school where students come from within the kingdom and they have the opportunity to learn about how to design the smaller unit for household or for the industrial use as well. So these things we need to do to make it sure that we as a research institute is not only doing the research but also creating an impact on the society. Thank you. This is a huge priority for Saudi Arabia to get solar to work in a big way. That's true. So what we call it, Saudi Arabia has a vision 2030. And in this vision 2030, Saudi Arabia would like to achieve 60 gigawatt of electricity through renewable energy sources. And the two renewable energy sources which they want to focus right now, one is PV and the second one is wind. So the whole thing started in 2019 and today Saudi Arabia has given contracts which are around 4 gigawatts. These are the projects which are already in the installation phase. Around 300 megawatt is already into the grid from last year. So things are changing very fast. You are absolutely right. But what kingdom wants to do which is a little bit different than Europe, Kingdom wants to make it sure that they would have the full value chain into the kingdom. So they want to produce the panels locally. So they want to have a huge interest towards the local contents. And that way the Saudi Arabia is considering that they will slowly start moving from the GDP which is right now based on oil towards the GDP which is more based on other technologies as well. And this could also be export because you can have so much sun with a big cable going to Europe. Yes. We can import solar energy from Saudi Arabia. So I think maybe things are a little bit different there. For example, there is a big project of Neom which is going on at the moment. And what Neom wants, they have a different approach. They don't want to give electricity to other countries. What they want, they want to use this electricity to produce hydrogen and then ship this hydrogen in the form of ammonia to other countries. And for example, in this project, there are big companies already involved. Equapower, Air Products, Ramco. They are working right now producing the electricity from PV, taking it towards hydrogen production and then moving the hydrogen in the form of ammonia to different countries. So this is actually happening. And the students see results in their studies and their work. They see actual applications, actual markets. And not just like learning something, people talking about it, but we need to see the market also, right? Yeah. So, you know, you're absolutely right. We used to have things really on a small lab scale. But now if you really want to make students motivated that their lab scale stuff can move towards bigger plants and change the world, then the motivation level will be different. And what is happening in the kingdom, when you see the bigger companies, they come in and they start making the plants towards getting the hydrogen on a bigger level, producing the electricity using the PV on a gigawatt scale. Then everybody thinks, yes. Things are changing and what they are working on is actually implementing very soon or very near future. And is it kind of discussions you have here with the different professors, different universities, different startups to bring in new tech for these students to work on something exciting, right? Yeah. So this kind of exhibitions and this kind of conferences are a very unique opportunity because we all have different expertise. And when we come all together, we start realizing that we have this part and the other company or the other research group is working on a separate topic. And if we combine these things, we may have a solution which we don't know before we arrive here. Yeah. So I think that is the unique part of the conferences. And this conference, I would say that every time we are here, we always find out a couple of things happen with us. We see some students who are very interested to join KAUST, for example. Then we meet people who thinks that they can work for KAUST. Yeah. And then we meet people who thinks that they have certain equipment which they can give it to KAUST or Solar Center, which can be used in our research. And the most important, last but not least, we also have opportunity to meet with professors who are working in a little bit different areas, but these areas are also important for our research. So this research collaboration which comes from these discussions is also very valuable. All right. And I'm guessing Saudi Arabia wants to do more and more partnerships around the world. Also, they're opening up tourism. You have people come in without, like many countries can come without visa and stuff like that. Yeah. And hopefully there's no COVID. People can just go and do business, right? Yeah. And the society, the young people in Saudi Arabia want to collect the whole world. That's such very, very right observations. Saudi Arabia is changing very fast right now. Saudi Arabia, you know, it's great to be part of Saudi Arabia right now because you see the actual cultural changes are happening in front of you. And they are really very fast. Yeah. So tourism, yes. Saudi Arabia have not only opened the visas for tourists, but they are also providing a lot of facilities for the tourists. They bring a lot of work attractions. Formula One was in Jweta. There was a Riyadh season. There were big musical shows happening in Riyadh. They discovered a historical place and they opened it for the tourism. Al-Ula is one of those historical places. They are opening all these historical places which I would say were quite hidden from the world in the past. Yeah. And then let's don't forget the Red Sea itself. It's a great place. So what they are doing, they are building a lot of resorts next to the Red Sea so people can go there and actually figure out what is the Red Sea. Diving, scuba diving and all these kind of things will be available for their tourists as well. I heard about these huge new cities using high tech, using future technology, being planned or maybe they are actually being built. And that city for example is called Neom. N-E-O-M, Neom. So Neom is a $500 billion project. So the Arabia is really working on this which will be a very unique city in the world which is 160 kilometers a line, what they call it. Everything is built in one line. So there will be, it's a traffic free zone or traffic free city and 100% renewable energy. So when I say 100% renewable energy that means that they will only use PV and wind. Now, is this really happening or are there only the videos? I can tell you, I was on the ground and I really see things are moving on a very fast pace. So there will be a very special public transportation system or self-driving system or something like that, right? Like a totally rethought city, not like a city you've never seen before. That's what the planning is all. I don't know what kind of the transportation system will be there but they are very open there and they're looking into different possibilities. They call it the line and they want to make sure the line will be something unique in the world. And when it comes to the houses, they are looking into, sorry, they are looking into very energy efficient houses as well. So yes, it will be heaven for the tourism but it will be also eye-opening in terms of the technology. Nice. So looking forward to a lot of exciting future and new collaborations, new partnerships, new noble price coming out of the University of America. Yes, hopefully. Hopefully. We are ready to determine to make an impact. Thanks a lot. Welcome. Thank you. Thanks for visiting us.