Arab Academy Research Articles

A Heroic Story: Tackling great challenges in the Middle East [Women to Watch

Noha Abdel-Karim is nothing short of an inspiration. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering in electric power and computer control from the Arab Academy for Science and Technology (AAST) in Egypt before traveling to the United States to pursue her Ph.D. degree and a career in engineering and public policy, focusing on the electric power grid and energy systems.

Success Factors of Balanced Scorecard Implication : A Case Study on a Higher Education Institution

The overall aim of this study is to identify how the balanced scorecard can be implemented successfully in a higher education institution. The research could prove valuable for academic staff and higher education administrators by developing a framework that can guide an institution through the process of planning, designing, implementing, and sustaining a balanced scorecard. The unit of analysis is a higher education institution, specifically the College of Management and Technology (CMT) at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology, and Maritime Transport in Alexandria. The two sources of evidence used in this case study are documentation and an interview. The results confirm that some factors that are derived from BSC implementation in the for-profit sector based on the roadmap by Assiri, Zairi, and Eid (2006) are also applicable in higher education institutions; non-profit organization; with some modifications in their attributes or sequence in the process while other factors are not applicable in higher education.

Arabicisation and the Khartoum Arabic Language Academy

ABSTRACTIn this paper, we review the historical and cultural worldliness of the Khartoum Arabic Language Academy with a focus on its linguistic ideology of operation and discursive representation. The paper has three key objectives: first, to show that Arabic language academies emerged as decolonising institutions in a context of struggle to fix the ‘image’ of Arabic through specific textual practices of representation. We inspect how the naturalising effect of the dominant institutional ideology of Arabic relies on its capacity to function through other discourses. As a second objective, we contend that since the cultural policy of Arabicisation is closely linked with institutional power and subjectivity, it dialectically contributes to the maintenance of less officially recognised linguistic resources as significant proxies in the discursive struggle for recognition. Our third objective is to compare and contrast the Khartoum Arabic Language Academy with the Higher Commission for Arabicisation in the Sudan. Our argument here is that as an effect of the contestation over what counts as ‘Arabic’, Arabicisation is always an incomplete process. Our analysis of the cultural political world of the Khartoum Arabic Language Academy draws on the insights and conceptual tools provided by historical and discourse studies.

Developing Water Resources Within and Without Borders: Egypt’s Road to Achieve Sustainable Development

Egypt is currently facing a significant challenge to strike a balance between the increasing demand of water and its available amounts; hence, the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation has laid down a water policy that takes into consideration the present challenges and the future changes. To counter these challenges, this water policy is based on eight pivotal points as follows:  Developing water resources within and without borders in cooperation with the River Nile basin countries;  Rationing water usage to make the best use of water resources;  Improving water quality so as to protect the environment and citizens’ general health;  Supporting national projects and integrated development along with promoting investment and exports;  Consolidating and rehabilitating facilities and water-lifting stations to guarantee optimal usage control, develop irrigation condition, and upgrade irrigation and sewage networks;  Protecting coasts and facilities from climate changes and torrents threats; and  Adopting the concept of water resources integrated management. The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation strongly believes that developing water resources both within and without borders is Egypt’s road to achieve sustainable development, and therefore the Ministry adopts all scientific and executive measures to reach these goals for the welfare of Egyptian citizens. I would like to thank the Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development Journal issued by the Academy Publishing Center of the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport and to wish its board every success. May God Almighty guide us towards the welfare of our beloved Egypt. Prof. Hossam Moghazy Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation

Erratum to “Model-Driven Design of Network Aspects of Distributed Embedded Systems”

In the above paper [1] the location for the Arab Academy for Science and Technology was incorrect in the biography of author, Emad Ebied. The correct location is Cairo, Egypt. The correct biography is shown below:

Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development and Their Relation with Remote Sensing

It is with pleasure that I welcome this initiative of the Arab Academy of Science and Technology (AASTMT). I applaud the AASTMT for emphasis on the applications of renewable energy to sustainable development. This new journal will assist in popularizing the significance of this important effort. Because the topic is rather new to many developing countries, emphasis is to be placed on communicating the significance of the endeavor. Thus, scientists and technologists should attempt to convey the expected benefits to the society at large. Articles and case studies in this new journal will be case studies in an easy to follow explanation of the proper procedures and their expected benefits. There is no limitation to subjects that would have an impact on the topic. For example, my own field of studying the earth with data collected from space would have an impact. For example, the potential use of satellite image data to the selection of sites for the generation of solar energy. This would be based on the topography, measurements of the aridity index, and preferred locations near large cities, as well explained by Dr. Hany El-Nokrashi in this volume. It is clear that in Egypt and throughout the Arab world there is a need to emphasize the use of solar energy. Our region includes some of the driest places on Earth. The impinging solar radiation during most of the year would be invaluable to the production of all energy needs. In addition, many regions are endowed with utilizable wind for the production of additional energy. The use of such research would go a long way in sustaining a clean environment for a vast number of citizens. For these reasons, I congratulate all those who embarked on bringing this valuable effort to fruition. It is particularly significant that many participants in this effort represent younger generations of Egyptians. I applaud you all and wish you continued success.

Journal of Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development

Energy is one of the basic needs of humanity and, for ages, the sun seemed to be the main source of all energy in the universe and that is why the ancient Egyptians used to venerate it. Many wastes and corpses – under pressure and heat – have been converted throughout the years inside the earth into the oil on which recent development is totally based to support humans’ life, particularly in transportation and power generation. As time passes, it has been proven that oil will vanish. For the first moment, it seemed like mankind will certainly suffer due to such a hard situation and some people thought that we will get back to stone ages when oil no longer exists. Thanks for the Renewable Energy scientist who has looked at the issue from a different prospective, that is, even if oil vanishes, the main reason of its existence is still there, that is the sun . The sun has the capability to still make people enjoy their life not only by enjoying the sunny weather in many places of the world and having good times on the beach for those who live by the sea but also the sun can still provide man with required energy and cause the wind to blow, the waves to raise, the plants to be converted to biomass, and the earth to store its geothermal energy. As long as life goes on, the sun will always rise and will always grant its energy to mankind. It is the clean, renewable and sustainable energy, which guarantees sustainable development. Because of the high correlation between renewable energy and sustainable development, the editorial team of this journal thought of offering a hub to researchers interested in these two important fields to present their work and share it with others who have the same interest in such a wide area of research . Thanks to the Academy Publishing Center, ‘APC’ owned by the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport ‘AASTMT’ for hosting this international journal .

The Key Egyptian Preference Factors for Increasing Students' Satisfaction Applied Study on Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport

Education is currently considered as a global product with institutions worldwide competing for students and finding ever more creative ways to satisfy the student's needs and preferences. In the past, education was the responsibility of government. In particular, after the 1990s, private universities, academies and institutions with a commercial focus have mushroomed. This study aims at investigating the effect of studying and meeting students` preferences on influencing the Egyptian students' choice; it also examines how overall student's satisfaction can be broken down into dimensions. For the fulfillment of these objectives, the researcher uses a self-administered questionnaire with a randomly selected cohort of respondents at a selected educational institution in Egypt, which is acting as a private entity in essence but it is not one of profit educational institution. A total of 375 students take part in the study. Results reveal that Egyptian students select the educational university or institution according to five factors, personal factor is the first important criteria and subsequently financial aid and procedures, academic quality and facilities, then campus specification and finally socialization needs. This study also shows that demographic factors and background of parents and families are affected students’ preferences and satisfaction in Egypt.

Self-Determination Theory: Opportunities and Challenges for Blended e-Learning in Motivating Egyptian Learners

Learner motivation is considered an important premise for the BL method. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 616 undergraduate learners who were geographically widely spread around the Colleges of International Transport and Logistics (CILT) at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AAST&MT) in Egypt. Respondents were drawn from three branches in Greater Cairo, Alexandria, and Port Said. The data was analysed using SPSS22 and AMOS18. This paper contributes to the application of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) within the field of Blended e-Learning (BL) through an analysis of the views of learners towards the opportunities and challenges that BL offers to Logistics Education (LE) in Egypt.

«Боль шой сло варь» Каирс кой ака де мии арабс ко го язы ка как аль тер на ти ва Ис то ри чес ко му сло ва рю арабс ко го язы ка Ав гус та Фи ше ра

«Боль шой сло варь» Каирс кой ака де мии арабс ко го язы ка как аль тер на ти ва Ис то ри чес ко му сло ва рю арабс ко го язы ка Ав гус та Фи ше ра

Review of Generation of Time Table Using Genetic Algorithm Implemented in Java

An educational timetabling is a multi-dimensional and highly constrained problem. Making educational timetables manually often involves number of rounds of changes before they can be satisfied. In Fact such a process can be time consumings, and often the quality of the timetables is compromised due to pressure to release the TT on time. Automatic generation of timetables then seems to be an attractive to manual approach. But this approach is with problems. In reality, most timetabling problems are NP-complete and most professors and researchers are interested in developing efficient algorithms for solving the time table problem. In this, a college timetable problem formulation is introduced lowed by recent approaches for solving the problem. After that, a genetic algorithm (GA) is presented to efficiently and effectively solve the problem. The proposed GA has a malleable (flexible) representation that handles all the college timetables at once. It includes repair strategies to always guarantee the creation of a feasible timetable which satisfies constraints that must not be destroyed. The algorithm is implemented and applied to create timetables for the Arab Academy for Science and Technology (AAST) in Egypt and it shows promising results. Keywords— Genetic Algorithm (GA), Time Table Problem (TTP), Non Polynomial Problem (NP-Problem), Chromosome, Fitness, Mutation, Crossover.

Special Issue Devoted to Selected Papers from the Eleventh Arab Academy of Sciences International Conference on "Water-Energy Nexus and Waste Water Treatment for a Sustainable Arab World"

Special Issue Devoted to Selected Papers from the Eleventh Arab Academy of Sciences International Conference on "Water-Energy Nexus and Waste Water Treatment for a Sustainable Arab World"

WORD FORMATION AS A MODERNIZATION TOOL OF MODERN STANDARD ARABIC (FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF ARABIC AND WESTERN LINGUISTS)

The current article is devoted to the analysis of word formation processes in Modern Standard Arabic from the point of view of Arabic and Eastern linguists. Due to the fact that modern Arab studies in Russia lack systematic coverage of word-formation processes while existing works – monographs, thesis’s and articles are written about unconnected with each other aspects of this theme, which scrutinize the problem in two ways: by approaching the issue in terms of terminology and by overviewing only methods of word formation, it is interesting to observe the formation of words with general meanings. This paper contains approaches of different foreign linguists to the articulated problem, and also includes the author’s vision on the structure of the Arabic word-formation. In addition to that the article covers the historical periodization of the Arabic lexicon and some linguistic features related to Modern Standard Arabic. The article also describes the main attitude of the Arab linguists to the problem of arabic word formation and names the primary Arabic Linguistic Academies, dedicated to the process of term accumulation and treatment. All methods of word formation in MSA are illustrated by numerous examples of modern Arabic terms from different fields, some of which are pure neologisms.

Special Issue Devoted to Selected Papers from the 9th Arab Academy of Sciences International Conference on “Water and Energy in Sustainable Food Security”

Special Issue Devoted to Selected Papers from the 9th Arab Academy of Sciences International Conference on “Water and Energy in Sustainable Food Security”

Designing, developing, and testing a mobile health reservation system in the Egyptian context

The main subject of the research study is the implementation of m-health reservation system at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT), Egypt. The AASTMT was selected as a case university that offers health services to both staff members and students. The proposed system is based on the current electronic medical records of the academy’s staff at the clinic. The study tries to answer the research question: ‘What are the main usability problems that affect user experience with regards to m-health reservation system?’ In order to answer the research question, usability test was developed and tested on two phases, where respondents were asked to actually reserve an appointment at the academy’s clinic and to perform typical tasks using an iPhone 3G. The experimental evaluation was carried out at a controlled laboratory environment. The experiment was recorded, analysed, and conclusions were derived.

Amalgamating Sustainable Design Strategies into Architectural Curricula

In the era of climate change, rising sea levels, the hole in the ozone layer and current food crisis, sustainability is no longer a matter of choice; it is a must. While the term sustainability manages to embed itself in all aspects of contemporary life, sustainability in the built environment requires special attention. Designs created by architects and planners play a fundamental part in shaping the way we live, behave and interact with our surroundings. Smith (2001) argued that instilling sustainable design in curricula at schools of architecture is a significant method of encouraging sustainable architectural design in practice. This is particularly important in non-sustainable societies such as those of the Middle East. For these reasons, this study aims at exploring ‘sustainability strategies,’ as they may be described, adopted in different schools of architecture. The research surveys architectural curricula at different Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) exempted schools of Architecture, at part 1 and 2 levels. Meanwhile, it also observes the contradiction and difficulties of teaching sustainable architectural design in Egyptian and Middle Eastern societies, whose cultural fabric does not encourage environmental awareness. Finally, the study attempts to investigate, in an increased level of detail, how sustainable design education fits into the undergraduate and postgraduate curricula of the Architectural Engineering and Environmental Design Department (AEED) at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT) in Alexandria, Egypt. The paper concludes that the proper application of sustainable design strategies at early stages of architecture education has developed architects with sturdy understanding of their environment, climate and local identity, which can never happen if this is addressed in postgraduate studies or at later stages of the Architecture career.

Laboratory set-up for education and research on automation of reverse osmosis plants employing a sustainable energy source

We report on preliminary experience of a laboratory-size reverse osmosis desalination plant employing a photovoltaic energy source. The plant is intended for educational and research purposes. The issues investigated are briefly discussed and preliminary operation measurement data are given. Further developments towards multiple energy sources, optimized plant configuration and potential applications are also mentioned. The plant was built in the framework of a cooperative project between the Automation Laboratory at the University of Mannheim (Germany), University of Applied Sciences (Zurich, Switzerland) and the Middle East Center of Energy and Environment Technology at the Arab Academy of Science and Technology (Alexandria, Egypt). The project was financially supported by the SwissContact Agency (Switzerland).

USING FUZZY TECHNIQUES TO MODEL STUDENTS IN WEB-BASED LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

The paper illustrates how fuzzy techniques can be applied to address problems experienced in widespread computing systems for distance learning. Many educational organizations use Web Course Management Systems (WCMS) to run distance courses. In such environments, facilitators often face difficulties in monitoring and understanding problems experienced by distance learners. An approach is proposed here where artificial advisors are built to offer distance-learning facilitators informed advice of what the problems/needs of individuals and groups may be, as well as to suggest appropriate actions when possible. We have developed the TADV (Teacher ADVisor) framework, which builds student, group, and class models based on the tracking information generated by WCMS, and uses these models to generate advice to the course instructors. This paper introduces TADV and describes the fuzzy approach used for extracting individual, group and class models. TADV is currently exemplified in a Discrete Mathematics course run at the Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport, Alexandria, Egypt.

Footbridge: Project to Implement Management Functions at AASTMT

Recently, the construction industry has introduced fundamental changes for integration of functions during the different project phases. The design/build approach that integrates design and construction is a prominent example of such changes. Consequently, modifications are necessary in civil engineering education to prepare students to deal with the demands of the new environment. This paper documents a graduate project offering students the opportunity to study planning, design, procurement, and construction on a real-life project, and to deal with the problems of integrating these functions. The project is a steel footbridge of 10-m span and 1.5-m width. The bridge is located on the campus of the Arab Academy for Science, Technology, and Maritime Transport, Alexandria, Egypt. The project was accomplished by a group of five students with the participation of an industrial sponsor who provided the necessary funds to construct the bridge and the required expertise for fabrication and erection. The nature and scope of the project provided a good balance between the task scope and the constrained time and effort of students. To a large extent, the students dealt with a real project and experienced real situations.

Editorial

Editorial