When I was asked to write a message for the first KCST Newsletter, I remembered the day in 2015 when the same request came to me to write the first message for the KCST website just after being appointed as the first president of what was then a dream of a university.
Over five years have passed since then, and looking at what KCST represents today makes me feel very proud. Among many achievements, the one and most important is that we have the first group of graduates. The first harvest is always the dearest. I congratulate them and wish them all the success in contributing to the development of the society and economy of our beloved Kuwait.
The last year was extraordinary in every way it can be. COVID-19 has affected the way we live, we work, we learn, and we teach. KCST was very quick to adapt. Online teaching is very well established now and well organised. Through strict and well-thought measures, we managed to maintain the integrity of the assessment process. Having said that, I still believe that nothing can compensate for the actual presence and hands-on approach to education, and therefore I am eagerly waiting to see our students on campus again.
Despite COVID-19, the year saw distinguished achievements at KCST. We had our first Institutional Accreditation with a remarkable and unprecedented outcome. We organised several international scientific conferences and events on campus and virtual such as the Cybersecurity Education and Research Conferences (CERC2019 and CERC2020) with the UK Government, CITRA and Kuwait University, the Global IEEE 5G & IoT Summit with major international companies, the KCST/Cambridge Online Symposium and many others. Our students excelled in winning national and regional competitions.
Among all achievements, what stands out is KCST's response to the country's need for medical protective equipment at the beginning of the pandemic. Over 10,000 face shields were manufactured at KCST Innovation labs by the students and distributed to over 15 hospital and medical centres. It is impossible to quantify the number of lives saved among the frontline staff because of the equipment produced at KCST.
Building on what has been achieved, I am confident that the future will bring even more initiatives and development that I will highlight in the next newsletter.
Finally, I am very grateful to the editorial team who worked hard to get this first newsletter to reality. This will become a regular newsletter to keep all KCST family and friends informed and engaged.
Warm Regards,
Khalid Al-Begain
President
Let me take this opportunity to welcome all of you to KCST’s academic community. This is our first issue of the KCST Newsletter to serve as a platform to voice opinion, inform, and promote excellence in education, scholarship and research at KCST. It will be a regular publication to show case KCST’s academic and research achievements.
As Dean of Engineering, it gives me great pleasure and honor to provide our faculty members and researchers with the necessary resources, tools, a comfortable and conducive environment to perform their academic duties and to conduct cutting-edge research.
At KCST, we are very proud of our distinguished faculty members and supporting staff for their high level of commitment towards teaching, research, innovation and entrepreneurism. KCST will reward, appreciate, and promote academic and scholarly initiatives by our faculty members. The KCST President Prof. Khalid Al-Begain is very committed and has taken steps to support academic initiatives and research activities at KCST. We therefore, encourage all faculty members to initiate collaborative research with reputable organizations and institutions worldwide. This is a giant step forward which has already started and is producing excellent results.
Faculty members are encouraged to contribute to the KCST Newsletter to show-case their work, initiatives and accomplishments. The electronic version of the newsletter will have a very high circulation all over the world and will give KCST the visibility that it deserves.
Warm Regards,
Ali Chamkha
Dean - Faculty of Engineering
“The KCST & KSF collaboration entails training 12 KCST students, guiding them and recommending the proper hardware needed to build the 3D printed Space Capsule. Furthermore, conducting research focusing on stratospheric studies on the Ozone Layer and beyond and conducting scientific experiments that estimate the seriousness of Global Warming and Climate Change.” Prof. Khalid Al-Begain, KCST President
Kuwait College of Science & Technology (KCST) will be the lead across all universities in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and North Africa (NA) region for this experiment.
This project sponsored several activities with KCST such as the delivery of two software prototypes from Final year student projects, and an image processing class project.
Powerful tools in study of viral infections such as Hepatitis viruses (HBV and HCV), SARS, and HIV
A study about coronaviruses to establish a model of differential equations with piecewise constant arguments to discuss the spread of the infection
read moreKuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) funded research projects
(September 2020)
Dr. Abolfazl Niya
Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering
(December 2020)
Dr. Murugappan Murugappan
Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering
(September 2020)
Prof Carlos Da Fonseca
Department of Mathematics
(December 2020)
Dr. Nader Shehata
Department of Physics
(January 2021)
Dr. Mohammed Trabelsi
Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering
(January 2021)
Dr. Noor El-Islam Boukortt
Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering
KCST's star students bagged 9 out of 10 places in Huawei's ICT Competition. Two students will go on a course scholarship to China, funded by Huawei.
Orientation Day for our freshmen students was held through a live zoom session and an Instagram live session.
The 2nd CERC conference took place virtually using an online conferencing platform on 24-25 November 2020.
On Dec 7 2020, KCST organized a very successful online symposium in collaboration with Cambridge University Press and Cambridge Assessment English
KCST students and employees led by the President Professor Khalid Al-Begain participated in "World Clean Up Day" event hosted by Al Nowair Company on Saturday 19th of September at different beach locations in Kuwait.
Five faculty members of the English Language Department presented during the TESOL Conference in February 2020, and three of them presented for the second time this year in the same conference which was held on the 5th & 6th of February.
Kuwait College of Science and Technology signed an agreement with the Public Authority for Civil Information. This agreement was made in order to link the Hawyti App, with the KCST website to simplify the online registration process and provide the applicants’ detailed and accurate civil information.
The Palestinian Ambassador visits Kuwait College of Science and Technology to thank them for offering scholarships for outstanding Palestinian students.
Dr Randa Diab-Bahman has been selected by the British Council in Kuwait, in collaboration with KAFO, as a recipient of the ‘Pandemic Hero’ award.
Congratulations to Dr Omar Khattab and his Final Year Project students Ms Hessah Matbaqi, Mr Hussain Dashti and Ms Rajaa Abdullah for receiving an acceptance letter to publish their research paper in an international journal
read more
Dr Trebelsi’s book Single CC-Source Multilevel Inverters, published by Springer, is beneficial to students, researchers and engineers.
EC-Council is a world-leading organization in the cybersecurity training and certification
read more
The cybersecurity week’s training programs aims to educate the community on how to maintain privacy.
read more
An initiative that includes the production of scientific content and training courses.
read more
KCST signs letter of intent as an initiative to strengthen the bond between Kuwait and the UK.
For the first time in Kuwait, and in coordination with the US Embassy & KFAS, KCST was selected to locally organise the 'Stevens Initiative' – a coding challenge
The seminar featured several speakers who discussed the future of online learning and innovative ways of applying new virtual online learning methods.
KCPC (Kuwait Collegiate Programming Contest) 2020 was held virtually on the 8th and 9th of February 2021.
The YES club hosted the Red Crescent Society (RCS) for a discussion on social responsibility. The RCS board president, Dr Hilal AlSayer, took the virtual floor to speak to students about his work and initiatives.
In a one-of-a-kind event, the YES club hosted the Red Crescent Society (RCS) in a discussion on social responsibility. The president of the RCS board, Dr Hilal AlSayer, in one of his rare appearances, took the virtual floor to speak to our students about his work and initiatives. Students gained insight from the pioneer of social responsibility on what they can do to participate and be inspired to make a difference. We were honored to have the chance to visit the center and honor Dr AlSayer on his tremendous achievements and thank him for taking the time to participate in our event.
Also, the YES club held an informative session under the title of ‘Dispelling the Myths & Truths about Covid-19 Vaccine’ with local expert Dr Maitham Khaja. Such initiatives, in line with the YES club vision, are KCST’s contribution to bringing awareness to rumors and truths regarding the vaccine.
The audio-visual club held a virtual Gaming event that had over 60 participants from different universities in Kuwait.
The audio-visual club recently held a
Gaming event virtually which had over 60 participants from the different universities in Kuwait.
The event, which centered around the popular game ‘Imposter’, was attended by numerous local sports
commentators and prominent game players. The club used this event as a way to break the studious
routine before the exams and give students an outlet for distress. As well, it was a great way for
students to engage with one another and show team spirit away from the university setting.
The Photography club hosted an in-house competition for students pivoted around the idea of depicting the pandemic and its implications with a creative photo.
KCST celebrated January's World Education Day' to honour all staff members' hard work throughout the past year.
KCST celebrated January’s ‘World Education Day’ to honor the hard work of all staff members throughout the past year. Professor Khalid Al Begain expressed his gratitude for the dedication of everyone involved in the education process, especially during the COVID pandemic. Also, he awarded two of our distinguished academics for being listed among the top 2% of highly cited scientists in their field (according to Stanford University’s list for the year 2020/2021). Both the Dean of Faculty, Professor Ali Chamkha and Dr. M Murugappan, Assistant Professor in the Electronic and Communications Unit were awarded plaques of honor to commemorate their achievements. Also, KCST senior managers awarded Professor Khalid Al Begain a special award in appreciation for his exemplary leadership. Mrs. Sonar Al Hajj, HR & Administration Manager, praised the President’s resilient effort during the pandemic crisis and the abrupt shift to online learning.
KCST has teamed up with Quadra, the most prominent computer store in Kuwait, to allow students to participate in hands-on training in their technical and interpersonal skills.
A unique collaboration was established between the British Embassy of Kuwait & KCST to offer the local community an intensive 8-week boot camp in the Cyber Security field.
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KCST collaborated with Talent Script, a local company specialising in recruiting fresh graduates and students in their final semester, in maximising the opportunities available to be hired in the private sector.
Two KCST students graduated from the internship program offered by LOYAC. Ms Awatef Al Shammeri worked at Marina Hotel (IT), and Ms Al Jazzi Al Tamimi interned at Samsung showroom.
As we continue to bring forth meaningful opportunities for our students, we are proud to announce that two KCST’ers graduated from the internship program offered by LOYAC. Ms Awatef Al Shammeri, who worked at Marina Hotel (IT), and Ms Al Jazzi Al Tamimi, who interned at Samsung showroom, have been praised as hardworking students with great attitudes. Based on the positive experiences and feedback, KCST officially signed an agreement with LOYAC to continue to provide opportunities for our students to practice their technical and interpersonal skills and earn in-class grades.
The YES club hosted Dr. Maitham Khajah The Chairman of Pharmacology & Theraputics Department at Kuwait University to present a discussion tilted: Truths & Myths about the Corona vaccine. Dr. Khajah explained the importance of taking Corona vaccine to decrease the disease symptoms and reach the community immunity which will help in decreasing the number of deaths accordingly. Also, Dr. Khajah elaborated his answers by providing many examples from the history of different pandemics that were also ended by creating vaccines such as the Spanish flu.In addition, he abolished all doubts surrounding the high speed of discovering Corona vaccine by attributing this success to the technology and research improvement in the medical field, compared to earlier times.
Taking into accoount the current situation of COVID, we launched our campaign (#احتفل_بأمان) (#celebrate_safely) to raise awareness and encourage our KCST team to celebrate safely during the National Days. KCST clubs collaborated to bring a one-of-a-kind socially-distanced event on February 18th in the form of a ‘Drive-thru’ activity where the Arts Club, the Athletics Club, the Programming Club, the YES club, and the SSC hosted a series of fun in-car activities and handed out prizes & DIY giveaways. The campaign aimed to entertain students at home during the National holidays and follow the MOI and MOH instructions to preserve social distancing and avoid gatherings.
KCST celebrated the UN’s International Women’s Day by holding several events during the week. These included a talk presented by our ‘YES’ club with the esteemed guest Eng Ashwaq Al Mudhaf, as well as a small token of appreciation which was handed out to the women in our community. As part of our distinctive efforts towards community service, KCST is proud to support the notion of fairness and opportunities. Our female community is part of our pride – be it students or staff- and our support to female empowerment is embedded in our values as an education institute.
