As an observer of Saudi Arabia and one who wishes it only well in its difficult transitions into modernity, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology is both interesting and exciting.

KAUST is daring to attempt to push Saudi Arabia into the forefront of academic excellence. While many Saudi universities produce excellent graduates, their achievements appear to be modest. The creation of KAUST seeks to push beyond the status quo to achieve both academic performance at the highest level, as well as practical applications for Saudi research.

The areas of research chosen by the university indicate the directions in which it wants to proceed:

• Resources, Energy, and Environment;

• Biosciences and Bioengineering;

• Materials Science and Engineering;

• Applied Mathematics; and

• Computational Science.

As a growing nation on a growing globe, resources, energy, and environment should take first place. Saudi Arabia, of course, is an energy giant. Its petroleum, though, is only one of its riches and looks almost marginal when compared to its solar potential. The country has abandoned earlier dreams of “food independence,” realizing that in a globalized world, no country is truly independent of all others. Instead, KAUST will look into ways to maximize food production in climates hostile to agriculture, be they too dry or too saline. This research will not be kept within Saudi borders, but will become available for developing countries around the world. Lastly, marine research and an improved understanding of the seas will play a critical role in feeding the world of the future.

Through a combination of history and culture, Saudi Arabia finds itself in an unenviable position when it comes to genetic disease. High levels of diabetes, for instance, are linked to consanguineous marriages. Research into Genomics and Proteomics will lead to a better understanding of genes and the proteins which they empower. Advances here will open new doors toward cures and avoidance, thus providing a direct benefit to Saudi society, those of the Gulf states, and the rest of the world.

Materials Science is — to nonengineers — probably the most boring type of science of all. For all that, it is a science upon which we all depend nearly every moment of our lives. The research laboratories at KAUST will be working on projects that range from medicines to sewage systems; from looking into the nature of concrete to crossing over into marine biology. None of these is particularly flashy in itself, but all are basics upon which our contemporary lives depend.

The most “cutting-edge” work in the university is perhaps the least visible and the least easy to understand. In addition to imaging — turning data into pictures to make them more readily comprehensible — KAUST has one of the fastest supercomputers in the world, the Shaheen, an IBM “Blue Gene/P” system. This is an important piece of equipment as it permits researchers to run models of various theories millions of times faster than earlier computers. Today, science as well as social and political planning relies on accurate models, be they for climate, ocean currents, or even understanding the way our genes function. This is all admirable, of course. But there is another facet to KAUST that is even more daring, more exciting... what the model of KAUST itself can mean not only to Saudi education, but to Saudi Arabia itself.

In several obvious ways, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology will break the traditional mold of Saudi education. It will be the first — and only — co-educational university in the Kingdom. Rather than threatening the status quo, the university will serve as a laboratory, testing a different educational model. The model is well known outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, but for many Saudis, I believe, that is in itself cause for concern if not fear.

How well this new model works will provide evidence about co-education. If it works well, it will assuage fears and encourage other universities in the country to re-examine their own practices. If the new model fails, that too will be evidence. I think it unlikely that a model that has succeeded, not only in the West, but also in nearly all Islamic societies, will fail.

Still, this is a challenge. It is one thing that King Abdullah has decided needs to be confronted. By lending his name to the university and to the challenges it represents, he is expressing his own faith that the project will succeed. Far from a “vanity project,” as I’ve heard some describe it, this is a project based on hope and confidence that the Saudi people will recognize reasonable change and profit from it.

— John Burgess, a former US diplomat with assignments in Saudi Arabia, writes about the Kingdom and its relations with the US at Crossroads Arabia — http://www.xrdarabia.org