LONDON: Female students excelled their male counterparts in winning prizes during the Saudi International Conference that took place in Guildford, Surrey, on June 5-6. Fifteen Saudi inventions were announced. Most of the inventions were in the medical field. Six of the 15 were from females.
The number six was lucky for female students as six of the eight winners of distinguished achievement granted honorary plaques were females. Six of the eight best scientific papers were by females, and six of the eight winning posters were by females as well.
"The high scientific level of female students is an honor for Saudi Arabia, especially in majors like basic sciences, biomedical and health sciences, engineering and information communication technology (ICT)," said Sawsan Jaad, coordinator of female students' activities in Britain and Ireland.
The winners in subject, best papers and best posters got a laptop and £500, £250, £100, respectively. The theme of the conference was the Spirit of Education Enquiry.
Dr. Ghazi Makki, the Saudi cultural attaché in Britain and Ireland, said: "The conference showed a bright image of Saudi Arabia by the Saudi students studying in the UK."
"The papers were distinct and presented new information in different fields, including health and biomedical science, humanities, IT and engineering. I am very grateful to King Abdullah who gave these students the chance to be educated and today's achievements are the fruit of his support. These papers enrich not only Saudi knowledge, but also world knowledge," he added.
Eighty-four scientific papers were presented during the conference out of the 124 that were presented and 54 posters out of 74 were exhibited. Sixty percent of the submitted work was by females.
The Saudi ambassador for the UK and Ireland Prince Mohammed bin Nawwaf opened the conference.
Dr. Ibrahim Al-Sini, head of the Saudi students clubs in the UK, said: "Having Prince Mohammed bin Nawwaf, the Saudi ambassador, and heads of the University of Surrey as well as heads of the Saudi universities including King Abdulaziz University and King Saud University is an honor to us. It shows the importance of this event and the support to Saudi students."
The scientific papers were submitted earlier this year and were reviewed by a scientific committee. "This year, we made sure not to publish the research papers of students so that they could be published at a scientific conference in their field," Al-Sini said.
"This year, we requested extended abstracts of the research instead of the full paper so it could give us a full idea of the paper. This way they get a feedback by the reviewer and at the same time have the chance to use it," Al-Sini said.
Al-Sini proposed for the next year a permanent board council chaired by the Saudi cultural attaché and the members would be current and previous heads of Saudi clubs in the UK and Ireland. The idea is to have the expertise shared and transferred to future members.
List of top performers:
Biomedical & Health Sciences: Amal Sultan, Motassim Abu Unok, Hiba Al-Dossari
Humanities: Abdulelah Abuzaid, Samira Al-Sinani, Maha Al-Madani
ICT : Gharsa Al-Qarni, Khulood Al-Siraihi Al-Harbi
Outstanding Papers
Humanities
1. Nayef Alsadoun: Regional Trade Integration among the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries.
2. Mohammed Al-Shahrani: Behavioural Intentions of Patients: Cross sectional study on Military Hospitals in Saudi Arabia.
3. Abdullatif Alhudaithy: Adoption of Internet Banking: The Role of Website Features.
Health & Biomedical Sciences
1. Dr Abeer Felmban: Combining physiotherapy with Botulinum toxin type A injections improve the Range of Motion of children with spastic cerebral palsy
2. Amal Al-Salamah: The effectiveness of using blended ultrasound training in obstetrics and gynaecology skills and on competencies of trainees
3. Samah Noor: Ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel syndrome are associated with distinctly different abnormalities of the fecal micro flora: Improved molecular fingerprinting study with denaturing gradient gel-electrophoresis (DGGE)
ICT
1. Hend Al-Shanqiti: Using Technology and computer games for the treatment of children with Conduct Disorder
2. Rana Abuzaid: The incorporation of school library e-resources within e-learning environments and the satisfaction levels of e-resources: a case study in Saudi Arabia.
Distinguished Achievement
1. A) Dr. Saeed Halawani: He has been awarded Poster prize for the best well-presented poster at the 2008 Scottish Society of Physician Conference in Glasgow.
2. A) Mohammed Alkhorayef: He has been awarded the first prize for a student poster paper at the 9th International Conference on Nuclear Analytical Methods in the life Sciences-2008.
3. A) Ahmad Al-Asmari: He has been awarded the best published paper at the 46th International Association of Forensic Toxicologists (TIAFT) - Martinique 2008.
4. A) Anwar Borai: He has been awarded Young Investigator Award at the 7th International Symposium on Multiple Risk Factors in Cardiovascular Diseases-Prevention and Intervention - Venice 2008.
5. A) Hanaa Saleh Farhan: She achieved the first international prize for outstanding poster at the 32nd International Workshop on Condensed Matter Theories - Loughborough, 2008.
6. A) Kehalid Al-Zimami: His paper was chosen among the best papers for the World Congress on Engineering - London, 2008. Also, he was invited to write that paper as a chapter in edited book "Advances in Electrical Engineering and Computational Science" published by Springer.
7. A) Hanan Ali Sultan: she won a prize for the best poster on "Epigenetic and assisted reproductive technology". Also she won a prize for the best images and these images were placed in the abstract book and in the website.
8. A) Majed Alhaisoni: University of Essex, has been awarded one of the "Best Paper" Awards. The Fifth International Conference on Autonomic and Autonomous Systems (ICAS 2009) held between April 20-25, 2009 in Valencia, Spain.
