São Paulo – Two Brazilian students are going to participate in the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Kaust) “Winter Enrichment Programme”, in Saudi Arabia. Paty Naiara de Morais and Felipe Massucato, students from the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), participated in an international poster competition promoted by Kaust and were selected to participate in the scientific event that takes place from January 14th to 29th.
“I am very excited and anxious. It will be a fantastic experience,” said Morais. For the competition, the Building and Road Construction Technology student presented her scientific initiation work on the resistance of concrete with expanded clay.
“It is lighter concrete. It is good for thermal and acoustic insulation and for the filling of gaps,” she explained. “The concrete is very insulating. In case of fire, it retards the spreading from one room to the next,” she said.
Aged 25, she says she is about to graduate and aims to continue her education, going on to a masters and doctorate. Morais explains that participation in the Saudi university’s programme will bring her new opportunities. “I would greatly like to receive a proposal to stay there or to go to any other country.”
Morais and Massucato heard about the programme through communiqués by their university. During the two weeks in which they will be in Saudi Arabia, they are going to participate in talks, workshops, music, Arabic and painting lessons, scientific courses, lessons in entrepreneurship and are also going sightseeing.
“Apart from the scientific opportunity for research, it is interesting to meet people from all over the world, to visit the university and also to learn about Arab culture, in which I am greatly interested,” said Massucato. He participated in the competition due to his scientific initiation work. The theme presented was improvement of the characteristics of ABS plastic through the addition of organic clay.
“We added clay to improve the degradation in sanitary dumps and for greater resistance to high temperatures,” explained the Chemical Engineering student. ABS plastic, according to Massucato, is much used in household appliances like refrigerators and cars.
He said that in future he would like to participate in an exchange course and that he hopes that the event at Kaust may help him decide what area he would like to study abroad. Currently, the 22 year old student is in the fifth year of undergraduate studies and is about to start an internship in the environmental area.
To participate in the course at Kaust, scientific initiation works were accepted in the areas of science of materials, catalysis, clean combustion, biomechanics, geometrical modelling, scientific visualization, vegetable genetics, solar energy, alternative energy, reuse and water desalination. Apart from the Brazilians, 48 other students from several countries will participate in the Saudi university’s programme.
The universities
Kaust is in Thuwal, 50 kilometres north of Jeddah, a city on the Red Sea coast and the main economic hub in the country. The teaching institution was established by Saudi king Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, and the objective was to become a reference in the area of science and technology.
Unicamp is an autarchy connected to the São Paulo state government. Established in 1966, it has three campuses, in Campinas, Piracicaba and Limeira, with 22 teaching and research universities.
*Translated by Mark Ament
