His Majesty King Abdullah on Monday toured an exhibition of mechatronic, industrial, electrical, mechanical and medical engineering projects created by students from the Kingdom's private and public universities.



Minister of Education Khaled Touqan said the project reflected King Abdullah's emphasis on the importance of scientific research and the need to link it to industry and development needs.



One of the projects, “Intelligent Autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicle”, was created by students from the University of Jordan's engineering faculty.



“After we came up with the idea for the project, we started thinking about how to finance it. Then, my colleagues and I went to an office of the King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau (KADDB) in the university and told them about our requirements,”
said Yara W. Shaban.



“KADDB financed the first stage of our project at a cost of JD7,500. I am really grateful to KADDB, which not only financed our project, but also gave us hope and provided us with an opportunity to implement our project,” said the engineer.



During a visit to King Abdullah II Fund for Development (KAFD) last week, King Abdullah launched a program to support scientific research in applied sciences in order to boost local industries. The King contributed the necessary funds for the project which is intended to target teaching staff at universities and higher education students who carry out research aimed at developing products to advance the country's industrial sector.



In addition to the University of Jordan, the Jordan University of Science and Technology, Yarmouk University, Balqa Applied University, Philadelphia University, Al Isra University, Muta University, Hashemite University and Al Zaytoonah University participated in yesterday's exhibition.



The Jubilee School also took part the event, which was organized by KAFD in collaboration KADDB.



Touqan said the exhibition would be held annually.



During the exhibition, he announced that the government is exploring a scheme under which encourages companies in the Kingdom to contribute one per cent of their profits to finance scientific projects and transform viable ones into feasible, money-generating ventures. The minister noted that a law awaiting endorsement entails the creation of a fund to support scientific research.



“After the endorsement of the law, which is expected in March, the government will activate a law, which has been shelved for along time, to finance this fund,” Touqan said.



The law entails deducting 1 percent of public and private company profits for this fund.



According to Touqan, the fund seeks to expand scientific research by involving the private sector.



Viable projects would be commercialized and marketed.



Likewise, the project would also involve the country's universities and colleges in the development process.

Jordan Times