Associated Centers and Programs
While Professor Youcef-Toumi, the Director of MRL, dedicates himself to MRL and it’s members, he also supports several other programs under the MIT umbrella. These are as follows:
Director of the Ibn Khaldun Fellowship for Saudi Arabian Women
The Ibn Khaldun Fellowship is a competitive program designed for Saudi Arabian women scientists and engineers who hold a doctoral degree. It offers fellows the opportunity to spend one year conducting research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in collaboration with an MIT faculty member. IBK Fellows have been placed in over 50 different labs across MIT.
Launched in 2009 by MIT, in partnership with King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) and other Saudi Arabian universities, the fellowship accepted its first fellow in 2012. Following a substantial expansion in 2013 supported by Saudi Aramco, the program flourished. In March 2018, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) and MIT signed a 10-year agreement to renew the fellowship under KACST sponsorship. The first cohort of KACST Ibn Khaldun fellows arrived at MIT in January 2019, with subsequent annual cohorts arriving in September.
Co-Director of the Center for Complex Engineering Systems (CCES)
The Center for Complex Engineering Systems (CCES) is a distinguished international research program dedicated to uncovering fundamental principles and developing new methods and tools for modeling, designing, and managing complex, highly integrated systems. CCES is a collaboration between King AbdulAziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, USA.
It aims to cultivate a new generation of globally experienced scholars and to inspire a fresh wave of researchers and engineers to pursue complex systems as a research focus. A hallmark of CCES’s research approach is its commitment to cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural collaboration. The center embraces intellectual risk, tackling issues that may seem non-quantifiable, vague, overly complex, or even unsolvable.
Director of the Global MIT At-Risk Fellows (GMAF) Palestine
The Global MIT At-Risk Fellows Program (GMAF) gives international scholars the opportunity to temporarily engage with the MIT community on campus, with the aim to foster innovation around the world through the fellows’ academic contributions and leadership.
Past Affiliations
Co-Director of The Center for Clean Water and Clean Energy (CCWCE)
The Center for Clean Water and Clean Energy (CCWCE) was a collaboration between King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, USA. The collaboration ran for nine years from 2008-2017.
The CCWCE program was highly successful in achieving its joint and individual goals for the collaborating institutions. The program produced more than 500 papers and more than 60 US patents. Significant parts of the IP portfolio were licensed, and two associated companies were formed. Notable international awards were received for work done in the program. The collaboration led to several new subjects were created at KFUPM that became part of the curriculum for students. KFUPM’s culture as a research institution was strengthened. At MIT, the collaboration has catalyzed substantial research activity in the water technology area.
A successful women’s outreach program was created for Saudi Arabian women PhDs (the IBK Fellowship), and tremendous cultural exchange occurred between KFUPM and MIT faculty and students. Five out of five MIT junior faculty working in this program received tenure. By every metric, the collaboration was a model program for international collaboration around research, innovation, and education.