Plans for the Masdar Initiative were still in their infancy when Dr Fred Moavenzadeh and his colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were approached to develop an academic institute for them.
That was more than four-and-a-half years ago and Dr Moavenzadeh, who recently joined the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology as its president, has been part of the action all along.
"A contract was signed with Mubadala and us (MIT) through the technology and development programme that I head as principle investigator," Dr Moavenzadeh said.
"So I'm not new to Abu Dhabi or the concept of Masdar."
Dr Moavenzadeh said he was born in Iran and left 50 years ago to pursue a career in academia.
As Masdar Institute's president, Dr Moavenzadeh will be responsible for orchestrating the institute's resources, and ensuring the high quality of its education and research.
The Masdar Institute is part of the Abu Dhabi Government's Masdar Initiatives programme to establish a new economic sector dedicated to alternative and sustainable energy.
It is run in partnership with MIT and offers Masters programmes in science and engineering, with a focus on advanced energy and sustainable technologies. It plans to offer PhD programmes.
"Overall MIT's role has always been advisory," Dr Moavenzadeh said. "They've (Abu Dhabi Government) been very kind to us by taking our advice very seriously. Masdar is a start-up and has to develop its own style of educational research and culture. MIT provides a model, which they can adapt to Abu Dhabi and the region."
Developments
"Over the past three years or so, we've started from nothing in place to the current state where we have close to 50 young and dynamic faculty members from 15 to 16 different countries and the best universities," Dr Moavenzadeh said.
An MSc programme is already in place. The first cohort of 80 students started in September. "This year that number is going to be doubled and students will come from a much larger pool," Dr Moavenzadeh said.
"We're also talking about offering doctoral degrees to about 10 to 15 candidates."
Emirati students are encouraged to apply but the primary focus was on the quality of students, Dr Moavenzadeh said.
A total of 10 per cent of the cohort were Emiratis and this year the university would screen 40 to 50 applicants and admit about half of them.
Dr Moavenzadeh said by the end of August students and faculty would be moving to a new, state-of-the art campus. "This building is going to have very sophisticated and expensive pieces of equipment, which is necessary to do graduate programmes," he said.
The Abu Dhabi Government's Advanced Technology Investment Company has given Masdar Institute a few million dollars for the equipment, he said.
