Meet Sultan Albarakati, PhD ’20, MS ’14 – Instructional Assistant Professor, KAUST

This Saudi Arabian Spotlight is brought to you by KAUST’s Saudi Arabian Alumni Chapter.

 

Your KAUST Story - 

Walk us through your KAUST story. Where did it start, and what led you to choose Applied Mathematics?

I completed my Bachelor's in Pure Mathematics from Umm Al Qura University in 2004, following which I joined the Royal Commission of Yanbu in 2005, when it was a high school, and I was assigned the task of training the gifted students for Mawhiba in 2009.

After the successful stint with Mawhiba, I was offered the position of lecturer for Yanbu Industrial College, where I worked for a year following which I was offered a scholarship to pursue a graduate degree. In 2012, I successfully applied to KAUST for a master's degree in Applied Mathematics and eventually joined for both a MS and PhD working with Professor Omar Knio.

Did you notice a learning/research gap between KAUST and other Saudi Universities?

KAUST is a leading research university in the Kingdom, and among the best internationally. In the beginning, I struggled to cope with the rigor of a graduate research degree, but due to the excellent support of the teaching, research, and support staff, I caught up fairly quickly and was able to do well.

What would you say to current KAUST students?

Put your head down, work hard towards your goal, and don’t be bogged down by temporary setbacks. Good things will come in good time.

What would you say to incoming KAUST students?

Enjoy the opportunity to work at one of the leading research institutes in the world. Only a few places in the world can boast of an environment like KAUST.

What role did KAUST alumni play in your journey after graduation?

I have stayed in touch with KAUST alumni, and fellow graduates from my degree year. We help each other in our career moves and choices. However, I must admit that I have not been as active in the alumni community as I ought to be. I am looking forward to remedying it in the future.

 Tell us about your journey of working with the gifted students in the Kingdom?

I was asked to train gifted students at the Royal Commission of Yanbu in 2011. I have worked with talented students in the Kingdom since then. My students have won more than 60 international medals at International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). The IMO is the world championship mathematics competition for High School students..

I have been the team leader of the Math Olympiad team of Saudi Arabia since 2014 and the Informatics Olympiad team since 2019. Under my mentorship, Saudi Arabia had progressed into the top 30 countries in the International Mathematical Olympiads, starting from the rank of 95 before I joined Mawhiba in 2011.

Tell us more about KAUST’s entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem. Specifically, tell us about Ideation and how it all began.

I am a co-founder and the Manager of Decision Science Technologies (DST) one of the startups at KAUST. The idea for the company was born out of my research at KAUST, where I worked on the optimal path planning for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). Building on my dissertation, we provided an employee management system solution for the Ministry of Health, which formed the foundation for our company.

What role did KAUST play in you co-founding Ideation?

I am joined in Decision Science Technologies (DST)  by CEMSE Professor Omar Knio, and Dr Ricardo Lima. So primarily, I have used the human capital at KAUST to launch our startup. We also leveraged the computing resources at KAUST to run simulations and optimization algorithms. Finally, we are generously supported by the KAUST Innovation Fund, from which we have successfully obtained seed funding.

What Government agencies did you interact with, and how was that facilitated?

Since we have worked with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Interior, and Ministry of Education, we liaised with the Government Affairs department at KAUST to facilitate interactions with the public sector.

What advice would you give to KAUST alumni and students (our future alumni) about startups and entrepreneurship?

If you have a good idea, start working on it. The details are generally sorted out in the process. Don’t delay and wait overthinking the finer details. Above all, use the fantastic resources at KAUST.

Did you keep the startup going as you transitioned to your next job? Was there interference?

I am still actively managing the startup. We are currently working on several active projects for Decision Science Technologies (DST).

How did you learn about the NEOM opportunity, and what did you do to ensure you had the best chance of being recruited?

After completing my PhD, I received offers from several public and private sector entities in the Kingdom including the Royal commission of Al Ula, Ministry of Education, Education and Training Evaluation Commission (ETEC), and NEOM. I chose NEOM because it was the most unique and exciting challenge.

What led you to NEOM?

The vision of NEOM is what excited me. The complete transformation of the North of the Kingdom with this massive giga-project is an exciting proposition, and this is what led me to NEOM.

Describe a day in the life of Sultan at NEOM?

Life at NEOM was quite different from life at KAUST. Since we were working on-site where we didn’t have all the facilities yet, I was staying away from my family for most of the week and would visit them on the weekend. The work was good. I was part of the Education sector at NEOM, where I handled the introduction of AI and robotics for K-12 at NEOM schools.

Tell us about your current position?

Currently I am employed as an Instructional Assistant Professor in Computational Mathematics within the KAUST Provost’s Office at KAUST.

How did you hear about this opportunity?

I heard about the opportunity from my KAUST colleagues who asked me to apply for this position as it matched my expertise really well.

What role do KAUST faculty have in the Saudi academic community?

As part of the KAUST Academy, we are trying to improve and increase the role of KAUST in the academic community in the Kingdom. We are taking KAUST’s expertise to the Kingdom with broad-ranging training across multiple domain areas to diverse audiences in the Kingdom.

What's next for you?

Next is working for the KAUST Academy and the Provost’s Office to increase KAUST’s footprint in the Kingdom. My role focuses on bringing public and private sector partners to working with the KAUST Academy to create a healthy entrepreneurial and startup environment in the Kingdom.