MANILA: It was in the center of the COVID-19 pandemic when Paolo Victor Redondo arrived in Saudi Arabia to start his doctoral research in biostatistics. Initially not sure whether or not this system would transfer ahead in the wake of widespread shutdowns, he quickly realized that the chance was greater than he had ever anticipated.
In May subsequent 12 months he’s going to graduate from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Thuwal, one of many high research establishments in the Middle East.
Redondo’s challenge explores how completely different elements of the mind work together in wholesome folks and these identified with issues comparable to dementia.
“We want to understand how our brains differ in terms of wiring on how these regions communicate and somehow guide us to understand what is missing, what is not functioning well for those groups,” he instructed Arab News.
“I was really surprised here at KAUST, because the support that they give to students is overwhelming.”
The assist will not be solely in phrases of infrastructure and tools, but in addition in worldwide publicity and networking.
“There’s an abundance of resources, for example, they allow you to join conferences internationally, they provide you with computers that you need for your research. And this really helps boost the productivity of students,” Redondo mentioned.
“Now that we have these opportunities, it’s our obligation to really push as hard as we can to return the confidence that they give us for giving us this support.”
He was honored final month, together with two friends, by the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah, which hosted a particular symposium presenting the achievements of excellent Filipino scholars in Saudi Arabia to encourage Filipino youth to pursue careers in science, expertise, engineering and arithmetic.
“I think this is a milestone. We can say that the community of Filipino scientists — they are scientists, Filipino scholars, scholars of the Saudi government — is now part of Saudi Arabia’s growing science and research industry,” mentioned Philippine Consul General Rommel Romato.
“They made a lot of contributions there, so we can see that they’re really valued … I think this is also a reminder that Filipinos can excel in many fields.”
Besides Redondo, two extra Filipino scholars from KAUST introduced their work.
Neil Joshua Limbaga, a PhD scholar in electrical and laptop engineering, develops wearable methods that may measure well being knowledge with medical-grade accuracy.
“My whole research is bringing the accuracy of bulky, medically graded lab equipment to wearable systems, so that it becomes ubiquitous, with sensing capacity more integrated into our everyday lives,” he mentioned.
“Usually, this is only in hospitals. My research wants to bring this to the field, to everyday life.”
Last 12 months, he and the KAUST staff spent six months in the UK validating his research outcomes with Formula One.
“We were trying to build the sensor components that we designed here at KAUST for the Formula One racing team in the UK. There, we did a lot of AI modeling, a lot of sensor fabrication, so that we can bring those accuracies, those medically graded values that are only in hospitals,” Limbaga mentioned.
“KAUST — they call it the researcher’s heaven — because all the resources are available. The technology tools that we didn’t have in the Philippines — it’s readily available here. My ideas, the things that I want to do from an engineering standpoint, are easy to do here … KAUST gives us the tools to build these things.”
Mara Sherlin Talento additionally discovered her work enabled by entry to expertise, comparable to high-performance computer systems.
“Back in the Philippines, supercomputers I can just access that when I ask for access,” she mentioned. “But here, because KAUST has a supercomputer, I can just send jobs no matter how many. In terms of the facility, it helped me to fast-track my research.”
Her doctoral research analyzes mind exercise utilizing EEG and MRI in opposition to numerous different datasets to grasp folks’s psychological states and develop methods to assist psychological well being.
“My research focuses on developing innovative tools to measure dependence in complex, heavy-tailed signals,” she mentioned. “In one of my projects, I used machine learning and extreme value theory to analyze neonatal brain signals, successfully distinguishing infants who experience seizures from those who did not.”
The college’s atmosphere additionally fosters collaboration, not solely on campus, however all over the world. For Talento, it has additionally been one thing that helped her develop.
“I was able to expand the scope of my research … I was able to collaborate with different types of people and different researchers in different fields. I was able to get this kind of connection, I was able to grow compared to when I was in the Philippines,” she mentioned.
“KAUST is such an international place. I’ve met all kinds of people, and just from that, I’ve already grown so much.”