Saudi Student Club in Melbourne held on 17th of October, 2015 a Saudi student conference at Monash University in Melbourne, Victoria. The theme of the conference was “Future of Scientific Research in Saudi Arabia”. The conference was attended by Dr. Abbas Brashi, Deputy Attaché for Cultural and Social Affairs; Dr. Nizar Farjou, Associate President and Director of Middle East, North Africa & Central Asia Engagement at Monash University; Saudi Aramco’s representative in Australia and New Zealand, Dr. Antonio Curulli, and a number of Saudi researchers.
Dr. Abbas Brashi reiterated the importance of organizing such conferences, as a good opportunity to manifest achievements of Saudi researchers. Dr. Farjou pointed out to the high quality of Australian education, and commended the quality of research done by Saudi students at Monash University.
On the other hand, Abdulrahman Almusa, president of Saudi Student Club in Melbourne, head of the conference organizing committee, confirmed participation of more than 50 Saudi researchers with papers in medical, engineering, technical, economic, financial and other fields. He said that the conference had aimed at creating a scientific forum for Saudi researchers to share their diverse research experiences. Almusa also thanked SACM Australia for the support it had offered to the conference, and stressed the importance of such gatherings to shed light on research achievements of Saudi students and Saudi Arabia as a whole.
The conference started with an opening session where Dr. Antonio Curulli presented a paper about scientific research in the engineering and petroleum sector. Dr. Mohamed Madin, fellow of Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, lecturer at Dammam University, presented a paper about scientific research in education, pointing out to the increase in number of Saudi researches over the last two years by more than 12000 researches and the ranking of Saudi Arabia as the first among Arab countries and the 33rd world widely, in the research arena. The opening session was concluded with the participation of Saudi student Betoul Baz of King Faisal Specialist Hospital, who presented a paper about opportunities of scientific research in the health sector.
Dr. Abbas Brashi honoured Monash University for sponsoring the conference, as well as the main speakers of the conference. Winners of best three presentations and best three scientific posters were also honoured. Dr. Nizar Farjou declared that Monash University would sponsor this conference every year