An Abu Dhabi female NASA research fellow has returned home from a four month internship at the U.S. Space agency. Ghena Al Hanae has completed her mission work which called for providing research support for NASA’s Mars rover educational and outreach programs with the goal of inspiring the next generation to pursue science and technology careers involving Mars research and exploration.

TheNASA Lunar Science Institute where Ghena worked played an integral part of NASA’s Curiosity Rover in terms of software design, sensor integration and wind tunnel testing.

According to Ghena Al Hanae, “Being able to participate in such a prestigious program and hone my practical work and research skills at NASA was a great opportunity to develop myself in different areas such as education, culture and working teams. My work involved a small rover used to bring hands-on space exploration experiences to students, scientists, engineers and the public to engage the future generation in charge of rovers such as the Curiosity rover. Representing my country was a great honor and a responsibility at the same time as I was setting an example for the young female Emirati.”

In addition to Ghena’s work at NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California other successful UAE intern’s mission work has focused on analysis of remote sensing data, phone sats (joint venture with Google to connect mobile phones to an orbiting satellite), wind-turbine research for use in avionics, space shuttle solid waste processing and infrastructure, green building sustainability systems, and more.

Lisa LaBonte, CEO of the Arab Youth Venture Foundation commented, “By facilitating such work experiences we aim to empower Emirati graduates in their quest toward securing high-impact careers in key growth sectors of the UAE economy. The caliber of talent that we have seen in our interns such as Ghena, is certainly a testament to UAE universities’ engineering programs - but also a tribute to the high level of dynamism and support by parents of Emirati students across the nation.”

The NASA-AYVF innovative partnership program was the first agreement of its kind and signed in 2009 between the UAE’s Arab Youth Venture Foundation and USA’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The immersive program welcomes only the most elite UAE university engineering students and has to date seen a rotation of 16 UAE nationals spend four months in USA since June 2010.

We accept Guest Posts

Download the Dubai City Guide iPhone mobile app

DubaiCityGuide.com is owned and managed by Cyber Gear