The UAE officials pose for group photograph ahead of their participation in ISARC event in Canada.

Inayat-ur-Rahman, Business Editor
Emirates Scholar E-Gate was founded to shoulder the responsibility of research development in the UAE and the Arab region. As stated in its establishment agreement, our mission is to contribute to scientific research development in the UAE.

Emirates Scholar encourages and reinforces academic research. This activity contributes to diagnosing, analysing, and addressing critical administrative issues. We seek to spread administrative thought through research, book authoring, translation, conferences and symposia, and reporting on administrative development in the country. This was stated by Dr Firas Habbal, Editor in Chief Emirates Scholar and Managing Director,  Geminos Group, during an exclusive interview with Gulf Today on Tuesday.

Answering to a question about the main concept behind hosting International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC 2021) in the UAE, Dr Firas stated that the country won the right to host the 38th edition of ISARC in Dubai after the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure submitted the hosting bid in partnership and cooperation with the National Program for Artificial Intelligence, the Dubai Tourism Authority, the University of Sharjah, and Geminos Commercial Information Services and Emirates Scholar.

“This important International Symposium will help further strengthen the UAE’s position as a leader in the construction sector and spotlight the advances the country has achieved in using innovative ideas in building and construction.” he added.

Dr Firas elaborated that there would be around 50 exhibitors and 10 keynote speakers at the event. Additionally, over 2500 senior delegates, including local government, international corporations, and universities will engage in high-level discussions and networking opportunities with the full spectrum of industry stakeholders including developers, architects, contractors, and suppliers.

Firas Habbal.

He noted that the UAE construction sector uses smart and innovative ways in the field and this forthcoming ISARC 2021 will provide a big opportunity for companies operating in the country to get first-hand knowledge and witness the latest trends and best practices in this field. It will definitely help them to go for more advanced AI-driven techniques.

Evaluating the importance of robotics and automation in future, he mentioned that it was easy to get an impression of the way robots are changing their daily lives. Top tech companies are in a constant race to change the way robotics are implemented in people’s everyday lives – which will lead them to a really exciting future. Robot adoption will likely be a critical determinant of productivity growth and has the potential to reshape global supply chains. “Improvements in automation technology such as robotics are poised to bring more automated manufacturing production work to developed countries, rather than offshore it to lower-wage countries,” he added.

Highlighting the challenges in using robotics in the construction sector in the UAE, Dr Firas expressed his optimism that he didn’t see any challenge in adopting robotics in the construction sector. Robotics will further improve the conception, design and operations of robots in the country’s construction field.

“Robots are poised to displace millions of humans in various industries. But they are nowhere close to being human-like. Whether we like it or not, robots have already replaced many people in their jobs. The jobs in office administration, logistics, and transport are also at risk of being replaced. Many occupations are at risk of being automated, including insurance underwriters, and telemarketers. To be more precise, robots are expected to take over half of all low-skilled jobs.”

“Going forward, robots will “free up people’s brains” to perform other, more complex tasks. But just as the industrial revolution displaced countless humans who performed manual labour, the robotics revolution won’t happen — and isn’t happening — “without pain and fear and disruption.” The development of technologies that facilitate new tasks, for which humans are better suited, could potentially lead to a much better future for workers. While the widespread introduction of computers into offices certainly displaced millions of secretaries and typists, the new tasks in associated industries meant new occupations, including computer technicians, software developers and IT consultants.” Dr Firas added.

“In addition to connect with all other scholars with the same interest or different disciplinary to publish joint publication in international referred journals.”

“Nevertheless, Emirates Scholars members will be able to submit their manuscripts to the system and our editors and technical committee will review all submissions and get the accepted publications to be published in  international referred journals indexed in major indexing databases such as SCOPUS, Elsevier, IEEE, ABDC, etc…”

“Emirates Scholar will support awarded scientific researchers by getting research fund up to 10K $ to support research and the scientific community in the UAE to attract scholars and students by providing them financial assistance in their pursuit scientific contributions.” Dr Firas concluded.