Within the framework of continuous cooperation between the National Space Science Agency and the Ministry of Education to enhance the level of awareness of space and its various disciplines and its many applications. Dr Budor Mohammed Buhaji, Head of the Gifted Center invited Eng. Muneera Almalki, from the Bahrain Space Team to represent the Agency in implementing a virtual educational workshop for the Gifted Center’s members of all academic levels from public and private schools on “The relationship between space technology and artificial intelligence.” The lecture was met with great interest and wide interaction from the participating students, which contributed to achieving the desired goals of this workshop.

The workshop included a number of axes dealing with the relationship between space technologies, artificial intelligence, and clarifying the links between them by explaining a set of concepts and reviewing a number of examples. The workshop also included introducing the participants to some essential basic principles to absorb the presented ideas, including an explanation of data and satellite images captured from satellites. The level of understanding of the participants in the workshop was measured by the virtual activities that students participated in, which were conceived to enhance their understanding of the scientific material to achieve the most important goal of the workshop.

About the workshop, the lecturer, Eng. Muneera Almalki, said: The cooperation between the National Space Science Agency and the Ministry of Education began years ago, and is part of Bahrain’s space policy, and the Agency’s strategic plan approved by the cabinet. This cooperation is receiving great attention by the executive management of the agency. And it has dealt with several aspects, through including space science in the educational curriculum, and submitted proposals on the scientific specializations required to support the space sector, and the academic programs to be expanded or offered in higher education institutions to keep pace with the interest in space science fields, encouraging scientific research related to space science applications, suggesting fields of scholarships by the ministry for the outstanding, and motivating higher education institutions to participate in international competitions of space field and benefit from scientific support opportunities, and many others.

The cooperation between the agency and Gifted Students Center in particular has been launched for more than 3 years. As many of the agency’s employees participated in the awareness and educational activities and programs organized by the center. This cooperation will continue to serve school students, and make them aware of space and its sciences, in addition to its applications that are considered to be the future science.

This workshop was slightly different in terms of content as it focused on the relationship between space science and artificial intelligence, and I am certainly glad with the level of the participating students and their ability to quickly absorb concepts and ideas to participate in interactive activities as required.
In fact, the excitement that I sensed from the students during their interaction in the workshop and the quality of the questions they asked are promising, and confirm that Bahrain is rich in generations that are capable of facing challenges and achieving their goals.

Almalki concluded her speech by thanking the people in charge of the Gifted Students Center, and the Ministry of Education for its keenness to provide students with the latest information, and raise their level of awareness around the field of the labor market, and the requirements of future science, appreciating them for the opportunity to present this awareness workshop.