Vivek Chandrasekharan, a strategy & innovation consultant based in Toronto, Canada, gave a talk on innovation culture of Singapore, at SQU. His background is primarily in Innovation & Technology Management, Marketing & Product Strategy. He started his career working for large companies like HP and Dell before he joined a risk management software start-up company in New York (Cura Software) that went on to be acquired by a public listed company. He then moved to Singapore where , as a Mentor & Innovation Programs Manager, he helped advise early stage start-ups funded by the government of Singapore's innovation commercialization funds. He has over 10 yeas of global work experience and studied computer engineering in his native India and attended graduate school at the University of Florida.

1. Department of Public
Relations and Information
Sultan Qaboos University
News Update
“Majors Fair 2012” Concludes
Mind Over Matter
Oman Not Prone to Big Earthquakes
Panorama
Coffee Chat
Issue 252
Stuck in
Traffic

2. Point
View Ethics of Human Cloning
Horizon invites contributions from SQU members of staff and faculty. Contributions in the form
of articles, news, travelogues, stories of unique and interesting experiences, encounters, etc., are
welcome. Contributions may be edited for the sake of clarity and length. Please send your con-tributions
to horizon@squ.edu.om preferably, as MSWord attachments. Authors will be suitably
credited.
Phone: +968 24141045 Fax: +968 24413 391
E-mail: horizon@squ.edu.om Website: www.squ.edu.om The views and opinions expressed in the articles published in this newsletter are those of the authors and
are not to be construed as the official views of the publication. Horizon is published three times a month
by the Department of Public Relations and Information, Sultan Qaboos University, P.O. Box 50, P.C.
123, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.
Mohamed Salem Al Ghailani
Editorial Supervision
Humaid Abdullah Al Adwani
Editor in Chief
Santhosh Muthalath
Senior Editor
Ahlam Al Wahaibi
Design & Layout
Rashad Al Wahaibi
& Photography Dept., CET
Photography
20 October 2012 P2
The National Bioethics Committee in Oman has issued a guidelines pro-hibiting
human cloning or experiments mixing human and animal cells in
the country. Human cloning is the Pandora’s Box of the medical scientists,
a box which is tempting to open, but that will bring unforeseeable evils
if unlocked. The moral complexities associated with cloning do not stop
with the creation of duplicate people or replacement organs, but are en-twined
with the nature of life itself.
One of the most treasured aspects of our humanity is our individuality.
No one is exactly the same as anyone else. Since we are complete indi-viduals,
each of us has the opportunity to live a life quite different from
anyone who has preceded. If you take the case of twins, they forge their
own unique course in life together. However, clones would have no such
opportunity.
To unnaturally create a person in someone else’s image will chain the
clone to the original, as the clone’s life will inevitably be measured against
that of the original. Any deviation will be interpreted as failure. Cloning
is the ultimate form of control, as every single piece of genetic code has
been set in advance for a purpose that can be no other than dictating a
clone’s life.
An argument in favour of human cloning is that we would be able to
solve the shortage of transplantable organs by simply cloning new ones.
While helping the sick is a noble cause, the actual mechanics of growing
organs are not. Creating organs requires destroying a foetus, and this is
conspicuously against pro-life philosophy. Even from a pro-choice posi-tion,
it seems strange that to save one innocent life we would be so eager
to destroy another.
Opponents and supporters of human cloning agree that at present, the
cloning technology is not safe enough to use on humans. It is evident
that human cloning should not be practiced in the near future. Human
cloning spurs several moral and social issues. Unless an understanding
of the moral issues behind human cloning is observed there should be no
human clone present in our society.

3. Governor of Victoria
Visits SQU
HE Alex Chernov, Governor of Victoria, Australia, and his accompany-ing
delegation visited Sultan Qaboos University recently. He was re-ceived
by HE Dr. Ali bin Saud Al Bimani, SQU Vice chancellor and HH
Sayyidah Dr. Mona bint Fahd Al Said, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Ex-ternal
They discussed on strengthening ties between the educational institu-tions
in Victoria province and SQU by promoting student and faculty
exchange and collaborative research. During the meeting, the Vice Chan-cellor
gave an overview of the growth of SQU in different fields includ-ing
teaching, research, community service and internationalisation, since
its inception in 1986.
20 October 2012 P3
News Update
The Awareness & Guidance Section of the Centre for Career Guid-ance
at SQU organised Majors Fair 2012. The opening ceremony of the
event was held under the patronage of Dr. Hamed bin Sulaiman Al
Salmy, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Administrative & Financial Affairs.
The event, aimed at familiarising new undergraduate students with
all the specialisations and majors offered at SQU, was held under the
theme “Your major; your future career”.
During the Major Fair, students representing various departments in
all the nine colleges at the university, gave information to the new stu-dents
about more than 50 major subjects offered. In addition to the de-partments,
the service of the officials from the Deanship of Admission
and Registration was also available. The Deanship provided guidance
to students who wish for a transfer from one college within the regula-tions
of the university.
The visitors were provided information on various specializations and
skills and jobs associated with each speciality to help them plan for a
successful career path. Prior to the opening of the exhibition a lecture
entitled “Choosing your major” was given to the new students in order
to increase their awareness of a range of important criteria that must
be taken into account when choosing specialization at university.
Prof. James Heckman, Professor of Haematology and Medical Oncol-ogy,
Emory School of Medicine, and founder of George Comprehensive
Sickle Cell Centre at Grady Memorial Hospital in the United States of
America, visited Sultan Qaboos University in connection with his five
day lecture program in Oman. Prof. Heckman delivered a series of lec-tures
in different hospitals and medical institutes in the Sultanate includ-ing
SQU College of Medicine & Health Sciences. During his visit to SQU,
Prof. Heckman met HE Dr. Ali bin Saud Al Bimani, the Vice Chancellor
of the university.
The lecture series of Prof. Heckman was organised by the US Embassy
in Muscat in collaboration with Oman Hereditary Blood Disorders Asso-ciation.
The Georgia Comprehensive Sickle Cell Centre founded by Prof.
Heckman is the world’s first 24-hour comprehensive primary care clinic
for patients with sickle cell syndromes.
On the occasion of the 40th
anniversary of the estab-lishment
of diplomatic rela-tions
between Japan and the
Sultanate of Oman, a special
grand lecture session was
held at Meiji University, To-kyo
on Tuesday, 16 October
. The event was hosted by
Japan-Oman Society and
Embassy of the Sultante of
Oman in Japan and sup-ported
Cooperation.
by Meiji Institute for Global Affairs (MIGA).
HE Dr. Ali bin Saud Al Bimani, Vice Chancellor of Sultan
Qaboos University delivered a special lecture at the first
session of the lecture meeting. Al Bimani’’s lecture enti-tled
“scientific collaboration between Oman and Japan”
was followed by a keynote address by Dr. Masayuki
Yamauch, Honorary Professor at the University of To-kyo.
HE Khalid bin Hashil bin Mohammed Al Muslahi,
Ambassador of the Sultanate of Oman in Japan, deliv-ered
the welcome message and introduced Dr. Al Bimani
to the audience.
In the opening session HE Shinzo Abe, former Prime Min-ister
of Japan and honorary chairman of the Japan-Oman
Society, addressed the gathering. In the second session a
panel discussion on the topic “the aim of friendship by
sea and desert” was be held.
“Majors Fair 2012”
Concludes
Al Bimani Receives US Expert
Al Bimani Delivers
Lecture in Tokyo

4. Insight
Traffic congestion is a growing malady in many cities across the world in-cluding
Muscat. The roads leading to SQU are not different. Everyone at
the university complains about being stuck in traffic, especially during the
rush hours in the morning and afternoon. In fact we should recognize that
ever increasing traffic congestion is an inevitable by-product of this vibrant
and successful edifice of learning where the number of students and em-ployees
increase year by year. Traffic congestion is undesirable because it
causes economic inefficiency and psychological stress in a society. Time lost
at work place and extra fuel consumed by vehicles cause burden to the
society. Overcrowding contributes to diseases and health problems, some
psychological and others that are social, from high blood pressure to heart
disease and road rage.
The intensifying nature of congestion is extremely frustrating for the hun-dreds
of employees and students who daily endure it. There is a dire need
for coordinated efforts to ease the traffic on the roads leading to the univer-sity.
Two experts, from the faculties of Management and Civil Engineering,
have come up with prospective and practical solutions to ease the traffic
congestion in SQU.
20 October 2012 P4
Three-point strategy
Commenting on this issue, Dr. Dhafir Al Shanfari from the College of Eco-nomics
& Political Science, said: “ I think we all agree traffic jams at SQU
have increased in the past few years. The reason are many some of which
are the ever increasing university population (staff and students) and the
increase in individuals commuting using their privet vehicles. Now to solve
this dilemma all stakeholders have to contribute”. Dr. Al Shanfari lists four
steps to be considered for implementation by the university Administration
in cooperation with the relevant authorities like ROP:
1. Revisiting the universities road maps. This can be through increasing
the entrance/exit gates of the university from the current 2 to at least 4 (to
reduce bottlenecks; our campus is a city by itself and 2 gates is simply not
Stuck in Traffic
enough). Expanding current single lanes to double lanes.
2. Developing a better university bus transport system. To encourage more
students to park their cars in large parking lots and use more efficient shut-tle
busses that are more frequent and punctual in time. Also have proper
shaded waiting stations.
3. Have better distributed class schedules where not all classes start at 8
some can even start at 8:20
Dr. Shanfari also recommends that “all of us as drivers (staff and students)
but especially students need to work harder in sharing cars and commuting
with friends and family”.
New roads and signalization of roundabouts
Dr. Shaibu B. Garba from the Department of Civil and Architectural En-gineering,
also observed that the recurring traffic congestion that occurs
along SQU roads during rush hours has become a major problem for staff
and students with attendant social, economic and psychological implica-tions.
“Unless concerted action is taken, this appears set to worsen because
of expansion in admission, the rapid pace of development in the University
vicinity and rise in traffic volumes on the expressway. In the search for solu-tions,
priority should be given to feasibility in terms of ease of implementa-tion
and impact. A review of the situation has led to the identification of
some actions to address the problem in the short to medium term range.
Traffic flow is most effective when network is formatted as a web, with
alternative pathways to destinations. This is not the case for SQU. Accord-ing
to Dr. Shaibu, a high impact solution is to introduce a new road from
Mazoon Street to the Cultural Center with two forked connections to the
University entrance spine, towards gates 2 and 3. “This will significantly
reduce congestions at existing gates. Another solution is to recognize that
roundabouts are only effective in mediating right of way up to a certain
volume that is exceeded during rush hours on SQU roads”, he said.
Dr. Shaibu added that it is time to consider the signalization of approach
roundabouts and intersections to improve traffic flow. “It is also necessary
to accept that Gate 3 located close to the Al-Jamea’ah roundabout has in-sufficient
queue space. Control function at the gate sometimes generates a
queue that causes congestion. There is a need to shift this gate inwards to
provide sufficient queue space. A more complex but feasible solution is to
consider the introduction of an efficient public transportation system to the
University. For this to work, it has to have a frequent and regular schedule,
be on-time, and be broad in its network coverage and generally efficient.
For long term solutions, the university needs to initiate a comprehensive
study of the issue as part of its strategic planning process”.
Dr. Shaibu B. Garba Dr. Dhafir Al Shanfari

5. 20 October 2012 P5
Mind Over Matter
Oman Not Prone to
Big Earthquakes
Analysing the tectonics of the region, Oman
would not really be ranked as earthquakes
prone area” said Dr. Abdelmoneam Elasyed
Raef, Seismologist and Assistant Professor in
Geophysics in the Department of Earth Sci-ences
at the College of Science at Sultan Qa-boos
University. However, the northern parts
of country have a proximity to the active tec-tonic
boundary of the Arabian and Eurasian
plates that elevates the probability of greater
seismicity in this area when compared with
the central and southern parts. Dr. Raef said
that Oman is part of the Arabian tectonic
plate. “From tectonic settings point of view,
the northern Oman part comes under low to
moderate category when it comes to the risk of
experiencing earthquakes of intensity greater
than or equal to VII in the Richter scale. Intra-plate
earthquakes are by far rare when com-pared
to inter-plate events that originate as a
result of active tectonic margins”, he said.
Khasab and Musandam in northern Oman
have earthquake potential as the Arabian
plates meet the Eurasian plates. However,
according to Dr. Raef , in the southern parts
of the continental Arabian-Eurasian plates
(northern Oman is closer to this zone) the
component of the movement of the Ara-bian
plate is closer to the perpendicular
to the plate boundary and thus relatively
faster and greater accumulation of tectonic
stresses than that of the north eastern parts
of the plate boundary. Northerm Oman is
in geographic proximity to the zone where
the seismicity risk of events with greater in-tensities
can not be ruled out due to having
the tectonic Arabian-Eurasian plate bound-ary
which runs parallel to the North West
trending part of the coast of Oman in near
central location in the Gulf of Oman. In this
part of the tectonic boundary, the Arabian
plate is being subducted beneath the Eura-sian
plate; subduction zones are world-wide
associated with greater-magnitude/
intensity seismic events.
Elaborating the tectonics and neo tectonics
of Oman and the seismicity of this area, Dr.
Raef said that major earthquakes take place
with much higher probabilities in time and
space at and in the vicinity of tectonic plate
boundaries than in intra-plate settings. The
Masafi Earthquake which occurred in in
the UAE and some parts of northern Oman
in 2002 is an example of intra-plate tectonic
movement and is intimately related to the
Arabian-Eurasian tectonic plate boundary
tectonics, which has a great potential of re-activating
on land faults.
Many areas in the Middle East have wit-nessed
much increase in construction ac-tivities
in recent years. It is important that
structures such as telecommunication,
airports and harbours, hospitals, schools
and other services should remain undam-aged
in the event of an earthquake shock.
Dr. Raef said that it is important to review
and modify, if necessary, building codes for
major structures so that seismicity related
damages would be minimized in the case
of a major seismic event. “In the centre of
this effort there should be comprehensive
site investigation before embarking upon
construction of major structures; there has
been significant advances in in-situ, non-invasive
geophysical site characterization
in the last 10 years”, he added.
Dr. Raef has been teaching earthquakes
seismology as an integral part of the syl-labus
of “Geol 743 introduction to geo-physics”,
which he taught for four years at
Kansas State University, Kansas, USA. He
has also been involved as a researcher in a
project of de-nosing seismological records
when he was a post-doctoral scholar at
Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, Mis-souri,
USA. Dr.Raef has also processed and
interpreted exploration seismic data, where
the physics of seismic wave generation and
propagation is shared with earthquakes
seismology.
Dr. Abdelmoneam Elasyed Raef

6. News Round Up
Students Mark Omani Women’s Day
A group of female students at the College of Economics & Political
Science at SQU organised an exhibition to mark Omani Women’s
Day under the patronage of Her Highness Sayyida Dr. Ghalya bint
Fahr bin Taimour Al Said. The exhibition was aimed at inform-ing
the Omani young lady that any of her imaginative ideas can
be inspired and she can reach her dreams and ambitions. It was
also aimed at alerting the Omani young lady on her ambitions
and thoughts, and she can reach her dreams and ambitions, thus
she shines as one of the proud Omani ladies. During the opening
ceremony, the chief guest commended the work of the female stu-dents
and said that the initiative testifies their continued quest for
excellence in career, business and other fields of activity.
The exhibition contained three different sections, which are paint-to
Germany based foundation, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung recently or-ganized
a seminar for a number of young Omani journalists in Berlin,
Germany, from 30 September to 7 October 2012. The seminar included
different activities and visits to different German media institutions as
well as some lectures about several journalistic styles including inves-tigative
journalism.
Part of the seminar was visiting some media institutions in Germany.
The Oman journalists had the opportunity to visit the Academy of
The Konrad Adenauer Stiftung which is a national forum dedicated
20 October 2012 P6
ings and pictures, young ladies hobbies and education effect on her
thoughts. The three sections fell under one idea, which is how the Om-ani
lady thinks differently. The first section had creative and unique
paintings and pictures done by Omani ladies that reflected their amaz-ing
thoughts and ideas, and how do they think outside the box.
The second section was about the exotic hobbies of young ladies, such
as, collecting old stamps, collecting Omani forts souvenirs, collecting
the old currencies, or collecting shells from all Oman’s beaches. This
section was special for the young ladies, who are thinking in a differ-ent
way than others, and believe that creativity starts from zero, and
that any simple imaginary thought can be educational and profitable
works in future.
The last section, which is the important section, was about how edu-cation
assists the young Omani lady in her brilliant thoughts. There
were five manikins with different sizes; each one had a different level
of education. The first level is about kindergarten. The second level
was about the primary level, which had things that are available with
all the girls, but she made creative things using the same stuff. The
third section was about the secondary level, and how she achieved
remarkable things, whether in her school or in her social life. The
fourth section was about the higher educational level in the univer-sity
or in college. This level represented how improved the gained
skills from her studies in school. The last manikin showed how she
gained knowledge from her studies, and how it affected her future
career. And she represented the College of Economics & Political Sci-ence
with her business like appearance. Moreover, behind each mani-kin
the students posted the certificates of her accomplishments and
achievements in each stage of her life.
Young Journalists Upgrade their Talents
furthering the dialogue between the political, business, academic
and social worlds. The participants also, visited the Arabic channel
in Deutsche Welle «DW» TV, German channel 2 in Berlin and The
Federal German Office for Media and Information. In addition, the
participants visited Tagesspiegel newspaper, which started in 1945.
They also visited the German School for Journalism. In all visits the
participants learned about the institutions. Lively discussions were
involved were the participants asked about the different institutions
they visited and the German people asked about media in Oman.
The itinerary included Berlin tour and visiting some famous Ber-lin
attractions, such as the Berlin Wall and the German Parliament
(Bundestag). In addition , they visited Potsdam, the state capital of
Brandenburg and a number of magnificent parks and palaces.
Dr. Gidon Windecker, Project Manager and Research Fellow, Region-al
Program Gulf States, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung said, that the aim
of the program is to offer young Omanis a brief about Germany in
general and journalism in particular, in a real context outside their
country. “It also meant that German people learn about Oman and
listen from young Omanis. Dr. Gidon added that this program is
different from other programs that are done in the respective coun-tries
of the participants, but this one is meant for talented and special
journalists who show their motivation to participate. Most of this
program is content focused, yet this one is information and educa-tion,
that’s why we have lots of visits and one day only for class”,
he said.
By: Abdullah Al Maani

7. 20 October 2012 P7
Panorama
Coffee’s character is riddled with social tradition. Coffee has played a cru-cial
role in shaping spiritual and social life. Irish writer and satirist Jonathan
Swift said: “Coffee makes us severe, and grave, and philosophical”. Each
country and culture has its own unique coffee tradition. The people of Co-lombia
drink black coffee with sugar in small cups known as tinto. Strong
espressos are the norm in Italy. North America drinks coffee on the go, in-dividualized
to the temperature of the milk or cream. Coffee in Turkey is
usually served with a small glass of water and a piece of Turkish Delight.
Turkish coffee is never served with milk or cream. Brazil’s espresso, cafez-inho,
is served with a slice of lemon. Regardless of where you might be or
whom you might be with, coffee is a common and celebrated tradition.
Now, let us come to the health effects of drinking coffee. We all know that
coffee contains caffeine. Horizon spoke to Dr. Mostafa Wally, Assistant Pro-fessor
in the Department of Food Science & Nutrition at the College of Agri-cultural
& Marine Sciences on the health effects of coffee. According to him,
in the amounts normally consumed, caffeine acts as a drug, indeed much of
its popularity is owed to its stimulant effect on the central nervous system”.
Like many drugs, users develop a dependence on caffeine when consumed
in amounts equivalent to more than 4 cups of coffee per day. Furthermore,
abstinence from caffeine - containing substances for a day or two may cause
the development of withdrawal symptoms - headaches, irritability, restless-ness,
or fatigue.
According to Dr. Waly, the pharmacologically active dose of caffeine is
about 200 mg and while the effects of caffeine vary from person to person,
a dose of 1000 mg or more will generally produce adverse effects such as
insomnia, restlessness, excitement, trembling, rapid heart beats, in creased
breathing, desire to urinate, ringing in the ears and heart burn. He says that
breast feeding mothers are discouraged from drinking large quantities of
coffee where larger doses of coffee may interfere with the iron availability
from the milk and impair the infant’s iron status.
Coffee and Cardiovascular Disease
No study indicates that moderate caffeine intake causes cardiovascular dis-ease.
Some studies suggest that coffee raises heart rate, blood pressure, and
blood lipid levels. Some do not. Some comparing decaffeinated brews with
coffee, suggest that a component other than caffeine is responsible for the
effects seen, also during the first several days or weeks after a myocardial
infraction, caffeine-containing beverages are often routinely restricted as a
precautionary measure because of their suspected arrhythmogenic poten-tial
effect”. Although caffeine may not cause heart disease directly but it
may mask the warning signs, where caffeine oppose the effect of adenos-ine
compounds (which is responsible for the occurrence of chest pain “the
prime symptom of heart disease”) thus caffeine blunt the sensation of pain
and override adenosine’s warning.
Hypertension
In sensitive individuals, caffeine consumption can temporarily elevate
blood pressure. However, in regular users, 2 to 3 cups of coffee at a time
does not increase blood pressure. Dr. Waly says that there are certain studies
which found that caffeine had no effect on blood pressure.
Peptic Ulcer
Caffeinated beverages may stimulate gastric secretion for both acid and
pepsin. For this reason, it has been postulated that caffeine is an causating
factor in ulcer genesis, and elimination of coffee and other caffeine - con-taining
beverages is often recommended in the management of gastric or
duodenal ulcers.
Behavioural Effects
Caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant, but the molecular
mechanisms of the behavioural actions of caffeine and other methylxan-thines
have not been fully elucidated. It has been shown that the consump-tion
of substantial amounts of caffeine or caffeine - containing foods can
produce significant neurochemical changes in the rats by enhancing the
synthesis and metabolism of serotonin in the brain which is generally as-sociated
with the wakefulness caused by pharmacologic doses of caffeine.
Caffeine and Obesity
Caffeine stimulates thermogenesis, where it was found that the dose in 1 cup
of coffee speeds metabolism slightly for 1-2 hours; this fact leads research-ers
to speculate that caffeine may reduce body fat stores. A study states that
caffeine promotes weight loss by reducing lipid stores because of increased
energy expenditure but without decreasing energy intake. An increase in
plasma triglyceride was observed due to the lipolysis in adipose tissue and
subsequent hepatic rectification, i.e. formation of triglyceride (under the ef-fect
of caffeine), this may explain why the increase in triglyceride plasma
level correlates with the thermic effect of caffeine.
Caffeine and Nutrition
Some studies suggest that caffeine may hinder the availability of certain
nutrients such as calcium and iron, evidence is scarce and inconsistent but
worthy of brief mention here. Concerning calcium, caffeine has been consid-ered
a possible risk factor for the development of osteoporosis, other study
indicate that the effect of caffeine on calcium balance may be deleterious
only when calcium intake is low, where caffeine promotes the release of cal-cium
from the sacroplasmic reticulum and inhibits its reuptake into the cell.
Regarding iron absorption, the polyphenol and tannic acid content of coffee
not the caffeine content are responsible for impairment of iron absorption.
Coffee
Chat

8. Straight Talk
Horizon: How would you underline the importance of in-novation
in today’s world?
Vivek: We have all heard about the importance and need
for Innovation for quite sometime. Perhaps the most fitting
example that demonstrates the importance of Innovation
in today’s competitive business landscape is the ongoing
multi-billion dollar law suits between Apple and Samsung
around Intellectual Property Infringements. Both companies
are spending hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees
in about 10 countries in an effort to ensure that the intellec-tual
property claims underlying their smart phones remain
intact. This demonstrates how powerful innovation and its
protection is in the ongoing success of a business. In a world
without borders, businesses will increasingly seek out the
best product or service provider wherever they are located.
The best way to differentiate against competition is to have
a great depth of product or service offerings. In order to do
that, businesses will need to continuously innovate and stay
on top of their game.
Horizon: Can you suggest any measures to be adapted in
Oman to promote innovation and entrepreneurship among
youngsters and university graduates?
Vivek: In my view, I think Oman is a great place to launch
an initiative to create a vibrant regional Innovation & Entre-preneurship
hub. Oman’s strategic location in the region,
established institutions of higher learning as well as a good
and stable quality of life can be used as incentives to promote
Oman as a region where global companies and/or research
institutions are welcome to explore collaborative activities
with local partners. The development of active industry-academia-
investor-R&D clusters is imperative if a region
needs to transform itself into a vibrant innovation & entre-preneurship
hub. But at this stage, it may be worthwhile to
invest in awareness generating activities to get people excit-ed
about the possibilities. With a great university like SQU
already well established in the region, it should be easy to
bring in domestic and international partners to participate
in activities that can create awareness around Innovation &
Entrepreneurship. For example, business plan competitions
and Innovation showcases around ideas unique to the region
could be set up to showcase certain natural advantages that
Oman is endowed with . Students and staff members could
be given opportunities to try out new ideas without having
to be overly worried about success or failure of the projects.
Innovation is not limited to Entrepreneurship Centers or
Technology transfer offices. We should create a culture of in-novation
in teaching, research, thinking and a variety of other
activities alongside academic work.
Horizon: How would you correlate academics or aca-demic
researchers with innovation?
Vivek: There is a strong correlation between academic
research or more simply academic work and innovation. It
is not a coincidence that some of the well known technol-ogy
companies we hear of today - Google, Facebook, Yahoo,
Cisco, YouTube etc. began as a university based venture or
were founded by people who met while at university. Institu-tions
of higher education are knowledge hubs where bright
and creative people meet like minded ones and start form-ing
friendships based on intellectual pursuits. This leads to
deeper professional association eventually resulting in new
projects conceived jointly. When academic staff creates a new
venture, he or she directly transfers his/her knowledge to the
industry which in turn benefits the society. This is particular-ly
true for research intensive industries like life sciences. For
example, Genentech , Amgen, Calgene are some companies
that were university spin offs that went on to become indus-try
leaders. These companies pump in millions of dollars into
the local economy and employ thousands in their facilities.
So the entire academic innovation ecosystem plays a key role
in moving regional and national economies forward.
Vivek Chandrasekhar
Vivek Chandrasekhar, who runs a boutique small
business consulting firm called Ventureville
based in Toronto, Canada, gave a talk on innova-tion
culture of Singapore, at SQU. His background
is primarily in Innovation and Technology Man-agement.
He started his career working for large
companies like HP and Dell before he joined a
software start-up company in New York that went
on to be acquired by a public listed company. He
moved on to an Innovation Management role
where he helped commercialize and move-to-market
high growth start-ups and very early stage
ventures. Most recently, Vivek ran the business
incubator at Singapore Management University
in Singapore. He also worked very closely with
various agencies affiliated with the government
of Singapore to help put in place some of the key
business incubation programs in Singapore. The
start-ups incubated there at that time cumulative-ly
raised several million dollars in venture fund-ing
from regional and overseas investors.