عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Technology

Saudi Arabia Tops Other Industrial Countries, Wins 8 Awards at ISEF 2021

Saudi Arabia Tops Other Industrial Countries, Wins 8 Awards at ISEF 2021
TT
TT

Saudi Arabia Tops Other Industrial Countries, Wins 8 Awards at ISEF 2021

Saudi Arabia Tops Other Industrial Countries, Wins 8 Awards at ISEF 2021

Saudi Arabia, represented by the King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity (Mawhiba) and the Ministry of Education, has, for the 15th consecutive year, won five major and three special awards at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2021, which took place in the United States from May 3-21, 2021.

Among the big winners were Mansour Al Marzooqi for his Advanced Synthesis of Potent Photocapacitor Based on Novel 3D-Hierarchical BiVO4 and Self-Synthesized Carbon project, and Lama Abdulrahman AlQahtani, for her Anti-VOCs and Antimicrobial Activity of Natural Palm Waste Cellulose Fibers/ZnO Nanoparticles Biocomposite for Use in Face Masks: The GBV99 project.

The special prize winners from Saudi Arabia also included Ruby Rajab with her project entitled “Enhancing Communication and Music Sensory Perception for the Hearing Impaired Through Haptic Feedback in an Improved Tactile Glove,” which won her a university scholarship in the US.

With this achievement, the Kingdom boasts 83 awards in ISEF, including 53 major and 30 special ones, since it began participating in the competition in 2007. All Saudi National Science and Engineering Team members received a special award presented by the computer research company WOLFRAM.

The Kingdom’s team, composed of 30 male and female students, competed for significant prizes in the ISEF 2021 and participated in 30 scientific projects in various fields, ten more than the previous year.

Mawhiba has been sponsoring for eleven years special awards at the ISEF, amounting to 103 awards, which were won by 121 male and female students from 20 countries. The ISEF 2021 was held virtually this year with the participation of more than 1,800 students from 70 countries.

Most Viewed

 
 
Technology

Google Offers to Loosen Search Deals in US Antitrust Case Remedy

The Google sign is shown on one of the company's office buildings in Irvine, California, US, October 20, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Blake
The Google sign is shown on one of the company's office buildings in Irvine, California, US, October 20, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Blake
TT
TT

Google Offers to Loosen Search Deals in US Antitrust Case Remedy

The Google sign is shown on one of the company's office buildings in Irvine, California, US, October 20, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Blake
The Google sign is shown on one of the company's office buildings in Irvine, California, US, October 20, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Alphabet's Google proposed on Friday a loosening of its agreements with Apple and others to set Google as the default search engine on new devices, in a bid to address a US ruling that it unlawfully dominates online search.

The proposal is muchu narrower than the government's push to make Google sell its Chrome browser, which Google called a drastic attempt to intervene in the search market.

Google urged US District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington to move cautiously in deciding what the company must do to restore competition, after his ruling that the company holds an illegal monopoly in online search and related advertising. Courts have cautioned against imposing antitrust remedies that chill innovation, Google said in court papers.

That is especially true "in an environment where remarkable artificial intelligence innovations are rapidly changing how people interact with many online products and services, including search engines," Google said.

While Google plans to appeal that ruling at the end of the case, it says the upcoming "remedies" phase should focus on its distribution agreements with browser developers, mobile device manufacturers, and wireless carriers.

The judge found the agreements give Google a "major, largely unseen advantage over its rivals" and result in most devices in the US coming pre-loaded with Google's search engine.

The agreements are hard to exit, the judge said, especially for Android manufacturers, which must agree to install Google search in order to include Google's Play Store on their devices.

To fix that, Google could make them non-exclusive and, for Android phone manufacturers, unbundle its Play Store from Chrome and search, the company said in its proposal.

Google would allow browser developers that agree to set its search engine as the default to revisit that decision annually under the proposal.

REVENUE SHARING

Unlike the government's proposal, Google's would not end revenue sharing agreements, which pass a portion of ad revenue Google makes from search to the device and software companies that present it as the default search engine.

Independent browser developers including Mozilla, which makes Firefox, have said the funds are crucial to their operations. Apple received an estimated $20 billion from its agreement with Google in 2022 alone.

Kamyl Bazbaz, spokesperson for search engine competitor DuckDuckGo, said the proposal attempts to maintain the status quo.

"Once a court finds a violation of competition laws, the remedy must not only stop the illegal conduct and prevent its recurrence, but restore competition in the affected markets," he said.

Google's proposal sets the stage for a trial Mehta will hold in April, where the US Department of Justice and a coalition of states will seek to show the need for wide-ranging remedies, including making Google sell off Chrome and potentially its Android mobile operating system.

The government plans to call witnesses from OpenAI, AI search startup Perplexity, and Microsoft, according to court papers.

Prosecutors also want Google to stop paying to be the default search engine, and cease investments in search rivals and query-based AI products, and license its search results and technology to rivals.

The proposals aim to spur innovation in online search, where Mehta found Google's overwhelming market share keeps competitors from gathering the search data needed to improve their products, and prevent Google from extending its dominance in search to AI.