Emirati student builds drones for the greater good

The Emirati graduate’s drone research has him working on flying robots for construction.

Talib Alhinai spends his time at the Imperial College in London’s aerial robotics laboratory, where he works on using flying robots for aerial construction. Stephen Lock for The National

Emirati postgraduate student Talib Alhinai is, quite literally, flying high. He will shortly present his drone research to members of British parliament, has just been named one of Forbes’ 30 under 30 in Europe for this year and he still has another six years to retain his place on the prestigious list.

Mr Alhinai, 24, has been in the UK since 2010 when he joined University of Manchester to study mechatronic engineering. Then, just a week after finishing his first-class bachelor’s degree, he began a doctorate at London’s Imperial College.

Today he spends his time at Imperial’s aerial robotics laboratory, where he works on using flying robots for aerial construction.

He is due to finish his doctoral degree in June, but first he will present his research to around 100 parliamentarians at Stem for Britain, which supports early-career research scientists, engineers, technologists and mathematicians – what it calls the “engine room of UK plc”.

“When choosing a subject, I had set my mind on a field I was passionate about but also one that was cutting edge and relevant to the future needs of the UAE in becoming a knowledge-based economy,” says Mr Alhinai, who was born in Abu Dhabi, and adds that he started his doctorate just as consumer drones were gaining traction.

“Drones have immense potential to be used for good, to help with agriculture and farming, search and rescue and construction. My interest in them was piqued when I learnt how drone swarms can rapidly build shelters for survivors of natural disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes.”

The result has been the world’s first flying 3D-printing drone, which can take droplets of a lightweight builders’ foam, in liquid form, out to pipeline leaks. Expanding to 25 times its original size, the foam can then quickly plug the leak without any need for hands-on human intervention.

The aerial robot won him Dh1 million and the national prize at last year’s UAE Drones for Good awards – the “World Cup” for drones.

The award subsequently brought him to the attention of Forbes magazine, which has named him one of the 30 most promising people under 30 in its Euro­pean science and healthcare category for 2017.

Mr Alhinai already holds two patents – one for the mech­anism to create an aerial 3D-printing drone, and another for the design of a walking and flying drone, which could work across different zones in construction or in disaster relief.

His inspiration originally came from the 2011 Japanese Fukushima nuclear disaster, where wheeled robots were sent into the three nuclear reactor meltdowns and quickly failed amid all the debris and heat. Even four years on, a robot sent in to capture images stopped working after a few hours.

As a result of Mr Alhinai’s work – made in collaboration with his aerial robotics lecturer, Dr Mirko Kovac – awards and sponsorship money has been flooding in. Last year, they received £3.4 million (Dh15.3m) in funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and other industrial partners.

The “science fiction”, he says, is to build teams of robots which can construct rooms and even buildings – “not something that is going to happen tomorrow or in the next year or two”.

It has very much been a case of right place and time for Mr Alhinai, who says the huge surge in the use of flying robots in the last few years has mostly been “recreational” rather than for “the benefit of humanity”.

The UAE has become an incubator for such “disruptive technology”, he says, being one of the first countries to legislate for the commercial use of drones, and it will “pay off immensely in the long term”.

The young scientist has been heavily involved in some of the government’s discussions on science, technology and entrepreneurship.

He is part of the Dubai team involved in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme (Reap), a two-year project focused on converting the 90 per cent of Emiratis who do not work as entrepreneurs into 90 per cent who do.

He has also worked with the Dubai Future Foundation on creating a network of innovation centres for robotic technology, and is an ambassador for the Shorik initiative, which encourages overseas study for Emirati students.

More new Emirati graduates are “passionate” about the so-called Stem subjects, he has observed, “probably as a by-product in the government’s interest in science – the space programme, the hyper­loop”. It all points to “a very bright future” for Stem in the Emirates.

Having been so deeply involved in policies on both drones and entrepreneurship, Mr Alhinai is keen to carry on with both streams of work when he returns to the UAE for good later this year. And he has his national service to do.

But first, the homecoming. After four years in which he has only been able to make two short breaks home a year, he is looking forward to a proper return.

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