On 31 May 2013, a three-week JINR practice of students from universities of the Arab Republic of Egypt was completed. Students presented research projects prepared in laboratories, and supervisors of practice projects had a chance to see the extent of their knowledge. Overall, five projects were prepared in the following areas: rapid parallel computing, neutron activation analysis, small-angle neutron scattering in nano-studies, radiation biology, nuclear medicine. Here is what mentors of the projects and students told us about it.

Mentor of educational project, postgraduate student of UC, Roman Eremin (LRB): Three students who participated in our project have a background in biophysics, but they did not have an opportunity to learn about molecular dynamic programming, although they had heard about it. One of the directions of this kind of programming was introduced by Kh. Holmurodov, R. Dushanov presented the more specialized AMBER package for dynamic protein modelling, and I talked about DL_POLY package intended for broader simulation purposes. We tried to explain to students the general approaches, not to overload them with highly specialized knowledge, and they grasped everything on the fly. The results can be seen: when clarifying questions are asked, then there is understanding of the material, so our work was not in vain.

Mentors E. Zemlyanaya and T. Sapozhnikova (LIT): Six students from different universities gathered together for the project. They worked with great enthusiasm, tried to master new knowledge during the practice and to apply it in their project. Obviously, this determination was due to the fact that this project would help them complete their master’s theses. Students demonstrated a fairly high level of preparation, knowledge of programming languages, and focus on specific research. It is also pleasant that our practice participants showed interest in possible future cooperation.

Supervisor M. Frontasieva (FLNP): If we compare this practice with previous ones we held for students from Egypt, this year we had the best prepared participants. Moreover, during this practice, we had an opportunity to conduct real work at the reactor in the framework of our project “Assessment of the ecological situation in the Nile delta using nuclear-physical analytical methods” for the first time. Participants were very talented, and one student may come back to work at the laboratory for three months. I wish them all success in achieving their goals.

Fatima Salah (Cairo Center for Nuclear Research): After three weeks, we can say that we learned a lot about the FLNP neutron activation analysis section, saw the latest technologies, and had a chance to see the database. We did not have time to do everything we wanted to do. We gained experience in the NAA sector, especially while working with Marina Frontasieva. My cooperation with this sector will continue as far as I am now preparing a thesis on this topic and I would like to see cooperation between Egypt and JINR strengthened.

Haney Hussein (Cairo American University): I completed a project in LIT, and our supervisors helped me a lot, showed me the all up-to-date developments that may be useful in my future work. Before coming to Dubna, I had questions on parallel computing to which I could not find answers. Here, I received necessary answers in addition to a lot of related knowledge. This practice helped me complete a very difficult task at which I began to work in Egypt. I will continue my work, and knowledge I received at JINR will help me a lot. By the way, our supervisors mentioned that they intend to prepare a publication, and we would be co-authors of it. This would be my first scientific publication in the field of fast parallel computations.

Cultural Advisor of the Embassy, Professor Osama El-Seroui, participated in the closing ceremony of the practice. He noted: “Conducting such student practices regularly, thus sustaining scientific relationships between JINR and Egypt, is part of our cooperation in the fields of science. I am satisfied that our relations are moving forward, and on behalf of the Embassy, I would like to express my interest in having such cooperation in the fields of science strengthened.”

One of the students’ presentations ended with a disambiguation of anacronym, the name of the Regatta unit at IBR-2M, suggesting it stands for: “Russian-Egypt Gate at the Ambition”.

Olga Tarantina,
translation from Arabic by Vaela Guesde