The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has provided a research grant worth $1.2 million to a research team consisting of three American universities led by Saudi academic and faculty member at the University of California, Dr. Faisal Nawab.

Dr. Nawab said in a statement to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) that the universities participating in the research team include the University of California at Irvine, the University of California at Davis, and New Jersey Tech, noting that the project aims to address the challenges of data protection and privacy in Internet applications and smart cities.

He added that the project seeks to enable the transformation of the current data infrastructure to comply with user data protection legislation and regulations, such as the personal data protection system that the Kingdom is working on, represented by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA).

He stated that the team’s mission will last four years, and its first results will be revealed at the Data Systems Development Conference in Italy and will be presented and discussed annually at the NSF.

Dr. Nawab highlighted his cooperation with some Saudi universities and entities through his research laboratory at the University of California for this goal, adding that Saudi Arabia, represented by SDAIA, was the first to introduce systems and regulations for data protection in a way that guarantees user rights and that personal data protection.

Source: Saudi Press Agency