Prepared among Tesla project and funded by Erasmus program, Arab American University opened the virtual reality laboratory that contains modern devices to enable visitors and users to interact with virtual reality and thus serve the educational process.
Dr. Ahmad Mwais- TESLA Team Leader in Arab American University said that Arab American University has participated in managing and developing scientific courses using the virtual reality technology, this technology became the current and modern used technology in education around the world. He said that through virtual reality, users can interact with the content best. This laboratory comes as part of the philosophy of AAUP as the university provides all the new technology and developments to its students. Dr. Mwais also said that in TESLA project, there are also other Palestinian university such as Al Istiqlal University, Polytechnic university in Hebron, AlQuds Open University and some other European Universities in Greece, Slovakia and Romania. Dr. Mwais talked about the laboratory that was recently opened and said that it contains 13 computer devices and 5 glasses of higher quality technology and there are some other plans to open other similar laboratories in the university soon.
Dr. Moayad Abu Saa- the VP for Academic Affairs welcomed the guests, and appreciated Erasmus Program for their role in the Palestinian universities.
Prof. Mohammad Asia- the VP for Medical Schools Affiars said that Arab American University always seeks to develop its technology to the 4G and will reach the 5G as well in order to have learning outcomes that are equivalent to the global market through technology.
Dr. Nidal Jayousi- the General Manager of Erasmus in Palestine congratulated the opening of the virtual reality lab in Arab American University and explained that Erasmus keen to provide many projects for universities to develop the higher education in Palestine. Dr. Jayousi said that from 2015 and until 2020, Erasmus had provided almost 53 Million Euro projects to the Palestinian and European universities and the TESLA project in specific has provided many technological projects to the Palestinian universities in the West Bank and in Gaza.
In his speech, Mr. Fayez Abdulhafith- TESLA Project Manager said that the project always tries to keep up with the development and latest technology and then provides the educational organizations with the latest technology as well. He added that this project has organized many things in advanced such as the education crisis during Corona pandemic as they used developed technology to solve the problem, and he stressed on the importance of the virtual reality in serving the education.
Dr. Ahmad Othman- the Representative of the Ministry of Higher Education said that it is part of the strategy of the Ministry is to transfer to technology in education, and he expressed how proud he is of Arab American University and the joint universities in the TESLA project in preparing a virtual reality lab and that this is an achievement that all Palestinians are proud of.
Dr. Adli Saleh- the President Advisor for Planning, Development and Quality said that the AAUP is about to open and organize many projects for the good benefit of its students in order to distinguish them wherever they go and to make its students outstand themselves locally, regionally or internationally. He added, these projects will develop students and prepare them to the labor market, and we are required as a university to provide all the possible educational activities to our students either in the extracurricular parts or the projects, to enable our students to compete in the labor market.
