Jan. 27 was the start of the NYU Abu Dhabi’s spring semester. Returning students were welcomed with with plethora of events ranging from a city-wide scavenger hunt organized by The Office of Student Life, to the 5th annual Imagine Science film festival at the NYUAD Arts Center and the first men’s football game of the season, with a final score of 3-0. In addition, nearly 60 Student Interest Groups attended the SIG fair, including interesting new upstart SIGs such as Mountain Madness – a rock climbing group – and the Stories SIG.

On Feb. 9, the Interactive Media program’s Processing Community Day, where “Makers, artists, designers, researchers, and makers from the community” gathered for a day of coding, workshops, and and conversations. (http://pcd.nyuad.im/) As of January 2019, Interactive Media became an NYUAD academic major. According to Associate Professor of Practice of Interactive Media, Michael Shiloh, this will allow the program to further develop its curriculum and grow.

The Abu Dhabi Science Festival took place from Jan. 31 to Feb. 9. It featured a colorful menagerie of booths and workshops with interactive science activities. NYUAD had seven booths, manned by students, researchers and other volunteers. These included a booth where kids could swab the inside of their cheek to look at their cells under a microscope, an invisible ink experiment and an exposition displaying microscopic words.

This was the ninth iteration of the festival, which was originally organized in order to encourage young people in the gulf region to pursue careers in STEAM – science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics – fields. “It felt great to just talk about how cool science is. It was just all pure wonder and curiosity,” said Mariam ElSahhar, Class of 2022, “I'm genuinely jealous of the kids”

The Convenience Store was closed Feb. 2 and will be temporarily operating in the Marketplace until renovations to its first floor location are completed.