As I was doing my daily evening workout, I realized that I had not explained in my blog the importance of the fertilizer project my three IBM teammates and I are consulting on with MASciR (Moroccan Foundation for Advanced Science Innovation and Research).  The graph below on the left is a page from the report that we have developed.  By 2050 the world population will be almost 10 billion people and we will need an ~ 69% in food calorie production to feed our planet.  The region of the world where most of this increase came come from is sub-Saharan Africa in the areas of increase crop yields (top right) and increased acreage for crop production (bottom right).  The four of us from IBM are focusing on enabling MASciR to develop novel fertilizer techniques combined cognitive agriculture to positively impact these trends for the continent. It is a good example of how IBM Corporate Service gives back to the world that we serve.  @ibmcsc #ibmcsc #cscmorocco9

There is a big difference for my weekend activities for this October compared to previous years.  This past weekend, my CSC team explored the Sahara desert on camels (I am the third from the right in the picture below. #ibmcsc @ibmcsc #cscmorocco9

Compare this to what my close friends back in Vermont who are skiing now.  I will take the camels for now and I will be back in Vermont all too soon!  Below is a picture of the Killington ski resort in Vermont taken earlier this week.  This is where I spend about 40 weekend days a year skiing  every winter starting in October.

Our fifteen  IBM team members spent most of the today with the wonderful people of  the non-profit:AMSAT (Moroccan association for support and assistance to people with down syndrome, http://www.amsat.ma/).  The picture below contains the AMSAT logo (left), IBM CSC Morocco9 team (top right), two of our team members (George and Jessica) working with paper formation with two students(right middle) and two more team members (Kent and David) working with a young adult on her horse back riding (bottom right). #ibmcsc @ibmccs #cscmorocco9

The mission of AMSAT is

• Participate in the general progress of our society by the management of different people.
• Welcome, listen, inform, guide the child with Down syndrome and their families.
• Promote the process of co-education and move towards self-determination:
  • considering the whole person.
  • bringing families and young people to build a life plan.
  • by offering individual projects with the objective development of the person with Down syndrome.
• Promote independence.
• Working for social integration in all its components: family, school, work, sports and cultural.
• Implement all that may be necessary in physical, intellectual and moral of the trisomic person in accordance with their aspirations.
• Defend and promote the social inclusion of people with Down syndrome.

There is a great need for this type of organization in Rabat and Morocco  The public school system is not setup to help with special needs children.  AMSAT is the only non-profit in Rabat that is addressing the needs of children with Down syndrome and integrating them into the Moroccan society.   The AMSAT facility in Rabat currently serves 300 children with Down  syndrome and has a waiting list of over 600.

Our IBM CSC Morocco 9team spent the morning and early afternoon visiting the school and working with the children in various workshops which involved cooking, gardening, painting, paperwork and horse back riding.

The pictures above show the wonderful talents that are being realized in these children and how for one day, the CSC team was able to interact and contribute to their growth. Their artwork was awesome, cooking and restaurant that they run was excellent (that is me and one of my IBM coworkers from Korea on the right middle enjoying the meal that the residents and some of our team prepared) and their horse back riding skills were strong.

I worked with David (India), Kent (US) and Lucrecia (Spain) on the kids horse back riding during the morning.  The experience was deeply moving and educational.  Children with Down syndrome have different levels of developmental disabilities.  One of the key issues is the coordination between the arms (upper body) and legs (low body). Normal children develop this coordination at a very young age, children with Down syndrome often do not and it has to be systematically taught to them.  Horseback riding is a very good way to teach these skills.  The coordination has to be developed so the kids can get on a horse and ride it. Even further coordination is needed to direct the horse to ride in the direction needed.  This is taught to them in a  very supportive and comfortable environment.  The children are excited and passionate about the sport.

Their smiles and engagement is a memory that I will have for the rest of my life. 🙂

This afternoon the IBM team I am a part of met with the CEO of MASciR, Dr. Hicham Bouzekri.  We  had a detailed interaction about what his vision of MASciR is and how our CSC assignment can help to turn his vision into reality.  More on this tomorrow, but in the Moroccan tradition, after our meeting with the CEO, my IBM collgues and I decided to brainstorm on how to proceed.  We did not return to our offices in the MASciR facility. Rather, we went out and found a corner cafe on a busy street, ordered mint tea and had a lively discussion for the next couple of hows on how to proceed.  Below is our IBM team left to right, Kazu (Japan), Jessica (Canada), me (USA) and Vanket (India). #ibmcsc #cscmorocco9 @ibmcsc @ibmaotalbany

It is late Monday evening, and  IBM CSCMorocco9  had an exciting trip to the Moroccan Sahara desert this past weekend!  I wanted to share a quick update with some pictures.  I will post a more detailed overview on Tuesday/Wednesday. On Friday evening, we traveled from Rabat to Marrakesh by train (4 and 1/2 hours) and spent the night.  Early Saturday morning, our guide picked us up in Marrakesh and we drove across the Atlas Mountains to the Sahara desert at Zagora.  The “drive” was 10 hours long.  We then rode on camels for 90 minutes to a tent camp outside of Zagora, spent Saturday night, and then backtracked to Rabat on Sunday.  This was quite the adventure!  There was sunrise from the top of a sand dune, the camel caravan (am in on the camel in the middle), the selfie of my turban, the monkey sitting standing on my head in the Marrakesh market and me and two of my IBM coworkers resting on a rock close to the top of the pass through the Atlas mountains. Much more in the next blog post!  #ibmcsc #cscmorocco9 @ibmcsc

Three IBMer’s (Jessica O’Gorman (Canada), Venkatraman Umakanth (India) and Kazutaka Nakao (Japan)) and I have began working with the Moroccan Foundation for Advanced Science, Innovation & Reserarch (MASciR, http://www.mascir.com/) to develop a detailed analysis agricultural fertilizers and their implications for the mission of MASciR.  MASciR is a research institute with a strong emphasis in nano materials/nanotechnology, microelectronics, biotechnology and agriculture. 

The laboratory facilities at MASciR are high quality and the staff is  knowledgeable and friendly.  I have enjoyed engaging the engineers and scientists on technical discussions. My teammates tease me that they need to keep a careful watch on me that I do not sneak into a lab, put on lab coat and gloves and start working along side the researchers.  They are right!  The top four pictures below show all of us actively engaging the MASciR technical staff and discussing how they  impact  Morocco and the world community. Our host, Fouzia LAMNASFI (pictured below, in the blue next to Kazu from our team, second row left) and us are often found engaging in detailed discussions about what the next step is to enable  MASciR to make more of a global impact in the area of fertilizers.

After working hours, we continue to explore the beauty of Rabat.  The bottom row is a series of pictures taking yesterday as we walked along the beach next to the old city of Rabat at sunset.  It was a beautiful evening, the city population was outside, the weather was warm and the views were stunning.

Today (16/10/2016) we had an orientation session in the morning followed by more exploring of the unique city of Rabat in the afternoon.  Rabat is a mixture of different ages and cultures starting from around ~1100 AD.

We explored more of the old city and gardens contained within these walls.  There are portions of the old city where the walls and/or doors are blue as shown in the two of the pictures below.  Contained within these walls are isolated gardens with some stunning flowers and a very unique mural.  Then there are the cats, lots of cats everywhere.  In the picture below, there is a kitten sitting on top of its mother. For you dog lovers, sorry we have not seen or heard a single dog in Rabat.

Before wandering into the old city, we had a wonderful lunch at a local restaurant.  The atmosphere was very unique.

Tomorrow, we will meet our Moroccan clients for the first time and we are all excited! #ibmcsc #ibmcscmorocco9

Most of us arrived in Rabat early this afternoon and then we went out and explored the city.  The city is characterized by large open air markets, 12 century architecture, an easy access airport and of course, the Atlantic ocean. I have added a few pictures to this blog of my teammates as we wandered through the streets.  Tomorrow we begin the work of organizing ourselves to engage with the Moroccan CSC Mission starting Monday!  #ibmcsc #ibmcscmorocco9

On the plane and waiting to take off for Paris and the Rabat.   The adventure begins!

This Friday, 10/14/2016  a team of 15 IBMer’s starts to travel to Rabat Morocco for our CSC assignment!  I will be working with,  Jessica O’Gorman, Venkat Umakanth and Kasutaka Nakao on Market Analysis for Agriculture Fertilizers with the Moroccan Foundation for Advanced Science Innovation and Research (MASCiR, http://www.mascir.com/). #ibmcsc #ibmcscmorocco9

We will focus on economic and environmental factors.  First, a positive economic impact: Morocco, as a country heavily dependent on agriculture and suffering from more serious droughts these past 5 years due to global climate change, the smart use of fertilizers will reduce harm from the harmful effects of droughts. Second, a positive impact on the environment: the conventional fertilizers, which may damage soil and certain plants at different growth stages, can be replaced by innovative fertilizers, which will improve agronomic safety and will preserve soil quality and sustainability.