No doubt we live in a world dominated by technology; communication turned easier, accessible knowledge at our fingertips, AI performs everyday tasks, improved healthcare, work became available from home or everywhere in many cases,  easy shopping, etc.

However, with this bloomed  picture, comes serious threats of technology domination and control of our lives. In fact, generative AI per se threatens tens of careers and professions, not to mention the danger of becoming out of control in certain domains. The “bad” face of technology appears in many military applications that use high tech in destruction and killing. Likewise, technology burst has an eminent social impact, where poor countries become poorer while rich countries become richer, expanding the already vast gap between the two.

For Syria, striving hard to come out more than a decade of military and economical war, technology transfer suffered from many hurdles, including tech embargo and dwindling national economy. Nevertheless, the number of experts in many technology domains decreased. Hence, it is a crucial mandate for Syrian officials to put exceptional efforts to compensate for that loss. Boosting R&D activities at Syrian universities and research centers is the first and most important step, since relevant indicators clearly show a straightforward correlation between R&D activities and the ability for adapting frontier technologies.

The Syrian Journal for Science and Innovation (SJSI) was a humble attempt to shed light on Syrian innovative research in various sectors. After one and a half years since SJSI commencement, the journal succeeded in attracting solid Syrian researchers and was able to publish six consecutive issues in addition to one special issue, despite all unenthusiastic environment, nationally and regionally. In reality, we are very proud of the continuity of this journal and the knowledge accumulated since the first issue, hoping SJSI continues to nourish in the coming years as a valued tool for disseminating knowledge created at Syrian academic and research centers.