Stanford is one of several universities lending a helping hand to a young science and technology university being built in western Saudi Arabia.

The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), slated to open in September 2009, will be a graduate-level, international research university sponsored by Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah. The university will open with one of the largest endowments in the world — $10 billion.

Stanford is responsible for assisting in the selection of the first 10 applied math and computer science faculty members for KAUST, as well as designing the curriculum in these disciplines. KAUST will oversee the actual faculty recruitment.

Stanford will also sponsor KAUST faculty as visiting fellows. It will send about a dozen Stanford faculty to teach weeklong courses, lead annual seminars and serve on thesis committees.

Although it will be located on Saudi soil and subject to the country’s laws, KAUST will feature an independent board of trustees and operate similarly to a U.S. university.

At full capacity, the energy-efficient university will be home to 20,000. Its first president will be Shih Choon Fong, currently the president of the National University of Singapore.