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In 2015, Dr. Alaa Azzam led and supervised a practical training workshop for undergraduate students in the Department of Physics at the University of Jordan, aimed at teaching the techniques of manual telescope mirror grinding. The workshop brought together approximately 30 university students and five high school students, and was held in the department’s facilities during the break between the second and summer semesters. The training spanned ten days.

Each participant crafted a single telescope mirror by hand, with diameters ranging from six to eight inches. Upon completion of the grinding process, the focal length of each mirror was measured using a Foucault tester—commonly known as the knife-edge test—a device used to determine the radius of curvature and evaluate the surface accuracy of the mirror. Notably, Dr. Azzam designed and built the Foucault tester specifically for the workshop.

Mirrors that met the necessary quality standards were coated with pure aluminum using the department’s vacuum coating system. To support the fabrication of the remaining telescope components, funding of approximately 4,000 Jordanian Dinars was provided by the Jordan Design and Development Bureau (JODDB). Additionally, JODDB granted another 4,700 Jordanian Dinars to support the development of a custom-built mirror grinding machine.