IT Students Won Second Prize in National Level Research Competition

IT Students Won Second Prize in National Level Research Competition The IT students who represented UTAS-Ibri won the second prize during the National Level Research Day Competition which was graced by the University Vice-Chancellor Dr. Said Hameed Al Rubei and organized by UTAS-Al Musannah in collaboration with ISACA - Muscat Chapter in November 10, 2022. The Student Research Day was designed to promote student research and creative inquiry. This event was open to all students from all the academic institutions across the Sultanate who wanted to display their research and creative projects in the IT discipline in the form of a Poster or Applied model with oral presentations. Three teams from the IT department (UTAS-Ibri) participated in the Research Day that focused on “Oman Vision 2040 for Research”, keynote address on “Information Security” and other technical talk and poster/project presentations. Out of 26 teams who participated from 17 universities, the IT team (UTAS-Ibri) won the second prize for the presentation entitledاطمئن Etmaen – “An interactive AI App to boost the mental health in the Arab World”. This research proposal explores a novel idea of mobile application that uses Arabic Natural Language Processing (NLP) feature and AI based software robots to interact with the users that could beat depression, anxiety, self-criticism, stress feelings, psychological disorders and help while they feel anxious or insecure, sad, or angry. Moreover, another presentation entitled, “Self-Checkout Shopping Cart with Anti-Theft Solution” won the ISACA-Muscat chapter one year membership. The main goal of this project is to boost the existing supermarket shopping carts to prevent them from being misused and/or damaged as well as to provide a modern shopping experience. Another team presented the project entitled, “Smart Master Alarm Clock” which received a certificate of appreciation for the worthy idea and presentation. This project is intended to design a smart alarm clock that interacts with the environment to adjust the room temperature and lights to create the most convenient wakeup ambiance. A total of 8 IT students and a lecturer, Dr. Wilfred Blessing N.R have participated.

Through this active participation and presentation, all the student participants have benefitted especially on the awareness on current research domains and projects. The interaction with other university students and experts are highly effective.