UTAS-Ibri National Level Competitions “iTech Marathon” Showcase Student’s Skills

The University of Technology and Applied Sciences (UTAS) Ibri and its Information Technology Department organized the 7th students’ national level competitions titled “iTech Marathon” on March 15th and 16th 2023, with the attendance of 148 student participants and experts.
Student competitions play a key role in improving and achieving their academic goals. Challenge based learning contribute to innovation, creativity, and employability. The annual event “iTech Marathon” consists of series of challenges and sense of competitions among students from higher educational institutes on the first day to encourage the students to outperform in the field of scientific research and innovation challenge, project demonstration, programming competition, mobile development competition, networking competition, and mathematics competition, followed by technical exhibitions under the name “iTech Techno” on the second day. Aiming to enrich industrial and business cooperation and to enhance the knowledge of the students and graduates about the applications of the technologies in the market and industries, “iTech Techno” event gives a place for the companies and institutes that are related to information technology and innovation to exhibit their services and products to the students and alumni. Several companies demonstrated their innovative IT products on Robotics, 3D Printing, IoT, Digital Designing, Security and Programming in the second days event.
According to the organizing team, the aim of this event is, “to meet Oman’s Vision 2040, to achieve academic excellence, to identify and extract problem solving skills among students, to provide a platform and share student’s ideas and innovations, and to provide a platform for students to view the latest innovative products displayed by companies”.
Ms. Hind Salim Said Al Mahrouqi, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs presented the welcome address and the objectives of the event.
Dr. Hamdan Mohammed Ali Al Manthari, Dean of UTAS-Ibri, Dr. Nasser Salim Mohmmed Al Kalbani, Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs attend to the opening ceremony and praised the student participants who joined from 10 different universities including UTAS-Muscat, UTAS-Shinas, UTAS-Sohar, UTAS-Al Musannah, UTAS-Ibra, UTAS-Nizwa, UTAS-Ibri, UTAS-Ibri(CAS), University of Buraimi, and GuTech.
Dr. Junaid Qadir presented the Keynote address on a topic “Engineering and Computing Education for the 21st Century: A Student Primer”. He is a Professor at the Qatar University in Doha, Qatar, and the Information Technology University (ITU) of Punjab in Lahore, Pakistan.
Dr. Amal Bati Said Al Abri, the head of IT department distributed the prizes, awards, and certificates for the winners in the closing ceremony and greeted the student participants, and the organizing committee members. In her talk, she mentioned that, “iTech Marathon is a great platform for national students to showcase the skills and talents. Students enjoyed meeting with different level of people to improve communication, collaboration, sharing ideas, innovation, technological awareness, and competitive skills. The winners deserve it for today and the other participants have received the experience to win in the future events”.
This event was well organized under the chairmanship of Head of the IT Department Dr. Amal Bati Said Al Abri, supported by Department Council members Ms. Fatma Said Hamed Al Shamli, Dr. Pugalarasu Rajan, coordinated by “IT Society” coordinator Ms. Sara Said Obaid Al Shukaili and collaborated by all the IT staff and students. The event was technically supported by the reputed international professional body “ACM Student Chapter” and in association with “Alanan National” and “Almasarrah Youth”.
This national level event receives high positive feedback from the student community though they benefit by showcasing leadership quality, technical, innovation and creative skills.

 Event Website