The Staff development Committee of the Engineering Department organized an Hands on training workshop on “ Coupled Field Analysis using ANSYS Workbench” on 31st March 2022 from 11.00 am to 12.30 pm. Dr. Sivananth Varatharajan, Lecturer (Engineering Department), has delivered the presentation for the benefit of the staff members. He gave general introduction about Coupled field analysis and its application to solve real time problems. Automobile Piston model was considered as an example in the presentation to explain the coupled field analysis simulation. The participants were trained to understand modeling using Design Modeler and the import options from other CAD modeling software. All the participants practiced the simulation for Piston CAD model and checked their simulation. The presenter also explained about assigning material properties, meshing and boundary conditions to perform the simulation. The speaker finally concluded the presentation by simulating transient analysis of welding process to highlight the software accuracy. The staff members felt that the presentation was very much useful and effective.
The Business Society, under the Business Studies Department, organized a competition among students titled "Business Talk" on Monday, 28th March 2022. The main aim of the competition was to encourage students to present any trended business topics in less than 15 minutes. A total of 4 students participated in the competition to showcase their talents. At the end of the event, scores of the students' presentations were collected and the winners were announced as follows:
First place: Al Mutaz Al Shukaili
Second place: Samah Al Ghafri
Third place: Abdulaziz Al Kalbani
Fourth place: Ahmed Al Badi
In collaboration with the Research and Consultancy Committee, the Staff Development Committee of the Information Technology Department organised a workshop on reference management on Thursday, 10 February 2022. The workshop titled "Reference Management using Mendeley and MyBib: an overview" was delivered by Dr Qais Saif Qasim (faculty of the Information Technology Department) to foster research writing skills of the department's staff. Mr Shaik Asif Basha, the SDC coordinator, inaugurated the workshop with a welcome message. Afterwards, Dr Qais presented some of the essential terminology and key concepts pertaining to citations and references. Then, the speaker introduced the features of Menedely and demonstrated several techniques to efficiently utilise the Menedely desktop application to manage research papers and references effectively.
Feedback was collected from the participants on a scale of 5, the result of the feedback was 4.83.
“Understanding your e-Wi-Fi Signal Strength using Network APP” Workshop was conducted to the community on 23 March 2022 from 4 to 6pm, organised by the Information Technology Department. The objective of the workshop was to help home Wi-Fi users understand the basic security settings on their wireless router and how to improve their Wi-Fi connection signal strength and performance using a network analyser application.
The online presentation was conducted in two parts. The first part of the discussion was about the basic of Wi-Fi, types of transmission mode, Wi-Fi signal interference, and discussions about Wi-Fi Channels. The second part was the real device demonstration using Wi-Fi and a network application.
The speaker (Mr Isabelo D. Paat, Jr.) started by discussing how wireless routers communicate with devices, what the factors are that affect their performance, and the various types of interference that make Wi-Fi signal weaker such as co-channel, adjacent channel, and non-Wi-Fi.
A demonstration on how to access the wireless router’s GUI using a browser, then select WPA2-PSK and set the password. During the demonstration, the speaker used a TP-link wireless router and interfaced it with the free installed software called “inSSIDer Network APP”, a Wi-Fi network analyser which gathers and shows information about Wi-Fi access points and even scans connected wireless devices.
The link of the software was shared in MS Teams for the participants of different agencies to try out. Moreover, a discussion of the features of the app was explained briefly and attendees were shown how to monitor the signal strength and quality of their connection.
Selecting a quiet channel for the Wi-Fi will improve the performance of the network, especially in terms of the signal strength and internet speed. The app shows how to manage wireless network devices and the user-friendly app also displays detailed information such as SSID, MAC address, vendor, data rate, signal strength, and security and graphs signal strength over time.
The presentation ended with a question-and-answer session, after successfully demonstrating the Insider app using the wireless TP-Link router.
The feedback was collected from the participants on a scale of 5, the result of the feedback was 4.31.
A one-day Lecture-Seminar, organized by the Engineering Society, was conducted by Mr. Chandrashekar M.C., Electrical and Electronics Section Technician, Engineering Department, UTAS-Ibri.
The seminar was particularly offered to Engineering Staff and Students. It was conducted on 27th of March 2022, from 12.30 pm to 1.30 pm at the Switchgear and Protection Laboratory (B017).
The Topic “Electrical Hazards and Protective Devices that Prevents Electrical Risk “ is deemed multi-disciplinary in scope and covered the following topics:
- Electrical Risks
- Reasons for Electrical Risks
- Electrical Protective Devices
- Fuses
- Miniature Circuit Breaker s
- Moulded Case Circuit Breakers (MCCB)
- Motor Protection Circuit Breakers (MPCB)
- Residual Current Devices (RCD)
- Residual Current Circuit Breaker with Overload (RCBO)
- Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCIs)
- Surge Protection Devices (SPDs)
- Self Closing Outlet Covers
- Safety Plastic Caps
- Smoke Detector and Alarms
- Electricity Safety Precautions
The session was very much interactive; many of the students who attended from various Engineering disciplines participated. The students felt that the presentation was very useful and effective. Totally, 40 students and 1 staff attended.
The English Language Centre, of UTAS-Ibri has always been an anchor for the IELTS aspirants. As part of its novel initiative, a 2-day refresher course in IELTS was conducted on the 23rd and 24th of February 2022, from 4 pm to 6 pm.
This course was designed to train and prepare students for the IELTS test. Dr Abdulsalam, Head of the ELC, welcomed the students and encouraged them to seize the opportunity provided by the ELC of UTAS-Ibri and progress in their selected careers. The course was designed and customized by conducted by Ms. Sharon Devaneson. The participants were shown the samples of common errors while practicing listening, reading, writing and speaking skills. She discussed the strategies that could be used to overcome these problems. A few links and handouts of a complete sample IELTS test were given to the students for self –study. The sessions were highly interactive as the participants asked for clarifications and showed immense interest in the sessions. The sessions instilled immense confidence and was a much-needed platform for beginners. These students showed great zeal and determination to achieve the IELTS 5.0 needed for their bachelor's degree programme. The course was a game changer for the beginners and a defined goal for those who wanted to reach the next milestone.
An Oracle Programming Workshop as planned for Community and On the Job Training Students of Information Technology has been conducted on 17th of March 2022 from 11.00 AM – 1.00 PM. The objective of the programme is to give an insight about the Oracle Application Express Environment and its Tools.
The speaker discussed about the Oracle Corporation’s procedural programming language for relational databases. To describe PL/SQL, and learn its characteristics, identify the differences between PL/SQL and SQL Identifying limitations of SQL and how PL/SQL addresses those limitations will help us to understand why PL/SQL is needed. Furthermore, how PL/SQL integrates control statements and conditional statements with SQL for better control of SQL statements and their execution has also been delivered.
The delivery and objective of this workshop includes the integration of PL/SQL in Oracle tools, such as Oracle Forms Developer, Oracle Report Builder, and Application Express.
During the presentation, hands on practical session for writing the effective Procedural Language code and executing it as anonymous block without database server and using database server has also been demonstrated.
Finally, the speaker demonstrated about the Implicit Cursors, Explicit Cursors. Usage of Loops, If –Else, Fetch, User Defined , Predefined Exception Handling..etc.
Thirteen (13) students along with their teachers, Mr. R. Devasenathipathy and Mr. Mohammed Khalfan Saif Al-Sudairi, staff of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, Engineering Department, visited Oman Fiber Optic Company in Rusayl, Muscat on February 28, 2022.
Students got first-hand knowledge on what they study in the course Telecommunication-2, Telecommunication Networks, and Cable and Fiber. The students gained practical knowledge on various types of Optical Fiber Cables, manufacturing, bandwidth, and how does multimode optical fiber cable differ from the single-mode.
The Department and Staff, along with students, extends their gratitude to Oman Fiber Optic Staff for allowing them to visit and for the support they gave to make the visit a success by engaging the UTAS-Ibri students in their knowledge.
The Staff Development Committee (SDC) of the Business Studies Department organized a workshop titled "NUTS and BOLTS in Research Publication" on Thursday, 24th March 2022 from 10.00 a.m to 11.00 a.m at the VIP room. The speaker, Dr Tamilselvan, an accounting lecturer, focused on different aspects related to research publication, including formulation of research topic, review of literature, research methodology, sampling design, data collection, data analysis and findings, conclusion and references. At the end of the workshop, the speaker clarified the enquiries raised by the participants on the said topic.
Thirteen (13) students along with two lecturers: Mr. V. Veera Nagi Reddy and Mr. B. Santhosh, from the Electrical and Mechanical Section, Engineering department visited Ibri-2 Solar Power plant on 2nd of March 2022, Wednesday. The Ibri-2 Solar PV Independent Power Plant is an Oman’s largest utility scale renewable energy power plant with capacity 500 mega-watt in Ibri, Plant is setup around 13.025 square km in terms of area and which is connected to national power grid.
The purpose of the visit was to provide industrial exposure for the students through real time experiences on the working & operation of Solar Photo Voltaic panels, inverter connection with power grid and its control, Underground Cables, Circuit Breakers, Bus bars, Potential Transformers, and Power Transformers.
After reaching the power plant, Mr. Mohammed Al Muqbali, Site Engineer explained the safety rules to be followed inside the power plant and plant layout. Mr. Mohammed Al Muqbali, Ms. Noor Salim Al Abri and Mr. Hamood Mohammed Al Shuaili, Site Supervisor gave a demonstration on:
- Solar plant control and monitoring system through SCADA system
- Electrical system configuration of PV inverters
- Process involved in robotic solar panel cleaning
- Detailed explanation of PV modules working principles
- Clear understanding about series and parallel connection of PV panels
- Working of bus bars and sub-station
- Process involved in synchronizing PV systems with grid
During the session, the students interacted with the engineers very effectively. All the students expressed sincere thanks to the officials for the given opportunity. This visit was highly beneficial for the students in having practical exposure about various concepts in solar power plant.
