UTAS-Ibri students’ gained honors and success in an International Forum: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – A Professional Organization (IEEE).
(Batch 1) UTAS-Ibri Alumni, Young Professionals:
ABIR MAJID SAIF AL-MAQBALI (76S1533)
AISHA MOHAMMED KHALIFA HAMAD AL-MAQABAILY (56S1563)
MARYAM NASSER SAID AL-HINAI (72S15191)
SAFA ABDULLAH SALIM AL-SAKITI (72S15237)
Members of Batch 1 were declared as the WINNERS of the WePower Track of the IEEE YESIST 12 (Youth Endeavors for Social Innovation Using Sustainable Technology Season 12) for the presentation of their project, entitled, "Highway Energy Harvesting with Vertical Axis Wind Turbine in Ibri Wilayat, Oman" on 18th September 2021.
(Batch 2) Diploma Level Students:
SARA RASHID JABER AL-ABRI (72S1834)
WAFA SALIM ABDULLAH AL-HINAI (72J19183)
Members of Batch 2 were FINALISTS in the Grand Finale of the WePower Track of the IEEE YESIST 12 and for the presentation of their project, entitled, "A Feasible Method to Reduce the Avian Mortality for Solar PV" on 19th September 2021.
IEEE YESIST, an international talent show, is a platform for students and young professionals to showcase their fresh ideas and find the key to humanitarian and social issues directly affecting the community around them. Around 3000 young minds from 30+ countries presented their projects. (Reference: IEEE YESIST12 2021).
Though a lot of hurdles were faced by the students, they were able to overcome all of them and have successfully proven their knowledge in front of the international community and juries. It is a great exposure for the students in boosting their confidence level.
The juries of the event, in the WePower Track, are Dr. S. N. Singh, IIT Kanpur, India, and Dr. Panom, UK University. They appreciated the effort, techniques used, and installation of the Wind Turbine Project.
The jury of the second project also appreciated the project's innovative solution on the dark side of the Solar PV.
Both projects are URG-Funded Projects to UTAS-Ibri.
Sincere and heartfelt gratitude goes to the Dean, ADAA, ADFA, HoD, HoS, RCC Team, and the Engineering Faculty Team for providing their constant support of the above said URG Projects Progress.
It is hoped that this may give wings to the winners and finalists and see the world with confidence. Enshallah.
The Information Technology Department is honoured to announce that three of its Bachelor level students have scored the first place in the Oman IoT and AI challenge-graduation project category. The challenge was organised by UTAS-Muscat as a national level qualification round for the Arab IoT and AI regional challenge. The qualified team, Aisha Hamdan Al Risi, Rahma Rashid Al Waili, and Mohammad Yaqoob Al-Shuaili, will present their project during the Gitex Technology Week 2021 in Dubai, UAE.
The winning project titled “Low-Cost Smart Poultry Farming based on IoT” is intended to design a smart solution for poultry farming to help farm owners to automate their daily tasks and promote a healthier environment through air and water quality monitoring in real-time.
The awarding ceremony held on 30 September was officiated by a welcome remark and congratulatory message by His Excellency Dr Saeed Hamed Al Rubaie, Vice Chancellor of the University of Technology and Applied Sciences. This was followed by a congratulatory messaged addressed by Eng. Mohamed Aboud, chair of Arab IoT and AI Challenge. The virtual award was presented by Dr Ali Sulaiman Al Hinai, UTAS-Muscat.
The Staff Development Committee with the Registration Committee organized the “Transcript GPA Calculation Workshop with Special Focus on Probation Students” on 23 September 2021. The program was divided into three sessions/batches: 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM for the first two batches and 11:00 AM - 12.30 PM for the third batch.
Dr. Baskaran Geetha and Mr. Raghupathi Senthilvel of the Registration Committee, Engineering Department, handled the sessions with the purpose of making the student advising process more effective and correct. Furthermore, the program aimed to clarify some of the confusions and eliminating future mistakes in GPA calculations.
The main focus of the workshop is the proper and correct manner in calculating the SGPA, CGPA, and OGPA of students’ transcripts, especially those of probation students. In addition, the staff were also guided on how to compute the projected GPA for advised courses in order for the student to come out of probation, especially those that are already in third and fourth probation status.
A hands-on training was given to the staff wherein they were provided with samples of transcripts of probation students. They were made to compute for the CGPA and OGPA, as well as, to compute the GPA that the student needs to get at the end of the semester to come out of probation. This exercise seeks to make them more confident in their advising work for probation students.
Some members of the Registration Committee: Mr. Maswoodhur Rahman Abdul Wahidh and Dr. Rizwana John Basha, assisted during the hands-on training session to clear further doubts of the participating staff.
The presentation was attended by 60 Engineering Department Staff and they felt that the program was useful and effective.
The Staff Development Committee of the Engineering Department has organized the OJT Orientation Programme for its staff on 16 September 2021 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM through MS-Teams.
Dr. S. Manikandan, OJT Coordinator, gave an overview about the eligibility criteria for OJT Students and the mode of conducting OJT. He explained about the roles and responsibilities of the Assessor for training the students.
The programme highlighted the various registration options available for Engineering Students to undergo training in the different disciplines.
Mr. Mohammmed Riyaz briefed about the important student activities after completing the training such as: presentation, logbook, and uploading the e-link.
Ms. Subha Bharathi presented the details regarding the online platform for OJT classes. She explained the step-by-step procedure in creating an account and various training related to different specializations.
The presentation was attended by 48 Engineering Faculty Members and it received positive feedback on the usefulness and effectiveness of having such an awareness program.
The English Language centre at UTAS-Ibri started its new academic year (2021) by taking another step towards seeking knowledge and empowering themselves as educators. The title of the presentation SDLT: A Stepping Stone Towards Knowledge Society-Unleashing Leadership Early on.
Dr Al Dossari stressed building a knowledge-based community that included five essential components: Self-Directedness, Mentoring and Facilitating, Community of Commitment, learning, reflecting and evaluating and project-based learning. He underlined the significance of integrating moral and ethical anchors with the knowledge-based community and lay a path for coming generations. He also shared his views on meeting the Human Resource Development challenges and persistently impressed the audience upon continual learning and self-development. He further added that learning emphasizing reflection and teamwork.
Self-Directed Learning Teams was another significant aspect of his presentation. Through this process, he wanted individuals to take the initiative to diagnose their learning needs, formulate their learning goals, identify human and material resources for learning, choose appropriate learning strategies and evaluate learning outcomes. His recommendation was based on his experience and profound belief that this approach prepares individuals for learning community and organizations.
The presentation ended with providing new information for the audience to think over and ponder.
Profile:
Dr Khalid I. Al Dossari is the Former Professional Learning Head/Administrator, Professional Development and Training Development in Saudi ARAMCO. He has a Masters in TESOL from-State University of New York at Albany, High Diploma (M.Ed) in Human Resource Development from the University of Minnesota and holds a Doctorate in Business Administration with HRD concentration from Lahaye University. He is a certified trainer in Dialogue and Cross-Cultural Communication by King Abdulaziz Center for National Dialogue in Riyadh and has 53 publications and workshops in his outstanding record.
The Staff Development Committee of the Business Studies Department organized an online session titled "Interactive Apps for Teaching" on Wednesday, 22 September 2021 from 10:30 am to 11:40 am via MS Teams. The session was delivered by Ms. Al Hamdi, the head of Human Resource Section of the Business Studies Department. The purpose of this session was to enhance the knowledge and skills of the faculty members on how to make teaching more interactive with students using some applications and tools. The presenter explained first about class point and its creation with the features of Inkone class point, word cloud, MCQ, short answer questions, and slide drawing presented along with the faculties’ participation. As a part of it, the second tool of Thinglink was explained and presented and it included the interactive content with image and video link sharing. At the end of the session, some participants raised their inquiries to the presenter for further clarification. More than 65 participants from various academic departments attended the session.
The Business Studies department conducted its first meeting for the new academic year 2021/2022 on Thursday, 9 September 2021 at 12 pm. The head of the department (HoD), Dr Abdulrahman, started the meeting by welcoming back all the faculty members. He emphasized on different issues in the meeting, including preparation for online and offline classes, the operational plan of the department, departmental committees’ activities and staff appraisal. He also clarified some doubts raised by the faculty members. At the end of the meeting, the HoD presented certificates of appreciation to some staff members who made remarkable contributions to the department in the last academic year 2020/2021.
Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan College of Engineering, Coimbatore, organized an international webinar on ‘IoT-Based Smart Sensors’, on 11 September 2021. They invited Dr. G. Kumaravel, Lecturer of the Engineering Department, UTAS – Ibri as the Guest Speaker for that event. Second and Third Year, Electrical and Electronics Engineering Students of host College attended the event.
Dr. G. Kumaravel spoke on the following topics: The Introduction of the Internet, Internet of things (IoT), and Smart Sensors, which are all compatible with commercial IoT Modules.
The UTAS ELC, in collaboration with the Department of English and Post Graduate Centre, hosted by Poona College of Arts, Science and Commerce, organized an International Webinar on ‘Personality Development and Interpersonal Skills’ on 10 July 2021. Dr Mohsen Amiri was the speaker of the webinar. More than 800 participants from 25 countries registered for the webinar. Mr. Moinuddin Khan, Vice-Principal of Arts Faculty welcomed the participants from all over the world. The head of the Department of English and Postgraduate Center presented the themes of the webinar. Dr Aftab Anwar Shaikh, Principal of Poona College of Arts, Science and Commerce delivered the inaugural address and officially inaugurated the International Webinar.
In the webinar, Dr Mohsen urged the importance of interpersonal skills for both teachers and students during the pandemic where interactions have become one of the challenges in teaching and learning. He discussed top techniques of possessing interpersonal skills and a magnetic personality in the job market and social life. The webinar received excellent feedback.
The main goal of the workshop was to present techniques which could help the teachers to constantly monitor the target students to be interactive during online sessions.
It also aimed to familiarise teachers with free online tools like Mentimeter and Nearpod.
The following points are discussed during the webinar:
- Creating online quizzes with Mentimeter
- Creating online quizzes with Nearpod
- How to add Mentimeter questions to a PowerPoint slideshow.
- Encouraging and monitoring continuous student participation.
Feedback
Around 41 participants across Oman attended the webinar. They all appreciated the arrangements and efforts of the organisers to conduct such webinars to educate the community on these technologies. The feedback was collected from the participants. On a scale of five, the overall feedback was 4.6.
