The stuggles of students while learning, has caught the attention of the pschologists and the teachers across the world . The scientific studies and the results in this area have helped both teachers and students to enhance their teaching and learning proces. Roy Andersen gave a 20 minute introduction in his webinar ”The Art of Sensitivity in Awareness” on October 11, 2022 at UTAS-Ibri . The short talk briefly discussed how the brain of a student struggles to learn, when their mind is disturbed by simple insecurities. He cited these simple insecurities as a major reason for all students to miss or misunderstand parts of a lesson and which largely explains the variation of understanding the teacher witnesses in any class. The speaker claims that this phenomena is largely unknown to educationalists and yet it is the major reason for a student struggling to learn.
Profile:
Roy Andersen is a recognized global educational expert is much appraised for his many years of scientific research into what intelligence is, how to improve the operation of the school and how teachers can teach better. His eight books are referred by the professors of education around the world and are some of the best books written about school, society and learning. His latest book “Intelligence: The Great Lie” will be published in Kindle in October 22.
The books authored by Roy Anderson:
The Staff Development Committee and the Research and Consultancy Committee of IT Department-UTAS Ibri has organized a presentation entitled, “Successful Scientific Writing for Multidisciplinary Science in a Review Article: The Roles and Impacts of Machine Learning in Telemedicine Services – A Case Study” in 11th October, 2022(Tuesday) at 12PM. The program speaker was Dr Omar Huseein Salman Al-Guboori, IT Lecturer, UTAS-Ibri.
Before the start, Mr William, the Staff Development Committee Coordinator introduced the speaker and welcomed all the participants. Dr Omar started his presentation by presenting his objectives e.g, where is the high impact factor research on the map; what is the role of review analysis in high impact factor research; the procedures for the review; impacts of doing review and how can a PhD or Master’s students review articles. He was very delighted to share both his research profile and about his latest article which he believes it is very timely and useful specially to research enthusiasts. Following to his research profile, the speaker stressed out the fundamental steps in research. It starts with a problem and knowing its solution, define keywords which is related to your article, search keywords in search database engine, taxonomy, challenges, research methodology until it reaches to a solution. As a summary, the review has 2 directions: existing work and the multidisciplinary.
After Dr Omar presented the systematic review process, he discussed the article on the roles and impacts of machine learning in telemedicine services which they have published.
What made the presentation more relatable to his audience is his approach – he delivered it in an experiential way which means he has shared the difficulties they have faced as researchers, the number of times they were rejected until they have successfully published the article.
There were around 28 participants including 5 external audiences who attended the presentation. As a result, a feedback result of 4.2 was attained by the presenter from the stakeholders on a scale of 1-5. This implies that the presentation is worthy and the audience were satisfied.
The University of Technology and Applied Sciences – Muscat organized a 2-day symposium which is dubbed as the Student National Symposium IR 4.0 (SNSIR4.0) which aimed at focusing on emerging technologies and innovative ideas in the Industrial Revolution (IR4.0) which was held in 11th and 12th October 2022.
Two (2) teams from the IT department (UTAS-Ibri) where details of these students are presented below participated in the said symposium and presented their research abstracts/projects. Such student symposium will enable students to think differently and creatively in a new perspective. By participating and exposing students in SNSIR4.0, IT student teams have gotten great awareness on the latest technologies and innovations towards the Industrial Revolution.
| SN | Abstract/Paper Title | Student Participants | Supervisor |
| 1 | AI Based Prediction of Psychological State of the People – A Review | Anwar Humaid Hamed Al Shamali (Presenter) | Dr. Wilfred Blessing N.R |
| 2 | Indoor Vertical Smart Farming System | Aysha Nasser Hamood Alshamsi (Presenter) Team Members Shamsa Ibrahim Juma Al Balushi Marya Masoud Said Al Alawi |
Dr. Qais Saif Qassim Al Janabi |
Anwar Humaid Hamed Al Shamali was given the chance to present his propose novel idea which is to predict the psychological state of the people. As an initial step, he has reviewed various sources and research articles and made a comparative study on predictive models to get in to the core research. This presentation made a spark to outspread his research and survey.
Similarly, Aysha Nasser AL Shamsi attended the symposium via online and presented her teams research project. The main aim is to design and implement an indoor vertical farming monitoring system to help monitor the physical conditions of crops and enhance their productivity and quality. This design of an intelligent farm system is vital for agricultural regions to improve it. The proposed system utilizes Ardunio MKR. The controller reads the field soil moisture, humidity, and temperature sensors and outputs appropriate actuation command signals to operate irrigation pumps and cooling fans, alarm and motion, and fire detector.
The IT department of UTAS-Ibri has organized an industrial visit to Oman Data Park, Muscat in 13th October 2022. The visit was arranged to strengthen the relationship with industry sectors for innovation, research and academic collaboration opportunities. A delegation of seven students from different academic levels and specializations have joined, accompanied by Dr. Qais Saif Qassim, lecturer in the IT department. The visit was initiated and organized by the Public Relations and Marketing Coordinator, Mr. Abdullah Mubarak Al Shukeily.
Oman Data Park is the Sultanate's premier IT managed services provider offering superior managed data center, cyber security and cloud services hosted locally in Wattaya, Rusayl and Duqum. It was established in 2011 to provide a wide range of cloud services utilizing its own Tier 3 certified Data Centres.
The visiting group was welcomed by Ms Sharifa Al Abri, the Account Manager and Mr Yasser Al Hosni, Team Leader – Data Center at Oman Data Park. Both accompanied the visiting team to the meeting room, where Ms Sharifa Al Abri presented a session on the company's profile and portfolio. She also presented various cloud and security services offered by ODP and enlightened our students with many new terminologies and concepts in the cloud computing domain. Moreover, Ms Sharifa encouraged the students to join ODP after graduation or during the OJT. Ms Sharifa also emphasized the importance of linking the IT and the business domains to equip the students with the required knowledge to start their businesses. During this session, our students actively participated during the discussion.
Furthermore, Mr Phani Krishna, head of the security team, attended the discussion to clarify some of the questions raised by the students. Mr Krishna explained how data should be managed at different levels and how ODP consider the data center's security as a serious issue.
Lastly, Mr Yasir briefed the audience on the infrastructure of the data center and its different utilities, including power, cooling, ventilation, and connectivity. Moreover, he described the different types of power supplies that should be available in any data center facility, including main electricity supply, UPS and electricity generators. He also pointed out the importance of physical security to prevent data loss or sabotage. Later, Mr Yasir escorted the group to the data center units, including the Network Operation Center (NOC), the Colocation Unit, the Service Delivery Unit, and the power supply units.
In the end, the visiting team expressed their gratitude and appreciation to ODP members and acknowledged their efforts for the day.
The IT Department, through its IT Society organized a personality development training for students titled, “WHO AM I?” in 11th October 2022. The resource speaker was Dr. Wilfred Blessing N.R, Lecturer, IT Department, UTAS-Ibri.
Before the start of the program, Ms Sara Al-Shukeili, the IT Society Coordinator introduced the speaker. After which, she presented the agenda and objectives about the session which is to motivate the student community who aim at building his/her personality and to have a successful career path. The speaker pointed out that motivation is not only important in its own right; it is also an important tool to learning and accomplishment. Students who are more motivated produce higher quality outputs and perform better by upskilling themselves.
During the first part of the presentation, the speaker focused the students to understand their individuality, uniqueness, self-esteem, self-awareness, personality traits, student inferiority complex and its types. The speaker explored the topics with suitable visual presentations, video demonstrations, online interactive voting and chats.
The second part of the presentation provides the types of self-confidence, strength of optimal self-confidence, need of Intelligence Quotient and Emotional Quotient, tips to develop high self-esteem, importance of manners – the outward expression of the personality, academic integrity and so forth. The final part of the session was a psychoanalysis exercises shared through a word document that holds the questionnaires and ratings to produce self-rating about the physical-self and mental-self of the students. This personality tests put the participants to identify their strengths, weaknesses, competence, and hidden skills. This exercise might help students to engage themselves in various student clubs or organizations in the university or departments for upskilling and reskilling student skills. Overall, the student participants have got a huge motivation and personality development tips to achieve success. A feedback was taken from 84 student-participants and as a result, a 4.51 results from a 1-5 scale was generated which means that the students were satisfied with the presentation.
The Staff Development Committee and OJT & Industrial link committee of Engineering Department organized a seminar program on “On-Job-Training (OJT) Awareness Session” on 11th Oct 2022 Tuesday from 12.00 PM – 1.00 PM in the Engineering Free Access Lab (B001).
The program was delivered by OJT & Industrial link committee coordinator of the Engineering Department Dr. S. Manikandan. He started his presentation with an introduction about the importance of OJT in the curriculum and further discussed about the eligibility criteria for OJT students. Then he explained to the faculty members of engineering department about the registration process of OJT and role of students & the College Assessor during the OJT training. At the end of the training session, he also demonstrated the to the Advisor about the steps to be taken for approve & forward the completion of OJT work through online by the students to department coordinator for further approval. The session was very interactive and it was a useful guide to the college assessor as well as the Advisor of the department for the smooth coordination for the student’s OJT.
The Staff Development Committee (SDC) of the Business Studies Department organized an awareness session on the "Operational Plan and Action Plan" on Tuesday, 4th October 2022 from 12.00 p.m to 1.00 p.m at the venue "A214A". The welcome address was given by Dr. Mohammed Younus, QAC coordinator of Business Studies Department. Then, Dr. Syeda Zubaida Hashmi, the presenter, started the session by highlighting UTAS-Ibri Vision, Mission, Goals and Graduate Attributes along with the approved SP and OP. All the committee coordinators were asked to align their action plans with the OP to achieve the university targets collectively. At the end of the session, some faculty members raised their concerns to the presenter for further clarification. A total of 24 faculty members attended the session. The vote of thanks was given by Dr Surendar, HoS, Accounting Section.
The Research and Consultancy Committee of Information Technology Department organized a webinar titled, “Research Paper Writing using Latex” on 27th September 2022. The webinar was delivered by Dr Suresh Rasappan, Mathematics Lecturer from the IT Department, who at the same time is a research enthusiast and has long experience in writing research papers using Latex.
Dr. Suresh started the webinar by introducing the most commonly used online and offline Latex editors, including Miktex, TeXnicCenter, and WinEdt, as well as Overleaf. The webinar covered most of the key concepts that any researcher needs to know especially when starting his journey in using Latex. Moreover, the speaker also demonstrated how to create a Tex file and elaborated on adding and managing various Latex elements, including paper title, section title, author list, affiliations, running head, and mathematical equations. In the end, the speaker demonstrated how to draw figures using Latex and add citations and bibliography to the document. The webinar started at 12:00 PM and concluded at 1:20 PM. Twenty-five (25) staff members attended the session, and the session was rated 4.475 out of 5 on a scale of 1-5 where 5 is the highest. The session was recorded and the video is made available using the link: Writing Research Papers Using Latex-20220927_120529-Meeting Recording.mp4
The IT Specialization Committee of University of Technology and Applied Sciences enhanced its IT program that suits to the demands of the current market needs. The new curriculum is implemented from the AY 2022-2023.
The IT Department at UTAS-Ibri, through its Registration Committee organized a presentation regarding to the New IT Course Audit (version 5) Orientation Program. The event was conducted by the committee coordinator, Dr Rajasekaran in 12th September 2022. The objective of organizing this orientation program is to provide a clear idea on New Audit Degree (Version-5) which is implemented effective Semester 1, AY2022-2023. The presenter covered the following important topics: audit degree, courses to be offered in Semester 1, Course Learning Outcomes, and mixed courses. Furthermore, Dr Raja discussed about version 3 and version 5 course audits courses, criteria to move students to version 5 course audit and courses offered in Semester 1.
Dr. Amal Al Abri (HoD-IT) and Ms. Nasim Al Balushi (HoD-ARD) also clarified few things to the lecturers. This orientation program has given a clear idea to all IT staff members. The session started at 9.00AM and ended at 10.20AM. Towards the end of the presentation, a feedback was collected from staff and a result, the presenter garnered a 4.75 from a scale of 1-5 where 5 is the highest.
Using literature in language teaching has been considered a common approach to encourage literacy skills. It includes various genres like prose, poetry folk chants and folktales to engage learners in meaningful and productive ways. Stories, in general, and folktales, in particular, bring a holistic approach to foreign language teaching and learning. Through folktales, learners acquire more than just language knowledge and usage and have opportunities to hear and use language in formal and informal contexts.
On 13 September, 2022 Ms Nasiyba Al Ghafri and Ms Maha Al Darei shared an interesting presentation at UTAS-Ibri, using Omani folktales as a teaching technique that can be used effectively in EFL classrooms. The presenters selected folktales as they were simple, relatable and easy to understand. Another objective of this presentation was to encourage the teachers to preserve Omani literature along with the learning process. This presentation provided audience with the Omani version of the Cinderella story using innovative teaching tips.
Presenter's Profile
Maha Al Darei is an EFL lecturer at UTAS- Ibri. She is Sultan Qaboos University graduate with CELTA. She is a dedicated lecturer offering nine years of comprehensive experience teaching and assisting students with academic needs. She is interested in using multiple types of technology to facilitate and enhance learning.
Co-presenter's Profile
Nasiyba Al Ghafri is an EFL lecturer at UTAS – Ibri. She holds a bachelor's from Sultan Qaboos University and has three years of experience in teaching English using CELTA.
