UTAS-CAS-Ibri organized one-day National Level competition [TechFest-2021] on 13th January,2021. The competition provided a platform for students to participate in online mode. The competition consists of three categories: TechTalk, Poster presentation and Paper Presentation. The competition was participated by 31 teams from 12 colleges and universities are shortlisted.
Two IT Students (Ms.Juhaina and Ms.Sura ) from UTAS-Ibri were participated in poster presentation. Three IT staff members are nominated as judges for this competition.
From UTAS-Ibri, Dr.Amal AL Abri (Head of IT Department) graced this competition and acted as a judge for TechTalk competition.
Dr. Shaik Mastan acted as a judge for poster presentation.
Dr. Rajasekaran acted as a judge for paper presentation.
The Research and Consultancy Committee of the Information Technology Department organised a webinar on the Bug Bounty Reward program. The webinar was held on 27 January 2021 at 9 am under the title “Bug Hunting Tools and Platforms - Every Ethical Hacker Needs to Know”. It was delivered by Dr Mortada Al Banna, a lecturer and security researcher at the University of New South Wales, Australia. The webinar was inaugurated by a welcome speech presented by Dr Qais Qassim, addressing the guest speaker and attendees. Dr Al Banna started his session introducing crowdsourcing concepts and elaborating on how crowdsourcing has improved various domains including open innovation, sharing economy and manufacturing, as well as software testing and vulnerability discovery. Afterwards, the speaker introduced the Bug Bounty Rewarding program and its benefits to fresh graduates and students. Next, the complete steps of a successful bug hunting strategy were illustrated and explained in detail, along with the underlying steps and procedures of each. During the session, Dr Al Banna demonstrated some of the well-known platforms that manage bug bounty programs such as HackerOne and Bugcrowd. Additionally, he also demonstrated some of the penetration testing tools and techniques used in discovering vulnerabilities and enumerating targets.
After an informative and well-structured presentation, the guest speaker allotted some time for the Q&A session. About 32 staff members and students attended the webinar which lasted for one hour and 30 minutes, it concluded at 10:30 am. The full video recording is available online via the following link: https://cutt.ly/BugBountyProgram
In collaboration with the Research and Consultancy Committee of UTAS-Muscat, a group of lecturers from the Information Technology Department of UTAS-Ibri attended a workshop titled "ORCID Implementation Workshop for UTAS Academic Staff". The workshop was held online on 21 January 2021 and delivered by Dr Saju Mohanan and Mr Mujahid Tabassum, UTAS-Muscat. The workshop started with an introductory session to ORCID Digital ID and its significance for researchers, followed by a demonstration session on registering and building a professional profile on the ORCID platform. Moreover, the speakers demonstrated the platform's major features along with how to link the ORCID Digital ID with various research portals. Thereafter, the speakers have initiated an open question and answers discussion session to answer most of the attendees' questions. In the end, the organisers concluded the workshop and acknowledged the attendees for their active participation.
The Quality Assurance Committee of the Information Technology Department organised a workshop on E-learning policy. Ms Wardah gave an introduction about the eLearning policy and the purpose and objectives of the E-learning policy. She explained the responsibilities of all stakeholders involved in the system, including an HOD, teachers, coordinators, students, and management. She then pointed out some rules and tools for eLearning classes.
Dr Amal Al Abri, head of the Information Technology Department, explained the class observation process and answered related questions from staff members.
Feedback
Finally, the feedback was collected from the participants. All of them expressed satisfaction on the facilities and organization of the event. The presentation was nice and clearly covered the agenda. On an average the overall feedback from the participants was 4.36 on the scale of 5.
In collaboration with Majan University College, the Research and Consultancy Committee of the Information Technology Department organised an webinar titled “Writing a Winning TRC Proposals” on 2 February 2021 at 12 noon. The webinar was moderated by Mr Mangesh Wanjari, lecturer of the Information Technology Department - UTAS-Ibri, and delivered by Ms Zainab Al-Ansari, lecturer of the Information Technology Department, Majan University College. The webinar was inaugurated by a welcome speech presented by Mr Mangesh, addressing the guest speaker and attendees. Dr Al Ansari started her session introducing the three schemes of the TRC Block Funding program and defined the eligibility criteria and the common requirements of each. Afterwards, she demonstrated the steps to register with the research management portal of TRC and elaborated on how to submit a new proposal. After an informative and well-structured presentation, the guest speaker allotted some time for the questions and answers session. The webinar concluded at 1:50 pm and was attended by staff and students from UTAS-Ibri as well as from Majan University College. The video of the recorded session is available online via the following link: https://cutt.ly/RkEehLq
The SDC and RCC of the Engineering Department organised a programme on “Internet of Things – IoT” as an initiation of TEQUP series on 28 January 2012 from 2 to 2.45 pm. Dr G. Kumaravel, lecturer (Engineering Department), delivered the presentation for the benefit of the staff members. He started the presentation by stating the special features of IoT as compared with the internet. His presentation was mainly focused on recent trends in IoT and its impact on other evolving technologies such as Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Block Chain Management, SAS and edge computing. Finally, he briefed attendees on the implementation of IoT in industrial and commercial sectors with some of the real-time examples like Tive, Experfy, Signalframe, Disney, Carto and Temputech.
The English Language Centre at the UTAS-Ibri hosted a webinar titled, What About Writing?, on January, 26, 2021. Professor Stephen Krashen shared many interesting views from “ Secrets of Writing,” a paper published in Research in Language and Education: An International Journal (RiLE).
Prof Krashen has published 540 articles on a wide range of topics related to language acquisition, neurolinguistics and bilingual education. He is the most frequently cited scholar in the field of language education. Many of his publications are available for free download at sd.krashen.com and some of them are posted on ResearchGate. He is best known for the Comprehension Hypothesis, which states that one cannot acquire language by speaking or writing or by studying grammar rules but by comprehensible input, that is, through listening and reading.
He shared various secrets of writing with the language teachers. He confessed that he owes the wisdom he retains, to the great writers like Peter Elbow, Kurt Vonnegut, Neil Simon, Ernest Hemingway, Irving Wallace, Robert Boice and many others. He expressed his interest in sharing his wisdom with a profound belief that it will contribute to the knowledge base in Research in Language and Education.
Some of his research-based observations like more writing will not result in better writing form; writing form results from reading, writing can help us solve problems and make us smarter revision is the core of “the composing process;” recognizing that something is wrong is the invitation to revision and progress. Encourage incubation. : Daily regular writing, which means daily regular blocks and progress, made the audience ponder their teaching styles and methods.
The speaker believed that those who read more, write better, spell better, have larger vocabularies, better grammar and more acceptable writing style. He was of the profound belief that writing made people smarter and mentioned that revising should be given utmost importance as it forms the core of the composing process.
He highlighted the importance of encouraging incubation and was in line with Wallas and Poincare that incubation requires “ the working of the subconscious mind” and explained how creativity results from engaging in the composing process and progress. He labelled the different phases as: write, block, break/incubate/dissolve block, and then write some more and run into more blocks.
Prof.Krashen concluded with a thought-provoking observation that stated that the “regular” aspect of daily writing is a good writer's secret. He responded to many interesting queries and appreciated the interest showed by the audience.
The ELC staff was thankful to Professor Krashen for introducing them to the secrets of writing and were expressed their interest in knowing more.
The ELC head of Centre appreciated the efforts of Professional Development Committee for organizing the event that had many takaways for the ELC staff.
The Staff Development Committee organised a webinar on Teaching Quality and Professionalism. Mr Wasim Raja started the session with a welcoming message and conducted a short activity for discussions and knowledge sharing. He then discussed the key elements of teaching quality in detail, along with defining ‘Teaching Quality Beyond the Certificate/Degree’. The OAAA HEIs’ standards (requirements) for teaching quality were also explained, along with the practices of UTAS to meet the standards.
In the end, Mr Wasim thanked all the participants for their presence and participation in the discussions and knowledge sharing. Mr Wasim appreciated efforts made by the staff development and media committees to arrange the sessions.
Feedback
The workshop lasted for about one hour and attended by 35 staff members. They expressed their appreciation on this webinar and wished to attend more such webinars on the topic. The average rating for the webinar is 85%.
Professionals with commendable language skills are always sought after. The clarity in communication at the workplace is an essential prerequisite for the smooth functioning of a system.
The English Language Center of the University of Technology and Applied Sciences – Ibri, conducted a five-day English language training programme titled 'English for Workplace,' for UTAS-Ibri professionals. A five-member team volunteered to offer English language training from January 3, 2021, to January 7, 2021.
Dr. Mohssen Amiri, Ms. Heba Gul Qureshi, Ms. Maria Saleem, Ms. Anuradha and Mr. Dennis Primne Corbita conducted two-hour online sessions on speaking and writing skills. The focus was on formal communication, email netiquette, formal and informal vocabulary development and report-writing skills. The programme was well received and much appreciated. The sessions generated interest among the participants and there were requests for similar courses.
The head of the English Language Centre, Dr. Abdulsalam Maktoum Ali Al Manthari, awarded certificates to the presenters and participants and lauded the efforts of the team.
Research skills enable people to identify a problem, collect informational resources that can help address the problem, evaluate these resources for quality and relevance and develop practical solutions.
The ELC Research and Consultancy Committee conducted a webinar on January 7, 2021, titled Importance of Research and Research Projects: An overview.
The English Language Centre faculty Dr. Priya M.V and Mr. Jabez Syam shared the presentation during the webinar.
Dr. Priya underlined the significance and role of research in academics and society at large. She emphasized the twin roles of academics at universities: teach and research. She listed the themes identified for research: English Language Teaching, Linguistics, Translation Studies and pedagogy during the presentation. She also highlighted that the teaching commmunity should take the lead to encourage students to be research-oriented and create awareness among the undergraduate students.
Mr.Jabez introduced the audience to the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation(MoHERI)) and shared the procedures and themes to research on, to be eligible for RG and URG. He explained how the Research Grant Program encourages amateur and seasoned researchers to develop research proposals that edge the knowledge-based economy from various dimensions. He also stressed the role of faculty mentors in shaping the potential students' research-based careers.
He also provided details about the funded projects and stated that the project's total budget was capped at OMR 1500 and mentioned that it should not exceed one academic year.
The ELC Research and Consultancy Committee awarded Dr. Priya and Mr. Jabez Syam certificates of appreciation and lauded their efforts for conducting an informative webinar.
