Recognizing the importance of educational visits, Salalah Private School organized an on-campus visit to the University of Technology and Applied Sciences-Salalah on December 14th, 2021.

Twenty (20) students from Salalah Private School together with their supervisor, Mr Saeed Taufeeq, partook in the visit in coordination with the University’s Student Affairs.

Mr Ahmed Mohammed Al Rawas, the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, welcomed the guests and expressed his appreciation to the school for giving UTAS-Salalah the opportunity to meet its students and showcase the University’s resources and capabilities. Mr Al Rawas likewise reiterated that a campus visit will allow prospective students to experience the actual learning environment on campus, i.e. seeing the facilities and resources as all these elements are critical for students to understand their preferences for higher studies.

Representatives from the Student Advisory Council and from the different academic departments likewise welcomed the guests and shared their experiences as current students of UTAS-Salalah. The students together with their supervisor were also given a tour of the University, i.e. the different laboratories, workshops and University facilities and were given overview of the different specializations.

Finally, Dr Mohammed Rashid Al Mamari, Dean of UTAS-Salalah, presented a Certificate of Appreciation to the school for organizing such an educational visit for their students to gain perspective of the University experience.

The Dean of the University of Technology and Applied Sciences-Salalah, Dr Mohammed Rashid Al-Mamari presented certificates of recognition on December 14th, 2021 to the students of Information Technology Department who were selected as top finalists in the UK-Oman Hackathon Challenge.

The Innovative Oman Hackathon Challenge was jointly organized by London, United Kingdom and the Government of Oman in coordination with different IT companies, Academic and Ministerial organizations Plexal, Cylon, imperial college-London, Cyber Owl, EY UKI Cyber, UK-Oman Digital Hub, Ministry of Transport, Communication and Information Technology and Al Jabr.

Ms. Salma Ali Mahad Akaak, Ms. Fatima Naif Al Aamri, and Mr. Abdul Azeez Mohammed Al-Mashani presented their project entitled “Ransomware- How Might We Detect and Predict this Attack to Protect Government Institutions and Employees” in front of expert panels who commended and selected the idea to be presented in the final round of the competition. The team’s faculty mentors, Dr R Venkateswaran and Dr Bernard Ugalde were also presented certificates of recognition for guiding and supervising the team.

The Dean of the University of Technology and Applied Sciences-Salalah, Dr Mohammed Rashid Al-Mamari, has officially launched the Inter-Departmental, Center, Section and Staff Competition in a meeting held on December 14th, 2021.

Addressing the Heads of Departments/Center and the Heads of Sections of the academic departments and center, the College Dean asserted the importance of fostering the staff commitment, engagement and motivation in setting-up and accomplishing the goals of the University. With this, the idea of conducting an inter-departmental, center, section and staff competition was conceived to be piloted for the Academic Year of 2021-2022.

On behalf of the UTAS-Salalah’s management, the Dean likewise conveyed his confidence that a healthy internal competition between the departments, sections, centers and staff will inspire teamwork and will encourage sharing of new ideas and innovative solutions, and incorporating new, and effective techniques to achieve the goals of the centers and departments.

The Research and Consultancy Committee (RCC) of the Information Technology (IT) Department hosted a webinar entitled “Data Science Applications using Machine Learning and Deep Learning Techniques” on the 7th of December 2021 via Google Meet platform.

The webinar aimed at developing the research skills of the teachers, specifically in the field of data science and research-related domains.

Dr. Asadi Srinivasulu, a professor from the Blue Crest University, Liberia, was the guest speaker. He explained during the first session the importance of machine learning and deep learning techniques, types of neural networks, and data science with practical applications and use cases. During the second session, he discussed about regression concepts in data science, application of artificial intelligence, and application of data science with practical demonstration using python programming and Scala programming.

About 37 staff at UTAS-Salalah participated in the webinar. They were grateful to the RCC for organizing the event and to the speaker for sharing his expertise. Participants are expected to conduct similar programs to support their research activities.

The success of the webinar was made possible through the joint efforts of the RCC-IT headed by Dr. R. Venkateswaran, under the guidance of Dr. Fatima Al-Shanfari, HOD-IT and Dr. Mohammed Kashoob, RCC Chairperson at UTAS-Salalah. Dr. Nitesh Nandakumar, a member of RCC-IT, hosted the said webinar.