Annual Report 2023

DEAN’S FOREWORD

Dear Esteemed Colleagues,

It is a true honor to address you as the Dean of the College of Science. I am grateful for the trust you’ve placed in me over the past year, and I carry this responsibility with deep commitment. I would also like to sincerely thank my predecessors for their outstanding leadership. Thanks to their efforts, our College has grown and thrived, and I am privileged to build on their legacy. As we move forward, my vision for our College stands firmly on three pillars: academic excellence, community engagement, and innovation.

🔹 Academic Excellence:

We will continue to create a vibrant, interactive learning environment where students are challenged to reach their highest potential. We’ll regularly evaluate and enhance our programs to meet the needs of a rapidly changing world, ensuring our students develop both academic knowledge and practical skills through active, hands-on learning opportunities. We aim to prepare graduates who are not only well-educated but also well-equipped for the future.

🔹 Community Engagement:

We will strengthen our role beyond the classroom. Our College is not just an academic institution—it’s part of a larger community. We will build strong partnerships with local organizations, government entities, industry leaders, and our alumni. Through service learning, outreach programs, and volunteer initiatives, we will ensure our students and faculty are making meaningful contributions to society.

🔹 Innovation:

We are committed to fostering a culture of creativity and experimentation. We will create an environment where new ideas are encouraged, and bold thinking is the norm. Through pioneering research and innovative problem-solving, we will position our College as a leader in addressing real-world challenges.

These pillars are not just goals—they are the foundation for everything we do. Together, we will empower our students, inspire our faculty, and create a lasting positive impact on our society.

I deeply appreciate the dedication, hard work, and collaborative spirit of our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and trusted partners. Your efforts are the reason we have come this far, and I am confident that with your continued support, we will reach even greater heights.

Thank you for your commitment to our College and to our shared mission.

Dr. Talal Al Hosni
College of Science. Dean

ASSISTANT DEAN’S OFFICE FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES

Office Staff

Abir Al Hajri
Assistant Prof.,Assistant Dean (UGS)
(PhD, The University of British
Columbia, Canada)

Maladh Al-Yousfi
Student Affairs Specialist

Fatma Al-Farsi
Clerk

Contacts
Mailing Address
Sultan Qaboos University
College of Science
Assistant Dean Office for Undergraduate Studies
PO Box: 36, Postal Code: 123
Al-Khoudh
Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
Telephone & Fax:

Tel. Number: (+968) 24141403, 24142241,
24141402
Email: [email protected]
Website:

http://www.squ.edu.om/science/About/Assistants-
Deans/Assistant-Dean-for-Undergraduate-studies

Office Overview

The Office of the Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Studies plays a pivotal role in fostering student success and enriching their learning experience from the day of admission to the time of graduation. One of its primary functions is to deliver essential services to both students and faculty members, catering to the academic and professional requirements of SQU students, including those enrolled in College of Science courses.

Its array of responsibilities is comprehensive, ranging from overseeing admission, registration, and new student orientation to managing students’ major selections, advancing curriculum design and development, and supervising the establishment and review of degree and minor programs. Furthermore, the office aids in facilitating accreditation processes of college’s degree programs, assisting with College courses scheduling and mid-semester examinations, overseeing academic advising within the College, and offering counseling and support to students on probation. The ADUGS office maintains collaborative relationships with counterparts in other SQU colleges and the Deanship of Admissions and Registration.

These tasks are efficiently executed with the support of College committees such as the College Curriculum Committee, Timetabling Committee, Academic Advising Committee, and the Choice-of-Major Committee. Each committee includes a representative from every department within the college, serving as a crucial liaison between the ADUGS office and their respective department concerning all undergraduate academic matters.

TEACHING AND LEARNING

The College has continued to maintain a high standard and rigorous teaching and assessment scheme. In 202 , 493 undergraduate students were admitted to the college bringing the total number of enrolled science 3
students to 2888.

UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING SUMMARY

The total number of registrations per semester has exceeded thirteen thousands in both Spring and Fall 2023.

MAJORS AND MINORS

Students in the College of Science are able to select from a choice of 10 Majors. Additionally, 13 Minors are available to Science students.

MAJORS

The available majors in the College of Science are listed below:

The number of students in each of these majors by the end of 2023 are summarized in the left chart while the right chart illustrates the ratio between the majored and non-majored students.

MINORS

The possible minors for science students are listed below:

^* The Minor in Business is offered by the College of Economics and Political Science, and the Minor in Soil & Water Sciences is offered by the College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences.

DEGREE PLANS

New courses developed in the departments were discussed and approved, and existing courses were reviewed and modified when necessary. Two new minors have been proposed and are currently undergoing review and approval at the college level. Upon approval by the Undergraduate Studies Committee, these minors will become active.

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

There are 19 international students registered for undergraduate courses in the College of Science.

DEAN’S LIST

Among all the responsibilities of the Office of the Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Studies, overseeing the ceremony honoring students named on the Dean’s List brings me the greatest satisfaction. My sincere congratulations to the 165 students in Spring 2023 and 170 students in Fall 2023 who have earned a place on the Dean’s List.

UNIVERSITY DAY AWARDS – COLLEGE OF SCIENCE BEST STUDENTS 2023

Two graduating students received the Best Student Award:

UNIVERSITY DAY AWARDS – COLLEGE OF SCIENCE BEST TEACHERS 2023

Three faculty members were awarded the Best-Teacher Award:

UNIVERSITY DAY AWARDS – COLLEGE OF SCIENCE BEST ADVISOR 2023

One faculty member received the Best Advisor Award:

ADVISING

The College faculty continued to provide valuable support to students in Science and Science & Mathematics Education through academic advising. In total 136 faculty served as advisors for undergraduate students. This activity was coordinated by the Office of the Assistant Dean. It was an important part of our academic culture and critical for students, especially those in the early years of study. The ADUGS office organized two workshops on academic advising for both faculty and students on October 9^th, 2023 and October 16^th, 2023.

GRADUATES

307 College of Science students received their BSc Degree during the Graduation ceremony in Fall 2023.

OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT DEAN FOR TRAINING & COMMUNITY SERVICE

Tariq Mohiuddin Ghulam
Assistant Dean for Training and
Community Service
Associate Professor, Physics
Department

Fathiya Al-Hamadani
Clerk

Abdullah Al-Balushi
Coordination & Follow-up &
Archieve Specialist ©

Contacts
Mailing Address
Sultan Qaboos University
College of Science
Assistant Dean Office for
Training and Community
Services
PO Box: 36, PC: 123 Al-Khoudh
Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
Telephone & Fax:
Tel Number: (+968) 24142278
Fax Number: (+968) 24413415
Email: [email protected]
(Fathiya Al-Hamadani)
Website:

http://www.squ.edu.om/scienc
e/Training-Community-Service

Office Overview

The Office of the Assistant Dean for Training and Community Services (ADTCS) facilitates staff and student training, community services, and student activities in the College of Science. My administrative team consists of Mr. Abdullah Al-Balushi (Coordination & Follow-up & Achieve Specialist) and Ms. Fathyia Al-Hamadani (clerk) who play a very crucial role in coordinating all activities and services offered by the office. The office of ADTCS is supported by committees for each activity consisting of a representative from each department or unit in the college. The representatives serve as focal points, links in the departments and units, and liaise all matters related to the staff and student training, student activities, short courses, workshops, and other community services.

ADTCS COMMITTEES

ADTCS tasks are administered and coordinated via a number of committees at the college level. Each committee includes representatives from all academic departments in the college and/or the college’s administrative units. The committees are appointed by the College Board every academic year. This section lists the committees and their members for the academic year 2022/2023.

HIGHLIGHTS

The year 2023 witnessed several high-impact activities at the Office of the ADTCS:

• A team of 4 students from the Earth Sciences Department won 2nd Place at the 2023 Imperial Barrel Award (IBA) and Middle East Young Professional Program (YPP)competition.
• The SQU team, with representatives from the Department of Computer Science, won first and second place at the Oman Collegiate Programming Contest (OCPC) 2023.
• The college held the first community Iftar during Ramadan, with the aim of bringing in all faculty members
• Participation in the ‘Majors Exhibition’ in cooperation with the Office of the Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Studies and student groups affiliated with the departments

STAFF TRAINING

The Centre of Human Resources Development provided several opportunities for staff members to advance their knowledge and skills through in-house and external training programs:

• 27 College staff received in-house training in the HR center & 8 staff were trained out-house.

STUDENT TRAINING

The essence of summer training or industrial placement is to apply acquired scientific knowledge to everyday practical experiences. Not only does this exercise equip students with a new set of skills but it also introduces them to real-life work conditions and maximises opportunities on the job market. Student training is a compulsory component in some degree programmes such as, applied chemistry, computer science and medical physics, necessitating the involvement of the Student Training Committee to seek out training opportunities that best meet the stipulated degree requirements. Students in other degree programs usually make their own initiatives to secure training opportunities.

The chart below shows a summary of training opportunities for students during 2022/2023. The places providing the largest numbers of training opportunities to our students were: Royal Air Force of Oman, Food Safety & Quality Center, Daleel Petroleum Company, CGG Services, United Integrated Lababrotories, Lonestar Alpha Laboratories, Code Academy, Ministry of Defense, Engineering Village, ALS Arabia Biyaq, and various government institutions.

EIDAAD STUDENT TRAINING PROGRAM

Eidaad is a national program to allow students to train for a period of one full academic year in the industry or other enterprises. The student is then required to return to SQU and complete his or her degree. In 2023, 11 students from the college were accepted in the program.

COMMUNITY SERVICES

• The College provided training for 53 students from other higher education institutions.
• The College facilitated 25 school visits to different departments .
• The office cooperated with the college administration in organizing the Sports Day, which aims to encourage students and staff to be active and healthy and also bring them together in a informal setting
• The Student Activities Group at the College of Science organized an event to welcome new students admitted to the university.
• The college, represented by the student activities group, celebrated the 53rd National Day. The celebration included decorating the college with the flags of the Sultanate and inviting restaurants, cafes, and home projects to participate in the event.
• The student activities group in the college organized a blood donation campaign in cooperation with the University Blood Bank.

STUDENT ACTIVITIES & ACHIEVEMENTS

The College’s Student Society (CSSS) and the Departmental Student Groups provide a platform to demonstrate everyday science and provide an outlet to have fun and reach out to the community. Activities are organized by student committees and include workshops, seminars, exhibitions, and competitions. The student group leaders in the academic year 2022/2023 are:

Science Society Balqis Al Bahri		Chemistry Group Yumna Al Siyabi
Computer Science Group Ya'Rab Al Mamari		Earth Science Group Shihab Al Harthi
Mathematics Group Mawada Al Shukaili		Physics Group Ruqiya Al Ghafari

Total number of activities in 2023:

The main activities in the year 2022/2023 were:

• The 19^th Science Festival: held during the period 12-16/Feb/2023, and officially sponsered by Vodafone (Oman).

• Kids Science Activities

• Other Main Activities

MAIN SPONSORS:

The college’s activities, mainly students activities atract supports from many private and public sector organizations. The list of the main donors in 2022/2023 included:

• Vodafone (The 19th Science Festival Official Sponsor)
• CGG (The 19th Science Festival Sponsor)
• LNG (The 19th Science Festival Sponsor )
• Gulf Mushroom Products (Bio Forum Sponsor (Biology)
• RIVOLI Group (Physics Forum Sponsor ( Physics)
• Al Hakeem Medical center ( Stat Forum Sponsor ( Statistics)
• Petrogas E&P LLC ( Stat Forum Sponsor ( Statistics)

ASSISTANT DEAN’S OFFICE FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES

Office Staff

Aliya Al Ansari
Associate Prof., Assistant Dean for
Postgraduate studies and Research

Ibrahim Al Abri
Clerk

Aisha Al Balushi
Clerk

Contacts
Mailing Address
Sultan Qaboos University
College of Science
Assistant Dean Office for Postgraduate Studies
PO Box: 36, Postal Code: 123, Al-Khoudh
Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
Telephone & Fax:

Tel. Number: (+968) 24141475, 24142268,
24141470
Email: [email protected]
Website:

https://www.squ.edu.om/science/About/Assistants-
Deans/Assistant-Dean-for-Postgraduate-Research

Office Overview

The office of ADPSR acts as the focal point between the College of Science with both the Deanship of Research and the Deanship of postgraduate studies. Our mission is to develop strategies to attract research funding with parties outside SQU such as industry, government. Etc to develop collaborations with researchers in CoS regional and internationally. Our office offers all the support needed for researchers and try to retrieve the research spirit among staff and postgraduate students.

The College currently offers seven PhD programs in chemistry, Physics, Computer Science, Earth Science, Biology, Statistics and Mathematics. The CoS also offer MSc programs in Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Computer Science, Data Science & Machine Learning, Stats, Petroleum Geophysics, Pure Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Environmental Sciences. These programs are regularly reviewed and some of them have received accreditation from international institutions.

Our office monitor with the help of program coordinators in each department, the study and research progression of all postgraduate students and offer assistance and advices. Our postgraduate students have a reputation for excellence in higher scientific education.

RESEARCH GRANTS HIGHLIGHTS

In 2023, research funding saw a significant increase, with 46 projects receiving a total of 225,730 OMR, compared to 21 projects funded by 181,450 OMR in 2022. The primary sources of funding include internal grants (IG), Research Council grants (TRC), His Majesty’s strategic grants (HM), and contract research grants (CR). Nine postgraduate projects and three final-year projects were supported by TRC in 2023.

PUBLICATION HIGHLIGHTS

The College has successfully fostered a strong research culture, as reflected in the breadth of its scholarly activities documented in the Annual Research Report (see Part 2). This commitment to academic excellence and international recognition is evident in the college research achievements, including conference presentations/proceedings (63), book chapters (16), and refereed journal articles (81). Notably, the Department of Chemistry led with 32 scientific publications, followed by the Department of Mathematics with 29 publications.

POSTGRADUATES HIGHLIGHTS

In 2023, 150 postgraduate students were admitted across various departments and programs, as detailed in the table below. This year, 38 MSc and 19 PhD students successfully graduated from the College.

2023

POSTGRADUATE PUBLICATIONS

Postgraduate students collectively published 25 research papers, with contributions from 10 MSc and 15 PhD students.

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

In 2023, there are 15 international students registered in postgraduate programs in the College of Science.

Department of Biology

OVERVIEW

The Department of Biology was established in 1986. This is one of the pioneer departments in the College of Science. In the beginning, the Department of Biology offered a BSc degree in Biology, and currently, it offers two BSc degrees: BSc Biotechnology and BSc Environmental Biology. The Department also conducts two MSC degree programs: MSc Biology and MSc Environmental Sciences. In addition, the Department of Biology offers a PhD degree in Biology. Besides teaching undergraduate and graduate courses, the Department also extends service courses to students from the College of Agriculture, Education and Medicine. It continues its leadership in biological research in the Sultanate.

The Department of Biology offers a range of courses from basic to applied sciences, which fulfill the requirements of students from the College of Science and other colleges. The curriculum is designed in such a way to provide knowledge, to teach the students how to design, conduct and interpret scientific research, and make the students think critically and ethically about biological research and its social impact. The curriculum makes the students competent to start their profession and prepares them for higher studies. The teaching and research labs are well-equipped, and a reasonable number of students are pursuing graduate and postgraduate studies. The Department of Biology is committed to teach modern biological sciences and conduct quality research as well. The staff are active in teaching and research and many of them have funded projects supported by various organizations. The faculty members and supporting technical staff are trained in various disciplines of biology, with an emphasis on experimental and environmental biology.

Members of the Departmental Main Committees

HoD Office

Raeid Abed
Professor, HoD
(PhD, Bremen, Germany)

Fatema Al Jabri
Coordinator
Balaqis Al Fazari
Coordinator

Technical Staff

Training

Prof. Mahmoud Yaish

Dr. Huda Al Battashi

Student Project Evaluation

Dr. Michael Barry

Dr. Buthaina Al Shueili

Prof. Mahmoud Yaish

Dr. Erika Cuellar Soto

Dr. Hameed Sulaiman

Dr. Adnan Tahir

Capital Equipment

Prof. Raeid Abed

Mr. Mohammed Al-Ismaili

Staff-Student Liaison

Prof. Raeid Abed

Dr. Buthaina Al Shueili

Dr. Aziz Al Habsi

Computer User/ Website

HIGHLIGHTS

The year 2023 witnessed the following:

• Dr. Bahja Al Riyami was awarded the "Best Teacher Award" during SQU University Day 2023.
• Dr. Erika Cuellar Soto co-chaired the 1^st Biotechnology and Conservation Symposium (Environment and Biodiversity Conservation in Oman).
• Dr. Erika Cuellar Soto participated as an invited speaker in the Arab Women Leaders' Summit (Capacity Building and Awareness Raising for Women in Climate Action), organized by WiSER, as part of the COP28.
• Dr. Hameed Sulaiman served on the accreditation committee of the Institute of Environmental Sciences, UK.
• Dr. Hameed Sulaiman served on the executive committee of the Community of Environmental Disciplines in Higher Education (CEDHE) UK.
• Dr. Hameed Suliaman served as a proposal reviewer for the NASA funding agency in science and education.
• Dr. Lamya Al Haj was selected as an advisor for the Advisory Board of Young Global Leaders at the World Economic Forum (Switzerland).
• Dr. Lamya Al Haj participated as an invited speaker in multiple events for organizations such as Oman Investment Authority, OQ, OQGN, Bank Nizwa, OAB, and Bank Sohar, such as Asyyad.
• Dr. Lamya Al Haj received a special private invitation from Buckingham Palace to join a Closed Round Table Discussion with King’s Charles III (June 2023).
• Dr. Lamya Al Haj signed an agreement with Waqud LLC for joint research and collaboration in the field of biodiesel production.
• Dr. Lamya Al Haj Successfully launched the first Green Bus running on Biodiesel from date seed in the Middle East. The success of her research findings was featured in many regional news channels, including “CNN Arabic”.
• Dr. Lamya Al Haj was an invited speaker at the 7th EU-GCC Business Forum, Bahrain, on 21 November 2023.

• Dr. Lamya Al Haj was selected by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as one of 35 Young Global Leader’s around the world to take part in the Educational leadership module on sustainability that took place in Morocco in June 2023.
• Dr. Sirin Adham co-chaired the PrecisionMed Expo & Summit (PMES) conference session in May 2023, Dubai, UAE.
• Dr. Sirin Adham was featured at the TAISM event for Terry Fox's run for fundraising collection for cancer research.
• Dr. Sivakumar Nallusamy delivered a talk on “Fermented foods and Food waste biorefinery” to the MSc Food Science students of the College of Agriculture and Marine Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, on November 20, 2023.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

• Dr. Erika Cuellar Soto (PI) HM grant 2023. Title: Comprehensive investigation of the invasive common myna (Acridotheres tristis); insights on expanding distribution and a proposed management approach.
• Dr. Erika Cuellar Soto (PI) Ministry of Heritage and Tourism (Natural History Museum Oman) 2023. Title: Evaluation and study of the status of Natural History Museum Collections and Gap analysis in the representation of the Oman’s Biodiversity.
• Dr. Erika Cuellar Soto was selected as a corresponding Bolivia National Academy of Sciences member. 2023.
• Dr. Lamya Al-Haj has joined the board of directors of Waqud LLC.
• Prof. Mahmoud Yaish was appointed as an ambassador in Oman for the Plants for Climate Action (PlantACT) society.
• Prof. Mahmoud Yaish was recognized by Stanford University, USA, as one of the top 2% most influential scientists worldwide in the 2023-based list, and throughout his scientific career, he appeared on two separate top 2% lists.
• Prof. Raeid Abed was appointed as Oman Ambassador in the International Society of Microbial Ecology.
• Prof. Raeid Abed was recognized among the top 2% scientists on the Stanford University list in 2023
• Dr. Sivakumar Nallusamy was recognized as one of the top 2% most influential scientists worldwide in the 2023 list of Stanford University, USA.
• Dr. Sivakumar Nallusamy’s PhD student work is published in Biotech News Daily as “New Findings from Sultan Qaboos University in the Area of Fuel Research Reported (Enhanced Production of Biodiesel By Rhodosporidium toruloides Using

Waste Office Paper Hydrolysate As Feedstock: Optimization and Characterization)” NewsRX, USA.

PROMOTIONS

• Prof. Mahmoud Yaish was promoted to a full professor position.

New APPOINTMENTS

• Dr. Adnan Tahir, PhD (Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China, 2022).
• Dr. Huda Al Battashi, PhD (Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, 2019).
• Dr. Kamel Chibani, PhD (AgroParisTech University,Paris, France, 2006).
• Mr. Mohammed Al Ismaili, BSc (Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, 2022).
• Ms. Balquees Al Fazari, BSc (University of Leicester, UK, 2020).

RETURNING STAFF

• Dr. Buthaina Al Shueili, Assistant Professor, PhD (Calgary, Canada, 2023), Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

SEMINARS/ WORKSHOPS

• Dr. Antoine Leduc and his Ecology class made headlines in a newspaper in collaboration with Oman's Environmental Authorities at Al Khuwair Natural Reserve.
• Dr. Erika Cuellar Soto, in coordination with the Environment Authority, developed six graduation projects with SQU students in three protected areas: Ras Al Shajar Nature Reserve, Al Khwair Nature Reserve, and Al Sareen Nature Reserve. In addition, 13 park rangers were involved in the systematic scientific data collection training. 2022-2023.
• Dr. Erika Cuellar Soto, in coordination with the Natural History Museum, developed three graduation projects while working with the curator of the Scientific collections at the Natural History Museum.
• Prof. Mahmoud Yaish has organized a postgraduate workshop for the Department in 2023.
• Dr. Mansoor Al Jahdhami organized a one-day wastewater treatment workshop with his students in Al Ansab Wetland in Bousher.
• Dr. Sirin Adham conducted an advising workshop for the Department in 2023.

VISITING CONSULTANTS & PART-TIME INSTRUCTORS

The Department received the following academic staff as Visiting Consultants:

Spring 2023:

• Dr. Mansoor Al Jahdhami, PhD (University of Exeter, UK, 2011, Biodiversity, Environment and Wildlife Conservation).
• Dr. Noura Al-Zeheimi, PhD (Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, 2019, Cancer Biology).
• Dr. Samiya Al-Jaaidi, PhD (University of New England, Australia, 2008, Biological Sciences).
• Dr. Shima Al Khabouri, PhD (University of Glasgow, UK, 2020, Immunology).
• Prof. Saif Al Bahry, PhD (University of New Hampshire, Durham, USA, 1994, Microbiology/Molecular Biology).

• Prof. Taher Ba-Omar, PhD (University of Glasgow, UK, 1989, Embryology and Histology.

Fall 2023:

• Dr. Hilal Al Shukeili, PhD (University of British Columbia, Canada, 2020, Medical Genetics).
• Dr. Mansoor AlJahdhami, PhD (University of Exeter, UK, 2011, Biodiversity, Environment and Wildlife Conservation).
• Dr. Noura Al-Zeheimi, PhD (Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, 2019, Cancer Biology).
• Dr. Samiya Al-Jaaidi, PhD (University of New England, UK, 2008, Biological Sciences).
• Dr. Shima Al Khabouri, PhD (University of Glasgow, UK, 2020, Immunology).
• Prof. Saif Al Bahry, PhD (University of New Hampshire, Durham, USA, 1994, Microbiology/Molecular Biology).
• Prof. Taher Ba-Omar, PhD (University of Glasgow, UK, 1989, Embryology and Histology.

Dr. Hilal Al Al Shekaili, Dr. Kothar Al Balushi, Dr. Mansoor AlJahdhami, Dr. Noura Al Zeheimi, Prof. Saif Al Bahry, Dr. Samiya Al Jaaidi, Dr. Shima Al Khabouri and Prof. Taher Baomar.

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS

The Department of Biology has been collaborating with universities abroad since its inception. Following is a brief description of the ongoing collaborations faculty members are involved with:

• Dr. Adnan Tahir collaborates with Dr. Zeshan Ali, Associate Professor from the Department of Food Science, Bohai University, Pakistan.
• Prof. Mahmoud Yaish established a scientific collaboration with the University of Waterloo, Canada, and Qatar University aimed to study microbiota in plants.
• Dr. Sirin A Adham has a standing collaboration with Prof. John Bartlett and his team from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Toronto, Canada. The collaboration started in May 2020, and the team is studying the cancer genetics of Omani breast cancer patients using next-generation sequencing.
• Dr. Sivakumar Nallusamy has a standing collaboration with Dr. Vijay Gupta, Head of Research and Development Scotland's Rural College, United Kingdom.

STUDENT TRAINING & INDUSTRY PLACEMENT

Training opportunities for students in the Summer of 2021 are tabulated below:

EQUIPMENT RECEIVED

Conductivity meter, HANNA INS, UK

MEMBERS OF THE DEPARTMENT

Department of Chemistry

Overview

The Department of Chemistry, established in 1986, offers a five-year Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Chemistry. The curriculum at the undergraduate level is designed to provide students with deep knowledge, practical skills and a logical approach required to begin their professional career right after graduation. The Department also offers a postgraduate program leading to a Master of Science in Chemistry and a Ph. D. degree in various fields of Chemistry. The research in the department covers many areas such as synthesis and characterization of organometallic and coordination compounds, natural products and organic synthesis, materials science, oil enhancement recovery, bio-physical chemistry, computational chemistry, microfluidics and nanotechnology, novel fluorogenic liquid crystalline materials and environmental chemistry.

The Department of Chemistry is one of the biggest department in the College of Science with 29 full time highly qualified academic staff with an extensive level of expertise covering a broad range of subject areas. Our staff are active in research, and many of them hold internally and externally funded research projects. The academic staff are also supported by a strong technical team consisting of 18 highly skilled technicians and a research associate. In addition, the department is very well equipped with various high-end instruments. Furthermore, the academic staff have access to instrumental and high performance computational facilities run by several scientific research centers on SQU campus.

Members of the Departmental Main Committees

HoD Office

Fakhr Eldin Suliman
Professor and HoD (Jan – Aug 2023)
(Ph.D., KFUPM, KSA)

Dr. Nawal K. Al-Rasbi
HoD (Sep – Dec 2023)
(Ph.D., Shefield, UK)

Nouf Al Lamki
Coordinator
Jawaher Al Badi
Coordinator

Advisory Board

Prof. Fakhr-Eldin Suliman

Prof. Haider Al-Lawati

Prof. Salma Al Kindi

Dr. Hamed Al Mamari

BSc Curriculum

Dr. John Husband

Dr. Saleh Al Busafi

Dr. Muna Al-Mandhary

Dr. Bushra Al Wahibi

Prof. Younis Baqi

Post Graduate

MSc Studies:

Prof. Raid Abdul Jalil

HIGHLIGHTS

The year 2023 witnessed the following:

The Canadian Society of Chemistry (CSC) granted accreditation to the Bachelor of Science programs in Chemistry (2^nd cycle) and Applied Chemistry (1^st cycle) from January 2023 to the end of 2030.

Prof. Al-Matarneh (CSC) (left) in one of the site-visit meetings with Prof. Younis Baqi and Prof. Charif Matta (CSC) via Google Meet in the background.

During the two day site-visit, the SVT had the opportunity to speak with most faculty members in groups and in the labs corresponding to their sub-discipline (organic, applied, inorganic, physical, analytical, and general chemistry), with teaching assistants, and with technicians. The SVT also met with a group of male and female undergraduate students and alumni who had graduated from the program. Prof. Al-Matarneh had the chance to tour the Chemistry Department's teaching and research facilities, the Central Analytical and Applied Research Unit, several classrooms, auditoriums, and the main library. Meetings were also arranged with the Dean of the College of Science, Dr. Talal Al-Housni. Professor Al- Matarneh also met with the coordinator for the two chemistry projects (CHEM5101 Chemistry Project I and CHEM5102 Chemistry Project II), Dr. Raid Abdel-Jalil, who provided copious details about the assessment and evaluation process. The SVT also met with the internship course coordinator, Prof. Younis Baqi, who provided information on the assessment and evaluation process.

DEPARTING STAFF

• Dr. Abdul Munam resigned from his position as Associate Professor, in June 2023

APPOINTMENTS

• Dr. Reem Al-Shaidhani was appointed Assistant Professor in November 2023

PROMOTIONS

• Dr. Raid Abdel-Jalil (Associate Professor) was granted an academic promotion to the Professor rank in 2023.
• Dr. El-Said El-Shafey (Associate Professor) was granted an academic promotion to the Professor rank in 2023.

SABBATICAL LEAVE

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

VISITING CONSULTANTS & PART-TIME INSTRUCTORS

The Department had the following staff as Visiting Consultants or Part Time Instructors:

Spring 2023:

• Dr. Sayedhosein Mousavipour, Dalhousie University, Canada, Physical Chemistry, 1996.
• Dr. Iman Al Yahyai, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, Analytical Chemistry, 2022.
• Dr. Nafisah Bagheri, University of Tehran
• Dr. Sindhu Menon Central University of Hyderabad, India, Inorganic Chemistry, 1996.
• Prof. Nalin de Silva, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, Physical Chemistry, 1998.
• Dr. Franc Pozgan, University of Lubliajana
• Dr. Amal Al Sabahi, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, Analytical&General Chemistry, 2019.

• Dr. Saba Sulaiman, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, Physical Chemistry, 2017.
• Mrs. Anwar Al Maqbali, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, Organic Chemistry.
• Ms. Huda Al Sharji, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, Inorganic Chemistry.
• Ms. Najat Al Riyami, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, Inorganic Chemistry.

Fall 2023:

• Dr. Sindhu, Central University of Hyderabad, India, Inorganic Chemistry, 1996.
• Dr. Sayedhosein Mousavipour, Dalhousie University, Canada, Physical Chemistry, 1996.
• Dr. Iman Al Yahyai, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, Analytical Chemistry, 2022.
• Prof. Nalin de Silva, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, Physical Chemistry, 1998.
• Dr. Amal Al Sabahi, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, Analytical & General Chemistry, 2019.
• Dr. Saba Sulaiman, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, Physical Chemistry, 2017.
• Mrs. Anwar Al Maqbali, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, Organic Chemistry.
• Ms. Huda Al Sharji, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, Inorganic Chemistry, 2021
• Ms. Najat Al Riyami, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, Inorganic Chemistry.
• Mrs. Fatema Al Rubaie, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, Organic Chemistry.
• Ms. Aisha Al Musharrafi, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, Analytical Chemistry.

CURRICULUM

• A number of new major-elective courses were approved by the department and college committees, and are ready for inclusion in the university timetable.

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS

The Department of Chemistry has been collaborating with universities abroad from inception. Following is a brief description of the ongoing collaborations faculty members are involved with:

• Dr. Massimiliano Valentini has a standing collaboration with Prof. Alceo Macchioni and his team from University of Perugia (Italy) in the area of catalytic water oxidation. The team is an internationally recognized group for the discovery of a new class of Ir (III) water soluble complexes active in the water oxidation reaction. Moreover, Dr. Valentini has an international collaboration with Prof. Elena Motti from the University of Parma (Italy) for the synthesis of cobalt complexes bearing the tripodal Klaui ligand.
• Prof. Osama Abou-Zied has a standing collaboration with many international researchers from Malaysia (Faisal Khyasudeen and Idayu Zahid, University of Malaya; Fadhilah Aripin, Universiti Teknologi MARA); UK (Alfonso Martinez-Felipe, University of Aberdeen, Scotland); Iran (Ali Akbar Saboury, University of Tehran); Mojtaba Falahati, Islamic Azad University; Reza Shidpourb, Babol Noshirvani University of

Technology). This collaboration led to two papers in high-impact journals for work on modified fluorescent probes for applications in biology, medicine and solar cells.

• Dr. Imran Hasan Syed continues his research collaboration with Dr. Saravanan and Dr. Ashanl-ul-Haque at the University of Hail, Saudi Arabia. The collaboration with Dr. Saravanan is in the field of Natural Product Chemistry, which led to the isolation and characterization of secondary metabolites from regional plants. The collaboration with Dr. Ashanl-ul-Haque led to the synthesis of thioxanthone-based organic fluorescent probes.
• Prof. Rengaraj Selvaraj has a standing collaboration with:
• Dr. Eveliina Repo, Laboratory of Separation and Purification Technology at Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland in the area of Purification Technology.
• Prof. Majeda Khraisheh, Department of Chemical Engineering, Qatar University, Qatar in the area of separation of Oil and Water.
• Prof. Younghun Kim’s lab at Kwangwoon University, Seoul, South Korea in the area of water and wastewater treatment.
• Dr. Kezhen Qi’s lab at Shenyang Normal University, Shenyang, China in the area of Development of Nanostructured Materials.
• Prof. Bhekie B Mamba, University of South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa in the area of Nanotechnology.
• Dr. Alex T. Kuvarega, University of South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa in the area of Nanotechnology.
• Prof. El-Said I. El-Shafey has a standing collaboration with Dr. Vijayalakshmi Velusamy and her team from Manchester Metropolitan University, UK in the nanotechnology and water treatment. This has led to 3 publications so far in the above field.
• Prof. Raid Abdel-Jalil has a standing collaboration with Prof. Raphael Stoll and his team from University of Bochum in the area of rare medicinal chemistry. The team is an internationally recognized group for the discovery of new anti-tumor agents for breast cancer.
• Prof. Younis Baqi has a standing collaboration with Prof. Christa E. Müller and her team from University of Bonn in the area of medicinal chemistry. The team is an internationally recognized group for the discovery of new ligands for GPCRs and orphan receptors. Dr. Baqi is also conducting active research with Dr. Jörg D. Hoheisel and his team from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), in the area of natural product chemistry. The team is an internationally recognized group focuses on an assessment and description of the realization and regulation of cellular function from genetic information.

Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. Dr. Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, (College of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, United Arab Emirate University, UAE. He has also started collaborating with Prof. Hajira Tahir, Department of Chemistry, Karachi University, Karachi, Pakistan.

• Prof. Muhammad S. Khan
• Has a standing collaboration with Emeritus Prof. Paul R. Raithby FRSC and his team from University of Bath, UK in the area of structural studies of conjugated organometallic polymers and lanthanide metals-based coordination complexes for opto-electronic applications.
• Continues research collaboration with Prof. Raymond Wong FRSC and his team from t h e Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong in the area of conjugated organic and organometallic polymers for solar cell applications. Prof. Khan has also set up new research collaboration with Professor Liang Zhou from the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in the area of lanthanide metal complexes for organic light emitting diode (OLED) application.
• Has set up new research collaboration with Dr. Jos D. L. Dutra at the Pople Computational Chemistry Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, UFS, Brazil in the area of computational studies of lanthanide metals coordination chemistry.
• Dr. Wajdi Michael Zoghaib maintains his research collaboration with Prof. Tarek Abdallah at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt and Dr. Lee Wilson at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. He also collaborates in Liquid Crystals research with Prof. D. M. Pothukuchi at Jawaher Lal Nehro University in India.
• Dr. Imran Khan actively continued his research collaboration with Prof. João A.P. Coutinho and Dr. Mara G. Freire from the CICECO, Department of Chemistry, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal. Following the present collaboration, he extended his collaboration with Dr. Ramesh Gardas, Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, India.
• Dr. Hamad Al Mamari continues international collaborations in the field of C-H bond functionalization with:
  • Professor Todd Marder, Institut für Anorganische Chemie, Julius-Maximilians-Universität, Würzburg, Germany.
  • Professor Eiichi Nakamura, Department of Chemistry, School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. Department of Chemistry, School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
  • Professor Naoto Chatani, Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, Osaka University, Suita, Japan.

• Professor Lutz Ackermann, Institute of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, Georg- August Universität, Göttingen, Germany.
• Recently conducted a one-year research visit in the group of Professor Todd Marder, Institut für Anorganische Chemie, Julius-Maximilians-Universität, Würzburg, Germany.
• Recently established research collaboration with Professor Michael Hall at Chemistry - School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, University of Newcastle, UK.,

• Dr. Usama Alshana continues his research collaborations in the field of sample preparation and greener instrumentation with:
  • Prof. Dr. Nusret Ertaş from the Faculty of Pharmacy, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey,
  • Prof. Dr. Mustafa Soylak and his research group from the Faculty of Science, Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey,
  • Prof. Dr. Sezgin Bakırdere and his research group from the Faculty of Science, Yıldız Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey,
  • Dr. Jude Caleb, Dr, Mais Al-Nidawi, Dr. Salihu Ismail from the Faculty of Pharmacy, Near East University, Nicosia, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
• Prof. Haider Al Lawati has set up a new research collaboration with Dr. Ali Morsali, University of Tarbiat Mudares –Tehran about the novel application of metal-organic framework (MOF) in analytical chemistry. Prof. Al Lawati continued his research collaboration with Dr. Mortaza Iranifam. Dr. Iranifam is an associate professor in Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Maragheh, Maragheh, Iran. The collaboration aims at developing new chemiluminescence systems.
• Prof. FakhrEldin Suliman has collaboration with Prof Abdulla Elbashir of King Faisal University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the area of chiral separation and the use of supramolecular chemistry in quantitative analysis. Based on this collaboration we have hosted a Ph.D. student here at SQU, supported by the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD), for two years.
• Dr. Arief C. Wibowo established long-term collaborations with the following groups with their specific specialties:
  • Prof. Kang Min Ok, Sogang University, S. Korea (Crystallography-Lab and Synchrotron, NLO)
  • Prof. Omar K. Farha, Northwestern University, USA (MOF-related in-depth measurements)
  • Prof. George Shimazu, Univ. of Calgary, Canada (Proton conductivity)

STUDENT TRAINING & INDUSTRY PLACEMENT

Training opportunities for students in the Summer of 2020 are tabulated below:

NEW EQUIPMENT

• Multispeed centrifuge (LABDeX, UK):

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Dr. Nawal Al-Rasbi

• Organized the “College of Science Annual Research Day” on 15 Feb 2023.
• Member of the National Chemistry Olympic for Young Student Committee at the Ministry of Education. Training High school students for the International Chemistry Olympic.

Dr. Laila Al-Maqbali

• Prepared an employment exam for the Ministry of Education for graduate teachers.
• Prepared a qualification exam for the Ministry of Education for education diploma candidates
• Attended OQF Capacity Building Workshop at The Oman Authority for Academic Accreditation and Quality Assurance of Education (OAAAQA).

Prof. Younis Baqi

• Maintains the advising and supervision of Chemistry and Applied Chemistry students who undergo “Summer Industrial Training” at national, regional or international companies and institutes.
• Maintains the advising and supervision of Chemistry and Applied Chemistry students who undergo “Eidad Internship” in industrial companies.

Prof. Haider Al Lawati:

• Published 35 popular science articles in Alroya newspaper and in scientific supplement of Oman newspaper
• Published a popular science book (زوايا غير مألوفة).
• Delivered several public lectures about Science development and science history and philosophy

Dr. Hamad Al-Mamari

• Wrote a popular article in Oman newspaper, Science section on organic chemistry and its connection with life entitled “Chemistry of Love and Death”.
• Wrote a popular article in SQU Imprint magazine, on Green Chemistry, entitled “Green Chemistry”.
• Delivered a chemistry lecture to the Chemistry Group entitled “Organic Chemistry and Life”.
• Delivered a chemistry lecture to the Chemistry Group entitled “Green Chemistry”.
• Wrote an article for Oman News Agency on “Green Ammonia”.
• In addition to existing YouTube channel, he recently recorded new videos in organic chemistry and uploaded them in my Facebook account which I solely established for the purpose of making such videos serve as a resource t chemistry students.
• Recorded new videos in heterocyclic chemistry and uploaded them in his Facebook account that he solely established for the purpose of making such videos serve as a resource for chemistry students.

Mr. Khaled Al-Maqbali

• Conducted an NMR workshop for job seekers organized by the Oman Chemistry Club
• Provided technical consultation of Royal Omani Armed Force officers.
• Supervised student company from Saham Vocational College

Mrs. Muna AL Balushi, Mrs. Ibtisam AL Ajmi and Mrs. Taiba AL Mahrooqi

• Collaborated with Ministry of Education for some experimental consultation and advices for Imam Saif bin Sultan School, Fatima bint AL Walieed and Introducing students to the industrial chemistry applications and the experiments we conduct for students at SQU

Mr. Issa AL Maktumi

• Collaborated with Haya water company to replace and exchange some chemical equipment and substances

Mrs. Maryam AL Jahwari

• Conducted interesting experiments for Ministry of Education Schools like Um Warqa Alansary, Fatma bint Al Waleed, and Saif bin Sultan schools.

Shareef AL Hashemi

• Provided instrumental consultations for ROP Forensics Lab and Dhofar Private Lab and the National Pharmaceutical Industries company

Ms. Iman AL Lawati, Ms. Umayma AL Rashdi, and Ms. Diana AL Kiyumi

• Participating in the Youth Initiatives Exhibition on Omani Youth Day, where the Omani Chemical Club was selected as one of the best youth initiatives at the national level of the Sultanate.
• Preparation, organization, and participation in the Green Hydrogen Symposium.
• Participation in the Science and Artificial Intelligence Forum at Umm Al-Qura School.
• Preparation, organization, and participation in a chemical hike with the Omani Chemical Club.
• Organizing the Values Laboratories program for the Steadfast Steps Foundation for camps
• Participating in the Chemical Day event at the Public Knowledge Library for Sultan Qaboos Higher Center for Culture and Science

Mrs. Ahood AL Numani

• Instructed students from the National University to perform experiments on photobio-reactor and tubular vertical photobio-reactor

MEMBERS OF THE DEPARTMENT

Department of Computer Science

Overview

The Department of Computer Science was established in September 1995. It provides excellence in teaching, research and consultancy. Computer Science is a broad field encompassing such diverse subject areas as Software Engineering, Computer Software System Development, Database Management, Embedded Systems, Web Computing, Real-Time Systems, Networking, Image Processing, Compilers, Automata Processing, Artificial Intelligence, Parallel Processing, Operating Systems, Programming and Bioinformatics. Knowledge of Software Development Methods, Mathematics, Computer Systems and Natural Sciences is applied to the theory, development and implementation of information technology Software Systems for the benefit of the society. Our academic staff and technicians are well equipped with the best qualifications and experience to meet the expectations of the College and the University.

There are several active research groups within the Department, which have been producing a steady stream of research publications of international caliber and which maintain strong research collaborations with international institutions. All staff are committed and work together to achieve the visions and missions of the Department, College and the University. The Department strives to stay abreast of technology growth and development and recognizes the fact that learning is a multifaceted continuous process. It also encourages e-learning and integrates computational techniques in several courses.

Finally, the Department has a number of excellent laboratories with advanced facilities for teaching and research and also shares other facilities within the College and the University.

Members of the Departmental Main Committees

HoD Office

Abderezak Touzene Professor, HoD
(PhD, Grenoble University, France))

Ms. Hiba Al-Busaidi
Clerk

HIGHLIGHTS

The year 2023 witnessed the following:

• The Department received the ABET accreditation for 6 years.
• Prof. Abdrezak Touzene was nominated as a new HOD.
• Prof. Touzene gave a short presentation about the department on the occasion of the visit of the deputy vice-chancellor Prof. Salim Al Harthi (DVC-AACS).
• The department initiated the Dual MSc Degree in Data Science and Machine Learning between SQU and the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), Switzerland.
• The Department has one ongoing HM, one ongoing TRC, four IG, and one CRG.
• The department admitted 9 MSc candidate in CS and 8 bridging
• The department admitted 11 MSc candidate in DSML and 4 bridging
• One PhD student has successfully defended his PhD thesis and completed requirements for the degree.
• Four MSc students have successfully defended their respective thesis and completed the requirements for their degrees.
• The university signed a cooperation agreement with the Ministry of Transport, Communication and Information Technology with cooperation of the Ministry of Education and Omantel to conduct the Oman Code Race competition in the university for five years. The Department will participate in the organization of the following three national and regional programming contests:
  • Oman Collegiate Programming Contest
  • Gulf Programming Contest
  • Programming Olympiad for schools
• The Department has participated in the organization of the Second Oman Code Race Competition 2023 with cooperation with the Ministry of Transport, Communication and Information Technology and the Computer Science Student Group (CSG) including:
  • The 11^th Oman Collegiate Programming Contest (OCPC2023), 31^st of October to 2^nd

NEW STAFF APPOINTMENTS

• Dr. Faiza Al Salti has joined our Department

LEAVING STAFF

• Dr. Rashid Hedjam

SCHOLARSHIPS & OVERSEAS STUDIES

• The following students completed their PhD degrees in Computer Science in 2023
  • None
• The following students completed their MSc degrees in Computer Science in 2023:
  • Majda Al Rashdia defended his MSc thesis under the supervision of Dr. Hamza Zidoum
  • Sultan Al Yahyaai defended his MSc thesis under the supervision of Dr. Hamza Zidoum
  • Khoula Al Kharusi defended her MSc thesis under the supervision of Dr. Abdulrahman AAlAbdulsalam
  • Anood Al Maharbi defended her MSc thesis under the supervision of Dr. Hamza Zidoum
  • Ahmed Al Farsi defended his MSc thesis under the supervision of Prof. Abderezak Touzane
  • Maryam Al Washahi defended her MSc thesis under the supervision of Dr. Yassine Jamoussi

PROMOTIONS

• None

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

• PhD student Fatma Al Shohoumi won the National Research Award 2023 offered by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation on December 4th, 2023 for the research project as a leading author together with the authors Dr. Abdullah Al Hamadani (Computer Science, SQU), Dr. Abdulrahman AAl Abdulsalam (Computer Science, SQU), Dr. Rachid Hedjam (Computer Science, Bishops University) and Dr. Adhari Al Zaabi (College of Medicine, SQU).

• PhD student Iman Al Jassasi, under supervision of Prof. Youcef Baghdadi, won the best student paper presentation award in the 2023 IEEE Int. Conference on e-Business Engineering, Sidney, November, 5^th, 2023
• PhD student Shahd Alquam, under supervision of Dr. Nasser Al Zidi, received the Certification of the Best Presentation Award for her paper in the IEEE.16th International Conference on Advanced Computer Theory and Engineering (ICACTE 2023), which was held online during September 15^th-17^th, 2023.
• Khalid Al Hajri, Osama Al Hadhrami and Mohammed Al-Hanai, students from DCS and Medicine, won First place in the 11^th Oman Collegiate Programming Contest (OCPC2023), SQU, Oman, 31^st of October, 2023.
• Mazin Al Dhuhli, Mohammed Ali Hilal Hassan Al Lawati and Ahmed Al-Shamli, students from DCS, won the second place in the 11^th Oman Collegiate Programming Contest (OCPC2023), SQU, Oman, 31^st of

VISITING CONSULTANTS AND PART-TIME INSTRUCTORS

The Department used the service of ten part-time staff in Spring and Fall 2023 respectively.

• Dr. Ziad Al Dawahda, COM3205
• Dr. Ahmed Al Kindi, COMP4501
• Dr. Asila Al Harthy, COMP2010
• Dr. Asmaa Al-Busaidi, COMP2101
• Dr. Iman Al Kindi, COMP2010
• Dr. Yahya Al Hadhrami, COMP3501
• Dr. Yahya Al-Sawafi, COMP2002, COMP1003
• Dr. Haitham Al Sinani, 4206
• Ms. Fatma Al-Shohoumi, COMP2010
• Mr. Hilal Al-Abdali, COMP1003, COMP2010, COMP2002
• Mr. Saud Al-Oreimi, COMP2010
• Mr. Yahya Al Riyami, COMP2010
• Mr. Salim Al Mautani, 2010

In addition, there were 25 and 33 student teaching assistants in Spring and Fall 2023 respectively.

CURRICULUM

• The department initiated the International Dual MSc Degree in Data Science and Machine Learning between SQU and the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), Switzerland.
• A new course COMP3606 Introduction to Data Science was introduced.
• CCC is replacing the long list of Major Electives and the list of minors in all degree programs by web links.
• The DCC has prepared a proposal for a new Minor in Fundamentals of Data Science.
• Updated Courses: The department has updated the contents and/or prerequisites of the following courses: COMP1003 (added incompatible courses), COMP4100, COMP4509, COMP5101, COMP5606, COMP5900.

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS

The Department of Computer Science has been collaborating with universities abroad from its inception. Following is a brief description of the ongoing collaborations, where faculty members are involved:

• Dr. AbdulRahman Aal Abdulsalem
  • Collaborates with the Department of Computer Science at Bishop’s University in Canada.
  • Collaborates with the Department of Computer Science at École de Technologie Supérieure in Montreal, Canada.
• Dr. Hamza Zidoum
  • Collaborates with the Department of IT, Division of Computing Science, Uppsala University.
  • Collaborates with Faculté des Sciences et Techniques Béni Mellal Département Informatique.
• Dr. Rachid Hedjam
  • Collaborates with University of Québec (Ecole de Technologie Supérieure, ETS, Montréal).
  • Collaborates with University of Trento, Italy.
  • Collaborates with Ocean University of China (OUC), Department of Computer Science.
  • Collaborates with the Department of Computer Science and Operational Research at University of Montreal, Canada.
  • Collaborates with the University of Setif (Algeria).
  • Collaborates with University of Ouargla, Algeria).
• Dr. Yassine Jamoussi
  • Collaborates with RIADI Lab, University of Manouba, Tunisia.
  • Collaborates with IRIT Lab. University of Toulouse, France.
• Prof. Youcef Baghdadi
  • Collaborates with the Center of Research in Informatics (CRI) at University of Paris 1, Pantheon- Sorbonne, France.

• Collaborates with Prof. Murali Penmetsa, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU I) School of Computer Science and Information Technology (Switzerland)

STUDENT TRAINING & INDUSTRY PLACEMENT

The training opportunities for students in the summer of 2023 are summarized below:

NEW EQUIPMENT

• Desktop: 90
• Laptop: 3
• Robots: 3

COMMUNITY SERVICES

Dr. Abir Al Hajri

• Has served as the College of Science Assistant Dean for the Undergraduate Studies
• Has served as a member of the University Undergraduate Studies Committee in charge of reviewing and approving programs and matters related to the undergraduate studies.
• Served as the chair of the election committee in the Shura election in its tenth term. I was in charge of the following:
  • Supervising the electronic voting system and the votes counting system for electing members of the Shura Council on voting day inside and outside the Sultanate of Oman
  • Establishing the necessary procedures for electronic voting

• Ensure the availability of final lists of candidates and voters in the electronic voting system
• Follow up on the progress of the electronic voting process and the process of counting voters’ votes, and overcome any difficulties that may be encountered
• Direct supervision of the subcommittees (voting committee, votes counting committee, and technical audit committee), and following up on the organization and preparation of their headquarters.

• Has served as a member in a committee at university level that was asked to prepare the procedures for forming and organizing the student liaison committee.
• Has served as a member of the committee that is responsible for supervising the development of the new student information system in the deanship of admission and registration.
• Has served as a member of the College of Education Advisory Board.
• Has served as a member of the College of Science Advisory Board.
• Has served as a member of the university entrepreneurship project committee responsible for introducing and including entrepreneurship topics in the college courses, extracurricular activities, and research projects and thesis.

Dr. Abdelhamid Abdessalem

• Served as Chair of the SQU Quality Assurance Group in charge of preparing procedures for enhancing the relationships with Industry and Employers
• Served as member of The Supervisory Committee of the Partnership between Quality Assurance Units and the Quality Assurance Office
• Reviewed two BSc. Programs in AI
• Served as Internal Examiner for two PhD Oral Defense at the Department of Computer Science
• Invited Speaker for the Summer School on Natural Language Processing and Computer Vision 2023 at UTAS-Suhar.
• TPC member of the Artificial Intelligence and Pattern Recognition 2023 Conference
• Served as reviewer for Expert Systems with Applications Journal (ESWA)
• Served as reviewer for Neural Computing and Applications Journal (NCAA)
• Served as reviewer for Pattern Analysis and Applications Journal (PAAA)
• Served as reviewer for Pattern Recognition Journal (PR).
• Served as reviewer for the SQU The Journal for Engineering Research (TJER)
• Served as reviewer for SQU Journal for Science (SQUJS)

Prof. Abderezak Touzene

• Served as a member of the editorial board International Journal of Software Engineering & Applications (IJSEA).
• Served as a member of the editorial board for Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks. https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jsan/editors.

• Served as a member of the editorial board for Computer Networks & Communications: International Journal (CNCIJ). http://flyccs.com/jounals/CNCIJ/EditorialBoard.html.
• Served as a member of the editorial board for Journal Telecommunications. http://www.mdpi.com/journal/telecommunications/editors.
• Served as a member of the editorial board for International Journal of Computer & Software Engineering, an international open access journal, Graphy Publications.
• Served as a member of the advisory/editorial board of The World Academy of Research in Science and Engineering (WARSE).

Dr. Abdullah Al-Hamdani

• Served as a member of the Board of Trustee in Muscat College.
• Served as a member of the follow-up committee for HM Sultan Qaboos Academic Chairs, Ministry of Higher Education, Muscat, Oman.
• Served as the Chair for the IT Research Group, HM Sultan Qaboos Academic Chairs, Ministry of Higher Education, Muscat, Oman.
• Served as the focal point in the cooperation agreement between SQU and the Ministry of Transport, Communication and Information Technology with cooperation of the Ministry of Education and Omantel to conduct the Oman Code Race competition.
• Served as a member of the College Advisory Board, College of Science.
• Reviewer for Service Oriented Computing and Applications (SOCA) Journal.
• Served as external reviewer for the new Bachelor of Science in Data Science, Ministry of Higher Education, Oman.
• Served as Program External Assessor for three Computing programs (Diploma in Computer Science, BSc in Computer Science and B.Ed. in Computer Science), College of Arts and Sciences, University of Nizwa, Oman.
• Served as an External Examiner for a PhD thesis, Said Al-Barami, Department of Information Studies, College of Arts.
• Served as an External Examiner for an MSc thesis, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering.
• Served as an External Examiner for an MSc thesis, Department of Biology, College of Science.

Dr. Abdulrahman Aal Abdulsalam

• Served as a Master Thesis Examiner for the Department of Petroleum and Chemical Engineering at SQU in December 2023.
• Served as a reviewer for AMIA 2024 Clinical Informatics Conference.
• Invited Speaker for the IEEE Summer School on Natural Language Processing and Computer Vision 2023 at UTAS-Suhar on December, 12^th 2023.
• Served in the working group for the National Digital Health Strategy Program at the Ministry of Health in October, 19^th 2023.

• Invited speaker at the symposium of New Generations of Artificial Intelligence organized by the Ministry of Transportation and Information Technology in March 2023.
• Invited speaker at the statistics day organized by the department of statistics at SQU on October 19^th 2023.

Dr. Hamza Zidoum

• Served as a reviewer for Health Informatics Journal, SAGE Track.
• Served as a reviewer for The International Arab Journal of Information Technology: IAJIT
• Served as a consultant for the Ministry of Higher Education, Directorate General of Private Universities and Colleges. Reviewed a program -Diploma/Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Artificial Intelligence.
• Served as a consultant for the College of Engineering, Assistant Dean for Postgraduate Studies and Research. Reviewed Internal Grant applications.
• Served in editorial board Health Informatics Journal, 2022.

Dr. Imran Khan

• Served as a reviewer for the International Conference in Computing Research (ICR’24)
• Served as a member of the Data Science group at the International Conference in Computing Research
• Served as a reviewer for the journal IEEE Access.

Dr. Rachid Hedjam

• Reviewed 1 journal: Pattern recognition (Elsevier, Q1 impact factor 8.51)
• Reviewed 2 journals: IEEE Transaction Geoscience and in Remote Sensing (Q1, Impact factor 8.12).
• Served as an External PhD Examiner in the department of Statistics, SQU.
• Reviewer for IEEE Transaction on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.
• Reviewer for IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine.
• Reviewer for IEEE transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
• Reviewer for International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology
• Reviewer for The Journal of Engineering Research [TJER].
• Reviewer for Mediterranean Conference on Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence.

Dr. Yassine Jamoussi

• Served as reviewer for the International Journal of Software Engineering and its applications,
• Served as reviewer for the Journal of Engineering Research
• Served as reviewer for the International Journal of Web Applications and Technology.
• Served as PhD thesis Internal Examiner for SQU.
• Served as a member of the college academic promotion committee of CS-SQU

Fatma A Raisi

• Served as a program reviewer for AI and computing programs for the MoHERI 2023
• Invited speaker and panelist at SQU AI awareness event September 25, 2023
• A Registered trainer in SQU Etqan system.
• Facilitated a training program on AI at the Ministry of Information in December 2023.
• Facilitated a workshop on AI and its applications at SQU for members from SQU and from other organizations December 2023
• Gave an invited guest lecture on AI in Media at the department of Media and Information/ college of Arts SQU Nov 2023
• Invited as a debater for the inauguration debate on AI at Oman Center for Debates

Prof. Youcef Baghdadi

• Served in editorial board for International Journal of Computer & Their Applications in Technologies (IJCAT)
• Served in editorial board for Journal of Cases in Information Technologies (JCIT)
• Served as a member of the promotion committee of Oman College.
• Served as a member of the promotion committee of Muscat college.

Prof. Zuhoor Al Khanjari

• Participated as a speaker in the workshop of the TRC granted project on “Micro credentials” in coordination with the College of Education. 16^th of March 2023. Avani Hotel, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.
• Reviewed manuscript for Asian Journal of Research in Computer Science.
• Served in reviewing papers for the Supercomputing Journal.
• Reviewed several papers for the Neural Computing and Applications (NCAA) Journal.
• Reviewed papers for the Frontiers in Computer Science - Software.
• Coordinated the DCS Students Summer Internship 2023.

Dr. Faiza Al-Salti

• Served PhD internal Examiner in the Department (Ms. Shahid Alqam), December, 2023.

STUDENT ACTIVITIES

• The Computer Science Group (CSG)
  • Helped in organizing the 11^th Oman Collegiate Programming Contest (OCPC2023) and Gulf Programming Contest (GPC2023), from 31^st of October to 4^th of November 2023 with more than 350 participants from Higher Education Institutions in Oman and other Gulf Countries (KSA, UAE, Kuwait) including Morocco.
  • Helped in organizing the Amman Programming Race.
  • Helped in organizing the Oman Programming Competition OCPC
• The Computer Science Group (CSG) organized the following works shops:

• Leaning GIT and use it in Github on 18^th of September 2023
• Fundamentals of Cybersecurity 3^rd of October 2023

• The Computer Science Group (CSG)
  • Celebrated the National day
  • Organized a party to introduce the group and its goals on 2^nd of October 2023
  • Organized in show on the occasion of the specializations fair
  • Participated in the science day in Bin Thabet School (Hakton Science) on 29^th of November 2023
  • Organized the graduation ceremony for CS students on 1oth of December 2023

MEMBERS OF THE DEPARTMENT

Department of Earth Sciences

Overview

The Department of Earth Sciences at Sultan Qaboos University provides the Sultanate with quality Earth Sciences graduates. The Department strives to contribute state-of-the-art geoscientific solutions and consultancies to the local community and industry. The Department offers degrees in Geophysics and in Earth Sciences as well as highly flexible MSc and Ph.D. programs that are responsive to market needs. The number of students majoring in Earth Sciences increases rapidly each year.

The Department of Earth Sciences currently has 16 academic staff. In addition, the Department has established very close links with the University Research Centres namely the Earthquake Monitoring Center (EMC), Remote Sensing and GIS Center (RSC), Oil and Gas Center (OGC), and Earth Sciences Research Centre (ESRC).

Members of the Departmental Main Committees

HoD Office

Osman Abdalla

Prof., HoD
(Ph.D. Technical
University Berlin, 2000,
Germany)

Mrs. Shahira Al-Balushi
Coordinator

BSc Curriculum

Dr. Iftikhar Ahmed

Dr. Rifaat Abdullah

Dr. Muhammad Qasim

Dr. Khalil Al-Hooti

Dr. Sobhi Nasir

Accreditation

Andreas Scharf

Mohammed El Ghali

Rifaat Abdullah

Muhammad Younis Khan

Amani Al-Abri

Promotion

HoD (Osman Abdalla)

Sobhi Nasir

Andreas Scharf

Salah Al-Khirbash

Iftikhar Ahmed

Appointment

HoD (Osman Abdalla)

Abdul Razak Al-Sayigh

Khalil Al-Hooti

Iftikhar Ahmed

Andreas Scharf

Amani Al-Abri

+ staff from the relevant

specialization (if needed)

HIGHLIGHTS

The year 2023 witnessed the following:

• Students of the department won the 2nd place in the Middle East Imperial Barrel Award by AAPG.

STUDENTS AND RESERACHERS FROM THE KOREAN UNIVESITY AT JOINT FIELD CAMPAIGN

HALLIBURTON OFFICIALS VISITING DEPARTMENT OF EARTH SCIENCES

STUDENTS FROM SCHOOL VISITED DEPARTMENT OF EARTH SCIEMCES

• 100 school students from Brilliant Youth Private school visited the Earth Sciences Laboratory to study rock properties as a practical lesson related to their science subject on Monday 04 December 2023.

SCHOLARSHIPS & OVERSEAS STUDIES

• Mr. Musaab Al-Sarmi (Lecturer) is a doctoral candidate at The University of Edinburgh and expected to complete his degree in August 2024.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

IBA competition

• Students of the department won the 2nd place in the Middle East Imperial Barrel Award by AAPG. The team was supervised by Dr. Mohammed Farfour.

Dr. Rifaat M. Abdalla

• Awarded an outstanding Education Leadership Award from the Conference on Education2. December 2022, held in Dubai.

Dr. Talal Al Hosni

• Certificate of Specialization in Leadership and Management, Harvard Business School Online, courses taken: Leadership Principles, Management Essentials, and Power and Influence for Positive Impact.

VISITING CONSULTANTS & PART-TIME INSTRUCTORS

The Department received the following academic staff as Visiting Consultants and researchers:

Spring 2023:

• Dr. Muhammad Hanif, The University of Peshawar, Pakistan
• Mohamed Gharbi, CERTE: Water Researches and Technologies Center, Laboratory of Geo-Resources, Tunisia
• Mohamed Abdel Wahab, University of Dongola, Sudan

CURRICULUM

• Postgraduate Program

Part time PhD program was approved by the department and the college and forwarded to the University Council for the final approval.

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS

The Department of Earth Sciences has been long collaborating with universities abroad. Following is a brief description of the ongoing collaborations faculty members are involved with:

Dr. Andreas Scharf

• 2023 to present, U.S.A.
  GRIND – Geological Research through Integrated Neoproterozoic Drilling in Oman (Mirbat area) , Cooperation partner: Prof. Francis Macdonald, Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, U.S.A.
• 2023 to present, Austria
  Structural characterization of the obducted Arabian Margin at the northwestern flank of the Jabal Akhdar Dome (wadis Taise and Yikah) Cooperation partners: Prof. Christoph von Hagke, Department of Geology and Physical Geography, Paris Lodron University Salzburg, Austria
• 2023 to present, Ireland
  Geochemical and structural project at the Washihi-Mullaq-Al Ajal Copper-Gold VMS Deposit

Cooperation partners: Dr. Claire Geel, Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geoscience, Dublin, Ireland; Dr. Thomas Belgrano, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Dr. M.Younis Khan

• Has research collaboration with Dr. Abrar Niaz and other colleagues from the Azad Jammu & Kashmir University, Pakistan. As a result of the research collberation, a manuscript on landslide assesment using geolphysical and geotecnical techniques is ready to submit.
• Has a research collaboration with Dr. Sher Muhammad from the International Centers for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu, Nepal.
• Has a research collaboration with Dr.Ekrem Saralioglu from the Department of Geomantic Engineering, Division of Remote Sensing, University of Artvin Coruh, Artvin, Turkey.

Dr. Salah Al-Khirbash

• Evolution of the Precambrian Arabian Shield (Prof Martin Whithouse, Swedish Museum for Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden and Prof. Vicky Pease, University of Stockholm, Sweden) and Mohammed Ali (Khalifa University)
• Unravelling the Neoproterozoic Accretionary History of Oman (Prof Alan Collins and Dr. Morgan Blades, University of Adelaide

Dr. Iftikhar Ahmed

• Has a research collaboration with Prof. Ercan Ozcan of theIstanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey. Prof. Ozcan visited Oman to work on the Late Cretaceous rocks of Oman.

Dr. Talal Al Hosni

• University of Regina (Dr. Osman Salad Hersi)

Dr. Sobhi Nasir

• Has a research collaboration with Seoul National University

Muhammad Qasim

• Has a research collaboration with Prof. Dr. Ding Lin from Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China on Geochronology of the Foreland Basin Sediments, Oman

Dr. Mohamed Moustafa

• international collaboration with
  1- Dr. Mohamed GHARBI, CERTE: Water Researches and Technologies Center, Laboratory of Geo-Resources, Tunisia, Tunisia

• 2- Dr. Nejla SEKATNI
  Assistant Professor in Sedimentology and stratigraphy, University of Sousse, Tunisia

Prof. Osman Abdalla

Has the following international collaborators

• Dr. Ian Douglas Clark, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Ottawa, Canada. Exchanged research visits, laboratories facilities, field visits, and drafted proposals and published papers.
• Prof. Vitaly Zlotnik, Dept. of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA.
• Dr. Essam Heggy NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, CALTECH, USA.
• Prof. Elfatih Eltahir, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA. Drafted a proposal for funding by The Omani Authority for Partnership for Development (OAPFD).
• Prof. Tetsuya Sumi and Prof. Sameh Kantoush, Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University, Japan.
• Dr. Marwan Al-Raggad, Water, Energy and Environment Center, University of Jordan, Jordan.
• Dr. Seifu Kebede, School of Earth Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.
• Dr. Mustafa El Rawy, Civil Engineering Dept. Minia University, Egypt.
• Prof. Behkie, University of South Africa.

INDUSTRIAL COLLABORATION

Dr. Mohamed Moustafa

Physical and Chemical Assessment of Solid and Powder Marble Waste in Northern Oman Regions. The collaboration with Industrial Innovation Academy at Knowledge Oasis, KOM4, in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman, commenced in 2023 and continues to the present.

Dr. Mohammed Farfour

• Received 30 licenses for two software programs as a donation from Geosolutions
• Dr. Talal Al Hosni is member of the Geologic Hydrogen Technical Advisory Team (Ministry of Energy and Minerals)

Dr. Osman Abdalla

• Has served as member of the Geologic Hydrogen Technical Advisory Team (Mininistry of Energy and Minerals)
• Participated in the Geo Challenger-8 Ceremony on November 27, 2023

STAFF TRAINING

Dr. Sobhi Nasir

• Mineral development Oman (MDO)

Dr. Andreas Scharf

• Dr. Andreas Scharf has attended a seven-week workshop entitled “Critical thinking” organized by the CHETL of SQU. The workshop was from October to November 2022.
• Dr. Andreas Scharf has attended a seven-week workshop entitled “Educational Philosophy” organized by the CHETL of SQU. The workshop was from October to November 2022.
• Dr. Andreas Scharf has attended a seven-week workshop entitled “Outcome Based Learning Objectives” organized by the CHETL of SQU. The workshop was from October to November 2022.

Dr. Iftikhar Ahmed

• has attended a AAPG International Conference & Exhibition (ICE2024), Madrid Spain
• has attended OAAAQA Programme Standards Assessment (PSA) workshop

Dr. Mohamed El-Ghali

• Ali A., Jabeen I., El-Ghali M. A. K., Nasir N., Scharf A. 2023. Carbon dioxide sequestration on Earth and Mars: Potential of carbonates derived from Samail Ophiolite as analogues for Martian atmosphere-hydrosphere interactions. Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2023, Japan Geoscience Union, May, 2023, Chiba, Japan.
• Ali, A., Al Hinai, K., El-Ghali, M.A.K., Kakar, M.I., Rehman, H.U., Nasir, S.J., Abbasi, I.A., Moustafa, M., Jabeen, I., 2023. Carbon dioxide sequestration experiment designed for undergraduate students to understand ocean acidification: A low-cost experimental design and execution. 1st International Conference on Earth Sciences and Energy Transition (ICESET), Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat-Sultanate of Oman 6-10 February 2023.
• Bhatti, T. M., Ali A., El-Ghali M. A. K., 2023. Lower Eaocene black shale beds of the Rus Formatio, northern Oman: A future resource of natural fuel and critical metals. 1st International Conference on Earth Sciences and Energy Transition (ICESET), Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat- Sultanate of Oman 6-10 February 2023.
• Bhatti, T. M., Ali A., El-Ghali M. A. K., 2023. Environmental bioremediation of abandoned copper mine, Lasail, northern Oman: A proposed case

study. 1st International Conference on Earth Sciences and Energy Transition (ICESET), Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat-Sultanate of Oman 6-10 February 2023.

• Salad Hersi, O., Abbasi, I. A., El-Ghali, M. A. K., Al-Harthi, A., Ali, A., 2023. Cretaceous sandstone reservoirs of southern Oman as potential candidates for CO2 sequestration and storage system. 1st International Conference on Earth Sciences and Energy Transition (ICESET), Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat-Sultanate of Oman 6-10 February 2023.
• Mohamed Al-Habsi, Al-Yas Al-Rajihi, Al-Hakam Al-Yazeedi, Mohamed El- Ghali, 2023. Quaternary aeolianite sandstone paleoenvironment evolution: Lithofacies and geochemical evidence from the Bousher dune fields of Northern Oman. 1st International Conference on Earth Sciences and Energy Transition (ICESET), Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat- Sultanate of Oman 6-10 February 2023.
• Al-Hakam Al-Yazeedi, Al-Yas Al-Rajihi, Mohamed Al-Habsi, Mohamed A.K. El-Ghali, 2023. Quaternary aeolianite dunes provenance: Petrofacies and geochemical characteristics of Bousher dune fields of Northern Oman. 1st International Conference on Earth Sciences and Energy Transition (ICESET), Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat-Sultanate of Oman 6-10 February 2023.
• Al Belushi, M., and El-Ghali, M.A., 2023. Unlocking the Nahr Umr Play Potential in North Oman from Regional Evaluation of the Limestone Marker Unit. In 2023 Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, ADIP 2023. Society of Petroleum Engineers. Oral Talk and Abstract.

Dr. Osman Abdalla

• Dr. Osman Abdalla and Dr. M. Qasim conducted a seminar on “climate warning of siberia: geoenvironmental evidence on 30 November 2023. Professor Adam Mickiewicz from Institute of Geoecology and Geoinformation, University Poznan, Poland was the speaker.
• Dr. Osman Abdalla participated in the Workshop on improving academic recruitment procedures at Sultan Qaboos University.
• Dr. Osman Abdalla participated in the Applied Research Symposium at Sultan Qaboos University

Dr. Mohamed Moustafa

Conference Talks (The Ist International Conference on Earth Sciences and Energy Transition. Oman, 6-10 February 20223)
1- Mohamed Moustafa, Michael Pope, Ethan Grossman, And Ibrahim Y. Mrihee Depositional environment and diagenesis of Al Aziziyah

2- Formation, Jifarah Basin, north west Libyan. The Ist International Conference on Earth Sciences and Energy Transition. Oman, 6-10 February 20223.

3- Mohamed Moustafa, Mohamed El-Ghali, Rasha Al Raqaishi, Iftikhar Ah- Med, Hezam Al-Awah, Musaab Shakir Al Sarmi, Abdulrazak Al-Sayigh, Arshad Ali, Araf Al Humaidi, And Nada Al Ghafri Chemostratigraphy of the Lower Mahil Formation (ks-1 Khuff-equivalent), Northern Oman. The Ist International Conference on Earth Sciences and Energy Transition. Oman, 6-10 February 20223.

STUDENT TRAINING & INDUSTRY PLACEMENT COMMUNITY SERVICE

The Department has hosted the following students as interns during the year 2023

• Fatma ALHadi
• Marwah ALGhafri
• Aya ALHudayfi
• Shurooq ALJabri
• Taif ALAlawi
• Taqwa ALGadidi
• Marwa ALHarthi
• Summaya ALHarrasi

Dr. Andreas Scharf

• Dr. Andreas Scharf has served as an external advisory board member of the Bachelor programme in applied geosciences of GUtech
• conducted a field trip for 9 Swedish students, with their supervisor from the Gothenburg University, Sweden, to various outcrops in northern Oman in February 2023.
• Session Chair of Session A2-2 at the International Conference on Earth Sciences and Energy Transition (ICESET), February 6th-10th 2023, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.
• Session Chair of Session 4: Energy, Geological Storage & Geohazards at the 17th Workshop of the International Lithosphere Program Task Force Sedimentary Basins in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E., December 6th, 2023 from 11:20- 14:50.

Dr. Sobhi Nasir

• Conducted a field trip with researchers from the Seoul National University to study the the ophiolite of Samail and Masirah on 17-26th January, 2023

Dr. Mohamed Moustafa

• Session chair at The Ist International Conference on Earth Sciences and Energy Transition. Oman, 6-10 February 20223. o Session: Wave and Tide Energies (Session ID: WTE)
• Co-chair of Field Trips Committee at The Ist International Conference on Earth Sciences and Energy Transition. Oman, 6-10 February 20223

Dr. Talal Al Hosni

• Member of the Steering Committee of the operations to address and correct conditions in mining areas in Sohar

Prof. Osman Abdalla

Prof. Osman Abdalla served as a scientific committee member for the fourth conference on Geospatial Technologies for Disaster Management. Dr. Rifaat Abdalla

• Dr. Rifaat Abdalla has served in the conference scientific committee for the fourth conference on Geospatial Technologies for Disaster Management.

Dr.Mohammed Farfour

• Machine Learning Applications in Geosciences

MEMBERS OF THE DEPARTMENT

Department of Mathematics

Overview

The Department started in 1986 as Department of Mathematics and Computing offering a single Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Computing. This evolved into three Bachelor degrees in Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science. In 1995 the Department of Computer Science was established to host the Computer Science degree. The mother department name then changed to Mathematics and Statistics (DOMAS). In 2018, the Department of Mathematics and Statistics (DOMAS) split into two departments; the Department of Mathematics and the Department of Statistics.

The Department of Mathematics is among the largest departments in the University with over 40 faculty members. The department offers programs leading to B.Sc degree in Mathematics, M.Sc degree in Pure Mathematics and M. Sc degree in Applied Mathematics, and a doctorate degree in Mathematics. The department offers service courses to several colleges in SQU. The department is committed to quality teaching, research, and community service. The Department of Mathematics faculty members are very active in research.

2022/2023 ACADEMIC YEAR

HoD Office

Zuwaina Al-Jahwari

Ahmad Al Salman
Professor, HoD
(PhD, University of Pittsburgh, USA)

Coordinator

Azza Al Barwani
Coordinator

COMMITTEES Members of the Departmental Main Committees

BSc Curriculum

Dr M. Boulbrachene

Dr. T. El Bashir

Dr. A. Al-Raisi

Dr. H. Shamsi

Dr. Y. Dinar

Dr. J. Manhas

Dr. S. Kerbal

Service Teaching

Coordinators

Graduate Studies

Prof. Ahmad Al Salman

Coordinators of PG

Programs

Chair of Research

Committee

Research

Prof. M. M. Rahman

Prof. M. Al-Lawati

Dr. A. Al-Abri

Dr. I. Al Ayyoub

Social

Dr. M. Al-Hinai

Dr. O. Tout

Dr. Q. Khan

HIGHLIGHTS

_ The Department of Mathematics, in cooperation with the Oman Mathematics Committee, has organized the International Conference: Recent Trends in Mathematics (ICM-SQU2024) from 4-6 March 2024. Dr. Rahman Bint Ibrahim Al-Mahrooqi, the Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, and HH Sayyid Dr. Fahad Bin Al-Julanda Al-Said, the Vice Chancellor of Sultan Qaboos University, inaugurated the conference.

_ The conference program included 12 keynote lectures given by invited speakers, as well as 78 contributed talks that were divided into three parallel sessions. The topics of the contributed talks were organized into five main sessions: Algebra and Geometry (16 talks), Computational Mathematics (9 talks), Fractional Differential Equations (8 talks), Mathematical Analysis (20 talks), and Mathematical Modelling (25 talks). The list of participants can be downloaded from the website

https://conferences.squ.edu.om/rtm2024/Conference-Participants.

_ The conference reflected a strong collaboration between international and local mathematicians and the academic community.

DEPARTING STAFF

• Prof. Edmana Krishnan retired from his position as Professor in Summer 2023.
• Dr. G. Pinto resigned from his position as Assistant Professor in Summer 2023.

APPOINTMENTS

• Dr. Fatma Al-Musalhi was appointed as Assistant Professor in January 2023
• Dr. Mariam Al-Maskary was appointed as Assistant Professor in September 2023.

RETURNING STAFF

Nothing to report

SCHOLARSHIPS & OVERSEAS STUDIES

Nothing to report

PROMOTIONS

• Dr. Samir Karaa was promoted to full professor in May 2023

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

• Prof. Mohammad Mansur Rahman was listed among the Top 2% Best Scientists of the World by Stanford University (October 2023).

VISITING EXAMINER

Nothing to report

VISITING CONSULTANTS & PART-TIME INSTRUCTORS

The Department received the following academic staff as consultants and part-timers:

• Spring 2023:
  • Dr. Abdellatif Bellahnid
  • Dr. Mohsin Hashim
  • Dr. Shamil Makhmutov
  • Dr. Amal Al-Kharousi
  • Dr. Yusuf Nyonyi
  • Dr. Khadija Al-Balushi
  • Dr. Sheikha Al-Weheibi
  • Dr. Latifa Al-Balushi
  • Dr. Zainab Al-Mamari
• Fall 2023:
  • Dr. Abdellatif Bellahnid
  • Dr. Amal Al-Kharousi
  • Dr. Erkinjon Karimov
  • Dr. Laith Khalil
  • Dr. Mohsin Hashim
  • Dr. Medhat Rakha
  • Dr. Khadija Al-Balushi
  • Dr. Latifa Al-Balushi
  • Dr. Sheikha Al-Weheibi
  • Dr. Maryam Al-Yahyai
  • Ms. Badriya Al-Azri
  • Dr. Kifah Al-Maqrashi
  • Dr. Khadija Al-Hasni
  • Dr. Nasser Al-Salti

VISITORS & CONSULTANT

• Prof. Samir Karaa visited the department of Mathematics, Gulf University of Sciences and Technology, Kuwait, from 17-22 June 2023.
• Prof. Samir Karaa hosted the visit of Dr. Abdul Wahab, Department of Mathematics (Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan), from 8-14 Feb. 2022.
• Prof. Mohammad Mansur Rahman hosted the visit of Prof. M. Ziad Saghir, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada, from 3-8 June 2023 as a research consultant on the project IG-SCI-MATH-23-02.
• Prof. Mohammad Mansur Rahman visited Prof. M. Z. Saghir, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada on 23 August 2023.
• Prof. A. Purnama hosted the visit of Dr. A. Kay, Loughborough University, UK, from 26- 30 November 2023 as a research consultant on the project IG-SCI-MATH-23-01.
• Dr. Nikhil Khanna visited Dr. Khole Timothy Poumai, Motilal Nehru College, University of Delhi, India for research collaboration from 19^th June to 16^th July 2023.

CURRICULUM

• The Final Year Project Coures (MATH5101 & MATH5102) have been upgraded to a research-based Course.
• Introduced technology in 4 courses: MATH2101, MATH3302, MATH3111, and MATH4141.

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS

The Department of Mathematics has been collaborating with universities abroad from inception. Following is a brief description of the ongoing collaborations faculty members are involved with:

• Prof. Samir Karaa is collaborating with Dr. Chaoyu QUAN, SUSTech International Center for Mathematics, Shenzhen, China, on "The analysis of subdiffusion problems on non-uniform meshes".

• Prof. Samir Karaa is collaborating with Dr. Naveed Ahmed, Gulf University of Sciences and Technology, Kuwait, on Mixed FEM for time-fractional problems.
• Dr. Sebti Kerbal is collaborating with an expert and eminent researcher in the stability of fractional differential equations, namely Prof. N. Tatar, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, KSA.
• Dr. Sebti Kerbal is collaborating in the field of inverse problems and fractional differential equations with Dr. E. Karimov a young and very active researcher in the field of classical and fractional differential equations. Dr. Karimov from Fergana State University, Uzbekistan, established a strong and productive international collaboration.
• Dr. Sebti Kerbal is collaborating with Prof. Kirane and Dr, Ahmed Fino exceptional contributors in the development of blow-up of solutions for classical and fractional differential equations. Further contributions of Prof. Kirane, Khalifa University, UAE are existence, non-existence of solutions, and inverse problems while Dr. Fino, American University of the Middle East, Kuwait is mainly blow-up solutions.
• Prof. Mohammad Mansur Rahman has a standing collaboration with (i) Prof. Kuppalapalle Vajravelu, University of Central Florida, USA, (ii) Prof. M. Z. Saghir, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada, (iii) Prof. Ioan Pop, Babes-Bolyai University, Romania, (iv) Dr. M. J. Uddin, International Maritime College Oman, NUST on "Nanofluids, Transport in Porous Media, and Heat Transfer".
• Prof. A. Purnama has a standing collaboration with (i) Dr. A. Kay, Loughborough University, UK, (ii) Dr. A. Al-Kasbi, UTAS-Ibra, Oman on “Analytical Study on Dispersion of Effluent Discharges into Tidal Waters”.
• Dr. Mohammad Shahryari collaborated with Prof. Alireza Abdollahi (University of Isfahan, Iran) on “Logical generations of groups”.
• Dr. Mohammad Shahryari collaborated with Dr. Mohsen Rostami (University of Tabriz, Iran) on “profinite polyadic groups and their Haar measures”.
• Dr. Mohammad Shahryari collaborated with Prof. Vakili-Nezhad (Department of Chemical Engineering, SQU) on “topological charge indices of graphs”.

• Dr. Omar Tout started a collaborating with Prof. Alain Goupil, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Canada on the structure constants of the center of the symmetric group algebra.
• Dr. Nikhil Khanna has a collaboration with Dr. Khole Timothy Poumai, Motilal Nehru College, University of Delhi, India on “computational aspects on pseudo-Hermitian quantum mechanics”.

STAFF TRAINING

• Dr. Asma Al-Ghassani, attended a training program entitled” SUPERVISORY SKILLS PROGRAM” on 7-8/6/2023.
• Dr. Asma Al-Ghassani, attended a training program entitled “Building an Effective Academic Advising System in Support of Student Success” on 11-12/10/2023.
• Dr. Ibrahim Elmojtaba started the CHETL program and completed 3 modules of the 9 modules from August - November 2023.
• Prof. Samir Karaa attended the Workshop “Introduction to Machine Learning using Python”, May 9th, 2023, at SQU-CPS.
• Prof. Samir Karaa chaired a PhD thesis defense in the Dept. of Biology on 7 June 2023.
• Prof. Samir Karaa reviewed papers for SIAM journal on Numerical Analysis, SIAM journal on Scienific Computing, Journal of Scientific Computing, Advances in Computational Mathematics.
• Prof. Samir Karaa served as a reviewer for (i) a Research Grant (RG) under Call 2023 of the Block Funding Program for The Research Council of Oman (ii) SQU Internal Grant Proposal for cycle 2024.
• Prof. Samir Karaa was a member of adhoc committee working on a new specialization in Computational and Industrial Mathematics.
• Prof. Mohammad Mansur Rahman attended the workshops: (i) Milanote on 11/6/2023, (ii) Designing Interactive Instructional Content Using H5P Tool on 12/6/2023, (iii) Academic Advising Workshop for College of Science academic advisors on 17/9/2023.

STUDENT TRAINING & INDUSTRY PLACEMENT

• Ibrahim Al-Ayyoub delivered a workshop titled: “Design and Build Educational Content Suitable for the Virtual Learning Environment: Sharing an experience”, Oct. 27, 2022. Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman

NEW EQUIPMENT

The Department received 15 desktops.

COMMUNITY SERVICE

• A committee is working on a new specialization in Computational and Industrial Mathematics.
• Dr. Fatma Al-Musalhi prepared the appointment and qualification exams for the ministry of education.
• Prof. Ahmad Al-Salman continue serving in some TWAS committees (as fellow).
• Prof. Ahmad Al-Salman continue serving as official nominator for the VinFuture Prize.
• Prof. Ahmad Al-Salman Chaired the organizing committee of the International Conference : Recent Trends in Mathematics (ICM-SQU2024), Muscat, Oman, 4-6 March, 2024.
• Prof. Ahmad Al-Salman served as the chair of college of science 2022 Prospectus. Prof. Ahmad Al-Salman refereed papers for several mathematical journals.
• Dr. Sebti Kerbal Coordinating FracDiff research group, Department of Mathematics, SQU, 2018-present.
• Dr. Sebti Kerbal Serving external reviewer for Oman Authority for Academic Accreditation and Quality Assurance (OAAAQA), Oman.
• Dr. Sebti Kerbal Serving External Reviewer for the Director of Higher Education, Bahrain Quality Assurance (DHR/BQA), Bahrain
• Dr. Sebti Kerbal Serving Editorial Board:
• Universal Journal of Applied Mathematics, Horizon Research Publishing Corporation.
• MAYFEB Journal of Mathematics
• Dr. Nikhil Khanna continue serving as the reviewer for European Mathematical Society (zbMATH Open) and for American Mathematical Society (MathSciNet).

• Dr. Nikhil Khanna continue serving as the reviewer for the journals (i) Integral Transforms and Special Functions, (ii) International Journal of Wavelets, Multiresolution and Information Processing, (iii) Iranian Journal of Science, (iv) IEEE Access, (v) Wavelet and Linear Algebra, (vi) Poincare Journal of Analysis and Applications, (viii) Mathematics,
  8. Symmetry, (ix) Axioms
• Prof. A. Purnama was a member of adhoc committee working on a new specialization in Computational and Industrial Mathematics.
• Prof. A. Purnama was one of the invited speakers at the Mathematical Modelling Mini- Symposium, Military Technical College, Oman, February 5, 2023.
• Prof. A. Purnama was one of the (online) invited speakers at the International Conference on Mathematical, Statistical Physics, Computational Science, Education & Communication (ICMSCE 2023), Topkapi University Istanbul, Turkey, September 6-7, 2023.
• Prof. A. Purnama chaired the PhD Thesis Examination Committee: Lamia Al Farsi (ID 12241) – May 2023
• Prof. A. Purnama was a member of MSc Thesis Committee (CAMS): Farid Al Abdali (ID No 25140) – May 2023.
• Prof. Mohammad Mansur Rahman Co-Chaired the organizing committee of the International Conference : Recent Trends in Mathematics (ICM-SQU2024), Muscat, Oman, 4-6 March, 2024.
• Prof. Mohammad Mansur Rahman was a Guest Editor for a Special Issue on Thermofluids and Energy, International Journal of Thermofluids, Published by Elsevier, February 2022-December 2023.
• Prof. Mohammad Mansur Rahman continue serving as official nominator for the VinFuture Prize.
• Prof. Mohammad Mansur Rahman reviewed papers for (i) International Journal of Thermofluids, (ii) International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, (iii) International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, (iv) International Journal of Thermofluids Science and Technology, (v) Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part N: Journal

of Nanomaterials, Nanoengineering and Nanosystems, (vi) Propulsion and Power Research, (vii) Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials.

• Prof. Mohammad Mansur Rahman coordinating Nanofluid Research Group (DR/RG/04), Department of Mathematics, SQU, 2018-present.
• Prof. Mohammad Mansur Rahman examined three Ph.D. Thesis from McMaster University, Canada; SRM Institute of Science and Technology, India; Sultan Qaboos University.
• Prof. Mohammad Mansur Rahman chaired a PhD thesis defense in the Dept. of Chemistry on 26 August 2023.
• Prof. Mohammad Mansur Rahman chaired a PhD thesis defense in the Dept. of Chemistry on 4 May 2023.
• Prof. Mohammad Mansur Rahman was a member of adhoc committee working on a new specialization in Computational and Industrial Mathematics.
• Dr. Mohammad Shahryari continued by serving as reviewer for Mathematical Reviews and Zentralblat Math.
• Dr. Mohammad Shahryari served as a referee for several recognized mathematical journals and as a member of scientific committees of several international conferences.
• Dr. Omar Tout is serving as an official nominator for the VinFuture Prize.
• Dr. Omar Tout refereed two papers for two mathematical journals.
• Dr. Omar Tout continue serving as a reviewer for zbMATH and MathSciNet.
• Dr. Ibrahim Elmojtaba continues serving as an official nominator for the VinFuture Prize.
• Dr. Ibrahim Elmojtaba chaired an MSc. thesis defense in the Dept. of Earth Science on 14 May 2023.
• Dr. Ibrahim Elmojtaba chaired a Ph.D. thesis defense in the Dept. of Biology on 19 June 2023.
• Dr. Ibrahim Elmojtaba chaired a Ph.D. thesis defense in the Dept. of Chemistry on 24 August 2023.

• Dr. Ibrahim Elmojtaba chaired an ad-hoc committee for the preparation of a new and modified examination moderation form.

Serving on Editorial Boards of Journals and Chairing Conference Sessions

• Prof. Ahmad Al-Salman served as an associate editor of SQUJS
• Prof. Ahmad Al-Salman served as an associate editor of Computational Mathematics and Computer Modeling with Applications (CMCMA) journal.
• Prof. A. Purnama was chairing the ICIAM-Tokyo-2023 Session CT 137, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, August 20-25, 2023.
• Prof. Ahmad Al-Salman serves as Editor of BAREKENG: Journal of Mathematics and Its Application, Indonesia, March 2024-present.
• Prof. A. Purnama served as a member of the Organizing Committee for the International Conference: Recent Trends in Mathematics (ICM-SQU2024), Muscat, Oman, 4-6 March 2024.
• Prof. Mohammad Mansur Rahman was a Guest Editor for a Special Issue on Thermofluids and Energy, International Journal of Thermofluids, Published by Elsevier, February 2022-December 2023.
• Prof. Mohammad Mansur Rahman served as an associate editor of SQUJS.
• Prof. Mohammad Mansur Rahman continued serving on the Editorial boards for (i) International Journal of Thermofluids, (ii) Fluid Dynamics & Material Processing, (iii) International Journal of Thermofluids Science and Technology, (iv) International Journal of Heat and Technology.
• Prof. Mohammad Mansur Rahman organized a session on Mathematical Modelling for the International Conference : Recent Trends in Mathematics (ICM-SQU2024), Muscat, Oman, 4-6 March, 2024.

• Dr. Mohammad Shahryari continued serving as a member of the editorial board in the internationally recognized journals 1- Bulletin of Iranian Math. Soc. 2- Mathematics Interdisciplinary Research 3- Journal of Advanced Math. Modelling 4- Math. and Society.
• Dr. Nikhil Khanna, Serving on Editorial Board of the Journals (a) Poincare Journal of Analysis and Applications, (b) Journal of Function Spaces, (c) BAREKENG: Journal of Mathematics and Its Application.
• Dr. Ibrahim Elmojtaba served as a member of the Organizing Committee for the International Conference: Recent Trends in Mathematics (ICM-SQU2024), Muscat, Oman, 4-6 March 2024.

STUDENTS ACTIVITIES

Group: Mathematics

MEMBERS OF THE DEPARTMENT

Department of Physics

Overview

The Department of Physics has been constantly providing quality education at the undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD levels. The Department is teaching about 40 courses at the undergraduate level and 20 courses at the MSc level. The curriculum for the physics degree covers the fundamental concepts of physics and mathematics, practical training in laboratories and workshops, computational techniques and research-oriented project work. E-learning and computational techniques are being encouraged in many courses. The flexibility of the degree program permits students to earn a major in Physics together with a minor in other subjects. In addition, the Department offers physics minor in Astronomy, Medical Physics and Applied Nuclear Science. This gives students the opportunity to choose courses they enjoy and provides graduates with access to a wide variety of occupations and professional scientific careers.

The Department has a number of excellent General and specialized teaching laboratories in the fields of Electronics, Modern Physics, Nuclear Physics, Thermal Physics, Mechanics, Lasers and Optics and Computational Physics. Students receive first-hand training in Electronics, Metal and Wood Workshops. The departmental research facilities include Mossbauer spectroscopy, Faraday and VSM systems for magnetic measurements, four point probe for electrical resistivity measurements, surface science ultra-high vacuum (UHV) instrument equipped with XPS, AES, UPS and SPA-LEED, AFM, STM, MFM, vacuum coating and sputtering systems, state of the art station for the characterization of ferroelectric liquid crystals, LRC-meter for dielectric studies, surface tension apparatus, studying electrically active defects in semiconductors using DLTS, solar cell simulator, electrical characterization tools using IVT and CVT in addition to computational facilities including the high performance computing [HPC].

HoD Office

Professor Issam Ali, HoD

(PhD, Wisconsin-Madison, USA)

Zulaikha Al-Mahrooqi
Coordinator

Members of the Departmental Main Committees 2023-2024

Academic Promotion

Prof. Issam Ali (HoD-

Chair)

Prof. Hisham Widatallah

Prof. Imad Al-Omari

Dr. Alaa Ibrahim

Accreditation & Quality Assurance

Dr. Kazi Abedin

Alumni

Dr. Hajir Al-

Hamrashdi (Chair)

Ms. Amina Mohd Al

Shuelili

Appointment

Prof. Issam Ali (HoD-

Chair)

Prof. Hisham Widatallah

Dr. Sumesh Sofin Pillai

Dr. Nidhal Sulaiman

HIGHLIGHTS

The Physics Department had a lead in moving, since 2018, towards student-centered learning pedagogies to better engage our students. Several courses are now implementing active learning strategies in some form or another, ranging from large courses (PHYS2101, PHYS2102, PHYS2107, PHYS2108, PHYS3103, PHYS240) to smaller courses (PHYS3104 and PHYS3106). It is gratifying that more faculty members are experimenting with active learning strategies in their upper-level courses, including some postgraduate courses (PHYS6001).

Successful research collaborations often end with positive results. Dr. Noor Alhuda Al-Saqri secured an agreement with Prof. Henini (University of Nottingham, UK) in August 2023 to generously donate two systems, namely DLTS and a Solar Cells Simulator, for her electrical lab characterization at SQU. The combined value of these systems exceeds 50,000 OMR. This donation will enhance collaboration within SQU and other institutions.

The world is changing and thanks, in large part, to the impact of technology on societies and the workforce. This demands more skills from our graduates. As such, The Department assembled a “Future Team” tasked at restructuring the current Physics degree program to better cater to skills required by the modern workforce (critical thinking, analysis, teamwork and communication), in addition to inclusion of future technologies, such as machine learning, data science, quantum computing within our curriculum. The Future Team has started its brainstorming sessions, a first step in its efforts to accomplish this highly non-trivial task.

The Department is lucky to be successful in having some of its members promoted on a yearly basis. This year we had two successful promotions to the Associate Professor level: Dr. Abey Issac and Dr. Nidhal Sulaiman. Congratulations to both on their well-deserved promotions.

DEPARTING STAFF

None

APPOINTMENTS

None

RETURNING STAFF

None

SCHOLARSHIPS & OVERSEAS STUDIES

• Ms. Kawtar Al-Rasbi, Lecturer, started her PhD scholarship at the University of Leeds, UK.
• Ms. Rahma Al-Busaidi, Lecturer, started her PhD scholarship at the University of Manchester, UK in Sep. 2019.
• Ms. Rahma Al- Harthi, Lecturer, started her PhD scholarship at the University of Leeds, UK in 2020.
• Ms. Zamzam Al-Khalili, Lecturer, started her PhD scholarship at Imperial College London, UK in Oct. 2019.

SABBATICAL LEAVE

None

PROMOTIONS

• Dr. Abey Issac was promoted from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor in 2023.
• Dr. Nidhal Sulaiman was promoted from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor in 2023.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

• The student Anfal Al-Busaidi, BSc (2023), won second place in the National Falling Walls competition for her project "Breaking the wall of lost heat in solar cells" supervised by Dr Yahya Al Saleh. She participated in the plenary sessions and presented their work at the Falling Walls lab in Germany.

VISITING CONSULTANTS & PART-TIME INSTRUCTORS

Spring 2023:

Prof. Mohamed Elamin Elzain, PhD (Birmingham University, UK, 1978) (Visiting Consultant)
Dr. Ali Naji, PhD (Ludwig-Maximilian University, Munich, Germany, 2005) (Visiting Consultant) Dr. Ismail Zahran Al-Yahmadi, PhD (Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, 2021) (Part-timer)
Dr. Maya Al-Azri, PhD (Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, 2013) (Part-timer)
Mr. Abdulrahman Al-Dhahab, B.S. (University of Colorado at Boulder, United States, 2021) (Part-timer)
Dr. K. Venkata Madhuri, PhD (Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, India, 2003) (Part-timer)
Ms. Eklas Sulaiman Al Ghattami, B.S. (Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, 2022) (Part-timer)
Ms. Hiba Mohammed Al Aghbari, B.S. (Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, 2022) (Part-timer)
Mr. Malik Rashid Saif Al.Naabi, MSc (Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, 2019) (Part-timer)
Mr. Mohamed Abdulsattar Al-Balushi, MSc (University Sains Malaysia, Malaysia, 2019) (Part-timer) Dr. Nafeesa Rahman, PhD (Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, 2018) (Part-timer)
Miss. Shahad Name Yahya Al-Balushi B.S. (Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, 2023) (Part-timer)

Fall 2023:

Prof. Mohamed Elamin Elzain, PhD (Birmingham University, UK, 1978) (Visiting Consultant)
Dr. Ali Naji, PhD (Ludwig-Maximilian University, Munich, Germany, 2005) (Visiting Consultant) Dr. Maya Al-Azri, PhD (Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, 2013) (Part-timer)
Dr. Ismail Zahran Al-Yahmadi, PhD (Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, 2021) (Part-timer)
Dr. Humaid AlBadi, PhD (University of South Australia, Australia, 2018) (Part-timer)
Miss. Alzahra Mohammed Al Shaqsi, B.S. (Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, 2022) (Part-timer) Mr. Ahmed Al Hinai, B.S. (University of Hull, UK, 2022) (Part-timer)
Ms. Eklas Sulaiman Al Ghattami, B.S. (Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, 2022) (Part-timer)
Ms. Fatema Al Mamari, B.S. (Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, 2022) (Part-timer)
Ms. Maram Sulaiman Altobi, B.S. (Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, 2022) (Part-timer)
Ms. Rawaa Abdullah Al Hinai, B.S. (Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, 2023) (Part-timer)
Ms. Reem Al Ghribi, B.S. (Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, 2023) (Part-timer)
Ms. Taqwa Said Al RahdiI, B.S. (Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, 2023) (Part-timer)
Ms. Umaima A

VISITING EXAMINER

None

CURRICULUM

• BSc Program

The Curriculum Committee

• Performed an extensive review of the Course Data Collections Forms (CDCF) of 53 courses and updated and/or corrected numerous inconsistencies between the Department and the Admission & Registration records.
• Initialized the process of merging the introductory physics courses PHYS2101 - General Physics I with PHYS2108 - Physics for Engineers I and PHYS2102 - General Physics II with PHYS 2108 - Physics for Engineers II.
• Approved the course PHYS5120 - Physics Applications Using Data Science starting from the 2025 Spring semester.
• PHYS3106 (electronics) course was renovated by the course instructor Dr. Yahya, and transformed it into a fully active learning environment, with new teaching approach, labs, and assessment methodologies.

• Postgraduate Program
  The following postgraduate students have graduated during 2023 in the terms indicated:

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS

• Dr. Abey Issac has research collaboration with Prof. Richard Hildner from Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
• Dr. Hajir Al Hamrashdi has been collaborating with Drs. S. Monk and Dr. Cheneller from Lancaster University in the UK.
• Dr. Kazi Abedin is developing a collaboration with Prof. Kai-Eric Peiponen from University of Eastern Finland, Finland.
• Dr. Mohammed Souier has research collaboration with Prof. Matteo Chiesa from Khalifa University for working on topics of scanning probe microscopy, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
• Prof. Nazife Koca has been collaborating with Prof. Ramazan Koc, Gaziantep University, Turkey.
• Dr. Nidhal Sulaiman has research collaboration with Prof. Heather Lewandoski from University of Colorado, Boulder, USA.
• Dr. Nooralhuda Al-Saqri has research collaborations with Prof. Mohamed Henini, from University of Nottingham, Nottingham. UK, Dr. Hind Al Balawi and Dr. Maryam Al-Huways, Nourah bint Abdulrahman, Riyadh, KSA and Dler Jameel, from University of Zakho, Iraq.
• Dr.Yahya Al-Saleh has been collaborating with Prof. Mohammed Henini of Nottingham University (UK) Physics department.

STAFF TRAINING

• Ms. Rahma Al-Busaidi have completed the Graduate Teaching Assistant training at the Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Manchester, Feb 2024. She has also finished secondment at AstraZeneca, Macclesfield site, UK, July 2023 where she has developed functionalized graphene oxide membranes applicable to waste treatment including pharmaceutical waste interested by AstraZeneca.
• Dr. Yahya Al-Saleh attended "The Awareness Raising Sessions about the Strategies Used for Implementing" sessions by CETL on 09/11/2023. He has also participated in the "Summer school for teaching faculty: Designing HyFlex and Competency based learning courses" summer school by CETL from 16/07/2023 to 20/07/2023.
• Dr. Turkiya Al-Shahumi and Ms. Amina Al-Farsi attended a training course in first aid on 25/12/2023 at the College of Nursing.

STUDENT TRAINING & INDUSTRY PLACEMENT

NEW EQUIPMENT/BOOKS

Deep Freezer 100L (1pc): Manufacturer: Daewoo (116.5 OMR)
Fridge 200L (3pcs): Manufacturer: Hoover: (401.250)
Function Generators SFG-1013, (15 pcs) Manufacturer: GWinstek (1252.125 OMR) Digital Storage Oscilloscope GDS-1102B, (15 pcs) Manufacturer: GWinstek (3436.65 OMR)

Digital Storage Oscilloscope GDS-

Function Generators SFG-1013
1102B

Dr.

Nooralhuda Al-Saqri and Dr. Yahya Al Saleh have secured through international collaboration equipment for their Semiconductors lab consisting of a DLTS setup and a solar simulator (OMR 75,000).

COMMUNITY SERVICE

• Prof. Nazife Koca has served as Associate Editor for SQU Journal for Science.
• Prof. Rachid Sbiaa served as Associate Editor, Scientific Reports, Nature Publishing Group, Editor for SQU Journal of Science, Associate Editor, International Magnetic Conference (INTERMAG 2023).
• Dr. Abey Issac and Dr. Sumesh Sofin R.G organized safety seminar for Physics Students in spring and fall semesters (2023).
• Dr. Abey Issac and Dr. Alaa Ibrahim offered undergraduate summer research training for Mr. Rishin G. Anil from the University of Warwick, UK during the period from 10.07.2023 to 10.09.2023.
• Dr. Hajir Al Hamrashdi is a member of INSTA board for educators which is part of the IAEA agency, a member of the YPN which is part of CTBTO organization and a member of the World Institute of Nuclear Security.
• Dr. Sumesh Sofin Pillai organized a workshop for final-year Physics project students during the fall semester of 2023 to train them in preparing effective PowerPoint presentations.
• Dr. Yahya Al-Saleh has served in the University-level committees on "Developing and adapting EJADA KPIs for faculty" and "Developing regulations for undergraduate students' participation in International conferences and events".
• Dr. Yahya Al-Saleh led the initiation of the "Future team" at the department of Physics to develop new degree programs for the department of Physics according to Vision 2040.
• Dr. Turkiya Al-Shahumi, Mr. Ahmed Al-Khusaibi, Ms. Amina Al-Shueili, Ms. Samia Al- Mahrazi and Mr. Hamyar Al-Shukaili conducted one-day technical workshop on physics experiments on 13th November 2023 that target 21 supervisors and senior supervisors of physics at the Ministry of Education.

STUDENTS ACTIVITIES

None

STAFF

Department of Statistics

OVERVIEW

The Department of Statistics (DOS) came into existence in the year 2018 following an executive order of his excellency the Vice Chancellor that resulted in the splitting the then, Department of Mathematics and Statistics (DOMAS) into two departments, Department of Mathematics and Department of Statistics.

The department offers programs leading to the award of Bachelor of Science in Statistics (BSc. Statistics), Master Science in Statistics (MSc. Statistics) and Doctor of Philosophy in Statistics (PhD. Statistics). A general minor in Statistics is also offered to students of other majors at the College of Science.

All these programs were in place prior to the existence of the department, so a bit of history is in order. The bachelor degree in Statistics started 1993, together with degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science, under the then department of Mathematics and Computing (DOMAC). The Department of Computer Science became a separate department in September 1995, and DOMAC became the Department of Mathematics and Statistics (DOMAS). The other statistics programs that started under the DOMAS are the minor in Health Statistics (1998), Master of Science in Statistics (1999) and PhD in Statistics (2010).

Currently, the Department of Statistics is with 14 staff members and over six hundred student registrations per semester. The department offers programs leading to BSc., MSc. and PhD. in Statistics. A general minor in Statistics is offered to students of other majors in the College of Science. The department is committed to quality teaching, research and community service. It aspires to:

1. Fulfill the role of Sultan Qaboos University as the national house of expertise in the area of Statistics,
2. Open wider doors for interdisciplinary research of direct relevance to Oman,
3. Impact and invigorate SQU Statistics academic programs,
4. Pursue cutting-edge research,
5. Enhance statistical consulting and community services involvement, and Inspire new ways to work together with the community.

The Department of Statistics provides two service courses: Probability for Engineering (STAT2103) for the BSc students in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Statistics Data Science (STAT6600) for the MSc students in the Data Science and Machine learning program in the Computer Science department. Further, a part of our degree program is taken by other majors for Statistics background deemed necessary by their departments.

Members of the Departmental Main Committees

HoD Office

Moh’d Taleb Alodat
Associate Prof., HoD
(PhD, McGill University, Canada)

Ms. Afrah Alsalmani
Coordination & Follow-Up & Archives Specialist

HIGHLIGHTS DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS-ADVISORY BOARD

The advisory board for the Department of Statistics at Sultan Qaboos University was established on Fall 2023 and got approved by the Chancellor, Sultan Qaboos University on May 13, 2024. The board is composed of 10 members, with six representing the government sector, including the National Centre for Statistics and Information, Gulf Cooperation Council Statistical Center, Ministry of Transport, Communication and Information Technology, and Social Protection Fund. The remaining four members are from the private sector, three of whom are statistics graduates and founders and CEOs of their own companies, while one member is a lead data scientist at Petroleum Development Oman (PDO).

Dr. Salah Al Muzahmi Director, Research and Development Indicators Department GCC Statistical Center (GCC-STAT)	Dr. Nasser Al Khayari Director of Digital Transformation Executive Team Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology
Mr.Yousuf Al Riyami Director General of National Statistics National Centre for Statistics and Information- NCSI	Mr. Hamed Al Mashrafi Founder & CEO Data Mining Company
Mr. Hashim Al Hashmi General Director of Social Protection Services.Social Protection Fund

STATISTICS DAY

The importance of Statistics has been acknowledged worldwide, and 20 October 2010 was the first World Statistics Day to celebrate the numerous contributions and achievements of statistics in our lives. Since then, World Statistics Day was set to be celebrated every five years.

In October 2023, the Department of Statistics Celebrated the Statistics Day for the second time. The event was organized by a Departmental Promotion Committee, chaired by Dr. Maryam Al Alawi with Dr. Moh'd Alodat and Dr. Ronald Wesonga as members of the committee. The day's main attraction was a seminar with the presentation of papers and posters by the academic staff and the postgraduate students. Several researchers from different organizations in Oman also presented papers at the seminar. The event gathered professionals and practitioners of statistics from more than ten organizations, such as: SQU, SQUH, the National Center of Statistics and Information, GCC Statistical Center, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Higher Education, Research, and Innovation, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Water Resources, National University of Science and Technology, Smart Tech Oman, and DataMining Company, which was also the sponsor of the event, The event was a resounding success, and a pleasant gathering, that hold potentials of further collaborations between the department and the other institutions.

ACADEMIC REVIEW OF POSTGRADUATE PROGRAMS

The postgraduate programs, MSc. and PhD. in Statistics were reviewed by The Quality Assurance Office (QAO) during October 2023.

DEPARTMENT WELCOMES NEW STAT MAJOR STUDENTS

At the College of Science, it’s a requirement for students to major and minor in a programme of study by undertaking required courses. The Department of Statistics organized a special meeting on 19 October 2023, where the new STAT Major students were welcomed and inducted into the necessities for them to succeed, academically as well as professionally. Thanks to Dr. Iman Al Hasani for her tireless efforts in ensuring that this occasion was a success. The theme of the session was "Partners in Statistics."

MASTER AND PHD THESIS COMPLETED

• Master:
  • Student: Nadia Al Habsi (ID:40448).
  • Title: Hierarchical SVM Classifier for Diabetes Control.
  • Progress: Graduated
  • Student: Fatma Mohammed Salim Al Balushi (IdD: 52070)
  • Title: On the Choice of an Efficient Portfolio: Theory and Practice.
  • Progress: Graduated
    -

OTHER MAJOR EVENTS

• Data Science Analytics Lab (DSAL):
  • Prof. Salim Al Harthi, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs and Community Services: pledged to support DSAL to become a fully-fledged unit at the Department of Statistics for statistical consultations and emerging technologies.
  • DSAL Organized the workshop: Questionnaire Design on 19 March, 2023. The workshop was presented by: Hamed Al Mashrafi; the Founder of the Data Mining Company. The presentation slides of the workshop were published in Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7750504].

• The Vice-chair of DSAL, Dr. Iman Al Hasani provided a training course: Data Engineering using Python, Date: 2 July - 12 July 2023. The course target: Makeen Bootcamps: Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Stream- Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology - Oman in cooperation with Code Academy - Oman.
• The Vice-chair of DSAL, Dr. Iman Al Hasani contributed and participated in the R project Sprint 2023, at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom from August 30 to September 1, 2023.

• DSAL continuously provided free RStudio Help Services to STAT2101 students during Spring 2023 and Fall 2023. The same service was rendered to other students in the University.
• DSAL conducted an online meetup event “Debugging in R”, jointly with Oman R users’ group on 18 October 2023. The talk was presented by Ms. Shannon Pileggi,

Lead Data Scientist at The Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Consortium and Member at Leadership Team at the R-Ladies Gobal.

• DSAL conducted an online meetup event “Unlocking Big Data in R using Arrow”, jointly with Oman R users’ group on 8 November 2023. The talk was presented by Mr. Rahul Sangole, Data Scientist at a top technology company in the Bay Area.
• The Vice-chair of DSAL, Dr. Iman Al Hasani delivered an invited talk on Open Data for the Planning & Statistics Department, SQU on November 8, 2023.

ACTIVE LEARNING & TEACHING (DAT)

• Faculty Workshop

1. The DAT committee in the Department
   organized a workshop on 23 February
   2023 for the staff that was delivered by
   Dr. Maryam Al Alawi. The workshop highlighted the challenges the
   Department of Statistics faculty face with
   their students, and therefore more up-
   to-date teaching practices such as Active
   Learning (AL). The workshop focused on
   the definition of AL, its values and the
   role of the instructor. Further, the
   different strategies and practices of AL
   and the importance of preparing a well-
   designed course plan.

2. The Department Active learning &
   Teaching (DAT) Committee in collaboration with the Center of Excellence for Teaching and Learning
   (CETL) on the 12 October 2023 organized a training workshop delivered
   by Dr. Amal Mohammed Salim Al
   Hadabi. The DAT committee members;
   Dr. Ronald Wesonga, Dr. Maryam Al
   Alawi and Dr. Moh'd Alodat all agreed
   that it was a successful seminar whose
   outcome could be implemented to
   enhance design of course outline as well
   as assessments. The theme of the
   session was "Customizing Your Teaching
   to Outcome-based Learning, Assessment, and Active Learning."

• Active Learning Components in Statistics Courses:

1. An interactive Learning R Shiny App has been
   developed for the university elective course
   STAT2100: Discovering Statistics using R, by Dr.
   Iman Al Hasani to ease the online teaching process
   for STAT2100 students.
2. Active Learning Tasks (ALTs) are a fundamental component of the STAT2101 course. The main objective of the course ALTs is to deepen students' understanding and appreciation of statistics through hands-on experience. In the Spring and Fall 2023 semesters, the course included four structured tasks with detailed rubrics for evaluation. In addition to learning from textbooks, lectures, and labs, students carried out their own independent statistical analysis study. They applied the

data analysis tools covered in the course to open data sources or simple surveys across various fields

of study.

DEPARTING STAFF

• N/A

RETURNING STAFF

• Dr Ahmed Al-Hadhrami re-joined the department as a visiting consultant, Fall 23.

APPOINTMENTS

• N/A

PROMOTIONS

• N/A

SCHOLARSHIPS & OVERSEAS STUDIES

• Amani Al Rubkhi (Lecturer) pursues her PhD study in University of Strathclyde, UK

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

• N/A

SEMINARS AND CONFERENCES

• Prof. M Mazharul Islam
  • presented a paper entitled “Demographic transition in Oman: Fizzles and Paradoxes” at the Annual Conference of the Population Association of America (PAA), held in New Orleans, Louisiana USA, April 12-15, 2023.
  • presented a paper entitled “Rapid decline in family size in Oman: Causes and consequences” at the 8th Annual International Interdisciplinary Conference of the Gulf Studies Center at the College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar, 19-20 November 2023.
• Dr. Manoj Kumar
  • Delivered an invited talk on,” A New General Biased Estimator in Linear Measurement Error Model “at the Ninth International Conference on Statistics for Twenty First Century - 2023(ICSTC - 2023), Department of Statistics, School of Physical & Mathematical Sciences, University of Kerala, India, Dec, 15 - 18, 2023, along with a Pre- Conference Workshop on,” Distribution Theory and its Applications, Dec 13 - 14, 2023.
  • Participated in the 4th Forum for Women in Research, “QUWA: Sustaining Women’s Empowerment in Research and Innovation”, August 30 - 31, 2023, University of Sharjah, UAE.
• Dr. Maryam Al Alawi
  • delivered an invited talk on “A Full Clustering Framework for Functional Data with Down sampling Technique” at the Emerging New Topics in Functional Data Analysis Conference, IMS (10-21 July 2023), National University of Singapore, Singapore.
  • participated in the 4 th Forum for Women in Research “QUWA: Sustaining Women’s Empowerment in Research and Innovation”, August 30-31, 2023, University of Sharjah, UAE.
• Dr. Ronald Wesonga

• delivered a seminar to staff and students at the National University, Oman on Statistical Inference for the Orthogonal Factor Model on the 23rd December, 2023. This was the first inter-university seminar between the Department of Statistics and the National University within the Sultanate of Oman.

VISITING CONSULTANTS & PART-TIME INSTRUCTORS

The Department received the following academic staff as Visiting Consultants:

• Spring 2023:

• Visiting Consultant

  ■ Dr. Muhammad Idress Ahmed, St. Andrews University,

  United Kingdom, PhD in Statistical Modelling, 1988.

• Part –Time
  • Dr. Moza Al Bulushi, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, PhD in Statistics – Field Multilevel Modelling, 2015.

• Fall 2023:
  • Visiting Consultant
    • Dr. Khidir Abdulbasit, PhD 1980, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
      University, UK Applied Statistics and Design of
      Experiments
  • Part-Time
    • Dr. Moza Al Bulushi, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, PhD in Statistics – Field Multilevel Modelling, 2015.
    • Dr. Yasir Al Harthi, University of Wollongong, Australia, PhD in Mathematics and Applied Statistics – Modelling Student Flows in the Omani Higher Education System, 2021.

CURRICULUM

• A number of new elective courses began to be offered at the Department of Statistics. These included; Discovering Statistics Using R (STAT2100), Introduction to Bayesian Statistics (STAT4442) and Advanced Programming with R (STAT4443).
• An Adhoc Committee was set up by the Department of Statistics Board to study the potential introduction of specializations in the undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Statistics Degree course.
• Further revision of the BSc in Statistics Degree Study Plan for Cohorts 2021-2025 was made and the revised version approved.
• The BSc Statistics degree plans for 2016-2025 were updated to suit the current system being implemented by the Office of Admissions and Registration (A&R), including prerequisites of some courses.
• Implemented a resolution by ADUGS to revise a statement in the degree plans 2016-2025 to “All College of Science courses not used for required courses (Lists A, B, C, D, E, F, H and I) can be taken as major electives.”
• The university elective course, Discovering Statistics Using R (STAT2100), was approved to be conducted on-campus laboratory rather than the current distance learning mode
• Proposals for part-time MSc. and PhD. programs in Statistics were made and submitted to the ADPGSR who forwarded them to the PGS committee for approval.
• The course, Data Analysis (STAT5539) was recommended and approved to be a research-based course. Another course Survey Design (STAT4436) was proposed to be considered as a research-based course.

• Two Final Year Project courses, that is STAT5501 and STAT5502 were implemented, whereby supervision and evaluation of the total 6-Credit Final Year Project (FYP) course were split into two parts: Part I with a weight of 2 Credits in the first semester and Part II with a weight of 4 Credits in the second semester. Originally, it was a 6-credit course spread over two semesters, and the evaluation used to be done in the second semester for previous cohorts, before 2021.

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS

• Prof. M Mazharul Islam
  • visited Prof. Shahjahan at the Daffodil International University (DIU), Dhaka, Bangladesh, in August 2023 to hold discussions on their ongoing research collaboration. He also gave a talk during his visit to DIU.
  • visited DePauw University, Indiana Polish, USA, from 16 to 18 April 2023, as a Visiting Scholar for the following activities arranged through Dr. Mamunur Rashid, Associate Professor of the Department of Mathematical Sciences of Depauw University.
    • April 17, 2023 - (1) Delivered a lunch talk to STEM students and faculty; (2) Held office hours for students; (3) Dinner event with Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI) students;
    • April 18, 2023 - (1) Delivered a lunch talk to students and faculty; (2) met with Dr. Sharon Crary, DePauw’s Director of the Global Health Program; (3) Meeting with STEM students at the CDI; (4) Held office hours for students.
• Dr. Moh’d Alodat
  • has conducted research collaborations with Dr. Dareen Al Omari from La Trobe University, Australia. The research was on the asymptotic theory of some nonparametric estimators of overlapping coefficients. This discussion is going through the WebInar meetings.
  • has conducted a research collaboration with Professor Ayman Baklizi from Qatar University. The research was about improving the parameters estimation using further Binomial information obtained by the ranked set sampling.
• Dr. Manoj Kumar
  • Conducted research collaborations with Professor Umesh Singh, Professor Sanjay Singh Department of Statistics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India and Dr. Manoj Dubey, Department of Statistics, University of Delhi, India. The work was based on E-Bayesian Inference for xgamma distribution under progressive type II censoring with binomial removals and their applications.

Professor Anil Kumar. The research work is based upon the efficiency of the improved estimators under balanced loss in linear regression model.

• collaborating with Professor Vikas Bist, Department of Mathematics, GITAM (Deemed to be University), Visakhapatnam, India and working on a new modified generalized two parameter estimator for linear regression model.

• Dr. Ronald Wesonga
  • visited Prof. Fabian Nabugoomu and Dr. Abraham Owino of Makerere University and the East African Statistics Institute, in June 2023 to hold discussions on their ongoing research collaboration. The discussions resulted in formulation of novel theoretical underpinnings of the IG research number IG/SCI/STAT/23/02, which improves Bayesian Analysis of Dynamic Linear Models. He also gave a series of training seminars associated with Statistical Data Science.
  • drafted a proposal for International Collaboration with Concordia University, Canada in areas of staff research and student exchanges. The proposal is under consideration at the university level.
  • collaborated with Prof. David Guwatudde of Makerere University, Prof. Silver Bahendeka, Ministry of Health, Uganda on a World Health Organization (WHO) supported STEPwise approach to NCD risk factor surveillance (STEPS) National Representative Survey 2023.
• Dr. Iman Al Hasani
  • was invited to participate in R Project Sprint 2023, which was hosted at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom, on August 30 - September 1, 2023 (https://contributor.r-project.org/r-project-sprint-2023). Participation in R Project Sprint 2023 was by invitation only, with selection based on expertise and contribution history.

STAFF TRAINING

• N/A

STUDENT TRAINING & INDUSTRY PLACEMENT

Training opportunities for students in the Summer of 2023 are tabulated below:

NEW EQUIPMENTS

• Our two statistics labs are equipped with newly high-quality LED Monitors screens. They are used for lectures, presentations and other learning related activities.
• A multi-purpose room has been created in the department. The room will be used for active learning and other learning activities.
• One LED screen is mounted on the department lobby area and it is lively connected with the National Center for Statistics and Information. Live information is displayed daily.

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Dr. Khidir Abdelbasit

• Member of the Gulf Cooperation Council Statistics Centre (GCC STAT) and SQU Joint/Technical Committee
• National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) and SQU Team

Dr. Iman Al Hasani

• Vice Chair: Data Science Analytics Lab (DSAL)
• Member: Royal Statistical Society (RSS), United Kingdom
• Member & Co-organizer: Global R User Group
• External Examiner of

  Thesis Title: Constraining the Energetics and Origin of Cosmological Fast Radio Bursts in Relation to Magnetar X-ray Intermediate Flares.
  Student: Abdul Malik Al Sawafi (ID: 132530).
  Department of Physics, Sultan Qaboos University.
  Date: 24 July 2023

• Chair-person of

  Thesis Title: Geological attributes of Neoproterozoic glacial deposits: An example from Fiq and Hadash formations, Oman.
  Student: Razan Al Naabi (128592).
  Department of Earth Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University.
  Date: 05 January 2023

Dr. Ronald Wesonga

• Chair: Data Science Analytics Lab (DSAL)
• Member: Royal Statistical Society (RSS), United Kingdom
• Member: International Statistical Institute (ISI), Netherlands
• Member: International Association of Statistical Computing (IASC), Netherlands
• Member: International Academic Cooperation Committee
• Associate Editor: Frontiers of Applied Mathematics and Statistics (Q3 Journal)
• Associate Editor: Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal (Q3 Journal)
• Reviewer: Sultan Qaboos University Journal of Science

Prof. M. Mazharul Islam

• Life Member, Bangladesh Statistical Association, Bangladesh
• Member: International Union of Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP), Paris, France
• Member: Population Association of America (PAA), USA
• Member: Bangladesh Association for the Advancement of Science, Bangladesh
• Member: Bangladesh Population Association
• Member, Asian Population Association
• Member: Editorial Board, South Asian Journal of Population and Health
• Member: Editorial Board, International Journal of Community and Family Medicine
• Member: Editorial Board of EC Pediatrics Journal
• Member: Editorial Board, International Journal of Statistics in Medical Research
• Reviewed 10 papers for different peer-reviewed Journals

Moh’d Alodat

• Reviewer for the Jordan Journal of Mathematics and Statistics

• Associate editor of Sultan Qaboos University Journal of Science
• Chairperson of the MSc. Thesis by the student Lababa Al Hilali. Department of Earth Science. Defense date: September 17, 2023.
• Chairperson of the MSc. Thesis by the student Afrah Al Subh. Department of Biology, Defense date: April 1, 2023.
• Chairperson of MSc. thesis by Khoula ALkharusi, Department of Computer Science, SQU, 22/6/2023
• 4. Chairperson for PhD. By Turkiya Al-Shahumi, Department of Physics, May 17, 2023.

Dr. Mounir Arfi

• Reviewer for the SQU Journal

Dr. Manoj Kumar

• Life Member, Indian Society for Probability and Statistics (ISPS)
• Reviewer for Mathematical Reviews, American Mathematical Society (AMS).
• Internal Examiner for M.Sc Thesis of Ms. Nadia Al Habsi, Department of Statistics, Sultan Qaboos University. Thesis Title: Hierarchical SVM Classifier for Diabetes Control.
• Focal Point at SQU for Oman Qualification Framework (OQF) Listing

Dr. Maryam Al Alawi

• Member: Royal Statistical Society (RSS). United Kingdom.
• Fellow: University of Glasgow. United Kingdom.
• Member: Editorial Board. The Egyptian Statistical Journal (ESJ). Egypt.
• Reviewer: peer-reviewed paper for Journal of Classification.
• Focal Point at SQU for the National Center of Statistics and Information

STUDENT ACTIVITIES

• Statistical Forum

STATGROUP held the first Statistical Forum from 27 February to 1 March 2023 under supervision of Dr. Iman Al Hasani. The forum was inaugurated by Dr. Talal Al Hosni, the Dean, College of Science who was accompanied by the HoD, Department of Statistics.

The STAT Forum targeted students from universities, colleges and schools. They focused on introducing the basic concepts of data collection and analysis with participation of four statistical consulting companies: Data mining, Muscat statistical consulting, Bahthy platform and Alfikar statistical consulting.

The STATGROUP with the help of the data mining company collected visitors' opinions about the forum and they received about 196 responses. They received positive feedback about the forum decorations and the valuable statistical information that they introduced and shared with the public. The availability of the statistical companies attracted visitors as well and broadened knowledge about statistics. The students also appeared on different news media.

The STATGROUP designed a short video about the history of statistics and how it developed over the years. The video has been requested by one of the schools who visited the forum to be shared with their students. The video was shared with the public through the college events screen, the departmental website and social media.

• Special Video Publication

Statistics graduates: Yusuf Al Darmaki, Khalid Al Rahbi and Faisal Al Aisaee designed an Arabic video illustrating the concept of Opinion Mining and Sentiment Analysis for Arabic Tweets. The video was published in Zenodo [ https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7792563] on 2nd April 2023. Al Aisaee.F, Al Darmaki.Y and Al Rahbi.K undertook Twitter sentiment analysis with application in Arabic tweet text as a research project for their Bachelor final year

project of Statistics major. The project was
jointly supervised by Dr. Iman Al Hasani and co-
supervised by Dr. Hamza Zaidoom in 2019. The
study focused on Arabic tweets about the unemployment issue in Oman, using a trending hashtag on this topic at that time.

• Special Workshop

STATGROUP collaborated with Muscat Statistical Consulting and organized a workshop on Data Analysis using SPSS for Statistics major students. The workshop was held in two days 10th and 11th July 2023. The founder and CEO of the Muscat Statistical Consulting presented the workshop.

MEMBERS OF THE DEPARTMENT

Central Analytical and Applied Research Unit (CAARU)

Administration

Dr Suad Al Burtamani
Head
(PhD, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman)

Contacts

Mailing Address:

Central Analytical & Applied Research Unit
College of Science
Sultan Qaboos University
PO Box: 36, Postal Code: 123
Al-Khoudh Muscat,
Sultanate of Oman

Telephone & Fax:

Tel Number: (+968) 2414681/6802
Fax Number: (+968) 24146810
Email: [email protected]
https://www.squ.edu.om/science/About/Units/CAARU

Overview

Central Analytical and Applied Research Unit (CAARU) is set upped to fulfill the researchers’ demands at SQU and other institutions in and outside Sultanate of Oman in addition to analytical service requirements for non-academic organizations like ministries and companies. With more than 10 state-of-the-art analytical instruments and highly qualified dedicated team, CAARU is committed in covering wide range of applications offering multidisciplinary analytical support, in the fields of chemical, geochemical and petrochemical analysis, nanotechnology and material sciences, molecular and cellular biology, microbial identification, environmental, pharmaceutical and many other applications. The expert team is help researchers and students to design their experimental plan in order to modify or develop new methods for their analysis to help meeting their research objectives. CAARU team is further working on projects of high demand in the community by designing procedures and protocols mainly related to consumers.

CAARU is also playing part in community service by providing consultancy and analytical serviced to other organizations and individuals. In addition, the unit is offering highly specialized training and practical demos to high school students and colleges, hence has become an attractive training center to Omani and non-Omani youth, graduates and employed, who seek to enhance their practical skills and knowledge in instrumentations

HIGHLIGHTS

• First time in CAARU history from the time of its inception, we received 1224 sample analysis requests and 8170 samples.
• CAARU has successfully accomplished the repair, upgrade and preventive maintenance (PM) of most of its vital instrumentation. This was achieved with the support and coordination of the Technical Affaires Department, SQU administration and VC special budget. CAARU is very grateful for the support extended by the SQU administration and college administration in the year 2023.
• Total CAARU expenditure in 2023 was OR 204,766.0. A part (OR 49,050.12) was used for instrument repair, upgrade, PM and external ISO audit. A part of this was utilized (OR 140,000) to buy new instrument and rest (OR 15,715.87) were utilized for buying routine consumables.
• New Axia ChemiSEM was installed on the 15^th May 2023. The cost was covered from a special budget allocated by the VC office.
• Some departments in College of Science have extended collaboration to CAARU in providing access to facilities, which are not available in CAARU, thus expanding the services provided and this in turn generated revenue. One such collaboration is with Earth Science Department for using portable XRF and thin section. In Chemistry Department, CAARU had access to GCMS and TGA. College of Medicine and Health Sciences provided access to CAARU personnel to utilize their LCMS facility during CAARU’s LCMS breakdown.
• Besides the analysis through instrumentation, the unit has also provided wet lab analysis (non-instrumental). Around 22 wet lab Standard Operating Procedures (SOP's) were created, verified and approved for implementation. The SOPs include various types of titrations to analyze water and soil, edible oil analysis, PCR, gel electrophoresis, determination of cellulose, hemicellulose & lignin, FAME analysis etc.
• CAARU revenue from charged services has also increased by 62 % compared to 2022 revenue.
• Miss Zahra Al Mamari wins the best poster award in the annual research day of college of science.
• CAARU successfully completed the ISO 9001:2015 Surveillance audit in November without any major non-compliances and minor non-compliances. QS ZÜRICH Certification Private Limited conducted the ISO audit between 26^th & 27

TRAINING IN CAARU

Training and capacity building is one of CAARU’s main objectives hence. Several customized training programs are conducted in the unit for either students, graduates, or staff. This year, around 24 SQU staff participated in three-day workshops on ICP-OES and SEM, organized in collaboration with the Centre of Human Resources Development (CHRD). In addition to these workshops, various training programs were conducted to meet the needs of different groups, including graduate training, on-the-job training, and NMR software training. Also 3 Training Programs were conducted in CAARU through Centre for Community Service and Continuing Education.

STAFF NEWS

• Dr Ahlam Al Azkawi, who was the HOD & backbone of CAARU retired in June 2023.
• Dr Suad Al Burtamani took over as the acting HOD after Dr Ahlam’s retirement and currently leading the CAARU team competently.
• Ms Muna Al Hosni will be completing her masters in fall semester 2023.
• Ms Ratiba Al Mueni & Ms Asma Al Bahri are pursuing their full time PhD at SQU. One in College of Agriculture and Marine Sciences and the other in College of Medicine and Health Sciences.

CONCLUSIONS & PROPOSED 2024 PLAN

The unit has successfully achieved most of its 2023 operational plan in terms of securing the required budget for instrumental repair, upgrade and PM, that has been pending since 2020 hindering the smooth operation of the unit. That has helped in the marketing plan and attracting new customers and this was clear from the number of services provided including sample analysis and training, in addition to the generated revenue.

Maintaining high standard service and continues development will defiantly enhance CAARU’s ability and visibility in the market to serve industry as well as other academic institution across the country. The unit has gained a good reputation as a focal point for analytical services, training and consultancy.

In 2024, CAARU will continue focusing on below:

• Evaluating current CAARU’s performance and proposing for improvements.
• Maintaining instrument performance.
• Proposing calibration and test programs for improving the reliability and validity of the data reported.
• Preparation for ISO 17025.
• Promoting CAARU services to reach out more clients.
• Activating social media to serve the marketing process in the Unit
• Facilitating training programs in the field of instrumentation and analysis.
• Enhancing CAARU's community service contribution.
• Preparing for external workshops and events.
• Improving CAARU's research abilities.
• Introducing new analysis for wet lab.

IT ZONE UNIT

Unit Staff

Ms. Wasila Al-Busaidi
Head -unitl July 2023
(MSc, Liverpool Uni., UK)

Ms. Abeer Al-Siyabi
IT Technical Support- Acting Head
from July 2023

Contacts Mailing Address

IT Zone Unit
College of Science
Sultan Qaboos University
PO Box: 36, Postal Code: 123 Al-
Khoudh
Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

Telephone & Fax:

Tel Number: (+968) 24141406
Fax Number: (+968) 24413415
Email: [email protected]

Website:

http://www.squ.edu.om/science/u
nits/IT-Zone

Unit Overview

IT Zone, established in 2012, is a service unit that provides Information Technology (IT) services to College of Science community. Its mission is to provide high quality of IT services to the end-users and raise the awareness about ethics in IT. Its main objectives list includes: designing programs that satisfy the requirement of local end-users, providing a wide range of IT technical support for the local end-users, educating and training local users for better utilization of IT, and serving the community inside and outside SQU. The unit’s offices are located beside the College of Science Dean’s office, and currently since July 2023 the unit is managed by only one technical staff who is acting head and technical staff member.

HIGHLIGHTS

During the year 2023:

• Enhance the visibiltiy of the College on Social Media plaforms
• Lead the project of purchasing new computer equipment required by the departments along with Comuter User Committee. The following Table show the details:

UNIT ACTIVITIES

The unit conducted the following activities in 2023:

• Seminar Room System Project: Unit lead the upgrading of Seminar Room # 2201 with cutting-edge technology. This includes the installation of an Interactive Display, Camera, and Audio System, along with implementing a comprehensive maintenance plan to uphold the room's functionality.
• Camera: Unit purchased a proffesianl camera to be

used to coverage the events in the college.

• Adobe Creative Cloud: Unit purchased a license for
  Adobe Creative Cloud (Photopshop, Illustrator and
  InDesign) package to be used in designing the
  college posts and for the College Journal usage.
• College website (Arabic & English): the unit keep
  updating and enriching college website contents in
  both languages.
• Collge on Social Media platforms: unit lead the
  project of enhancing the visibliity of the college in the
  social media platform though its account (@sci_squ)
  on instagram & X platforme prvously know as (Twitter) to post the important infromation, news & events for college students, employees and SQU Socitey. The unit hired a student (photograher ) from TA Program aslo to support this process.

• Biology Conference Website: Unit
  devloped the website for the
  Department of Biology Confernce (The
  Second Biotechnology Symposium
  Biomedical Biotechnology) which was
  held on 5^th – 6^th of February 2024.
• Basic Photography Wrokshop: Unit
  organized a photography basics
  workshop for a number of employees interested in photography from 8^th -9^th of January 2023.
• Trainings: Unit run trainig programs for 4 students from outside SQU where they learned basic of IT troubslhooting, installing hardware & software and provide required technical support for end users.

Annual Research Report

Period: 1^st of January – 31^st of December 2023

DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS AND BOOKS
Journal Publications

1. Ali H.E., Bucher S. F., Bernhardt-Römermann M. and Römermann C. (2023). Biochar application can mitigate the negative impacts of drought in invaded experimental grasslands as shown by a functional traits approach. NeoBiota 89:239-259. IF: 5.1 (Q1 Ecology). doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.89.109244.
2. Ali H.E. (2023). Impact of climate change on rare species in arid environments. SQU Journal for Science 28(1)9-16. doi.org/10.53539/squjs.vol28iss1pp9-16
3. El-Ballat E.M., Elsilk S.E., Ali H.M., Ali H.E., Hano C. and El-Esawi M.A. (2023). Metal-resistant PGPR strain Azospirillum brasilense EMCC1454 enhances growth and chromium stress tolerance of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) by modulating redox potential, gas exchange attributes, osmolytes, antioxidants, and stress-related gene expression. Plants 12(11): 2110. IF: 4.5 (Q1 Plant Sciences) doi.org/10.3390/plants12112110.
4. Abdullah Al-Nadabi and Hameed Sulaiman (2023). Screening tree species for carbon storage potential through urban tree inventory in planted vegetation. Open journal of forestry 13 (1), 61-74.
5. Abdullah Al-Nadabi and Hameed Sulaiman (2023). Quantifying urban heat island using multiple data sources for planning a sustainable city in an arid climatic zone. Environment, Development and sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-023-04162-4.
6. Fawzy, M. A., Aloufi, A. S., Hassan, S. H., Alessa, A. H., Alsaigh, A. A., Koutb, M., & Abdel-Rahim, I. R. (2023). Sustainable Use of Marine Macroalga Sargassum muticum as a Biosorbent for Hazardous Crystal Violet Dye: Isotherm, Kinetic and Thermodynamic Modeling. Sustainability, 15(20), 15064.
7. Darwish, M. H., Sayed, A. G., & Hassan, S. H. (2023). Assessment of Water for Different Uses at Some Localities of the Dakhla Oasis, Western Desert, Egypt. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, 234(8), 516.

8. Ibrahim, A. G., Baazeem, A., Al-Zaban, M. I., Fawzy, M. A., Hassan, S. H., & Koutb, M. (2023). Sustainable Biodiesel Production from a New Oleaginous Fungus, Aspergillus carneus Strain OQ275240: Biomass and Lipid Production Optimization Using Box–Behnken Design. Sustainability, 15(8), 6836.
9. Yang, Y., Hassan, S. H., Awasthi, M. K., Gajendran, B., Sharma, M., Ji, M. K., & Salama, E. S. (2023). The recent progress on the bioactive compounds from algal biomass for human health applications. Food Bioscience, 51, 102267.
10. Al-Rawahi, W.A, Elshafie, E. I, Baqir, S., Al-Ansari, A., Wadswoth, J., Hicks, H. M., Knowles, N. j, Di Nardo, A., King, D. P., Zientara, S., Al Salloom, F., Sangula, A., Bernelin- Cottet, C., Bakkali-Kassimi, L., & Al Riyami, B. (2023). Detection of foot-and-mouth disease viruses from the A/AFRICA/G-I genotype in the Sultanate of Oman. Preventive Veterinary Medicine. 223: 106-113.
11. Tammone, Mauro N., Voglino, Damián, Cuéllar Soto, Erika and Pardiñas, Ulyses F. J.. "Resolving the taxonomic status of Ctenomys paramilloensis (Rodentia, Ctenomyidae), an Andean nominal form from Mendoza Province, Argentina". Submitted and accepted to be publish in 2024.
12. Al Shuraiqi A, Abed RMM, Al-Habsi A, Barry MJ Personality Affects Zebrafish Response to Sertraline. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry n/a: https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.5769
13. Al Marshoudi M, Al Reasi HA, Al Habsi A, Barry MJ (2023) Additive effects of microplastics on accumulation and toxicity of cadmium in male zebrafish. Chemosphere 138969. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.138969.

Water, Air, & Soil Pollution 234, 717.

17. Yaish, Mahmoud W; Sunkar, Ramanjulu; Liu, Junzhong; Varotto, Serena (2023) Epigenetic Modifications Associated with Abiotic and Biotic Stresses in Plants: An Implication for Understanding Plant Evolution Frontiers in Plant Science 13 5588.
18. Alotaibi, Khaled D; Alharbi, Hattan A; Yaish, Mahmoud W; Ahmed, Ibrahim; Alharbi, Sulaiman Almwarai; Alotaibi, Fahad; Kuzyakov, Yakov (2023) Date palm cultivation: A review of soil and environmental conditions and future challenges Land Degradation & Development 34 9 2431-2444.
19. Abumaali, Dana A; Al-Hadidi, Sara H; Ahmed, Talaat; Al-khis, Amer Fayad; Al-Malki, Sowaid Ali; Yaish, Mahmoud; Hassan, Hassan; Al-Thani, Roda; Alatalo, Juha M (2023) Bacterial community structure and predicted function in the rhizosphere of wild and cultivated date palms: Effects of Fertilizers on Composition and Functionality Ecological Genetics and Genomics 29 100195.

Books

1. Song ,Yuepeng ;Yaish ,Mahmoud ;Zhang ,Deqiang ;Zheng, Yun ;Gu ,Lianfeng ;Lee , Byeong-ha; Functional analysis of species-specific noncoding RNAs in plants 2023 Frontiers Media SA

Book Chapters

1. Raines CA, Cavanagh AP, Afamefule C, Chibani K, Gherli H, Lopez P, Mengin V, Moreno-García B, Wall S [2023]. Understanding the biochemistry of C3 photosynthesis in crop plants. Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing (ed. Dr Robert Sharwood)
2. Ahmed, A. A., Abdel Aziz, T., Mohamed, H. H. A., Shawky, M. M., Amera Sh, M., Aya Sh, M., Rasha , R. M. M., Sedky, H. H., Hassan, …… K., Hussein, F., and Ahmed, M. D. (2023). Perspective Chapter: The Toxic Silver (Hg). In "Marine Pollution" (M. Monique, H. H. A. Mohamed, B. Teresa and A. A. Ahmed, eds.), pp. Ch. 7. IntechOpen, Rijeka.
3. Delicate Salt Flat Mouse Salinomys delicatus (Braun and Mares, 1995). Capter XX Handbook of the Mammals of Middle and South America: Rodentia: Cricetidae III. Springer. In preparation.

Conference Presentations

1. Sharifa Al-Mamari , Abdel-Hamied Rasmey , Sedky Hassan, Investigating the Biosorption Capacity of the Congo Red by Penicillium citrinum. ICES2023, February 6–8, 2023, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
2. Revisiting the taxonomy of Ctenomys in northern Patagonia: new specimens and integrative new analyses. 13^th International mammalogical congress and 102^nd Annual meeting of the American Society of Mammalogist. 14 – 20 July 2023
3. Asma Al Shuraiqi1*, Michael J. Barry1 Context Dependent Behavioural Responses of Arabian Killifish to Sertraline and Predator Alarm Cues. SETAC Dublin 2023
4. Nawal Al-Jabri, Aziz Al-Habsi, Raeid Abed and Michael Barry. Effects of Microplastics on the Gut Microflora, Behavior & Histology of Zebrafish. SETAC 12th YES Meeting. Landau, Germany. August 2023
5. Sirin Adham. Loss and Gain of Function Prove that Neuropilin-1 is a Player in Breast Cancer Progression and Drug Resistance. Online conference for Scientex Conferences 7 & 8 December 2023. Oral presentation.
6. Asekova, Sovetgul; Farooq, Muhammad; Al-Sadi, Abdullah; Yaish, Mahmoud; Al- Subhi, Ali; Development of drought-tolerant bread wheat genotypes that can be grown in Oman under severe drought conditions Korean Society of Breeding Joint Academic Presentation Collection, Seoul, South Korea. 26-26th, 2023.

Other Scholarly Activities

Organizing Conferences/Workshops/Seminars

1. Organizer: First Biotechnology and Conservation symposium (Environment
   and Biodiversity Conservation in Oman).
   -Conference: Hands-on conservation of biodiversity: lessons learned, Annual
   Research Meeting, College of Science.
   -Dr. Erika Cuellar Soto participated as an invited speaker in the Arab Women
   Leaders’ Summit (Capacity Building and Awareness Raising for Women in
   Climate Action), organized by WiSER ,as part of the COP28
   -In coordination with the Environment Authority, developed six graduation projects with SQU students in three protected areas: Ras Al Shajar Nature Reserve, Al Khwair Nature Reserve, and Al Sareen Nature Reserve. In addition, 13 park rangers were involved in the systematic scientific data collection training. 2022-2023.
   -In coordination with the Natural History Museum, developed three graduation projects while working with the curator of the Scientific collections at the Natural History Museum.
2. Sirin Adham, organized student advising workshop for new faculty members at the Department of Biology, December 3rd, 2023.
3. Postgraduate Symposium, Department of Biology, College of Science. Feb.21st, 2023.

Serving on Editorial Boards of Journals
Serving on Editorial Boards of Journals and Chairing Conference Sessions

1. Associate Editor of Sultan Qaboos University Journal for Science (SQUJS) Sedky H.A. Hassan
2. Associate editor for Applied and Pure Microbiology Sedky H.A. Hassan
3. Associate editor for Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology Sedky H.A. Hassan
4. Editor in chief for the Journal of Multidisciplinary Sciences Sedky H.A. Hassan
5. Sirin Adham, Co-chaired the session “Current Status of Precision Oncology PrecisionMed Exhibition & Summit International organized by smart planet media exhibitions & conferences on 23-24- May 2023 at Dubai World Trade Centre.
6. Associate Editor for Bioenergy and Biofuels section from Frontiers in Energy Research Sivakumar Nallusamy
7. Review Editor for Bioprocess Engineering section from Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology Sivakumar Nallusamy
8. Editorial board member in international journal of nutrition ,pharmacology and neurological diseases Sivakumar Nallusamy
9. Guest Editor, Frontiers in Plant Sciences. Yaish, Mahmoud
10. Topic Editor, Cells. Yaish, Mahmoud
11. Guest Editor, Plants. Yaish, Mahmoud

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS AND BOOKS
Journal Publications

1. S Joudi, EA Khudaish, A new insight into the electrochemical activation of passive graphene oxide by reversible anodic cycles: surface characterization and electrochemical properties, J. Solid State Electrochem. 27 (2023) 3257-3267.
2. EA Khudaish, L Al Ghafri, N Al Hatmi, S Joudi, An efficient sensor based on anodic activation of graphene oxide for sensitive and selective determination of dopamine in blood serum, SQUJS 28 (2023) 17-27.
3. M Al Hinaai, EA Khudaish, Novel grid surface for creating solid-state electrogenerated chemiluminescence sensor based on Ru (II) complex doped onto AuNPs decorated Ru (II)/poly (tyramine) film, J. Solid State Electrochem. 27 (2023) 2263-2274.
4. Collective Modes, Relaxations, deVries Behavior and Field Influence in SmA and SmC*deVr Phases of Chiral Liquid Crystal Dimer C-10 Bms with Siloxy Spacer
   Ashok Kumar A.V.N.; Zoghaib W. M.; Chalapathy P.V.; Srinivasulu M.; Madhumohan M.L.N; Padmaja Rani G.; Potukuchi D.M.*.
   The European Physical Journal E, 2023, 46, 89. https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/s10189-023- 00326-2.
5. Al-Rubaiai, F.; Al-shariqi, Z. Z.; Al-Shabibi, K. S.; Husband, J.; Al-Hattali, A. M.; Goettert, M.; Laufer, S.; Baqi, Y.; Hassan, S. I.; Fatope, M. O. Isolation and Identification of Phytocompounds from Maytenus Dhofarensis and Their Biological Potentials. Molecules 2023, 28, 6077–6088. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28166077.
6. J. Caleb, U. Alshana, N. Ertaş, S. Bakırdere, Smartphone digital image colorimetry combined with dispersive solid-phase microextraction for the determination of boron in food samples, Food Chemistry, 2023, 426, 136528.
7. M. Al-Nidawi, Ö. Özalp, U. Alshana, M. Soylak, Cloud point microextraction prior to flame-atomic absorption spectrometry for the determination of zinc ethylene-1,2- bisdithiocarbamate (zineb) in food and environmental samples, Analytical Letters, 2023, 1-12.

8. B. Abdullahi, S. Ismail, U. Alshana, N. Ertaş, Smartphone digital image colorimetry combined with deep eutectic solvent-liquid–liquid microextraction for the determination of cobalt in milk and dairy products, Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, 2023, 119, 105263.
9. M. Al-Nidawi, F. Uzcan, U. Alshana, M. Soylak, Switchable-hydrophilicity solvent liquid–liquid microextraction prior to spectrophotometric determination of Sudan I dye in spices, Analytical Letters, 2023, 1-11.
10. B. Abdullahi, S. Ismail, U. Alshana, Edible oil-based switchable-hydrophilicity solvent liquid–liquid microextraction for the determination of lead in food samples using flame-atomic absorption spectrometry, Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, 2023, 105189.
11. S. Ismail, A. B. Abdullahi, U. Alshana, N. Ertaş, Switchable-hydrophilicity solvent liquid–liquid microextraction combined with smartphone digital image colorimetry for the determination of palladium in catalytic converters, Analytical Sciences, 2023, 39 (1), 97-108.
12. Adsorption of methylene blue onto hydrophobic activated carbon, Said M. Al-Mashaikhi, El-Said I. EL-Shafey, Saleh Al-Busafi, FakhrEldin O. Suliman, Sultan Qaboos University Journal for Science [SQUJS], (2023), 28 (1), 42-52. https://doi.org/10.53539/squjs.vol28iss1pp42-52.
13. Synthesis and characterization of tris (5,7-diphenyl-8-quinolinolato) aluminum (III), gallium (III), and indium (III) complexes: Effect of metal ions on the structural, UA Al-Zaabi, SN Al-Busafi, NK Al Rasbi, FEO Suliman, Journal of Molecular Structure (2023), 1283, 135303.

17.

1. U. A. Al-Zaabi, S. N. Al-Busafi, N. K. Al Rasbi, F. O. Suliman. Synthesis and

characterization of tris (5, 7-diphenyl-8-quinolinolato) aluminum (III), gallium (III), and indium (III) complexes: Effect of metal ions on the structural, photoluminescence, thermal and electrochemical properties. Journal of Molecular Structure, 2023, 1283, 135303.

18. E. E. M. Eid, A. A. Almaiman, S. A. Alshehade, W. Alsalemi, S. Kamran, F. O. Suliman, M. A. Alshawsh, Molecules, 2023, 28 (10), 4096
19. A. A. Elbashir, A. A. Alfadil, F. O. Suliman, A. O. Alnajjar. Investigation of the Interaction of Benzo (a) Pyrene and Fluoranthene with Cucurbit [n] urils (n= 6–8): Experimental and Molecular Dynamic Study. Molecules, 2023, 28 (3), 1136.
20. M. S. Mokhtar, A. A. Elbashir, F. O. Suliman. Spectroscopic and Molecular Simulation Studies on the Interaction of Imazaquin Herbicide with Cucurbiturils (n= 6-8). Journal of Molecular Structure, 2023, 1274, 134444.
21. Al-Rubaiai, F.; Al-Shariqi, Z.Z.; Al-Shabibi, K.S.; Husband, J;. Al-Hattali, A.M.; Goettert, M.; Laufer, S.; Baqi, Y.; Hassan, S.I.*; Fatope, M.O . Isolation and Identification of Phytocompounds from Maytenus dhofarensis and Their Biological Potentials. Molecules 2023, 28, 6077. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28166077.
22. R. Ilmi, J. Wang, J.D.L. Dutra, L. Zhou, W.-Y. Wong, P.R. Raithby, M.S. Khan,* Efficient Red Organic Light Emitting Diodes of Nona Coordinate Europium Tris(β-diketonato) Complexes Bearing 4'-Phenyl-2,2':6',2''-terpyridine, Chem. Eur. J., 2023, e202300376.
23. N.A. Abusail, N.A. Riyami, R. Ilmi, M.S. Khan, N.K. Al-Rasbi, An efficient pink luminescent Eu(iii) coordination polymer excited on a blue LED chip, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2023, 11, 4094-4103.
24. Haque, K.M. Alenezi, M.S. Khan, * W.-Y. Wong, P.R. Raithby, Non-covalent interactions (NCIs) in π-conjugated functional materials: advances and perspectives, Chem. Soc. Rev., 2023, 52, 454-472.

photoluminescence quantum yields and exceptional performance in OLED devices, Dalton Trans., 2023, 52, 12885-12891.

28. N. Rohman, K. Ahmed, A. A. Skelton, T. Mohiuddin, Imran Khan, R. Selvaraj, M. Yamin: Theoretical insights and implications of pH-dependent drug delivery systems using silica and carbon nanotube, Journal of Molecular Graphics and Modelling, Elsevier, U.S., 125 (2023) 108609. DOI: 10.1016/j.jmgm.2023.108609.
29. N. Rohman, T. Mohiuddin, Imran Khan: Dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide-styrene microemulsion dielectric investigation in aqueous media, Canadian Journal of Chemistry, 101 (2023) 882-891. DOI: 10.1139/cjc-2022-0262.
30. S. Indumathi, Imran Khan: Review on the recent development on ionic liquid promoted domino reactions in synthesis of eco-compatible and complex molecules, Journal of Ionic Liquids, Elsevier, U.S., 3 (2023) 100054. DOI: 10.1016/j.jil.2023.100054.
31. N. Rohman, T. Mohiuddin, K. Ahmed, Imran Khan, S. Rajkhowa, A. A. Skelton: Theoretical modelling of electrostatic interactions in pH-dependent drug loading and releasing by functionalized mesoporous silica nanoparticles, Chemical Papers, Springer, 77 (2023) 1507- 1518. DOI: 10.1007/s11696-022-02562-w.
32. M.K. Hassan, A. Farsi, M.S. Nasser, I.A. Hussein, Imran Khan: Ionic liquids and NADES for removal of organic pollutants and heavy metals in wastewater: A comprehensive review, Journal of Molecular Liquids, Elsevier, U.S., 391 (2023) 123163. DOI: 10.1016/j.molliq.2023.123163.

Book Chapters

1. A Comparative Investigation into the Mesomorphism of Series of Aromatic Naphthalen- 2-Yl 4-(Alkoxy) Benzoate and Naphthalen-1-Yl 4-(Alkoxy) Benzoate Materials. New Frontiers in Physical Science Research-V9 2023, 17-25. Zoghaib, W. M.*; Carboni, C.; Molla, M. E.; Al- Mahrezi, S.; Al-Shahumi, T.; Al-Badi, S.; Al-Farsi, M. https://www.bookpi.org/bookstore/product/new-frontiers-in-physical-science-research-vol-9/
2. NMR-based Metabolomics and Hyphenated NMR Techniques (2023), M.D. Mushtaque, Syed Imran Hassan, Syed Amir Ashraf, Ashanul Haque, In: Ethnobotany and Ethnopharmacology of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, CRC press. pp 273-289
3. M.D. Mushtaque, Md. Ataur Rahman, Imran Khan, Ashanul Haque. Chromatographic Techniques in Phytochemistry and Analytical Techniques in Elemental Profiling in book ‘Ethnobotany and Ethnopharmacology of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants’ Publisher: CRC press, Peer Reviewed Book Chapter (2023) 257. DOI: 10.1201/b22842

Conference Presentations

1. EA Khudaish “A surface network based oxidative graphene oxide for the determination of hydroquinone and catechol in ground and wastewater samples”. The International Conference on New Trends in Chemistry (18-23 May 2023), Skopje, Macedonia.
2. U. Alshana, Edible oil-based dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction prior to HPLC-UV for the determination of naproxen in milk and dairy products. IMA-2023- International Conference on Instrumental Methods of Analysis: Modern Trends and Applications (Chania, Crete, Greece: 17–20 September 2023).
3. U. Alshana, Edible oil-based switchable-hydrophilicity solvent liquid–liquid microextraction prior to smartphone digital image colorimetry for the determination of total curcuminoids in food samples. IMA-2023- International Conference on InstrumentalMethods of Analysis: Modern Trends and Applications (Chania, Crete, Greece: 17–20 September 2023).
4. Baqi, Y. & Ahmed Hussein Ismail, A.H. Microwave-Assisted Synthesis, Characterization and Crystal Structure of the Near Infrared Organic Dye (E)-3-[4-(dimethylamino) phenyl]-1-(2- hydroxyphenyl) prop-2-en-1-one. The 15^th International Kyoto Conference on New Aspects of Organic Chemistry. November 20 – 23, Kyoto, Japan, 2023.
5. Arief C. Wibowo is an invited Lecture, Petersburg Perovskite-2023 Online Summer School, St. Petersburg State University, Russia, June 29-30, 2023.
6. M. S. Khan* and Rashid Ilmi, Single component white-OLEDs derived of efficient red emitting organo-europium complex, 17th European Congress and Exhibition on Advanced Materials and Processes - FEMS EUROMAT 2023, 03 - 07 September 2023, Poster. (ONLINE).

7. Muhammad S. Khan*and Rashid Ilmi, White Organic Light Emitting Diodes of Red Emitting Octa-coordinated Tris(β-diketonato) Europium (III) Ternary Complex, 16th International Conference on Materials Chemistry (MC16), 3 - 6 July 2023, Dublin, Ireland (Hybrid).
8. Muhammad S. Khan* and Rashid Ilmi, Pure Red OLEDs From a Homodinuclear Europium (III) Complex of a β-diketone Bridged by 2,2ʹ-bipyrimidine, 5th International Conference on Light Materials - Science and Technology (LightMAT 2023), 21 - 23 June 2023 (Hybrid).
9. Nawal Al Rasbi attended the The 25^th International Symposium on Photochemistry and Photophysics of Coordination Compounds, 29 July, Uulm, Germany.
10. Imran Khan, 22^th European Conference on Thermophysical Properties (ECTP-2023), 10-13^th Sep 2023, Venice, Italy “Phase diagrams study of choline salicylate derivative-salt-based aqueous biphasic systems for caffeine extraction”.

Other Scholarly Activities

Serving on Editorial Boards of Journals

1. Dr. Wajdi is the Guest Associate Editor, Frontiers in Soft Matter (Liquid Crystals), Editorial Board member, Journal of Drug Design and Development, Editorial Board member, Asian Chemistry Letters.
2. Arief C. Wibowo is an active reviewer of Journal of Solid State Chemistry Elsevier, 10 .manuscripts in 2023 ctive reviewer of Inorganic Chemistry, ACS, 1 manuscript in 2023.
3. Prof. M. S. Khan is an Editorial Board member of a Q1 Journal titled: Polymer, published by MDPI. He served on the Editorial Board of a Q2 journal titled: The Journal of Taibah University for Science from May 2021 to April 2023, also an Editor-in-Chief of the SQU Journal for Science
4. Dr. Nawal Al Rasbi is an associate editor in the Editorial Boards of the SQUJS.
5. Dr. Imran Khan is an Associate Editor for Physical Chemistry and Chemical Physics (section of Frontiers in Chemistry and Frontiers in Physics). (https://loop.frontiersin.org/people/614391/overview). He is also a Review Editor for the journal

   ‘Polymer’

   since

   October

   2020. (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/polymers/submission_reviewers) and also Editorial Board Member of Journal of Composites and Biodegradable Polymers since November 2013.

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS AND BOOKS
Journal Publications

1. Alshohoumi, F., Al-Hamdani, A., (2023). “The Promises of AI on Radiomics for Medical Research and Its Implementation Framework”, Research Highlights in Science and Technology, 4, pp: 1-14. ISBN 978-81-19315-31-4.
2. Hajamohideen, F. Shaffi, S. Mahmud, M., Subramanian, S, Sariri, A., Vimbi, W. and Abdesselam, A. (2023). “ Four-way classification of Alzheimer’s disease using deep Siamese convolutional neural network with triplet-loss function”, Brain Informatics 10(1), pp: 5.
3. Karuppasamy, A. Abdesselam, A., Hedjam, R., Zidoum, H., and Al-Bahri, M. (2023). “Feed-forward networks using logistic regression and support vector machine for whole-slide breast cancer histopathology image classification”, Intelligence- Based Medicine, 9(6), DOI: 10.1016/j.ibmed.2023.100126.
4. AlShuriaqi, S., Aal Abdulsalam, A., & Masters, K. (2023). “Generation of Medical Case-Based Multiple-Choice Questions”, International Medical Education, 3(1), pp: 12-22.
5. AlZaabi, A. AlMaskari, S, and AalAbdulsalam, A. (2023). “Are physicians and medical students ready for artificial intelligence applications in healthcare?” Digital Health 9(1), doi: 10.1177/20552076231152167. PMID: 36762024; PMCID: PMC9903019.
6. Alqam, S., Alzeidi, N., Touzene, A., and Day, K. (2023). “Live Virtual Machine Migration in Fog Computing: State of the Art”, International Arab Journal of Information Technology, 20 (6), pp: 977-995.
7. Al-Salti, F. Alzeidi, N., Day, K. and Touzene, A. (2023). “Performance evaluation of ERGR-EMHC routing protocol using LSWTS and 3 DUL location scheme in UWSNS”, International Journal of Computer Networks and Communications, 15(2), https://doi.org/10.5121/ijcnc.2023.15201.
8. Al-Harthi, F., Touzene, A., Alzeidi, N. and Al-Salti, F. (2023). “Immersive Virtual and Augmented Reality in Healthcare: Implications of Augmented Reality Applications for Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X)”, CRC Press, pp: 119-143.

9. Al Sawafi, Y., Touzene, A., and Hedjam, R. (2023). “Hybrid deep learning-based intrusion detection system for RPL IoT networks”, Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks, 12 (2), pp: 21, https://doi.org/10.3390/jsan12020021.
10. Touzene, A., and Al Moqbali, M. (2023). “User satisfaction-based genetic algorithm for load shifting in smart grid”, International Journal of Computers and Applications, 45 (6), pp: 444-451.
11. Al-Washahi, M., Jamoussi, J., and Baghdadi, Y. (2023). “An Overview of Model- Based Testing Approaches Using Faceted Classification Framework”, Journal of Research in Computer Science and Engineering, 8 (3)

1. Book Chapters

1. Rashid, F., Al Harthi, A. Touzene, A., Alzeidi, N., and Al Salti, F. (2023). “Implications of Augmented Reality Applications for Vehicle-to-Everything” (V2X), In Immersive Virtual and Augmented Reality in Healthcare, pp. 119-143. CRC Press

2. Conference Presentations

1. Al Harthi, F. and Touzene, A. (2023). “Hybrid Cell Selection Mechanism for V2X Handover”, In the Proceedings of Inventive Computation and Information Technologies (ICICIT), pp: 641-655, Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.
2. AlZaabi, A. AlMaskari, S, and AalAbdulsalam, A. (2023).“Extraction of Breast Cancer Information from Clinical Record for Cancer Registry using Natural Language Processing”, In the Proceedings of Congress in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, & Applied Computing (CSCE) (pp. 2759-2760). IEEE.
3. Al-Kharusi, K., and Al-Abdulsalam, A. (2023). “Machine Translation of Omani Arabic Dialect from Social Media”, In the Proceedings of ArabicNLP 2023, pp: 302-309).
4. Khan, I., Al-Ghafri, M., and Abdesselam, A. (2023). “Entropy in Fuzzy k- Means Algorithm for Multi-view Data”, In the Proceedings of the 2023 International Conference on Advances in Computing Research (ACR’23), pp:120-130
5. Alqam, S., Alzeidi, N., Touzene, A., and Day, K. (2023). “Location-Aware Reinforcement Learning-Based Live Virtual Machine Migration in Fog Computing”, In the proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Advanced Computer Theory and Engineering (ICACTE) 2023 Sep 15, pp:. 242-248. IEEE.
6. Youssfi Nouira, A. and Jamoussi, Y. (2023). “Bitcoin Price Prediction Considering Sentiment Analysis on Twitter and Google News, Proceedings of the 27th International Database Engineered Applications (IDEAS’23), ACM, Greece.
7. Youssfi Nouira, A., M Bouchakwa, M., and Jamoussi, Y. (2023). “Approach Considering Collective Intelligence for Interactive Web Services Composition”, In the Proceedings of the 27th International Database Engineered Applications(IDEAS’23), ACM, Greece.
8. Al Jawhari, A., Souissi, Y., Ghommam, J., Jamoussi, Y., and Mnif, F. (2023), ” Towards an Integrated Framework for Fugitive Methane Source Localization and Monitoring in a Wireless Sensor Network”, Proceedings of 20th International Multi- Conference on Systems, Signals & Devices (SSD’23), IEEE, Tunisia.

10. Pulparambil, S, Bani-Ismail, B., Migdady, H, Baghdadi, Y., and Al-Ghafri, S. (2023). “Electronic Waste Recognition and Classification Using YOLOv8 for ICT Sector”, In the Proceedings of the 2023 24th International Arab Conference on Information Technology (ACIT) (pp. 1-6). IEEE

2. Other Scholarly Activities

Organizing Conferences/Workshops/Seminars

1. Mrs. Fatma A Raisi

• Facilitated a training program on AI at the Ministry of Information in December 2023.
• Facilitated a workshop on AI and its applications at SQU for members from SQU and from other organizations December 2023

Serving on Editorial Boards of Journals and Chairing Conference Sessions
Dr. Abdelhamid Abdessalem

• Invited Speaker for the Summer School on Natural Language Processing and Computer Vision 2023 at UTAS-Suhar.
• Served as reviewer for Expert Systems with Applications Journal (ESWA)
• Served as reviewer for Neural Computing and Applications Journal (NCAA)
• Served as reviewer for Pattern Recognition Journal (PR).
• Served as reviewer for the SQU The Journal for Engineering Research (TJER)
• TPC member of the Artificial Intelligence and Pattern Recognition 2023 Conference
  Prof. Abderezak Touzene
• Served as a member of the editorial board International Journal of Software Engineering & Applications (IJSEA).
• Served as a member of the editorial board for Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks. https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jsan/editors.
• Served as a member of the editorial board for Computer Networks & Communications: International Journal (CNCIJ). http://flyccs.com/jounals/CNCIJ/EditorialBoard.html.
• Served as a member of the editorial board for Journal Telecommunications. http://www.mdpi.com/journal/telecommunications/editors.
• Served as a member of the editorial board for International Journal of Computer & Software Engineering, an international open access journal, Graphy Publications.
• Served as a member of the advisory/editorial board of The World Academy of Research in Science and Engineering (WARSE).

Dr. Abdullah Al-Hamdani

• Served as the Chair for the IT Research Group, HM Sultan Qaboos Academic Chairs, Ministry of Higher Education, Muscat, Oman.
• Reviewer for Service Oriented Computing and Applications (SOCA) Journal.

Dr. Abdulrahman Aal Abdulsalam

• Invited Speaker for the IEEE Summer School on Natural Language Processing and Computer Vision 2023 at UTAS-Suhar on December, 12th 2023.
• Invited speaker at the symposium of New Generations of Artificial Intelligence organized by the Ministry of Transportation and Information Technology in March 2023.
• Invited speaker at the statistics day organized by the department of statistics at SQU on October 19th 2023.
• co-Facilitated a training program on AI at the Ministry of Information in December 2023.
  Mrs. Fatma A Raisi
• Invited speaker and panelist at SQU AI awareness event September 25, 2023
• Interviewed by Oman Radio on the potential and risks of AI in #الأسئلة_كل September 25, 2023
• Facilitated a workshop on AI and its applications at SQU for members from SQU and other organizations December 2023
• Designed and co-facilitated a training program on AI and its application in media and information at the Ministry of Information, December 2023
• Invited as a debater for the inauguration debate on AI at Oman Center for Debates
  Dr. Hamza Zidoum
• Served in editorial board Health Informatics Journal
• Served as a reviewer for The International Arab Journal of Information Technology: IAJIT
  Dr. Imran Khan
• Served as a reviewer for the journal IEEE Access.
• Served as a member of the Data Science group at the International Conference in Computing Research
  Dr. Rachid Hedjam
• Reviewed 1 journal: Pattern recognition (Elsevier, Q1 impact factor 8.51)
• Reviewed 2 journals: IEEE Transaction Geoscience and in Remote Sensing (Q1, Impact factor 8.12).
• Reviewer for IEEE Transaction on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.