HIGHER COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

I T NEWSLETTER

DEPARTMENT OFINFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

V o l . 1 , I s s u e 0 4D e c e m b e r

HOD'S MESSAGEWelcome to the December 2016 issue of this IT Newsletter!The positive and concerted contribution of the staff, students, and other stakeholders over the past semester had created overwhelming success! The month of December intensively focused on the areas of industry engagement, staff development, training events, course projects, course evaluation, social responsibility, bench-marking, alumni, and staff social gathering.

As we are at the threshold of Semester II, I am pleased to welcome you for a more challenging and stimulating semester ahead which would entail the same level of enthusiasm and commit-ment! Each one of us is geared towards a shared goal! One for all… all for one vision which is “to lead a technological institution, providing high quality teaching and learning to prepare and empower the Omani professionals of the future so that they can contribute to national socio-eco-nomic development.” Dr. Huda Al-Shuaily

Head of IT Department

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NEWSLETTERSUB-HEADINGS

I T NEWSLETTERALUMNI CORNER

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I graduated from Muscat Technical Industrial College (now, Higher College of Technology) in 1998 with General National Vocational Qualifi-cation (GNVQ).

I joined the Ministry of Electricity and Water in 2000 as Accountant Clerk. In 2003, with the inte-gration of the electricity sector and water with housing, I joined the Ministry of Housing Electrici-ty and Water. In 2007, as per the Royal Decree No. (92/2007) establishing the Public Authority for Electricity and Water (PAEW), I became the Payment Section Head. Currently, I am the Administrative Support Manager in Customer Services of PAEW.

I have the following points I wish to share among the new graduates to help them build their own careers: (1) Create a resume/CV and build on it and move forward, (2) Seek out experts to guide career journey, (3) Do some research about the market, (4) Find a suitable job, training or intern-ship programs to gain professional experience immediately after graduation, and (5) Expand one’s social network such as meeting profes-sional people in order to build one’s professional network. Finally, do not put limits on your ambition and mark always high goals and be sure that ‘Noth-ing is Impossible’, the word itself says 'I'm Possi-ble'. ***

Yasser Mohammed Al-Rawahi

In the pursuit of producing competitive graduates with strong technological and personal skills, the department conducted a discussion session last December 06, 2016 in N310. The session started with a Bachelor Course Proj-ect Presentation entitled “Course Project Management System”. Subsequently, Ms. Areej Al-Majed (Head, Course Project Steering Committee) discussed about Course Project for all three levels (Diploma, Advanced Diploma and Bachelor) and its areas, requirements, supervisor-reviewer roles and other factors what we follow in our curriculum. The quality of reports, systems and applications, evaluation forms, and procedures had been discussed substantially.

Industry and Academia Collaboration

The following industry representatives attended the session: Mr. Rashid Al Salmi (CEO, Insight Company), Mr.Nasser Al Manji (Global Solution Company), Mr. Abdullah Salim Al Hassni (IT Manager, Ministry of Legal Affairs), Mr. Said bin Ahmed Al Mahruqi (Head of Infor-mation Security, Ahli Bank), and Mr. Ahmed Said Al Shuaili (Training Officer, Oman Data Park).

On the other hand, the following IT staff joined the session: Dr. Huda Salim Al Shuaily (Head of IT Depart-ment), Dr. Fatema Saif Al-Yazeedi (Head of IT Section), Mr. Talib Al-Mahruqi (Head of Multimedia Section), Dr. Kauthar Thani Al-Khaifi (Head, Industrial and Social Engagement Committee), Dr. Manal Al-Rawahi (Net-working Lecturer), Dr. Vinu Sherimon (Head, Academ-ics), Ms. Areej Almajed (Head, Course Project Steering

Administrative Support Manager in Customer ServicesPublic Authority for Electricity and Water (PAEW)

“Do not put limits on your ambition...”

External reviewers from various Omani Companies and institutions were invited during the Bachelor Course Project Final Presentation held last December 15, 2016. Fifteen course projects were evaluated by the following industry representa-tives: Mr. Abdullah Salim Al-Hassni (Ministry of Legal Affairs), Mr. Bader Hamed Al-Shukaili (Ministry of Education), Mr. Mallikarjuna Jana (ITA), Mr. Mo-hammed Ali Al-Harmali (ETC-HCT), Mr. Mohsin

COURSE PROJECT EXTERNAL REVIEWERS FROM INDUSTRIES

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PANEL DISCUSSION: RESEARCH FUNDING AND OPPORTUNITIES

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Dr. Huda Al Shuaily, head of IT Department, was one of the panel members of the panel discussion during the 3rd National Workshop on Effective Research Practices organized by Arab Open University last December 15, 2016 held in Majan Continental Hotel. Other panel members include Dr. Moosa Al Kindi (Arab Open Univer-sity), Dr. Obaid Al Saidi (The Research Council), Dr. Oualid Ben Ali (German University of Technology), Dr. Joseph Mani (Modern College of Business and Science), and Dr. Muna Al Kalbani (Arab Open Universi-ty). The panel moderator was Dr. Sherimon P.C. (Arab Open University). The panel discussion mainly looked

Al-Salmi (Insight Company), Mr. Muhannad Al-Naabi (ITA), Mr. Rashid Salim Al-Salmi (Insight Company), Mr. Ibrahim Al-Harthi (ETC-HCT), and Mr. Wahab Salim Al-Husaini (ETC-HCT). Some of the systems that were evaluated include: mobile systems, online systems, edutainment systems, database systems, networking and telecommunication systems, and information systems. ***

Committee), Mr. Ahmed Al-Qasmi (Head, OJT-IT), Mr. Saju Mohanan (Member, OJT-IT), Mr. Babusab Nadaf (Member, QA), Mr. Mohammed Said Sulaiman Al Bahri (Internet and E-Security Lectur-er), Mr. Farhan Ghafoor (Database Lecturer), Ms. Praba P. (Networking Lecturer), Ms. Juliet Ramos (IS Lecturer), and Mr. Ruel Michael Gilbang (Soft-ware Engineering Lecturer). ***

course evaluation throughseminar-workshop

STAFF DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE

E-LEARNING PAGE

As part of course evaluation and curriculum review, Ms. Rachana Marathe, Software Engineering Lectur-er, and Mr. Farhan Ghafoor, Database Lecturer, had conducted a seminar-workshop on course evalua-tion of the newly-offered course called Fundamen-tals of IT (ITIS101) last December 21, 2016. The following had been discussed: Course Outcomes, Course Material Chapters, Assessment Plan, Course Teach-ing Strategies, Logisim as Logic Design Simulator, and Scratch as a visual programming language. ***

NEWSLETTERSUB-HEADINGS

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IT STAFF PARTICIPATION IN RESEARCH-ORIENTED EVENT

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Dr. Ben George Ephrem, Software Engineering Lecturer, conducted a session entitled “Data Analytics: Transforming Data into Actionable Insights” during the 3rd National Workshop on Effec-tive Research Practices organized by Arab Open University last December 15, 2016 held in Majan Continental Hotel.

Other IT staff who participated during the event were as follows: Dr. Brijesh Jajal, Dr. Dhanasekar Natarajan, Dr. Madhusudhana Rao, Ms. Juliet Ramos, Ms. Mercy Claravall, Ms. Rowena Simplina, Mr. Saju Mohanan, Ms. Shaniba Ibrahim, Ms. Sunitha Cheriyan, and Ms. Susan Theresa. ***

The Staff Development Sub-Com-mittee has been maintaining an e-learning page for sharing and exchange of knowledge among the staff. The page contains the following three different sections:

into the different opportunities for research funding and the new ways to tackle challenges in the current economic situation in Oman. The panel members had different essential points of view but all share the same belief that there is a need to look into the academia and industry collaboration not only within the country but also outside Oman. ***

(1) The Seminars/Workshop section contains presen-tations, resources, and discussion forum about a recently-concluded seminar/workshop; (2) The Upcoming Event/Reservation section provides the details about any upcoming seminar/workshop and allows staff to register such an event; and (3) The Feedback section creates a link for staff feedback on events attended. ***

4TH EXPO SCIENCE ASIA 2016

represented by the Ministry of Education, had orga-nized the 4th Expo Science Asia which aimed to refine scientific and innovative skills of students and youth and to recognize their efforts on scientific and innovative projects. ***

I T NEWSLETTER

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Dr. Huda Al-Shuaily, Head of Department (HoD), met the heads of various department committees last December 21, 2016 in N239 to check their task com-pletion progress curve on Operational Plan imple-mentation. Each head of department committee was given an opportunity to talk about their achieve-ment, challenges, issues, and other concerns. All the committees had been requested to submit a Com-mittee Achievement Report to the HoD at the end of every semester. The HoD, in coordination with the Quality Assurance Committee, will be checking the OP Monitoring Sheet once in a week. ***

RESEARCH AREAS OF STAFFThe IT and Math staff conducts high quality research in the fields of Big Data, Data Analytics, Website Usability, Graph Theory, Wireless Ad hoc Networks, Power Consumption in Networks, Routing Algorithms, Mobile Applications, Wireless Sensor

Image Detection, Fraud Detection, and Risk and Vulnerability Analysis. The Research and Develop-ment Committee provides the following links to check the impact factor and validity of journals: http://www.scimagojr.com and http://ip-sci-ence.thomsonreuters.com/mjl. ***

HOD’S END-OF-SEM MEETING WITH COMMITTEE HEADSDr. Huda Al-Shuaily,

Head of IT Department, attended the 4th Expo Science Asia 2016 last December 13, 2016 at the Sultan Qaboos University. The Sultanate,

Benchmarking: Course Project The Academic Link Com-mittee headed by Mr. Mo-hammed Mushtaq invited Dr. Reshmy Khrisnan, Head of IT Department of Muscat

College, to evaluate course project practices of the IT Department, HCT last December 19, 2016. The main aim of this initiative was to benchmark on the good practices related to course project. ***

Staff Induction on CIMS

The Advising and Registration Committee conduct-ed a training-workshop on CIMS and Registration last December 19, 2016 in N222, HCT. The Depart-ment Registrars, Ms. Jeba Roseline and Mr. Rishi Shankar Verma, conducted the said training with the following staff: Dr. Fatema Saif Hamood Al-Ya-zeedi, Dr. Abraham Varghese, Dr. Mohammed Said Sulaiman Al-Bahri, Ms. Shqran Shakir Abdulwahab, and Ms. Shradha Dwivedi. ***

I T NEWSLETTER

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The Social Committee of the IT Department organized a send-off party for Mr. Obaid Siddiqui, Networking Lecturer, last Decem-ber 20, 2016 in Al-Ghu-brah beach.

EDITORIAL BOARD

Moderator: Dr. Huda Al-ShuailyEditor-in-Chief: Dr. Amando P. Singun, Jr.Graphic Designer: Mr. Waleed Al-Barwani Content Editors:1. Mr. Talib Al-Mahruqi2. Dr. Kauthar Al-Khaifi3. Dr. Vinu Sherimon4. Ms. Jacqueline Fat RayaContributors: Department CommitteesPublicity: Ms. Samar Abdullah Al-Araimi

Benevolent Gesture

The Social Committee initiated the benevolent and voluntary gestures of thanksgiving and generosity of the IT staff by collecting petty amount that had been distributed to the staff of Al Naba Services last December 22, 2016. Their housekeeping services in the college, especially to the IT department, over the past few years deserved an appreciation. ***

Send-Off Party

The party was highlighted by barbecue-making, outdoor parlor games, and chit-chatting. ***

UPCOMING EVENTs. . .techno kid workshops

A 5-day Fast Track Training Program to be conducted by ITA-Center of Excellence on Mobile Application Development among the IT students and staff on January 25-29, 2017.

The training program includes theory and practical sessions on Hybrid Mobile Application Development and Android Application Development. ***

Workshop on Smartboard

Mr. Sean Tan Cordero, ETC Staff, conducted a work-shop related to the use and features of smartboard last December 1, 2016 in N426. The following new lecturers attended the said workshop: Dr. Kauthar Al-Khaifi, Dr. Abraham, Mr. Mohammed Al-Bahri, Ms. Shqran Shakir Abdulwahab, and Ms. Shradha Dwivedi. ***

The Industrial and Social Engagement Committee will be conducting technical training-workshops among school students on January 15-26, 2017. The topics include open source programming, virtual program-ming, web expression, and network session simulator. Technical trainers are IT students of Higher College of Technology. ***

Fast Track Training Program