“Making Clever Minds Active” – Football and Basketball Tournaments held

To connect with each other, between students and staff members and to enhance their overall well-being, GUtech has launched a series of Tuesday sports outdoors and indoors competitions. After having held table tennis and badminton competitions recently, a total of 96 students and staff participated in the Football 6aside competition and 14 participated in the Basketball 3on3 indoor games last week. Therefore, opening up the brand new grass football field in front of the GUtech campus building. Two matches were held at the same time and the competition was sponsored by Strabag Oman. In addition two referees from Oman Football Association (OFA) participated in the games.

“In times when everybody is connected via social media, physical sports activities are important to improve the overall well-being and to connect with each other. While playing students and staff have to communicate and engage with each other on the field,” said Gunhild Pfaff, manager of the Sports office at GUtech.

“For playing 6aside you have to be quick and fast,” said Ghassan Al Shaaili, Foundation Year student in Engineering who is a member of the GUtech futsal team. He does sports every day along with family members or friends. I go to the gym in the mornings and throughout the day I like to play badminton, table tennis, or beach volleyball. Sports make a person fitter and healthier,” he said while adding, that he has to carefully manage the time for sports and studies. “Outside the university I like to play football with friends on the beach or on an artificial grass field,” said Amar Dahir, 1st semester Process Engineering at GUtech. He and his team were successful during the matches. To continue throughout summer indoor competition for Women and men like futsal, table tennis and dancing are planned.

 

The winning teams were:

Football competition:

  1. Place: Libya: Marwan Al Mahrouqi, Saleh Al-abadi, Atallah Kubas, Amur Al Wahaibi, Ali Al Hajri, Abdulaziz Al Ma’amari, Anas El Bera and Sanad Al Harthi
  2. Place: Black star: Musaab Amer, Said Al Harthi, Mazin Al houti, Hassan Al sahlani, Abdullah Al Rawahi, Mohammed al Busaidi, Mansoor al Kindi and Laith Saeed AlKharusi
  3. Place: Escobar: Al Mahanad al Ghafri, Sultan al Karosi, Haitham al Waaili, Qusai al Hajri, Al Yagdhan, and Qabas Al-Khusaibi

 

Basketball competition:

Ammar Al Aghbari, Said Al Ofi and Tim Reisdorf claimed the win of the tournament over Ferdinand Marcelo, Omai Albalushi, and Chaudhry Taimoor Niaz.

Third place was earned by Ali Mansuri’s team with Baha Al Kahlawi and Mohammed Mansuri.

 

 

Students present their videos in German

Thirty-two groups of students from GUtech have presented their projects on “German Celebrations throughout the year” on Tuesday afternoon to the public. On the sidelines GUtech staff members and students were invited to taste Christmas cookies and cake. “The aim of the project is to work in a group and to use basic vocabulary to describe German festivals by applying it for example to a theatre play, a short movie, a newscast, a shadow-play or a comic. Most of the groups decided to produce a video of their projects at GUtech or in their home environment,” said Andrea Cornelissen, DAAD Representative and German lecturer at GUtech. Cornelissen and her colleagues of the German Department gave the students various suggestions, regarding religious holidays or more secular ones like the German National Day celebrated on the 3rd of October each year to commemorate the German Reunification.

Several groups created a film about the German National Day. The students did not have a lot of time to realize the movie. “We realized the project in between our assignments. To get some background information we interviewed GUtech interns who are from Germany. They told us about the history of the reunification,“ said Atheel Al Fouri, 4rd semester student in BEng Environmental Engineering. “For us German is not a difficult language, since it is close to English. I can understand more than I can speak,” she said. Her friend Thikra Al Harrassi, BEng Environmental Engineering enjoys studying German at GUtech. “It’s a beautiful language. We would like to practice more,” she said. Both students are looking forward to attend an Engineering laboratory course at GUtech’s partner-university RWTH Aachen in Germany in the 7th semester of their study programme.

At GUtech German is taught as a second language, since English is the language of teaching. All students study German for 3 semesters within their Bachelor programmes. The goal is to acquire a basic level of communication in German, including conversations while traveling within the country. For everyday use, in Germany, Austria and Switzerland German is the official language and it is necessary for foreigners to know its basics.

 

5th Graduation Ceremony held

The 5th Graduation Ceremony was held at GUtech on Sunday evening, 11th December. A total of 69 Omani and Non-Omani graduates, 42 females and 27 males, were celebrated during an official ceremony held in the auditorium of the campus in Barka. The ceremony was held in the presence of members of the Majlis Al Dowla and Majlis Al Shura as well as members of the Board of Governors of GUtech and other dignitaries, GUtech staff members and families of the graduates. The Rector of GUtech, Prof. Dr. Michael Modigell, encouraged the students to search for jobs that are in harmony with their personalities “Only then you will be successful. Do not work just for money and do not stop learning,” he advised the students.

The students graduated from Bachelor of Science programmes in Urban Planning and Architectural Design, Applied Geosciences, Sustainable Tourism and Regional Development as well as Bachelor of Engineering programmes in Process Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. Most of the graduates have found jobs in the private and government sector.

German State Secretary and his delegation visited GUtech

HALBAN The Rector of GUtech, Prof. Dr. Michael Modigell received Matthias Machnig, State Secretary at Germany’s Ministry of Economy and Energy and his accompanying business delegation on campus. The delegation was accompanied by H.E. Hans-Christian Freiherr von Reibnitz, German Ambassador to the Sultanate. The Rector introduced the State Secretary to the university, its faculties, their research activities and future development plans. The delegation was on a two-day exploratory visit to the Sultanate. Members of delegation represented various industry sectors such as agriculture, engineering, construction, logistics, health services, business consultancy as well as lawyers.

GUtech Programming Team wins Gulf title

A GUtech team named ‘GUtech Eagles’ has won the title of ‘Gulf Champions’ during the 2016 Arab Collegiate Programming Contest (ACPC) held in Egypt. The programming team was the most successful among other GCC teams. The contest was sponsored by IBM.

The GUtech team included Prof. Dr. Rudolf Fleischer of the Department of Computer Science (Coach) as well as Abir Al-Ansari (Contestant), Neeraj Krishnan Gopikrishnan (Contestant) and Maram Mohamad (Contestant).

“Reconnect through Sports” – Bandminton Tournament held at GUtech

HALBAN Under the motto “Reconnect through sports” the Tuesday Champs series continued yesterday with their second doubles tournament in Badminton at GUtech. In an effort to build bonds between the students and the university the second monthly sport competition was held at the GUtech sports hall. “This extracurricular activity is thought to promote involvement on campus and to give a platform for interaction between GUtech students and staff. Due to a random drawing, the players came to the sports hall not knowing who their partner will be. It led to a thrilling tournament but also to meeting new people and engaging the interaction between students and staff,“ said Gunhild Pfaff, Manager of the sports office at GUtech.

Several badminton players were fighting until the last and even bringing out some great attacks. Finally  Taahirah Khaleque and Markus Gelfgren walked away as the winners of the tournament, followed closely by Geetanjali Sambangi and Ferdinand Marcelo in second place. Showing strong strategic tactics, Tim Reisdorf and Markus Graminsky took 3rd place. Due to the support and generosity of our sponsor Supa Sportsman LLC, those three teams received high value Badminton rackets to further their love to the sport. With over 22 players and a total of 20 games, this successful tournament was sponsored by Supa Sportsman LLC. “It led to a fun and engaging afternoon and attracted during the competition many visitors. Especially the final was a great taste of the whole tournament as it was thrilling and nerve racking to the same time,” said Maia Kuhnen, who is currently supporting the sports office as an intern and is leading various sports activities throughout the week.

“We would like to thank everyone who came out to watch and especially those that came out to participate and showed inspirational sport spirit. We look forward to doing the next Tuesday Champs session on Tuesday, 13 December with the Basketball and Football tournaments,” said Gunhild Pfaff.

“An Encounter between Places and People” – Omani-German Art Exhibition held in Berlin

An exhibition entitled “Omani Architecture in the Eyes of Omani and German Students” showcasing water color and freehand drawings of diverse landscapes and urban features in Oman was inaugurated at the Omani Embassy in Berlin (Germany) last week. The exhibition shows results of a joint Omani-German student field excursion conducted in March this year by Prof. Gazmend Kalemi of the Department of Urban Planning and Architectural Design (UPAD) of GUtech and Prof. Gerd Sedelies of Beuth University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, Germany.

A group of 10 German students from Beuth University and 10 Omani students from GUtech were involved in the elective course. To be actively engaged with the place, the students travelled around Oman for ten days and captured with their pencils or water colors various places and prestigious landmarks such as the Royal Opera House, Old Muscat, Sur, Ruwi, Al Hamra and Misfa Al Arbeen. “We were honored to visit several wonderful and truly inspiring locations, where we tried to embody the atmosphere and to understand and respect the richness of Omani culture with drawings on paper. We combined together with students from Oman focusing on both contemporary architecture and historical features,” said Prof Gerd. “Art has a long-standing tradition in many architectural programmes around the world. The computer has had an enormous influence on architectural design in recent years. However, freehand drawing is a very useful tool in order to capture different atmospheres as well as the visualisation of ideas,” said Prof. Gazmend Kalemi, who is teaching drawing to architecture students at GUtech. “We do not teach a certain style of drawing but we try to encourage the students to find or believe in their own capacity of expression,” said Prof. Gazmend.

The field-trip was part of a cooperation agreement between both universities in order to enhance student exchange and knowledge transfer. The UPAD Department of GUtech recently participated in an Architecture Summer School at Beuth University and is planning to promote similar field excursion in and around Berlin next year. “We would like to enhance our common activities in drawing and architectural design between the German and Omani students so that those activities will be fruitful outcomes of their entire higher education,” said Prof. Alexander Kader, Head of the UPAD Department.

GUtech offers a four year, internationally accredited degree in Urban Planning and Architectural Design (BSc).

GUtech students succeed in World Robot Olympiad

HALBAN At the recent World Robot Olympiad (WRO 2016), held from Nov 25 to 27 in New Delhi, India, the GUtech Robo1 students team finished 29th in the Advanced Robotics Challenge in a field of 52 teams from all over the world.

The first two top teams were from Taiwan, the third place came from Russia. The GUtech team was ahead of the other GCC teams in the contest, 33th place was the team from AMA International University, Bahrain, and 42nd place the team KuBo from Kuwait. The GUtech Robo1 team is grateful to the Ministry of Education for having been selected as the team representing Oman at the WRO 2016. “The robot of the GUtech team was built using Tetrix and the Lego EV3 brick as controller. The task of the contest, building a bowling robot, had been announced about a year ago. Since then, all teams had been busy building and fine-tuning their bowling robots. The best teams from each country were then selected in national contests to represent their respective country at the world finals in Delhi,” said Prof. Dr. Rudolf Fleischer of the Department of Computer Sciences at GUtech.

The World Robot Olympiad has been an annual event since 2004. It brings together young people from all over the world to develop their creativity, design and problem solving skills through challenging and educational robot competitions and activities. This year, the world finals were organized by the India STEM Foundation and the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM under the general theme of “Rap the Scrap” – meaning that all games in the Regular and the Open Category were focused on reducing, recycling and managing waste.

Next year, the WRO 2017 will be held in Costa Rica. The Advanced Robotics Challenge will be to build a robot playing Tetris.

The GUtech team, all students of Engineering Department, consisted of:

Prof. Dr. Rudolf Fleischer, coach

Neeraj Gopikrishnan, captain

Marwa al Mahruqi, member

Muzna al Hadhrami, member

Maather al Qasmi, reserve member

Design Lecture on Urban-Land-Art

Halban A special lecture entitled “Urban-Land-Art” was held by the architect Ercan Agirbas from the University ETH Zurich (Switzerland) at the GUtech’s Department of Urban Planning and Architectural Design last week. “Land arts are like sculptures. The fascination of urban and land art is to realize ideas by using material that is already existing in our environment. I try to learn from artists. In order to feel the soul of a certain space, we need to act and think as architects and as artists,” said the architect who has realized a number of international projects mainly in the city of Gelsenkirchen, Germany and as well in Istanbul, Turkey. He has offices in both countries.

“To realize an architectural project architects need to work between the analysis and the planning. We always try to create a soul of the city. After having an idea you have to work with urban planners and architects to realize the development plan,” said Agirbas. In this context, Agirbas has realized a water design work in a park in Strasbourg, France and bus stops within the public transportation network in the city of Riyadh.

During his lecture the architect showed examples of landscape works by James Turrell, who works with light as well as examples by Mark Boyle and Olafson. Turrell has realized a light tower in the desert of Nevada while Olafson created a waterfall under a bridge in New York. Turrell also created frames or sky windows to lighten up the spaces inside buildings.