ANNUAL REPORT - The Petroleum Institute

A year of transformation, growth and success
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. John Chai, Chair
I. Executive Summary
Over the 2011 – 2012 academic year, the
Mechanical Engineering (ME) program was
accredited by ABET (formerly known as ‘The
Accreditation Board for Engineering and
Technology’). We welcomed three new faculty
members: Dr. F. Ozturk, Dr. F. Almaskari and
Dr. T. Shahin, resulting in faculty strength of
23 members. We continue to provide our
sponsor the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company
(ADNOC) with quality graduates. Thirty-five
male and ten female students graduated and
five graduate students obtained their Master’s
degrees.
Many of our students have done well locally
and internationally. Ms. Ghena Alhanaee and
Ms. Heyam Alblooshi were selected as UAE/
NASA Research Fellows for the Spring 2012
semester. This fellowship is given to three
outstanding undergraduate or graduate
UAE nationals studying in the UAE. We are
extremely proud that our undergraduates
formed two-thirds of the UAE’s team. Ghena
and Heyam spent 15 weeks at the NASA
Ames Research Center, California, where they
performed cutting-edge research. Continuing
from her NASA experience, Ghena is currently
pursuing her Master’s degree at Stanford
University.
We are also proud of the achievements of
our faculty members. Dr. A. Goharzadeh was
promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in
September 2011; Dr. L. Khezzar, together with
his research associate Dr. N. Kharoua, won the
Filtration Award from the Process Division of
the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, UK
and Dr. R. Simmons was elected Fellow of the
System Safety Society.
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