By Bonnie James
QATAR FOUNDATION’S Education City is set to cross yet another milestone with the opening celebration of the QR520mn Engineering Building for Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) on March 19.
“The over 55,000sq m structure is designed to be the most technologically advanced engineering education and research facility in the world,” TAMUQ dean and CEO Dr Mark Weichold told Gulf Times in an interview.
A creation of the famous Mexican father-son architect duo Ricardo Legorreta and Victor Legorreta, the building features simple geometric forms and open spaces with a blend of Islamic architecture.
The complex, which sits on five acres, comprises a three-storey X-shaped research building and a four-storey academic quadrangle, connected by an open, multi-storey atrium space.
“The concept of the design is to play with light,” Qatar Foundation’s vice-president (capital project and facilities) engineer Saad al-Muhannadi explained in another interview while observing that verses from the Holy Qur’an, and wise sayings are inscribed on the walls.
TAMUQ’s interim chief information officer Khalid Sarwar Warraich said the new building is through and through wired and runs many of its basic infrastructure facilities using networking.
The complex incorporates wireless technology, with lecture hall, classroom and computer lab having complete connectivity for internal and external media feeds, including distance learning opportunities.
One of the specialities is a visualisation facility that uses immersion technology to run three-dimensional simulations and view their outcomes on a 9ft x 15ft curved screen.
The system is described as the most advanced of its kind in a university setting and equals some of the highest quality systems found in the industry.
“This gives us the ability to let our students experience simulations in an immersive environment which they otherwise would not get from a book or a normal computer screen,” Warraich maintained.
TAMUQ’s supercomputing cluster ‘Supercomputing Applications in Qatar for Research’ (SAQR), which harnesses the speed and power of over 200 processors, is also being shifted to the engineering building.
“Next year we plan on getting additional supercomputing resources as well, probably a new supercomputer,” Warraich said.
TAMUQ, which formally opened on September 7, 2003, offering four-year undergraduate degree programmes in petroleum, chemical, electrical, and mechanical engineering, has 184 students now.
Dr Weichold recalled that the growth had been on pace. “I think beginning this fall we are going to see the pace increase quite a bit. We have grown our faculty and staff a little faster than we anticipated initially. But we are very pleased,” he remarked.
There are about 45 faculty members, with over one-third from TAMU’s main campus at College Station, Texas, US. “We are getting some 20 additional faculty members for next year,” associate dean for academic affairs Dr Reza Langari said.
There has been a surge in the number of applicants to TAMUQ. “If we started off with 100 in 2003, it became 200 in 2004, jumped to 600 in 2005, before touching 750 in 2006, and for 2007, we are expecting over a 1,000,” director of admission and records, Joseph Estrada stated.
A total of 29 freshmen students enrolled in 2003. “The number went up to 60 in 2004, became 63 in 2005, 53 in 2006, and now we are looking at a freshmen class of closer to a 100 this fall,” Estrada explained.
The student body, with 55% Qataris, represents 23 countries. Four chemical engineers are likely to graduate in December this year, and 20 more graduates from all the four programmes are expected in May 2008.
TAMUQ is slated to be the first branch campus in Education City to offer a graduate degree programme in the fall. “I would like to be able to make the announcement sometime this spring,” revealed Dr Weichold.
Even as they are awaiting the final authority from Qatar Foundation to proceed, TAMUQ is preparing to conduct a survey to determine which programme would have the greatest demand, and to respond accordingly.
Director of student affairs, Dennis Busch, observed that the students were “incredibly excited” about moving to the new building.
“The very first batch that we brought back in 2003 will finally get to spend at least their last year or in some cases a year and a half in the new facility,” he said. |
