The Faculty of Information Technology and Computer Science at Yarmouk University has strengthened its progress in computer science and information systems according to the University's QS Global Ranking (550-500), thus exceeding 50 places compared to last year.
The President of the University, Prof. Nabil Hailat, said that this achievement reflects the spirit of development and innovation of this faculty and the keenness of its professors to reflect their excellence and scientific and research diligence. Hailat also urged other faculties to strive and pay attention to research and scientific publication in the finest scientific journals in the world to obtain such classifications, which contributes to the high status of Yarmouk University.
The Dean of the Faculty, Dr. Samer Samara, thanked the university administration for its support and encouragement of the faculties to move forward towards excellence, explaining that QS is one of the greatest systems adopted globally to evaluate educational institutions according to specialization. He added that this achievement of the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Systems reflects the good reputation of the graduates and the research and academic excellence of the faculty members.
For his part, the Director of the Accreditation and Quality Assurance Center, Dr. Abd al-Khataiba, stressed the importance of this achievement for the faculty as well as the university and the importance of this classification in achieving quality standards for the university. He noted the importance of publishing distinguished scientific research by faculty members in international classified and prestigious scientific journals.
The President of Yarmouk University, Prof. Nabil Hailat, received the Mexican Ambassador to Amman, Reberto Rodríguez-Hernández, and the accompanying delegation, where they discussed possible future cooperation between Yarmouk University and the Mexican Embassy in Amman on the one hand, and between the university and various educational institutions and academic institutes in Mexico on the other.
During the meeting, Hailat stressed the university's keenness to establish bridges of cooperation with universities and educational institutions in different countries of the world, which comes within the framework of the South-South cooperation supported by the United Nations to encourage the independence of the developing countries and enhance their capabilities to find solutions to their development problems. Moreover, Hailat pointed out that Yarmouk University is ready to discuss possible ways of cooperation with various educational institutions in Mexico, especially in the field of exchange of students, faculty members, and conducting research and scientific projects of common interest. He added that the Corona pandemic has cast a heavy shadow on all countries of the world and that Yarmouk University embodying the visions and directives of His Majesty King Abdullah II seeks to turn the challenges and consequences of the pandemic into real opportunities for development, progress, and networking with various international universities, especially through the digital world and distance education programs.
For his part, the Mexican Ambassador expressed his thankfulness of such a meeting, stressing that many Mexican universities have expressed great interest in cooperation with Yarmouk University due to its scientific and academic reputation. He also pointed out the possibility of intensifying cooperation between the Mexican Embassy in Amman and Yarmouk University through a memorandum of understanding between Yarmouk and Mexican universities in all areas of common interest, emphasizing the possibility of benefiting from the prohibitions and closures of the Corona pandemic in establishing joint educational and training programs between Yarmouk University and a number of universities in Mexico.
The Faculty of Law at Yarmouk University won the second place in the seventh session of the "Arabs Mock Trial" competition organized by the Kuwait International Law School (Kuwait) in cooperation with the Faculty of Law at Sultan Qaboos University (Oman) in the academic year 2020-2021, with the participation of more than (17) faculties of law from various countries of the Arab world.
The participating team of Yarmouk University was represented by the Assistant Dean of the Law Faculty, Dr. Mohammed Mabara, as a trainer and supervisor, and the students, Batoul Al-Taher, Omar Mehidat, Youssef Bani Hani, and Ahmed Hamada. This team was chosen with the team of Petra University in the local rounds held in Jordan in 2020; yet, it became the sole representative of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan after winning the preliminary rounds and the exit of Petra University team. Yarmouk team continued to win the quarterfinals and semi-finals and qualified on 13-2-2021 for the final mock trial. After winning (10) trials with law faculties from various Arab countries, the team won the second place in the competition of Kuwait International Law College.
The President of Yarmouk University, Prof. Nabil Hailat, discussed with the Director of the Department of Cooperation and Culture at the French Embassy in Amman ways to enhance cooperation between Yarmouk University, the French Embassy in Amman, and French educational institutions. At the beginning of the meeting, Hailat pointed out the depth of cooperation relations between Yarmouk University and the French Embassy in Amman as well as several prestigious French universities. He stated that such cooperation is represented in the activation of exchange programs for students and faculty members, which contributes to enhancing the university's academic and scientific performance across the globe. Hailat also said that the university is now studying the possibility of offering international doctorate programs in cooperation with international universities including the French ones. He also expressed his hope for increasing the number of French scholarships offered to outstanding students of Yarmouk University and the possibility of holding workshops through zoom for faculty members and students by the French Embassy in Amman.
For his part, Roland praised the depth of relations between the two sides, especially in the field of French language education, archaeology, and cultural history, pointing out that the French Embassy seeks to develop French language education in Jordan and is ready to support the related programs, activities, and events. In addition, he declared that the embassy is looking for ways to expand and strengthen possible future cooperation with Yarmouk University, especially in the field of students exchange, faculty exchange, and scientific projects with the French universities of mutual interest.
Noteworthy is that the meeting was attended by the University's Vice President for Administrative Affairs, Prof. Riyad Al-Moumani, the Director of the Department of International Relations and Projects, Dr. Ghazi Maqableh, the Vice Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Dr. Osama Al-Omari, the Head of the Department of Modern Languages, Dr. Batoul Muhaisen, the French Language teacher at the University, Julie Minat, and Dr. Maamoun Al-Abadi.
In collaboration with the British Space Foundation KSF Space Foundation, Yarmouk University represents Jordan in researching the implementation of a research project to send bacterial samples for study in outer space. Dr. Hanan Malkawi of the Department of Life Sciences at the University, the project director, said that under the Corona pandemic, the scientific research at all levels is directed to the study of viral and bacterial samples. She explained that the project, which is supported by Yarmouk University, is to prepare and study bacterial samples to be loaded and sent in a space capsule manufactured by the International Space Corporation. The capsule will be launched from the United Kingdom into space to reach the height of the post-atmosphere and the first layer in the low space orbit. The capsule then will return to Earth after two days to study the behavior of living bacterial cells before launching in the space capsule.
A team of civil engineering students at the Hijjawi Faculty for Engineering Technology in Yarmouk University is preparing to participate in an international competition that will be held in the United States of America, with a project idea of the use of ash resulted from coronavirus medical waste in the production of eco-friendly concrete.
The project supervisor, Dr. Faris Matalkah, said that the idea of the project is to activate the ash of medical waste by using special chemicals to produce what is called geopolymer concrete. He indicated that the ashes of this medical waste were brought from the incinerator of King Abdullah University Hospital, which is the ash of medical waste after treatment using special incinerators at high temperatures to get rid of harmful substances.
He added that this project aims to get rid of the medical waste ashes in general and the ashes of Corona's waste in particular by using it in the production of eco-friendly concrete, by chemical activation of the ash, thus reducing the environmental and health damage resulting from ash landfilling.
Dr. Matalkah confirmed that all public health and safety procedures have been followed to deal with this ash, pointing out that the students have conducted laboratory experiments that initially proved the success of the idea, and a video was produced summarizing the idea and its mechanism of action, which was sent for evaluation and participation in this competition.
Dr. Matalkah pointed out that this competition is targeting to approach university students in various countries in the world with the participation of more than 100 universities, pointing out that the American Concrete Institute will evaluate the idea of the project.
He added that the goal of the competition and the evaluation criteria is that students should demonstrate and explain how their use of concrete can positively affect the world, as the teams are encouraged to use creative means to present and explain their concrete approach or solution to a broad audience including why it should interest the public at large.
Dr. Matalkah said that the number of students participating in the project is seven, and they are: “Nour Al-Mahameed, Eman Al-Ghazawi, Nidaa Magableh, Sara Obeidat, Nassem Al-Rawashdeh, Jafar Bani-Melhem, and Ehab Al-Fuqaha. He pointed out that there are no costs for the project, as the initial experiments were conducted in the laboratories of the Civil Engineering Department, emphasizing that the idea is still in its early stages, as the team will develop it by conducting more engineering studies.
The Dean of Hijjawi Faculty for Engineering Technology, Dr. Mowaffaq Otoom, praised the efforts made by the students participating in the competition and emphasized that the faculty administration supports the various student activities because of their benefit reflected on the faculty, the university, and students. Dr. Otoom added that the faculty encourages the students to participate in such competition that contributes to developing students’skills and motivating them to innovate, create, and positively affect the reputation of the faculty as well as the university locally and internationally.
The top 20 submissions will participate in team interviews with judges on Sunday, March 28, 2021, during the Spring ACI Concrete Convention. The winners will be announced at the ACI Student Forum taking place on Tuesday, March 30, 2021
In alignment with its strategic plan for the next five years, Yarmouk University is continuously seeking the establishment of strong and fruitful partnerships with respected universities, worldwide. Recently, Yarmouk University has communicated with several universities in the United States to achieve this objective.
Prof. Nabil Hailat, President of Yarmouk University, highlighted the significance of such partnerships for exchanging people and ideas. Prof. Hailat added that the activities sought under these partnerships shall take various forms including exchanging students, faculty, and staff between the partners, working on joint research projects, and establishing joint academic programs.
In line with these efforts, Yarmouk University has discussed with Virginia TechUniversity (VT)the possibility of joint teaching. Both universities agreed to identify few common Master’s-level courses in Electrical and Computer Engineering to start with – an opportunity that will enable both students and faculty members to expand this project into new horizons of collaboration. VT is ranked#16 at the national level in the United States in Electrical Engineering and #20 in Computer Engineering. Both universities also discussed the possibility of collaboration in the “One Health” program that Yarmouk University is planning to establish this coming academic year after receiving the official approvals.
On the other hand, research collaboration between Yarmouk University and the University of California Irvine (UCI) has also been discussed.The possibility of arranging scholarships at UCI for Doctoral students from Yarmouk University has also been discussed. UCI is ranked #38 in the Engineering field in the United States.
Yarmouk University has also discussed potential collaboration with Arizona State University(ASU) in Digital Learning/Education and Innovation & Entrepreneurship. ASU is ranked #1 in Innovation among the U.S. universities for the 6th year in a row. The two universities have also discussed the possibility of having ASU admit a number of Doctoral students from Yarmouk University with preferable tuition rates. Moreover, both universities discussed the possibility of hosting a group of Yarmouk University Shari’a professors while visiting the United States.
Another top school in the United States is Purdue University, with which Yarmouk University has discussed the possibility of having a joint professional certificate in Cybersecurity. Purdue University is ranked #6 in the United States in Cybersecurity.
Two novel models were discussed with the University of Arizona (UArizona), namely: micro-campuses and global locations. These models are unique to the UArizona. Yarmouk University and UArizona agreed to explore the subjects that are demanded by the local and regional markets to be offered through the micro-campus and global location, where students can earn dual degrees from both universities.
University of Cincinnati (UC)offered the possibility of collaboration through its emeriti program, where Yarmouk University will identify a set of courses that can be taught virtually by UC emeriti faculty members. Yarmouk University also discussed with the Patton College of Education, the Russ College of Engineering and Technology, and the Scripps College of Communicationin the Ohio University, moving forward with a Memorandum of Understandingto allow graduate students to attend Ohio University at the in-state tuitionrate. The two parties also discussed possible collaboration in the Anthropology and Archeology.
Yarmouk University also discussed with the University of Missouri, Oakland University, and the University of Michigan-Dearborn its interest in sending faculty members from Yarmouk University Engineering college to these universities to establish research connections and pursue joint research projects.
At the same level of significance, Yarmouk University also outreached to Community Colleges in the United Stated, such as the Maricopa Community Colleges. Maricopa Community Colleges includes ten community colleges in Arizona that serve more than 220,000 students each year. Both institutions signed a Memorandum of Understanding to possibly collaborate in several programs, including the Arabic for Non-native Speakers.
Yarmouk University also opened channels of communication with George Washington University and Binghamton University to establish collaboration projects with them. More partnerships are coming in the way, not just in the United States, but also all over the world, as Yarmouk University is focusing on this issue.
In cooperation with Sareh Al-Juman Foundation for Training and Financial and Management Consultancy and the American Accounting Institute (IMA), the Accounting Department of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences at Yarmouk University received ten grants for the “Certified Management Accountant” (CMA) provided by Hook International. The grants were distributed at the Deanship of the Faculty of Economics in the presence of the Vice President for Administrative Affairs, Prof. Riad al-Moumani, the Dean of the Faculty, Dr. Mohammed al-Rawabadeh, and the Head of the Accounting Department, Dr. Mohammed al-Azzam.
During the meeting, al-Moumani praised the outstanding scientific level of the Accounting Department and the efforts made by its faculty members to support students and provide them with the knowledge that ensures their excellence in their field of specialization and prepare them for the labor market.
In his turn, al-Rawabadeh praised the cooperation of the faculty members, the excellence of students in the department of accounting, and the importance of such grants in enriching students' experiences at the professional and scientific levels. He also thanked the deanship for supporting such initiatives that encourage students and contribute to the development of their scientific and practical skills.
The head of the department, Dr. Mohammed al-Azzam, explained that these scholarships have been granted to excellent students in the department and that the value of each grant may reach about $1500 including an exemption from the admission fees to the CMA, the fees of the two parts of the CMA exam, and a free access to membership in the IMA.
The President of Yarmouk University, Dr. Nabil Hailat, decided to suspend all forms of in-campus teaching, for all university students in all practical and applied courses as of Wednesday morning, 9th of this month, until the first of April.
He added that this decision comes from YU's commitment to the decision of the Higher Education Council and the defense orders, to stop work in all forms of education on-campus for all institutions of higher education in all the practical and applied courses.
Hailat stressed that the students should not review the university during the current period, calling on them to communicate with their teachers with the various means of communication available to continue their educational journey remotely and work hard in their courses. He also called the university students to communicate directly through the official website of the university via "complaints and suggestions" to send any complaint, observation or suggestion concerning the educational process, pointing out the presence of a special administrative staff to follow them on a daily basis.
The preparation of scientific competencies in various fields of knowledge, and the production of innovative scientific research aims to serve society by providing exemplary education in an intellectually stimulating university environment.
