Texas A&M University at Qatar recently hosted the third edition of International Computational Science and Engineering Conference (ICSEC19). The conference was attended by computational science and high-performance computing experts from around the world.
The two-day event was co-organised by the Texas A&M at Qatar Advanced Scientific Computing Center (TASC) and its partners, including the Hamad Bin Khalifa University research institutes, Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) and the Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI), and co-sponsored by the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) and Qatar Shell Technology and Research Center (QSRTC).
Dr Othmane Bouhali, Chair of Conference and Director of TASC, said, “This international event proves the solid partnership we have with our colleagues in QEERI, QCRI and other institutions. The organising committee also included colleagues from Qatar University, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, Hamad Bin Khalifa University and QSRTC. I would like to thank the programme chairs, Dr Fadwa El-Mellouhi and Professor Ioannis Economou as well as the local organising committee.”
First held in 2015 in Doha, the conference brings together researchers, experts and stakeholders to discuss recent research topics in computational science and its role in tackling the most complex problems locally and globally. Keynote speakers came from leading institutions from North America, Europe, India and Qatar. This year’s technical programme featured 84 talks in a variety of areas, including computational science applications in oil and gas, biology and medicine, the electric grid and solar photovoltaic technologies, and advanced materials. This year also included special sessions on artificial intelligence and its applications.
Selected papers presented at the conference will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Computational Science.
This year marked the introduction of the Young Investigator Award in computational science, sponsored by QEERI, in which eight candidates below the age of 35 from institutions across Qatar and abroad competed for three best presentation cash awards. An award judging committee was formed from national and international computational specialists covering the broad spectrum of disciplines such as ICT, materials science, biology and machine learning. El Tayeb Bentria, from QEERI, bagged first position, which was followed by Domenico Marson, from University of Trieste Italy, and Amro Mohamed, from Hamad Bin Khalifa University, with second and third positions, respectively.
Dr Fadwa El Mellouhi, Programme Research Director at QEERI, Program Chair and Co-Founder of the ICSEC series, said “On behalf of the QEERI Executive Director, Dr Marc Vermeersch, I wish to congratulate the awardees for the excellent level of presentations. We are looking forward to continue support excellence in computational sciences both at the national and international levels,” she added, “I would like to thank Professor Othmane Bouhali from TAMUQ and the local organising committee for the excellent level of organisation. We are also thankful to QNRF for chairing the judging committee including our national and international partners, including Kahramaa, HBKU, University of Utah, USA and Sligo IT, Ireland.”
The conference was concluded with a poster competition, supervised by the QNRF judging committee, including Dr Ahmed Rebai ICT Manager; Dr Ali al-Abouby, ICT, Programme Manager; and Dr Hind Mamlouk, EE Programme Manager. Ali al-Malik and Maryam al-Buainain, both students at Texas A&M at Qatar, won the best student poster awards.
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