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A mobile learning application being developed by Qatar University (QU) is set to change the face of corporate technical training in Qatars oil and gas sector.

The m-learning project, which recently received an honourable mention from the International e-Learning Association, was awarded a three-year grant under Qatar National Research Funds (QNRF) flagship National Priorities Research Program (NPRP). The research is underway in partnership with Canadas Athabasca University and is led by Dr Mohamed Ally from the same University.

Dr. Wyatt R. (Rory) Hume is Executive Director of Education, Training and Development, Research and Development Division, Qatar Foundation. His mandate is to help promote human capability in all areas related to the research and development needs of Qatar using the resources of the Foundation.

Hume is a former Executive Vice President and Provost (Chief Academic Officer and Chief Operating Officer) of the University of California system of ten campuses (Berkeley, UCLA, UCSF, UCSD, UCD, UCI, UCSB, UCR, UCSC, UCM) and three national laboratories. He also served concurrently as the UC system's Vice President for Health Affairs. He had previously served as Executive Vice Chancellor of UCLA, then as President of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Following his retirement from the University of California in 2008 he served for four years as Provost of the United Arab Emirates University.

Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), a member of Qatar Foundation Research and Development, showcased its support for international research cooperation by hosting the Global Research Council (GRC) regional meeting, a two day event which concluded on Monday.

Following a bidding process, QNRF was selected to host the GRC regional meeting by the National Science Foundation (NSF), a governing board for GRC. QNRF is a leading funding agency in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Dr Khalid Al Subai is the Scientific Director, Special Projects, at Qatar Environment & Energy Research Institute (QEERI). He and his team—based in Qatar, the US and the UK—are behind the discovery of the exoplanets Qatar 1 and Qatar 2. The investigators recently were recently awarded QNRF’s prestigious National Priorities Research Program-Exceptional Proposals (NPRP-EP) grant, of approximately US$ 5m, spanning five years of research. Dr. Al Subai graciously spoke to us about the field of exoplanetary research, the field of astronomy in Qatar, specifically, and what his team aims to do in the years ahead.

Mr. Faisal Alsuwaidi's illustrious career began almost four decades ago when he began working for Qatar Petroleum (QP), rising to become QP's Administration Director. In 1997, he became the Vice Chairman and CEO of Qatargas, where he oversaw the construction and realization of LNG trains that are still the largest in the world, while Laffan is the largest condensate refinery in the world. As Qatar Foundation's President of Research and Development, Mr. Alsuwaidi brings a wealth of management and strategic experience to the research sector of Qatar Foundation. This interview highlights his transition, his vision for more collaboration among institutions and the power of the recently-unveiled National Research Strategy.

Dr. Thomas Zacharia received a PhD in Engineering from Clarkson University in the field of computational materials science. Prior to his new role at Qatar Foundation, he served as Deputy Laboratory Director and Chief Research Officer of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, overseeing annual expenditures of $1.6 billion throughout a range of sectors, including energy and engineering sciences, computing and computational sciences, life and environmental sciences, and national security.

Dr Somaya Al-Ma’adeed received her BSc in computer science from Qatar University in 1994. She received her MSc in mathematics and computer science from Alexandria University, Egypt, in 1999 and went on to get her PhD in computer science from Nottingham University in 2004. Since 1994, she has worked on research based at Qatar University, specializing in character recognition, writer identification, speech recognition, tendering systems and document management. Dr Al-Ma'adeed has published around 20 papers in these areas and is currently an assistant professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at Qatar University.