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Prof. Hamad Karki of mechanical Engineering at Petrolium Institute. |
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The 1st Annual Research Workshop [30MB pdf] (ARP) of the Petroleum Institute (PI) and its partner universities was conducted in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on January 6-7, 2010. This workshop was an outgrowth of the two Workshops held in 2009 by the Energy Education and Research Collaboration (EERC) of the University of Maryland and Petroleum Institute.
This year's event attracted more than 100 participants from the oil and gas industry, PI partner universities ? UMD, Colorado School Of Mines (CSM), and University of Minnesota (UMN), and PI faculty and students. The two-day program included introductory comments by Dr. Ohadi, Provost and the Acting President of the PI, Mr. Al-Kindy, General Manager of ADCO, Professor Bar-Cohen, Chair, and Distinguished Professor of ME at UMD and Dr. Middleton, Senior VP, Strategic Enterprises at CSM, and Dr. Jeff Derby, Executive Officer at UMN. More than 28 technical presentations on the collaborative research between PI and partner universities were presented. The EERC research was well received by the Workshop attendees and in particular the ADNOC representatives who showed much interest in many of the UMD projects. The presence of the other partner universities at this Workshop provided a broader view of PI?s research interests and allowed the EERC faculty to lay the foundation for future cooperation and greater synergy with UMN and CSM collaborative research programs.
 The workshop also brought active participation of many technical staff and executives from the ADNOC operating companies,namely, Mr. Abdul Munim Saif Al Kindy General Manager of ADCO, Mr. Abdulla S. Minhali, the Senior Vice President ?Technical of GASCO, and representatives from ADGAS, NDC, TAKREER, Borouge, ZADCO, and international companies such as Shell, CONOCO-PHILIPS, and TOTAL. This was a much anticipated result of EERC's persistent effort over the past year to establish a bridge between PI and OpCos through more than 10 visits by PI and UMD faculty to the OpCos which had previously expressed interest in the EERC projects.
The last session of the workshop was dedicated to an open discussion on future PI R&D directions with PI partner schools. Dr. Karl Bertussen, the Director of Research at PI who chaired this session, presented an overview of the plans for a building to house the PI Research Center The subjects of recruiting graduate students and professors, and the areas of future research to be conducted in this building were some of the topics discussed in this open forum.
 The UMD delegation included Distinguished University Professor and Chair of Mechanical Engineering Department, Dr. Avram Bar-Cohen, EERC Research Manager Dr. Azar Nazeri, and Professors Shapour Azarm, S.K. Gupta, Yunho Hwang, Greg Jackson, and Mohammad Modarres, all from Mechanical Engineering Department. As in previous years, the UMD delegation also attended the Third PI Commencement event on Saturday January 9th.
UMD faculty also used the occasion to visit their PI collaborators, and meet with PI management and Industry executives. Dr. Modarres and Dr Nazeri met with Dr. Clarence Rodrigues the Director of Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) to discuss the planned collaboration on developing an HSE graduate program at PI. Dr. Nazeri met with the Director of Arzanah school, the women campus at PI for closer collaboration and arranging summer internships or visits to UMD by high performing junior and senior female students. Profs S.K. Gupta and Bar-Cohen, along with Prof. Peter Rodgers of PI, visited with Dr. Petri Lehmus and 4 other engineering managers at the Borouge Innovation Center to discuss the Polymer Heat Exchanger project. This was also the topic of a lively discussion after the Workshop sessions with the ADGAS Assistant Engineering Manager, Mr. Alawi Salem, and with several engineers, including Mr. M. Shawqy Awad, from GASCO. Professor Shapour Azarm from UMD was approached by Mr. Saad Abdul Hamid from Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (ADMA), in the Workshop, who mentioned that the Reservoir Technology at ADMA, is doig a similar dashboard work for an oil well and and they find Dr. Azarm and P.K. Kannan?s work ?very interesting and relevant? and would like to get additional information on this research. Dr. Nazeri also met with Dr. Economou to discuss the on-going work on PI/UMD joint graduate program and delivery of graduate courses to the flourishing graduate student population at PI.
Energy Research and Collaboration (EERC) is the collaboration between the Petroleum Institute (PI) of Abu Dhabi, UAE and the University of Maryland. In line with its mission to provide world-class education to the citizens of the United Arab Emirates in engineering and the applied sciences, The Petroleum Institute (PI) of Abu Dhabi, UAE, entered a long-term collaborative effort with the University of Maryland (UMD) in April 2006 to enhance its own undergraduate, graduate studies/research, and continuing education practices.
January 26, 2010
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