Welcome to UDST, the national higher education institute of choice for applied technical education. We take great pride in our diverse stakeholder base, which includes various sectors such as government, industry, finance, health, and community. Our industry partners play an active role guiding curricula design, program delivery, and continuously enhancing our academic and experiential learning methods, thus providing our students with relevant up-to-date technical knowledge, skills and professional competencies for successful career in their disciplines.
At UDST, we build on our legacy being a Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Institute, and we provide a unique learning experience by integrating STEM elements into TVET, therefore exposing our students to various interdisciplinary opportunities to experience the learning of different concepts in a contextual manner. Our graduates not only earn academic degrees but also gain professional certifications in their areas of study, making them highly sought-after candidates both in Qatar and worldwide. Our undergraduate students actively engage in applied research, a collaborative effort between our faculty and industry stakeholders, which enhances the connection between teaching and research.
At UDST, our faculty and students enjoy state of the art teaching and research infrastructure, and are actively engaged in the implementation of the university applied research strategy, which is jointly crafted with our stakeholders to address their needs and challenges through technical consultancy and joint Research and Development (R&D) projects. Furthermore, innovation and entrepreneurship are at the heart of our mission. The UDST-DMZ Innovation Hub equips student with the essentials of entrepreneurial innovation to turn their ideas into business ventures, and promotes the development of startup companies and facilitates commercialization locally and internationally.
UDST strongly encourages international collaboration with academic partners and professional institutions, focusing on program development, applied research, and innovation. We believe that establishing connections with renowned academic institutions and professional bodies globally is crucial to ensuring that our students remain at the forefront of their fields.
Dr. Rachid Benlamri
Vice President, Academic Affairs at UDST
Vice President, Academics Bio
Professor Rachid Benlamri is the Vice President, Academic at the University of Doha for Science and Technology (UDST) and holds a rich academic experience of over 30 years. Prior to joining UDST, Prof. Benlamri worked as the Vice President Academic at the Canadian University of Dubai. He also worked as Professor of Software Engineering and Head of the Department of Software Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering at Lakehead University, Canada. He earned his Master’s and PhD in Computer Science from the University of Manchester - UK.
Professor Benlamri was the Head of the Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab at Lakehead University. His research interests are in the areas of artificial intelligence, data science, semantic web, knowledge engineering, health informatics, and mobile & ubiquitous computing. His research is supported by many funding institutions such as QRDI’s Qatar National Research Fund, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Ontario Center of Excellence, Academic Health Science Centers (AHSC) of Ontario, and the Ontario Partnership for Innovations and Commercialization (OPIC). He supervised over 70 students and postdoctoral fellows. He served as keynote speaker and as the general chair for many international conferences. Prof. Benlamri serves on the editorial board of many Q1 journals. Moreover, he published over 120 papers, mainly in Q1 journals and Peer-reviewed international conference proceedings.