Research Profiles

The future of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is to shift from the fossil fuels export to the renewable energy exports. KSA has huge solar resources which can be used to generate renewable energy by employing solar energy systems such as photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) systems. The very large-scale solar energy farms in KSA can generate electrical energy to fulfill not only the domestic needs but also the prospects of selling excess energy to western countries and developing countries in the east. King Abdulaziz Centre of renewable energy (K.A.CARE) data will be used to perform the simulations required to find the feasibility of the area. The energy farm area will be decided based on the available free space. In this work, very large scale solar energy farms are analyzed by the weather data provided by the K.A.CARE. The generated electrical energy is compared to the load profile of KSA and potential customers for energy exports by the high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission. Finally, the cost of the project will be calculated based net present cost and levelized cost of energy. The results by this research will provide a roadmap to the goals of 9.9 GW by Vision 2030 of KSA.

Buildings are the leading user of electrical energy. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has unique load profile in which the peak load triples in summer months by excessive load of cooling equipment installed in the buildings. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has high availability of solar power while wind power resources are also available in coastal areas. The high values of Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) means that buildings in KSA require large energy to keep them cool. The use of solar panels on roof and walls will produce electrical power and offer shading to reduce the heat transfer into the building. Usually building rooftop area is not enough to power whole building but a solar or wind farm within a block of buildings can offer zero energy block. In this work photovoltaic (PV) arrays will be placed on the rooftop of buildings of a block area and excessive load will be catered by solar farm or a wind farm depending on the area resources of renewable energy. K.A.CARE data will be used to perform the simulations required to find the feasibility of the area. Different blocks of various cities of Kingdom will be analyzed for the proposed scheme. The ratio of rooftop PV arrays energy to the energy consumed by the building will be calculated. This result will help in deciding the size of energy farm required in that block. The energy farm area will be decided based on the available free space. Finally the cost of the project will be calculated based on installation cost and benefits including reduction of transmission and distributions losses. The results by this research will provide a roadmap to the goals of 9.9 GW by Vision 2030 of KSA and for new city design projects like NEOM announced by KSA.

In this work PV arrays will be placed on the rooftop of College of Engineering, Majmaah and temperature sensors will be used on roof and inside the building to measure the effect of shading on the building by PV array which will result in reduction of heat transfer into the building. The energy produced by the PV array will reduce the power consumption of the building from the main grid. A HVAC control of building will be optimized to save power by using sensors inside and outside the building. Finally, a techno-economic feasibility of building energy improvement by PV arrays will be performed for the Engineering College building in the city of Al-Majmaah province of Riyadh, KSA.

Saudi Arabia has enormous resource of solar energy. There exist two major ways of harnessing the sun energy namely, system (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP). The purpose of this research project is to evaluate design, optimize and evaluate generation of electrical energy from solar resource using PV and CSP (Parabolic trough, Solar Tower, Parabolic Dish and Fresnel lens) technologies. Since solar resource is intermittent in nature and also its availability after the sunset causes interruption of power supply during cloudy days and after the sunset in case of stand-alone power generation systems. Therefore, it is important to include a storage system to store the excess energy during the peak solar resource hours and then use this energy when sun is not available. This research work will evaluate the possibility of using various energy storage systems such as batteries, thermal energy storage and pumped hydro storage for PV and CSP power generation systems. Both the power generation systems will be optimized for maximum energy output and minimum electricity generation cost. A comparison will be performed to evaluate the effectiveness of various energy storage options. In the end a detailed techno-economic performance evaluation of optimized PV, CSP, and hybrid solar power generation systems (PV+CSP) will be carried out to know the best possible solar power generation technology and energy storage combination. This research is very useful for solar belt region countries such as Saudi Arabia and it will provide useful directions for the solar power technology adoption in Saudi Arabia.

The gross domestic product (GDP) of Pakistan is deteriorating by power shortage. The floating PV (FPV) on lakes and dams can address this problem by generating energy at cheaper rates and reducing evaporation of water at the same time. The best location is selected by comparing the available solar resources, nearby load, storage of land, and performance parameters such as energy yield (EY), capacity factor (CF), levelized cost of energy (LCOE), and net present cost (NPC). The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) shows that the best location for the FPV in Pakistan is Chinna Creek in the megacity of Karachi. The global horizontal irradiance (GHI) in Chinna Creek is 6.1 kWh/m2/day, where land is scarce. This site can generate electrical energy by the FPV system at an energy yield of 2345 kWh/kW, which is 8.6% higher than the land-based PV (LBPV) system. The total national installed capacity (IC) of Pakistan in 2017 is 28 GW, while the analysis shows that Pakistan has capabilities of 190 GW IC in the form of FPV systems. A detailed analysis of the FPV system and its comparison with the LBPV is provided as a guideline for policymakers.

Vitamin D (Vitamin D) deficiency affects nearly 50% of global population and its deficiency coupled with low Ca intake during early life, puberty and adulthood, can affect peak bone mass development and has been strongly associated with osteoporosis in the elderly and other non-skeletal conditions . Vitamin D has a profound effect on calcium absorption and bone metabolism by way of influencing bone homeostasis. However, paucity of data exists on the dose responses of Vitamin D supplementation on bone health and the variability in fractional absorption of Ca in both Vitamin D sufficient and deficient states. Furthermore, no data for the Indian population exists in both fronts. Dietary sources of Vitamin D are limited and in resource poor settings such as India where populations consume monotonous plant based diets, meeting the daily requirements of Vitamin D (600 IU/d, ICMR) in the absence of adequate exposure to sunlight may be a challenge. Vitamin D in its hydroxylated form, 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD), best reflects body stores (i.e. deficiency <20 ng/ml or sufficiency states >30ng/ml). Studies till date have used 25OHD levels in plasma as a potential indicator of efficacy of Vitamin D supplementation, even though it provides little or no information on principle functions of Vitamin D, like bone metabolism. Hence there is a need for a better functional marker to understand the efficacy of Vitamin D supplementation on bone health. A novel way to evaluate these key questions on 1) the efficacy of Vitamin D supplementation as a function of bone health, 2) the optimal 25OHD plasma level as defined by bone resorption, and 3) the variability in fractional absorption of Ca with Vitamin D status is through the use of stable Ca isotope measurements. Calcium has six naturally occurring stable isotopic forms (40Ca, 42Ca, 43Ca, 44Ca, 46Ca, 48Ca) and a combination of these isotopes, measured in urine, could be used to address the questions proposed here.

Impact of high indoor CO2 exposure has not been studied in detail in an academic occupational setting, especially in Qatar, albeit the existence of a clear cause and effect between high CO2 concentration and declining global health. In order to understand the enormity of health effect that arises from increasing CO2 concentrations, especially within indoor settings, there is a need to look at it from the perspective of global changes in climate and population. In this context, the current study focuses on continuous CO2 concentration monitoring at different indoor locations within an occupational setting to see the variability in concentration and model the observed variability as a function of population density, mimicking the global changes in climate and population in line with the current trends in global Green House Gas (GHG) Emissions.

Association between low vitamin D status and a wide array of chronic diseases, such as cancer, autoimmune disorders, atherosclerosis, and cardiovascular diseases have been widely reported in the scientific literature. Recently, a plethora of cross-sectional studies indicated that supplementation of vitamin D is reducing infection risk of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). However, in contrary, a number of studies also indicated that vitamin D has negligent or no effect on COVID-19 outcomes. Among the treating hospital community a consensus doesn’t exist and unnecessary supplementation of vitamin D targeting reduced risks for COVID-19 incidence is also being questioned. In addition, there exist uncertainties at theoretical and clinical levels on the actual role of Vitamin D in reducing COVID-19 associated risk. The current study looks into the existing research in literature and the requirement of subsequent reviews on the topic

Research on Digitizing smell is important as it has so many applications in various fields and industries; environmental field (Contamination and spoilage detection), food industry (Food quality monitoring), health (Detection of respiratory disease patients including COVID19) and security fields (Detection of prohibited items at the airports). In the first and second phase of this project we have done the following  steps ·        Extensive the literature review ·        Evaluate the market for procurement of the equipment ·        Investigate the existing technology in order to improve it for the next step ·        Primary results with sensors and electronic boards ·        Started the machine learning for further application on the hardware ·        Research a more suitable and sensitive sensors for further implementations in the next step

The objective of this research is to focus on the following due to the fact that in the laboratories and facilities available at the College of North Atlantic provide an appropriate ground for following and reaching these specific objectives: -         Simulate a simplified olfactory system by: -         Develop the system for the industry Achieving these objectives have the following significance within the discipline -         This is a new technology that has not been addressed adequately so any advances in this field will be considered as a state-of-the-art idea -         The whole team’s knowledge in this cutting-edge field will increase and the skills learned during this process are internationally demanded

Near misses happen when everything is in place for an accident to occur, but no one is hurt. They can act as a warning to prevent future accidents. To learn from near misses and reduce the chance of accidents, employees should report and analyze them. A positive reporting intention is influenced by the safety climate, which is how employees feel about safety in the workplace. Our research examines how elements of the Planned Behavior Theory (attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control) and safety climate affect airline pilots' decision to report near misses.

Qatar National Vision (QNV) 2030 sees environmental protection as a major pillar, and aims to achieve the goal of hosting the first ever carbon-neutral FIFA World Cup in 2022. In this context of increasing visibility and integration of environmental sustainability in the Qatari public sector, the proposed study aims to explore the attitude and understanding of the concept of environmental sustainability in Qatar. The study will include four focus group discussions among residents in Qatar on responsible consumerism as the sustainability issue. The respondents will be divided according to age (youth and adults) and residency status (locals and expats). The expected outcome is to have a better picture of where the Qatari population stand in their attitude and understanding of environmental issues. The project will equip the student researchers with the skills needed to conduct academic research, and give them the opportunity to experience an academically sound research project in the area of their interests.

The Qatar National Vision (QNV) 2030 identifies five major challenges facing Qatar, and engaging in good environmental stewardship is one of them. The scope of environmental issues in Qatar as a research subject is quite vast, and thus it makes sense to focus on a specific topic in a single research project. Therefore, the present study focuses on perceptions of environmental sustainability as it relates to individual actions among Qatari residents as its research topic. The study includes four sample populations among residents in Qatar on perceptions and individual actions, and explores any differences that exist according to demographic status (e.g. Qatari citizens vs expats, youth vs mature adults). A semi-structured questionnaire survey was administered, which garnered 151 respondents across the four target groups. 66% of the study respondents stated that more actions are needed in Qatar to promote the sustainability agenda. This includes awareness building and facilities, as there seems to be a gap in the knowledge regarding sustainability issues among Qatari citizens and residents. Mature adults exhibited more awareness of environmental sustainability than youth, indicating opportunities for integrating sustainability education into the school curriculum. However, results also indicate that both youth and mature adults are willing to forego some personal comfort to serve sustainability. This is an opportunity for creating sustainability awareness programs and other social activities organized and/or sponsored by governmental and non-governmental organizations.

Although the field of leadership and its impact from culture is a well-studied field in management literature, the majority of these studies have focused around mono-cultural settings. The Qatari business environment does not fit in to a monocultural format, because of the high levels of expats who live and work in the country. This study aims to look at the interplay between organization leadership in a Qatari context with its diverse, international population. The project will study the cultural dimensions outlined by Hofstede on four different groups of leaders in Qatar, namely: a) Qatari leadership working with Qatari employees, b) Qatari leadership working with international employees, c) International leadership working with Qatari employees, and d) International leadership working with international employees. Four students would conduct structured interviews on each group. Students would be responsible for the data collection and analysis on their own segments. The findings from this study will depict the effect of cultural backgrounds on the corporate leadership in Qatar, and shed light on how they impact each other.

The field of leadership and its impact from culture is quite well studied in management literature, and the link between the two has been established beyond doubt. However, the majority of the research on this topic has centered around monocultural settings, and compare and contrast between cultures that are positioned at the opposite end of the spectrum. Applied research on special scenarios such as when the leaders and employees hail from different cultures – which is the norm in the context of Gulf countries such as Qatar – is still relatively scarce. This project addressed this research gap. The primary goal of this study was to explore the impact of home culture according to Hofstede’s (2001) cultural dimensions on the organizational leadership context in Qatar. With this goal in mind, the primary research question for this study was surmised to be: What impact does the cultural background of leaders and subordinates have on leadership behaviors in Qatar? The study was conducted through a questionnaire survey among Qatari and Non-Qatari individuals who hold leadership positions in Qatar. The results show significant departures from traditional underpinnings and support the narrative that Qatari society is continually easing into modern traditionalism, where educational and individual achievement is held in high regard but are still in alignment with tribal traditions of collectivistic outlook. Amongst the expatriate leaders, no significant differences were found across the five dimensions of Hofstede with regard to gender or nationality. This study also found that power distance and individualism/collectivism have strong influence on organizational leadership in Qatar, confirming the results of previous studies. The results also show that cultural diversity is often a barrier to success in the workplace in Qatar due to different understandings and viewpoints.