Sunday 22 / December / 2024
Muscat: “My achievement proves that Omanis and Arabs can do research that draws the attention of an international audience,”said Dr Ali Al Badi, who won the “Excellence in Research Award” from Clute Institute, Colorado, USA, in recognition of his research.
“While attending international conferences with students, I received many positive comments and appraisals from other researchers and fellow faculty members,” added Al Badi, an associate professor in the Information Systems (IS) Department at the College of Economics and Political Science (CEPS), Sultan Qaboos University (SQU).
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“Many of them are surprised that our undergraduate students can produce such excellent research,” he added.
According to Al Badi, this success is one of the importantevents in his life.
“This is one of those moments that I am proud of and I worked hard to achieve it. I dedicate it to my family, my supervisors in the USA and UK, my friends and colleagues and all those who helped me in one way or another,” Al Badi said.
“When it was announced, I received many congratulations, prayers and best wishes from many of my friends and colleagues at SQU and elsewhere,” he added.
This award was in recognition of a paper that Dr Ali co-authored with two of his students, Elham M. Al Mukhaini and Wafa S. Al Qayoudhi, which has been downloaded more than any other manuscript from the Journal of International Education Research (JIER).
The paper is entitled, "The Adoption of Social Networking in Education: A Case Study of the Use of Social Networks by Higher Education Students in Oman”.
According to Al Badi, this paper also received the ‘Best Paper Award’ when it was presented in the 52nd Clute Institute International Academic Conference in Paris.
Speaking about the reason he chose this topic for the research, Al-Badi said, “It is a ‘hot topic’. It was an interesting topic for my students and it is also of interest to publishers,for conferences and journals.”
“Elham M. Al Mukhaini and Wafa S. Al Qayoudhi are among my exceptional students; they worked very hard to produce an excellent piece of research,” the professor noted.
His research interests are in social media, cloud computing, web usability and accessibility,big data, portal development,IT disaster recovery and business continuity.
Since 2007 he has encouraged students to perform research and he managed, with the help of the previous two deans, Dr. Darwich Al Muharbi and Dr Faheem Al Marhoob, as well as the current dean, Dr Said Al Maharami, to urge many students to conduct scientific research and present their work at international conferences.
So far, more than 99 research papers have been published in peer reviewed journals and presented at international conferences.
He added that he has more than 22 years of practical and academic experience in the IS/IT field.
“Researchers should select the right topic, follow the right research methodology, and target the right conference or journal,” he noted.
“Our ancestors have done a great job by leaving us with so many manuscripts, books and articles that the world is still using as reference material, so we should follow in their footsteps,” he added.
He also said that academic achievements will promote and encourage research activities at the College of Economics and Political Science (CEPS) and will help in enhancing the ranking of Sultan Qaboos University among the world’s universities.
