academics

On October 14, 2017, Dr. Atheer Matroud, assistant professor of Information Technology at AUIS, along with some faculty members of other Iraqi universities, conducted a seminar titled “Sober Scientific Research and Publication in International Journals” organized by The House of Wisdom, in Baghdad. The House of Wisdom is an intellectual and scientific establishment that deals with scholarly research and academic studies. The purpose of the seminar was to establish the best method for writing effective research papers. The audience was introduced to software tools for writing, referencing, and checking for plagiarism. They also addressed problems concerning academic writing in Iraq. During the seminar, Dr. Matroud prioritized the impact of plagiarism, whether done intentionally or unintentionally, citing examples. Unintentional plagiarism is when you accidentally fail to cite your sources correctly, which is still counted as plagiarism and is not acceptable. Dr. Matroud stressed that any form of plagiarism can lead to serious legal implications as well as destroyed reputation or even the loss of a career. The seminar was well attended and organized, with representation from many universities in Iraq. The audience also enjoyed listening to new methods and approaches for writing academic research papers. Some members of public universities also requested to host similar seminars at their institutions. Commenting on the seminar, Dr. Hemin Latif, chair of the IT department at AUIS, said, “Our faculty members at AUIS bring a lot of international expertise that the higher education sector in the country can, and must, benefit from. Dr. Matroud’s seminar is a very good step toward bridging the expertise gap between AUIS and other national institutions.”  Commenting on the quality of research and academic writing at AUIS, Dr. Matroud said: “I have found that at AUIS we are way ahead in training our students, especially, on the topic of writing and plagiarism.” Article by IT Department Communications Intern, Mr. Aran Kamaran.

On October 4, 2017, Dr. Hemin Latif, assistant professor and chair of the Information Technology Department at AUIS, gave a workshop and guest lecture on Creative Coding and Computing to the participants of an Android bootcamp organized by Re: coded, a non-governmental organization in Erbil. The purpose of the workshop was to show how the Creative Coding and Computing course offered at AUIS differs from traditional programming courses in its design, delivery, and impact. Dr. Latif shared the reasons why introductory programming courses fail to give a strong education in coding and computing to a generic audience. He mentioned how this course resolves major problems of traditional programming courses and the problems that cause most students to drop out from these courses. He also discussed creativity as a concept that is required for everyone, and especially for programmers. At the end of the workshop, many participants were inspired by the benefits that the course could bring. Mr. Allan Saleh, a participant, said, “Dr. Hemin's speech reminded me of how creativity has a huge impact on what I want to achieve. Definitely a wake-up call to innovation.” Mr. Mustafa Alfaisal, another attendant, commented, “I hope every college includes this creative course in their curriculum.” Currently, AUIS is the only university in the region that offers this course and there is great student demand for it. Hopefully, more unique courses like Creative Coding and Computing will be offered in AUIS that could become supportive for learning and developing the ideas about, and beyond, the main regular courses and curriculum. Article by IT Department Communications Intern, Mr. Aran Kamaran