The 5-year NORPART project AI-ESI aims to make a contribution by conducting joint activities between the partner universities in Norway, Egypt, and Palestine. Academic cooperation will target educational programmes development, teaching, research and supervision, and mutual virtual and physical student/researcher mobility.
2022-2026
University of Stavanger, Department of Energy and Petroleum Engineering
Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills through the NORPART scheme
Arab Academy for Science, Technology, and Maritime Transport (Egypt) Palestine Ahliya University (Palestine)
About the project
The AI-ESI project (short for 'Applied Informatics for Energy System Integration') seeks to bring together educational and research strengths across the partner universities to provide their students/researchers with a multidisciplinary-, 360-degree- view of sustainable energy systems engineering. The project will cover the major topics essential for energy transition towards more sustainability including renewable energy resources, energy systems integration, and energy technologies. In addition to the core energy knowledge, students will be equipped with an essential toolkit of applied informatics and energy data analytics to manage real-life energy projects and therefore making them ready for a variety of careers in the energy industry. Thus, the project will enable the students to tackle complex energy and climate challenges by developing and implementing technological concepts and solutions, understanding the energy business environment, and analysing available energy-related data through the use of artificial intelligent techniques and machine learning skills in their countries. In addition the project is designed to positively impact and support gender equality in the energy sector workforce in the academia/private sector.
A large part of the planned project activities comprise mobility grants for students (at post-graduate level) and researchers. More information will be made available in the sections below.
We also encourage students to apply for Norstip, a scholarship scheme for degree-seeking master’s students from selected partner institutions outside the EU/EEA.
Contact persons
Department of Energy and Petroleum Engineering
Faculty Administration TN
Project Support and PhD Administration TN
Partners
Project team
Department of Energy and Petroleum Engineering
Faculty Administration TN
Project Support and PhD Administration TN
Department of Energy and Petroleum Engineering
Department of Energy and Petroleum Engineering
Department of Energy and Petroleum Engineering
Faculty Administration TN
Student & staff mobility
Meet Mohamed Hashem
Student associated with the AIESI project.
Can you please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your educational and professional background?
Hi! My name is Mohamed Hashem, a graduate from Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT) in Alexandria, Egypt.
I got my bachelor’s degree in 2023 from the Department of Electrical and Control Engineering. I was an electrical maintenance engineer in Al Mansour Food and Dairies-SECLAM factory in Alexandria, Egypt for a year before joining the University of Stavanger (UiS) as a full-time master’s student.
How did you come to UiS and what do you study at UiS and how do you like it so far?
I came across the opportunity of studying in Norway and the University of Stavanger due to the partnership of my former university in Egypt (AASTMT) and UiS in the AIESI NORPART project that receives funding from the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir). So, my former professors nominated me and after rounds of interviews, I applied for admission to UiS for performing my master study.
Currently, I’m enrolled in the Master of Science in Computational Engineering, which provides insight into machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) use for various applications and industry. The program is incredibly useful, having to learn about machine learning and how we use it in our industry, mainly focusing on the oil and gas field, along with how it ties into the electrical and control engineering field of automation.
Are you involved in any extracurricular activity?
Currently, I am a member of the study program committee for Department energy and resources as the student representative for energy and resources for the academic year 2024/2025. In addition, I am eager to get the opportunity to make use of my electrical engineering knowledge in the UiS Drillbotics team to work on new challenges within the petroleum industry with my peers.
Last but not least, I am a research assistant supporting different activities of Dr. Mohammad Mansouri within the context of the AIESI NORPART project.
Do you currently have a link to your former (undergraduate) university, and if yes, how could you maintain your links?
Maintaining links with my former university is mainly through communication with my former professors. Throughout the years in my bachelor’s degree, I’ve built up a student-professor bond with most of my professors, extending two years after my graduation in the form of a WhatsApp group, which includes both students, across all years, and professors.
In addition, through supporting the activities of the AIESI NORPART project (such as participation in the project’s meeting and helping the student mobilities), I could make my links to my former university, AASTMT, even stronger.
New EU Erasmus+ project awarded
The partners within the AIESI NORPART project together with six other universities from Germany, Egypt, Tunisia and Palestine secured funding from the Erasmus+ Capacity Building in the Field of Higher Education.
The project idea was initiated from the members of the AIESI project and after a hard team work, the proposal was submitted in February 2024.
The new project, SPEED - Strategies for caPacity building of hybrid Electric vehicle in Engineering Division, aims at empowering Middle Eastern nations to navigate the Hybrid Electric Vehicle / Electric Vehicle revolution by bridging the skills gap. This will be done through performing needs assessments, engaging learning resources, and practical training, equipping individuals and fostering regional collaboration.
The project started in the end of 2024 and will last for three years. SPEED is coordinated by the University of Stavanger (UiS) and is hosted at the Department of Energy and Petroleum Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology."
As for the photo, please insert the Vertical LOGO of The EU, attached to the email.
Annual general meetings and workshop
Stavanger, September 17th-20th 2024
In the first day of the annual general meetings and workshops of the AIESI NORPART project, participants were welcomed to the University of Stavanger and received a short presentation about UiS by the Head of Department of Energy and Petroleum Engineering, Mr. Øystein Arild. The project manager, Associate Professor Mohammad Mansouri, then provided a short introduction to the AIESI NORPART project. The need for state-of-the-art pilot facilities to conduct advanced research were presented by Professor Mohsen Assadi (Professor at UiS) when he introduced the hydrogen and geothermal energy facilities of the UiS. Mr. Peter Breuhaus (Chief Scientist at NORCE) gave an overview of various European and nationally funded projects on integrated energy systems, among them EU Horizon 2020 Robinson project, and the challenges that require to be tackle to successfully implement such demonstration projects. Day 1 of the annual meetings was filled with other important presentations such as “Information about the NORSTIP scholarship programme” by Siri Elisabeth Haug from the UiS International Office, and the “UiS admission process for master programs” by Elias Conde Pais (the Admission Office).
In addition to project-specific discussions, the second day was full of scientific presentations from both UiS and the partner universities. Professors from AASTMT, Dr. Rana Maher (Associate Professor in Electrical and Control Engineering) and Dr. Nahla Zakzouk (Professor in Electrical and Control Engineering), gave talks on “smart systems and energy management”, “Egypt’s energy statistics” and “faults and mitigation techniques in grid-tied RESs”. Associate Professor Merkebu Z. Degefa presented the power transmission and distribution systems of Norway and the need for “transitioning from reactive to proactive power distribution network operation practices”. The day was concluded by a guided tour by Mr. Ståle Freyer (Laboratory Manager) to different laboratories of the UiS’ Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Similarly, in day 3, researchers (PhD candidates) had the chance to introduce their research areas and receive feedback from other scientific members of the AIESI NORPART project. Kasra S. Beglar (PhD candidate at UiS) presented “time series analysis with a focus on forecasting in energy systems”, Emma Qumsieh (PhD candidate from PAU) presented “discovering gene associations across diseases using an integrative knowledge-based machine learning approach”, and Muhammed Tmeizeh (PhD candidate from PAU) gave a talk on “the use of Blockchain as a tamper-proof storage, on-chain solution” and he presented the potential of blockchain use for integrated energy systems.
In the last day of the annual general meetings and workshops of the AIESI NORPART project, the project participants had a guided tour by Professor Mohsen Assadi to the UiS’ Energy Facilities in the premises of NORCE Norwegian Research Centre AS located at Risavika (in the Stavanger region).
Visit from Arab Academy For Science, Technology & Maritime Transport
Stavanger, June 26th-27th 2024
Prof. Yasser Gaber Dessouky (Dean of Scientific Research and Innovation) and Prof. Mona Fouad Moussa (Academic Dean for Smart Village Campus) from Arab Academy For Science, Technology & Maritime Transport – AASTMT in Egypt visited UiS on 26th and 27th of June 2024.
During this visit, a joint meeting with colleagues from Palestine Ahliya University (PAU) was arranged in which the AI-ESI project members received an overview of the activities in the recent months and discuss the upcoming activities.
In addition, researchers at the Department of Energy and Petroleum Engineering shared their recent research activities with the visiting members of the AI-ESI project from AASTMT, Egypt.
Visit to Norway from Palestinian partners
Stavanger, November 28th-29th 2023
The core team of the Palestinian partner visited Norway in November.
The 3 days program included discussion around collaboration within:
Mobility: presentation of rules of admission for exchange/visiting students at UiS. More info can be found here: https://www.uis.no/en/studies/inbound-exchange.
Education: shared online platform for collaboration in education
Research: current research within the Energy field, with presentations by PhD students at UiS, managers of existing projects and by the partner research organization NORCE.
NORPART project seminar 2022
OsloMet, September 21st-22nd 2022
The Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-Dir) arranged a meeting for the project core teams of all the ongoing NORPART projects.
NORPART is the 'partnership program for global academic collaboration'. The objective of the program is to strengthen the academic collaboration and mutual mobility of students between Norway and countries of the global South.
Some representatives of UiS and of the core team of the AI-ESI project participated in the meeting where they could listen to the experiences of other project coordinators. The speakers shared lessons learned, challenges and suggested solutions. Among them, also some students currently staying in Oslo for their mobility period shared their first impressions, and plans for their stay.
At the photo: Micol Pezzotta.
The program and the presentations held during the seminar are available at HK-Dir website here, https://hkdir.no/arrangement/norpart-project-seminar-2022.
Kick-off meeting
The project started on February 16th with a digital meeting (via TEAMS) where all partners met to review the work-plan and discuss the tasks and deliverables.
Previous collaborators
Department of Energy and Petroleum Engineering
