The Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) and Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) held an international research meeting on the campus of Texas A&M University to discuss and plan research collaborations between the faculty at the Qatar campus and those within the Dwight Look College of Engineering.
Attendees also discussed developing plans for the establishment of extensions of research centers at TAMUQ, one of which, the Mary K. O’Connor Process Safety Center, has already been established at the Middle East campus.
The process safety center gives TEES and Texas A&M a footprint in the Middle East that no other agency or university has.
"The A&M System is uniquely positioned to facilitate international opportunities through its branch campus in Qatar and because the degree program is engineering, expanding and enhancing research partnership opportunities with TEES is a natural fit," said Dr. M. Katherine Banks, TEES director and vice chancellor of engineering for The Texas A&M University System. "The collaboration between TEES researchers with their counterparts in Qatar provides both an opportunity for important joint research projects as well as global experiences for our students at Texas A&M."
Building on that successful endeavor, TEES is currently looking to establish an extension of the Smart Grid Center at TAMUQ, as a branch to the center currently established in College Station and housed within TEES.
"I am encouraged by the discussions and the potentials brought forward for faculty and students to engage in collaborative activities at levels never before experienced," said Mark H. Weichold, dean and CEO of TAMUQ. "This reflects the core reasons for the establishment of the branch campus in Doha in the first place."
Texas A&M Qatar was established in 2003 and has offered undergraduate degrees in chemical, electrical, mechanical, and petroleum engineering and graduate courses in chemical engineering since the fall of 2011. More than 400 engineers have graduated from TAMUQ since 2007.