Under the patronage of Professor Ahmed Al Bulushi, the Dean College of Engineering at the National University of Science and Technology, a workshop on condition monitoring of rotating machines was hosted for the students and recent graduates of the College of Engineering.
Prof Ahmed Al Bulushi inaugurated this workshop at Caledonian Campus on 10th May 2023. The workshop was facilitated by the research team of the CoERG project titled “Intelligent prediction and fault diagnosis system for belt drive” (CoERG21.1), funded by NU, Oman and the research group “Intelligent Maintenance Monitoring & Instrumentation”. This workshop aims to create awareness about the condition monitoring of rotating machines and provide hands-on training on the Machine Fault Simulator and the Centrifugal Fan Belt drive experimental setup for the various mechanical fault analysis. The participants are also trained to acquire vibration signals using LabVIEW software along with NI Data Acquisition System (DAQ).
The workshop started with an overview of the workshop by Professor Sudhir C V, who is one of the members of the research group. In his overview, he stated that, unlike other typical workshops, this workshop is unique, as it focuses on learning and knowledge sharing on condition monitoring among the participants and provides an opportunity to have hands-on experience. Professor Ahmed AL Balushi, during his inaugural address, mentioned that these kinds of events are useful to enable the students to enhance their technical skills and competencies and build confidence in their practical work, which is a very good and healthy environment for capacity building. He further added that the research groups operating within the College of Engineering at the National University play a pivotal role in shaping the new graduating engineers towards professional engineering disciplines.
In the inaugural address, Professor K P Ramachandran, acting Dean of Deanship Graduate Studies of Research, emphasized state-of-the-art trends and application of condition monitoring and highlighted the current research activities of the research group. In his keynote address, Dr Mohammed Al Yahyai, Senior Rotating Equipment Engineer, Petroleum Development of Oman (PDO), highlighted the importance and application of condition monitoring in PDO. The workshop covered mostly hands-on training and activities. Participants consisted of candidates from continuing students and recent graduates of the College of Engineering. Twenty-five participants benefited from this workshop and participated in real-time data acquisition system.