JEDDAH: The Department of Information System at Effat University organized a one-day IT Empowerment Forum Sunday to promote new ideas in the region and encourage embracing use of information technology as powerful instrument for individual, national and organizational success, said Farah Mala, its organizer. “We want to train Effat students to present their creative ideas and knowledge, and express themselves actively for the benefit of society,” she said. There's an enormous amount of new and emerging tools, said Dr. Houria Oudghiri, provost of Effat University and associate professor of Computer Science. “The world of technology is growing at the speed of light and the number of emerging technologies is continuously exploding,” she said. “This makes it very hard for people to make decisions about which technology to use and how to use it.” Students in the Information Systems department participated in the gathering's first session, “Living Through the Screen.” Khayra Bundakji, a student, talked about the concept of green computing and her colleague, Jumana Baghabra, presented the idea of creating our own online spaces. The second session, “Technology Empowering Professional Fields,” included participation of professionals and students. Majed Al-Fifi, a participant from Saudi Aramco, discussed the idea of software engineers as change agents. Dr. Wadee Al-Halabi from Effat University discussed virtual reality and computer graphics. Dr. Kathleen Guillaume focused on the use of technology for academic purposes.
