Biography

Dr. Al-Qahtani, obtained his PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2001. He conducted his Ph.d dissertation on computation of flow and heat transfer in rotating rectangular channels with smooth and ribbed surfaces that are used as cooling channels in a typical turbine blade.

During one of his Ph.D course work, he built a finite volume based code that solves a 2D laminar internal flow. Then, in his Ph.D dissertation he worked on a finite analytic based code called (RANS). Also, he has good experience in grid generation and its related problems.

His research interest is in fluid Mechanics, heat transfer, computational fluid flow and heat Transfer, and turbulence. During his higher studies, he gained wide experience with flow solvers.

In his master’s study, he developed a finite difference based code to study the entry region of rotating concentric cylinder.

Dr. Al-Qahtani was involved in more than one project since he joined KFUPM. He is the PI of a fast track project as well as a co-investigator in an external project from ARAMCO. He is also a chairman of a master thesis. Dr. Al-Qahtani is also involved extensively in teaching thermo-fluid courses such thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and heat transfer.

Dr. Al-Qahtani is also heavily involved in engineering education research with a main emphasis on Active learning via team based learning, student motivation, learning theories, student’s skills for better performance. He is also working on leadership with emphasis on how to build leaders, what characteristics constitute a leader, how to secure and guard leadership soul inside our students. He has published articles on the active learning strategies of cooperative learning.

He has been involved as a co-investigator in two projects funded by ARAMCO. One of these projects was on "Analysis of Water Circulation in Boilers" . He is also a principal investigator of a SABIC funded project. Dr. AL-Qahtani has published several peer reviewed papers in the area of heat transfer and fluid flow in the cooling channels of gas turbines blades. He has supervised two master students.

On the training and teaching side, He has taught 7 undergraduate courses since he joined KFUPM. In 2006, he was rated by peer educational specialists as "having excellent skills in training and teaching that enables learners to learn the subject matter effectively". Dr. AL-Qahtnai is a "certified trainer" from the British Academy for Human Resources. His certification includes design and delivery of training-programs as well as pedagogical skills certification. Dr Al-Qahtani is a long-life learner. He has participated in more than 25 short courses and workshops in the areas of (boilers, fired Heaters, heat exchangers, engineering education, soft skills etc).

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