The Closing Ceremony of the Fifth Research and Technology Festival of Khatam University

According to the public relations and the website of Khatam University, the ceremony of the fifth research and technology festival of Khatam University was held on Tuesday, December 26, 2023 with the presence of Dr. Peyman Salehi, the research deputy of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, Dr. Majid Ghasemi, the president of Khatam University, as well as faculty members, researchers and top students of this university at Khatam University.

Dr. Peyman Salehi, the research deputy of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, while expressing his satisfaction at the presence of the top researchers of Khatam University, said: "Certainly, the presence of private sector scientific institutions in our country’s higher education system is an important achievement for the country, and Khatam University has been amazing in this regard.”

He then announced that Research Week will be held in the form of Research Month throughout the country from next year, and pointed to the slogan of this scientific occasion, which was "Research and Technology, Driving Production Growth and Curbing Inflation" and in line with the slogan of the year.

After stating that innovation means turning an idea into a product and offering it in the market, Dr. Salehi presented statistics on the quality and quantity of research in the country and said: “According to Scopus data, Iran currently ranks 15th in terms of the number of scientific works. Our country is in a good position as the scientific articles of our researchers are being cited well.”

The Research Deputy of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology also announced the production of 2% of world science in Iran and stated: “Our share in international participation in writing articles is about 35%. Of course, we have differences in rank in some scientific fields in international statistics; For example, although we have the best rank in the field of chemistry, i.e. 15th in the world, our rank is 44th in the field of arts and humanities and 33rd in the field of social sciences. We must try to compensate for these shortcomings as well.”

He estimated the total number of contracts in the field of "Society-Industry Relations" to be 5,809 billion tomans, which is about 200 million tomans per person considering the number of faculty members and researchers in the country.

At the end of his speech, Dr. Salehi emphasized: “In most developed and developing countries, the production of science is directly related to the position of technology and their economic growth rate. In addition, paying attention to the production of science is not in contrast with strengthening the relationship between the university and the society and the establishment of the knowledge-based economy.”

In this ceremony, Dr. Majid Ghasemi, the president of Khatam University, focused on the development of research, science, technology and innovation in Khatam University and described this university on the path of 4th generation universities and discussed its scientific improvement and promotion and said: “In 2019, about 2300 billion dollars were spent in the research and development sector in different countries of the world, and this shows that the world is moving at a great speed in scientific fields.”

He stated that almost all the countries of the world have science, technology and innovation policy documents, and gave statistics from China, Britain and India as examples.

In another part of his speech, Dr. Ghasemi read a statement entitled "Future trends of science and technology developments and the status of Khatam University" in which he emphasized the need to accept convergent technologies as the country's driving engine.

The President of Khatam University further stated: “Khatam University has tried to define itself as a 4th generation university and must take steps towards reaching convergent technologies.”

In the closing ceremony of the 5th festival of research week of Khatam University, Dr. Seyed Hossein Razavi Haji Agha, the director of research center of this university, presented a report on the research activities of Khatam University in the past 2 years.

He said: “According to the Scopus scientific database data, Khatam University has achieved a good growth and improvement in citations and has had H indexed articles.”

The director of research center of Khatam University also announced the preparation of 15 books under publication by the faculty members and top researchers of this university.

In this ceremony, Dr. Mohammad Morovati, a faculty member of Khatam University, referred to the slogan "Surpassing Stanford" which this university has put at the forefront of its scientific and research activities and said that the realization of such a success needs both the efforts of researchers and faculty members of Khatam University and financial supports.

He explained: “Today, in the best private universities in the world, about 30% of the expenses are financed from external donations, and it is very logical that the universities that are responsible for the production of science receive help from financial institutions.”

Morovati mentioned focusing on local components in conducting research, training quality experts and researchers, and turning Khatam University into an important scientific center in the country among the goals that have been emphasized in line with the university's slogan.

At the end, a ceremony was held to honor the winners of the 5th Research and Technology Festival of Khatam University, and several top fellows in different departments were honored as following:

Promotion of the scientific rank to associate professor: Dr. Abdollah Shamisa, Dr. Shole Bagheri Pormehr and Dr. Amir Faraji.

The best theses: Leila Solaki, Melika Kafian Khiabani, Mohammad Ali Bagherzadeh, Saeedeh Mohammadi Mezinani, Elnaz Ghasemi and Nahid Saifi.

Top research students: Fatemeh Rezaei, Haniye Khodaparast, Shirin Sheikhol-Eslami, Amirsina Mandegari, Milad Haji Abbasi, Faezeh Labaf, Hasan Khalili, Mitra Faraji.

Top articles: Davood Nasr Esfahani, Hossein Hojat, Sharareh Alipour.

Best book: Fateme Karimi Jafari.

Top researchers: Rezvan Hejazi, Saeed Alaei, Ehsan Akhtarkavan, Seyed Hossein Razavi Haji Agha, Sholeh Bagheri Pormehr, Anahita Khodabakhshi Kolaei, Hoda Shabarang, Amir Faraji.

According to the same report, before the 5th Research and technology Festival of Khatam University, the Research Deputy of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology visited the exhibition of this university’s achievements in the field of research and technology, which was set up in the lobby of the university.

In this visit, Dr. Salehi closely got familiar with the activities of various departments, including TIAs, the presence of Khatam University faculty members in international arenas, special courses in finance, data science, economics, the alumni book exhibition, as well as two research departments of the university, including the Living Laboratory and the educational and research center of digital reality.