Hamad Bin Khalifa University Symposium Explores Flow Assurance to Accelerate Energy Transition and Sustainability

Building on its commitment to developing innovative and interdisciplinary solutions across national priority areas, Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) recently hosted the Digital Flow Assurance Symposium. The gathering explored the critical interplay between digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the energy industry, addressing how digital innovations can manage complex flow challenges, minimize environmental footprints, and enable the global transition toward low-carbon energy solutions.

Held over two days in a hybrid format, the symposium brought together leading voices from industry, academia, and emerging talent to advance dialogue on digital transformation in energy systems. The event was delivered in partnership with key stakeholders, including Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) and SLB, convening more than 35 participating organizations, including national stakeholders like QatarEnergy,QatarEnergy LNG, Kahramaa, QAPCO, and Marafeq Qatar alongside global leaders such as TotalEnergies, McDermott, Halliburton, Baker Hughes, and Wood.

Demonstrating HBKU’s ability to convene a diverse, international ecosystem around shared energy challenges, the gathering connected experts across 10 countries, including the USA, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and Algeria. This geographic diversity underscores Qatar’s growing influence as a central node in the global energy-tech corridor.

“Digital technologies such as AI and data-driven modeling are reshaping how flow assurance challenges are addressed across the energy value chain,” Dr. Aziz Rahman, Associate Professor, College of Science and Engineering, HBKU, stated. “This symposium reflects HBKU’s commitment to advancing solutions that address national and global energy priorities through sustained collaboration across academia, industry, and policymakers. By translating advanced research into practical exchange, we are proud to bridge the gap between research excellence with industrial application.”

The event’s program combined high-level technical exchange with talent development and capacity building. Through expert-led technical panels, applied training sessions, a national student poster showcase, and the MENA Regional Student Design Competition, the gathering emphasized the link between research, practice, and workforce development, ensuring that innovation is supported by skills, data, and real-world applications.

In the MENA Student Design Competition, the University of Doha for Science and Technology (UDST) emerged winners of the Undergraduate category with King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) finishing in second and third place. In the graduate category, KFUPM ranked first, followed by Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) in second and HBKU in third place.