[Academic Visit] 🇩🇿 Building a Strategic Research Partnership with Mohamed Khider University of Biskra, Algeria

Research collaboration, climate resilience, AI in architectural education, and a new agreement between the University of Liège and Mohamed Khider University of Biskra.

On October 28, 2026, I had the pleasure of visiting Mohamed Khider University of Biskra, Algeria, for a full day of scientific seminars, research training, and discussions with colleagues from the Department of Architecture and the Built Environment Resilience Lab.

The visit marked an important milestone in strengthening academic cooperation between the University of Liège (Belgium) and Mohamed Khider University of Biskra (Algeria), including the signing of an interuniversity cooperation agreement.

For our Sustainable Building Design (SBD) Lab, Algeria represents a strategic research partner at the intersection of Mediterranean climate challenges, North African urban development, and the increasingly urgent need for resilient, low-carbon buildings and cities.

🏛️ Why Biskra matters: A living laboratory for climate resilience

Biskra occupies a particularly important geographical and climatic position. Located at the northern edge of the Sahara, it provides an exceptional setting for investigating how buildings, urban districts, and energy systems respond to extreme heat, water scarcity, and increasing pressure on infrastructure.

These challenges extend beyond Algeria. They are directly relevant to the Mediterranean region and the Sahel, where rising temperatures, growing cooling demand, energy insecurity, and rapid urbanization are creating new vulnerabilities.

Algeria is both a Mediterranean research partner and a strategic gateway to the Sahel.

Our discussions highlighted several interconnected research priorities:

• Climate resilience and extreme heat: Developing buildings and neighborhoods capable of maintaining safe indoor conditions during increasingly severe heat waves.
• Power outages and thermal safety: Understanding how buildings perform when electricity and mechanical cooling become unavailable.
• District-scale renewable energy: Integrating solar energy, energy storage, and decentralized systems into resilient urban energy networks.
• Smart grid management: Investigating demand flexibility, building-grid interaction, and coordinated energy management at the district scale.
• Health and decarbonization: Connecting thermal comfort, occupant health, climate adaptation, and whole-life carbon reduction.

The scientific opportunity is to move beyond studying buildings as isolated objects and investigate the interaction between buildings, people, energy networks, and climate risks.

🎓 Scientific seminars: From research questions to credible evidence

During the training day, organized by the Department of Architecture and the Built Environment Resilience Lab, I delivered two principal lectures.

Lecture 1: Research Methods in Architecture and Urban Design: From Questions to Credible Evidence

We examined experimental, observational, computational, qualitative, and mixed research methods, with particular attention to selecting appropriate methodologies, collecting reliable data, and producing scientifically defensible conclusions.

A central message was that simulation results alone are not sufficient evidence. Calibration, verification, validation, sensitivity analysis, uncertainty quantification, and reproducibility are fundamental requirements for credible computational research.

We also discussed scientific publishing, including how to select journals strategically, understand editorial expectations, and benchmark methodological rigor against published research.

Lecture 2: From Chatbots to AI Agents: Teaching and Assessing AI Use in Architecture and Civil Engineering

Our afternoon session explored the rapid integration of artificial intelligence into architectural and engineering education.

We discussed chatbots, AI agents, design workflows, simulation assistance, academic integrity, and new approaches to assessment.

My central argument was that AI should strengthen students' reasoning, not replace the intellectual process through which architectural competence develops.

Drawing, critical thinking, spatial judgment, and the ability to justify design decisions remain essential. Universities must increasingly assess the design process, the evidence, and the student's understanding rather than the apparent quality of an AI-generated final product.

The discussions with faculty members and researchers were particularly valuable because they connected these methodological and educational questions to the practical realities of research and teaching in Algeria.

🤝 A new chapter in Belgian-Algerian academic cooperation

An important outcome of the visit was the signing of an agreement between our universities, establishing a foundation for closer academic and scientific cooperation.

For the SBD Lab, this partnership forms part of a broader international strategy connecting Belgium, Algeria, Mediterranean research networks, and our collaborations with Italian academic partners.

Our ambition is to develop comparative and complementary research across different climatic regions, connecting Mediterranean and European research expertise with the environmental and infrastructure challenges of North Africa and the Sahel.

Potential areas of cooperation include joint research projects, doctoral exchanges, shared datasets, experimental and computational studies, scientific publications, and future international funding proposals.

The priority is not simply to expand academic networks. It is to build partnerships that generate measurable scientific evidence, transferable methods, and practical solutions for resilient and decarbonized built environments.

🙏 Acknowledgments

I would like to express my sincere appreciation to our colleagues and hosts at Mohamed Khider University of Biskra for their warm welcome, scientific engagement, and commitment to developing this partnership.

Special thanks to Elhadi Matallah, Dyna Zitouni, Mohamed Yassine Saadi, Moustafa Meduki, Essam Abdel Salam, Zuhair Dibi, Fath Diblah, Noureddine Zemmouri, Fatima Zahra Ben Ratmia, Djihed Berkouok, Yasmina Besbas, Mohamed Akram Eddine Ben Ratmia, Faten Ghanemi and Safa Daich.

I particularly appreciate the efforts invested in organizing the training day, facilitating discussions, and advancing institutional cooperation.

The enthusiasm and engagement of the participating faculty members, doctoral researchers, and students made the visit especially meaningful.

🌍 Looking ahead: From the Mediterranean to the Sahel

The future of climate-resilient construction cannot be developed exclusively in temperate European research environments.

We need stronger scientific collaboration with institutions working directly under extreme climatic conditions, particularly in hot-arid regions where the consequences of overheating, energy insecurity, and infrastructure vulnerability are already evident.

Biskra offers an important opportunity to connect local knowledge, field measurements, advanced modeling, renewable energy systems, and international research collaboration.

Our next objective is to translate this institutional agreement into joint scientific activities, research proposals, doctoral cooperation, and demonstrable outcomes.

I look forward to continuing this collaboration with our Algerian colleagues and strengthening the connections between Belgium, Algeria, Italy, and the wider Mediterranean and Sahel research communities.

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