AUS student research awards highlight its mission of becoming top research university

Innovative undergraduate research projects reinforcing the commitment of American University of Sharjah (AUS) to become the top research university in the region were honored for excellence and innovation during the Annual Student Research Award Ceremony held at the university last night. Organized by the AUS Office of Research and Graduate Studies, the awards were sponsored by Sharjah Islamic Bank (SIB) and British Petroleum (BP).

The 30 winners for the awards were chosen by a faculty committee from a pool of nominees presented by the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS); the College of Architecture, Art and Design (CAAD); the College of Engineering (CEN); and the School of Business Administration (SBA). An AUS selection committee evaluated each project according to communication and presentation, completeness of application, depth of research and investigation, and innovation as well as creativity.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Leland Blank, Interim Provost and Chief Academic Officer, congratulated the students on their success and thanked the sponsors for their support. "As most of you know, AUS is known to be a renowned teaching institution since its inception through a mandate of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan. We are moving into an integrated system of examining the way we do business of higher education, and we are definitely expanding the research activities that we have on campus," he said. "We use the term research in different ways, but I'd like to change the word to discovery, as in pushing the frontier. When you're a young person who's pushing the frontier, you're discovering new things, not only for society or science or engineering or international relations, etc., but you're discovering things for yourself and that's a very important aspect," he added.

SIB awarded three prizes and two honorable mentions. These are:

• First place for the project entitled Occupiable Machine, conducted by CAAD student Sapna Meghlani 
• Second place for the project Detecting and Sizing Cracks in Conductors Utilizing Microwave Sensors conducted by Alaa Ali, Habiba Tahir, Mariam Alhudaidi from CEN 
• Third Place for the project Smart Antenna-Based Partial Discharge Detection and Classification System, conducted by Abdelrahman Shaath, Firas Gefe, Nadin Al Rayes, Ruba Al Kadi, Sana Jaber from CEN, in addition to a third place for the project Call It Spring, Call It Yours! An Experiential Marketing Strategy, conducted by Muskaan Chandwani from CAAD 
• First Honorable Mention went to the project Optimizing the Manufacturing Processes of Carbon Fiber Epoxy Resin Composite Panels conducted by Bayan Hamdan and Sarah Lafi from CEN. While the second Honorable mention went to the project Investigating Chemically-Modified Natural Fibers for Removal of Organic Oil from Waste Surface conducted by Hassan Abdirizak Issak from CAS 

The five projects selected for the BP UAE awards are those that best exemplify BP's five brand values.These are:

• Respect Award for the project Treatment of Spent Caustic from Enoc Jebel Ali Refinery, by Adnan Kapadia, Gina Izzabelle Eid Rajeh, Jassem Jamil Jamal, Nour Jamal Kobaissi, Pancham Mehta, Rasha Fakhri from CEN
• Courage Award for the project Seismological Research Center by Hind Hashim from CAAD. 
• Excellence Award for the project The Sustainable Four by Firas Bou Fakhereddine, Behrooz Arjomandi, Imran Ansari, Hiba Malik from SBA
• The One Team Award for the project Games as Research Tools for Multi-Disciplinary Teams, by Abrar Harasani, Alya Alsalman, Jowaher AlBaker, Alya AlTeneiji, Rawdha AlRedha from CAAD.
• The Safety Award for the project Chemical and Structural Analysis of Sharjah Sand and their Potential Application for Toxic Metal Removal by Taraneh Taghaddossi from CASJassem

Al Baloushi, Head of Organizational Excellence at SIB, addressed the students and said, "I would like to thank all of you who participated and for your considerable effort and numerous hours spent on your projects. Since the beginning of this award, the number of participating students has increased which is a testament to the commitment of this institution to become a research-based university."

Mohammed AlNakhi, UAE HSE Lead and Technical Adviser, BP UAE, congratulated the students on their achievements and thanked AUS for organizing the event. "BP has been involved with AUS for nearly 13 years in endorsing these awards. It is important to keep encouraging upcoming generations to discover new things, to work in teams, and to expand their knowledge. This gives us a chance to show our commitment as we focus on education and entrepreneurship. AUS is one of the leading universities not only in UAE but in the region and it's important to support these initiatives," he added.

The award ceremony was also attended by number of senior officials from AUS, including Dr. Khaled Assaleh, Interim Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies; Kevin Mitchell, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Affairs and Instruction; Dr. Mahmoud Anabtawi, Dean of CAS; and Dr. Richard Schoephoerster, among others.