CEN celebrates student innovation at annual senior design competition

The College of Engineering (CEN) at American University of Sharjah (AUS) recently held its annual Senior Design Projects Competition, showcasing the projects of undergraduate senior students. This year, over 110 projects were presented, and the top three from each of the college's six departments were recognized as winners.

Sponsored by BEEAH, Petrofac and the Sharjah National Oil Corporation (SNOC), the competition is an integral part of the Senior Design I and Senior Design II courses, which are taken by graduating students over their final two semesters in one of the College of Engineering's bachelor’s degree programs. Students work in groups under the guidance of CEN academic advisors and industry mentors to complete their projects and qualify for the competition. Participation in these projects is mandatory for all senior students as part of their graduation requirements. Three outstanding projects from each undergraduate program are selected to win the top three places.

"This competition demonstrates the exceptional talent and original thinking of our students. Each project aims to propose innovative technological ideas and advancements, reflecting the practical application of students’ rigorous academic training. Many of these projects were industry sponsored and tackled local challenges. We are immensely proud of what our students have achieved and confident in their abilities to contribute to the field of engineering in their future careers," said Dr. Fadi Aloul, Dean of CEN.

The Department of Electrical Engineering awarded first place to Samrin Saleem, Nikita Miller, Rhea Srivastava and Ahmed Sharafath Ahamed Zibli for their project Real-Time Wireless Monitoring System with Predictive Analysis of Healthcare Data. Their project, guided by Dr. Ming Teng, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Electrical Engineering, and Dr. Salam Dhou, Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, stood out for its innovative approach to healthcare monitoring.

In the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Amaan Memon, Khalifa Aldaquli Alduhoori, Lamees Bougas, Latifa Alshelahi and Nada Ibrahim took the top spots with their project, Recovery of Lithium from Spent Lithium-Based Batteries, under the mentorship of Dr. Sameer Al Asheh, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Dr. Ahmed Aidan, Senior Laboratory Instructor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. Their work could contribute significantly to sustainability practices in the lithium-based batteries industry.

Civil engineering's first-place project was designed by Mohamed Amro Imbabi, Ali Raed Al Fakhouri, Rafal Ibrahim Habib and Kaltham Ali Almheiri, who were advised by Dr. Sherif Yehia, Professor of Civil Engineering. Their project, titled Rehabilitation of Damaged Recycled Concrete Beams using Fiber Cementitious Materials, showcases their understanding of sustainable construction techniques.

The Department of Computer Science and Engineering celebrated first-place winners in the computer science and computer engineering categories. In the computer science category, the project A Deep Learning Approach for Arabic Sign Language Interpretation was executed by Salma Shaarawi, Mohamed Eid, Aley Eshra and Abdelrahman Darwish, with guidance from Dr. Mohammad Daoud, Visiting Professor of Computer Science and Engineering. In the computer engineering category, the Intelligent Vehicle Emission Monitoring and Prediction System was developed by Ahmad Mansour, Amr Abu Alhaj, Omar Farrag, and Baraa Abed, under the expert direction of Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Ali and Dr. Taha Landolsi, both professors in the department.

Mechanical engineering’s top accolade was awarded to Basil Kordi, Abdel Rahman Hamzah, Yazan Nasir and Fares Abdelrazeq for their project Building and Optimizing a Piezoelectric Pump for Cooling Purposes. Dr. Mohamed Abdelgawad, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, mentored them. 

The Department of Industrial Engineering saw Malak El-Farra, Raghed Hamza, Shahd Mahmoud, and Layan Shadid secure first place with their Vehicle Routing Optimization of Flower Transportation project, supervised by Dr. Mahmoud Awad, Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering.

“My team and I were immensely proud to win first place at the CEN Senior Design Competition. Being able to contribute to the field of sustainable cold supply chain transportation with a project that incorporates experimentation, modeling and genetic algorithm solutions was a challenging yet rewarding experience. I am grateful for the support we received from our advisor and college, and eager to expand further on our project and potentially publish it,” said Mahmoud, one of the team members from the winning team in the Department of Industrial Engineering’s competition. 

The College of Engineering at AUS continues to be a beacon of excellence in engineering education in the UAE and the region, featuring state-of-the-art facilities and a faculty internationally recognized for their academic research. AUS is committed to delivering superior education through its comprehensive undergraduate and graduate programs.For more information about the College of Engineering at AUS, please visit www.aus.edu/cen.