Engineering students participate in Global Student Forum 2014

Eighteen students from the American University of Sharjah (AUS) College of Engineering, participated in the Global Student Forum 2014 held November 30-December 3 in Dubai. Attended by students from around the world, the forum aims to improve engineering education (EE) by giving students a platform to provide solutions to global problems and implement them in their local communities.

The four-day event included workshops, site visits and three track sessions. Participants collaborated with their peers from Germany, USA, Argentina and India to tackle engineering education problems from certain perspectives and provide solutions that can be implemented in their communities.

AUS students presented the best ideas in two tracks. The winners of these tracks were Basil Safieh, Norhan Kandil and Salma Abdelbaky with "Re-imagining EE In and Out of the Classroom" and Ameeq Pirzada, Doa'a Nassar, Fatma Jaffar Karim and Mohamed Elkhodiry with "Re-imagining EE Beyond the Silos of Discipline."

"The Global Student Forum was certainly an experience that I was lucky to be a part of," said Mohamed Elkhodiry, a senior in chemical engineering. "In just a few days, I met my global peers, a team that spoke six languages, learned how they think, and came up with a winning action plan to improve engineering education. The event presented perspectives that I never knew existed and I intend to make the best out of them."

"The forum allowed AUS to be seen and heard through its students who actively participated in the discussions," said AbdulSamad Mohammad Zahir, the College of Engineering Representative of the AUS Student Council. "This opportunity allowed the standards of AUS to be clearly seen as students implemented their critical and analytical thinking skills, which led them to present the best idea in their tracks."

"I congratulate our students for their achievements in this global event. We are proud of our highly talented students who continue to promote a positive image of our university. I wish to thank the Student Council for supporting our students' participation and the College of Engineering for collaborating with us and supporting out-of-class learning experiences" said Dr. Moza Al Shehhi, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. "We encourage more collaborative initiatives with academic units for events that are truly valuable and of great benefit to our students," she added.

The event concluded on December 3 with a half-day attendance of the World Engineering Education Forum 2014.

The Global Student Forum has been held in locations around the world since 2006 and will be held at Florence, Italy in 2015.