The American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) club at American University of Sharjah (AUS) hosted the fifth annual Civil Engineering Competition on November 19, 2016, on campus. Organized by the Department of Civil Engineering, the competition saw a total of 160 students participating from six universities across the UAE. The event comprised various competitions including the Spaghetti Truss Bridge competition, Green Concrete Crushing competition, Tower Crane competition, and Water Rocket Launcher competition.

"This competition develops our critical thinking skills and helps us build valuable relationships and networks for the future and this is what the competition is really about," said Dr. Robert Houghtalen, Head of the Department of Civil Engineering, welcoming the attendees.

The president of the ASCE club, Mohammad Ghannam, a civil engineering senior said: "This competition helps students in developing their design, leadership and teamwork skills to achieve the desired goals in a required period of time. It also helps them to work on research topics such as sustainability and much more."

Mohammad Ghannam, Hasan Muhsen, Ahmad Al Haj and Othman Dabaan, ASCE students from AUS, were declared in the Green Concrete Crushing competition, while Mustafa AbdulJaleel, Abdul Ghani Sukkar, Nouran Hegazi, Nada El Degwy won third place.

The second place for the Water Rocket Launcher competition was also won by an ASCE student, Omar Husam.

The competition judges included Dr. Adil Tamimi, Professor of Civil Engineering; Dr. Roz-Ud-din Nassar, Visiting Associate Professor of Civil Engineering; Dr. Magdi El-Emam, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering; Dr. Mohamed Yamin, Visiting Associate Professor of Civil Engineering; Dr. Abdulla Yilmaz, Visiting Associate Professor of Civil Engineering; Aqeel Taher, Instructor of Civil Engineering, Arshi Faridi, Senior Laboratory Instructor of Civil Engineering, Waleed Nawaz, Laboratory Instructor of Civil Engineering; and Mohammad Abdul Bashir, Lab technician of Civil Engineering.

Other faculty members from the Department of Civil Engineering whose support was essential in making the event a success included: Dr. Houghtalen; Dr. Hany El Kadi, Associate Dean andProfessor of Mechanical Engineering; Dr. Rami Hawileh, Professor of Civil Engineering and advisor of ASCE; Dr. Jamal Abdalla; Professor of Civil Engineering; Dr. Sameh El-Sayegh, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering; and Dr. Sherif Yehia, Professor of Civil Engineering.

The six participating universities included AUS, Abu Dhabi University, University of Sharjah, American University in Dubai, Manipal University, and Amity University in Dubai.

The winners' prizes for the four competitions were sponsored by AUS and the Society of Engineers.