American University of Sharjah (AUS) welcomed hundreds of students and teachers from across Sharjah at its booth at the Think Science Fair at the Sharjah Center for Astronomy & Space Sciences today, March 3. At the event, AUS faculty members and enrollment advisors showcased the wide range of undergraduate science and engineering programs offered at AUS to freshman students this fall.

Visitors had the opportunity to interact with professors and students from the university’s College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and the College of Engineering (CEN), and see demonstrations of science and engineering projects developed on campus at AUS.

Two teams of AUS students and alumni entered their innovative projects in the Think Science Fair competition, including recent civil engineering graduate Anoud Shalwani, who partnered with fellow student Hessa Al Qassimi to develop a detection and analysis system for detecting underground water sources using remote sensing and GIS techniques.

“This project is in collaboration with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center’s Development and Analysis team. It uses two main satellites that help us to detect underground water, since groundwater is a great resource, especially here in the UAE, Middle East and Gulf areas,” said Shalwani.

“I am a proud AUS graduate. The civil engineering program at American University of Sharjah is a complete program, where you are able to apply everything you learn in the labs to real life. As a student, you get to attend a lot of field trips where you can see how your knowledge applies in reality,” she said.

Dr. Nidhal Guessoum, Professor of Physics, said a significant aspect of the AUS undergraduate student experience is the opportunity to collaborate on real-world projects, attend international conferences and publish new research in international journals.

“Our students work on real-world projects. For example, we have many students who are interested in space sciences who have had the chance to work on projects ranging from Mars to gamma ray bursts, in collaboration with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center,” he said.

“If you are interested in studying science, I highly encourage you to visit the AUS booth at Think Science and get a taste of the kind of research we do at AUS, in all branches of science and engineering. You will get the chance to interact with faculty and students and ask any questions you might have about our courses and programs so that you have everything you need to apply to AUS,” said Dr. Guessoum.

With an ambitious agenda to become the region’s leading research university within the next five years, AUS offers a range of STEM-related undergraduate programs in physics, biology, chemistry, environmental science, mathematics, as well as civil, chemical, computer, electrical and mechanical engineering and computer science, with an impressive portfolio of graduate and doctoral programs.

“AUS professors are engaged in cutting edge research and development in a variety of fields. This is a very exciting time to be at AUS,” said Dr. Guessoum.