Students from the American University of Sharjah (AUS) College of Engineering were recently awarded second place in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Industry Applications Society (IEEE IAS) Myron Zucker Undergraduate Student Design Contest. The award recognizes three individual students, or student teams, and their associated electrical engineering departments.

Entitled "Web Based Partial Discharge Monitoring System," the prize-winning project was conducted by electrical engineering students Mohammed Qasim, Mohammed Al Zaabi and Suhail Aburahma. The award included US $600, to be divided among the team members, and an IEEE IAS certificate. The team was also given a travel allowance to attend the IEEE IAS Annual Meeting held October 9-13, in Orlando, Florida, USA.

This conference exceeded my expectations, and I learned a lot from it. I was able to attend tutorials and lectures presented by professors, researchers and engineers from all over the world," said Al Zaabi.

In addition to this, I met with students from different nationalities who shared the same interests as me. I sat with members of the Colombian chapter of the IEEE, and we discussed and exchanged knowledge and ideas. This helped a lot in enhancing my knowledge, shaping my personality and building my self-confidence," he added.

Associate professors Dr. Ayman El-Hag and Dr. Aydin Yesildirek, both of the AUS Department of Electrical Engineering, supervised the project. "It offers an innovative and cost effective way to detect defects in power transformers. The students are currently working to further improve their prototype and are planning to attend an international conference to present their results," said Dr. El-Hag.

In addition to the student award, the AUS College of Engineering also received US $400 and a certificate.