Three students from American University of Sharjah (AUS) were declared winners of the Gold Award in the Young Leaders Innovation Challenge on September 19 in Dubai. The team won first place in a competitive challenge that included more than a dozen universities from the region. This year's competition was held under the theme of Innovation, Sustainability and Clean Technology.

Organized by Intersolar Middle East and endorsed by the UAE Ministry of Energy, the project involved choosing a government building and achieving at least 25 percent reduction in the energy consumed by the building by retrofitting renewable components for better efficiency.

The challenge was a great opportunity for students to showcase their views on sustainability, to discover new career prospects in the solar industry, to gain more project management experience, and also to compete with their peers from more than a dozen universities in the region.

Dr. Richard Schoephoerster, Dean of the AUS College of Engineering said, "I am extremely proud of the performance of our students and their advisors, particularly because the project required an interdisciplinary collaboration between mechanical engineering and architectural design students, and that the results of the project have an important and practical application to the conservation of energy at the AUS sports complex, an example of a high-energy use facility. This competition really highlights the high quality students and faculty we have here at AUS."

Members of the winning AUS team were Omar Hamdi AlSaleh, an architecture major from the College of Architecture, Art and Design (CAAD); and Majdal Ali Shahin and Ali Mahmoud Ahmed Abusarah, mechanical engineering majors from the College of Engineering (CEN). The students were advised by Dr. Yousef Zurigat from CEN and Dr. Ahmed Mokhtar from CAAD. 

Omar AlSaleh said, "The Young Leaders Innovation Challenge was a great learning experience for my colleagues and myself. We learnt from each other's fields of study and implemented the diverse ideas generated in an interactive professional working environment and we learned how sustainability is viewed in both the engineering and architectural worlds. We aimed to create a project that served society, culture, and the environment."

In addition to the financial award, the AUS team also won internship opportunities, a trip to visit Intersolar in Germany, a trophy and certificate from the Ministry of Energy, and commendation certificates from Middle East Solar Industry Association (MESIA) and Intersolar.