Students from the College of Architecture, Art and Design at American University of Sharjah (AUS) recently won three of the four awards in the Student Category at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Middle East annual conference. The students and their instructors were honored at the conference gala dinner held in Abu Dhabi on November 13.

The AUS participants won awards for the Student Graduation Project category. The Design Award was given to the CAAD Display Wall, the Merit Award to the AVM Pavilion and Honorable Mention was given to the Bee'ah Reclaimed Wall. All of these full-scale design projects were built on the AUS campus.

According to Juan Roldan, Assistant Professor in Architecture and AUS liaison to AIA Middle East, "This recognition by the AIA Middle East Chapter is a direct translation of our student's capacities in collaboration with the work of our faculty members. These awards show knowledge and maturity on how our students engage design skills and the use of new technologies here at CAAD."

"These awards represent an incredible amount of hard work by our students and faculty as well as our ongoing commitment to hands-on learning through full-scale design projects," said Michael Hughes, Head of the AUS Department of Architecture, on the significance of the accomplishment.

The winners are as follows:

Design Award: CAAD Display Wall. Instructor: Associate Professor Bill Sarnecky

Students: Layth Mahdi, Moemen Abdelghany, Ali Ahmed, Ruba Al Araji, Noora AlAwar, Bahar Al Bahar, Sawsan Al Bahar, Fatima Al Zaabi, Rasha Badr, Yosr El Sherbiny, Obada Ghabra, Reyan Hanafi , Tayo Odulana , Naba Ozair, Shaima Rizvi, Forough Abadian, Noor Aboushammalah, Mariam Abu Ebeid, Sally Adeeb Petra Aji, Mohammad Al Shawa, Donna Ashraf, Shadi El Ghoul, Basant Elshimy, Abdullah Ibrahim, Reem Yousuf, Ayla Akkad, Abrar Albaba, Amer Alhusaini, Sultan Almutairi, Amal Alshamsi, Aisha Alshimmari, May Eladasy, Ahmed Eltoutngi, Yara Gamal, Hanan Ghaith, Alia Hesham, Lujaine Hany, Saly Mekhaeil, Monica Rezkalla

Merit Award: AVM Pavilion. Instructor: Assistant Professor Kenneth Tracy

Students: Petra Aji, Rita Isshak , Sara Aleem , Yara Gamal, Rahil Gupta, Mai Elhossiny, Donna Ashraf, Sally Mekhaeil Mehdi Jandaghi, Fay Elmutwalli, Arwa Alnasser, Nasser Alzayani, Nada Abushaqra, Forough Abadian, Noor, Abu Shammalah, Anaisabel Olvera Alacio

Honorable Mention: Bee'ah Reclaimed Wall. Instructor: Assistant Professor Daniel Chavez

Students: Reem Helal, Hanin Hazeem , Nada Salem, Haya Al Salama, Arghavan Hatamabadi, Abrar Al Baba, Albert Kolambel, Lujaine Rezk, Aisha Bin Nassar, Amal Taryam, Zainab Zayed, Carmen Muhtashem, Hafsa Tameez, Maryan Owais