Engineering graduate wins National Graduate Student Speaker Competition

American University of Sharjah (AUS) civil engineering graduate Muhammad Irfan placed first at the National Graduate Student Speaker Competition organized by the Canadian Geotechnical Society (CGS). As winner of the competition, Irfan was invited to present his research in front of more than 500 delegates from around the world during a presentation ceremony at the 69th Canadian Geotechnical Society conference in Vancouver October 2-5. In addition, he won USD 1000 in prize money.

Irfan, who holds both a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in civil engineering from AUS, took the top prize based on a presentation of research he conducted as part of his PhD program at the University of Waterloo in Canada, where he was part of the Southern Ontario section of CGS.

"I am extremely thankful to all my graduate studies supervisors-Dr. Zahid Khan, Assistant Professor in Civil Engineering at AUS, Dr. Giovanni Cascante and Dr. Dipanjan Basu from the University of Waterloo-for supporting me during my studies. Dr. Khan especially has been a great motivator to me for undertaking my graduate studies at the University of Waterloo. The research for which I have been given this award was actually inspired mutually by Dr. Khan (former student of Dr. Giovanni Cascante) and Dr. Cascante. I would also like to thank the Department of Civil Engineering at AUS, where I launched my academic career by doing my bachelor's and master's degrees," said Irfan.

Irfan completed his undergraduate program in 2009 at AUS and then completed his master's degree in 2011 at AUS under the joint supervision of Dr. Zahid Khan, Assistant Professor in Civil Engineering, and Dr. Magdi El-Emam, Associate Professor in Civil Engineering at AUS.

Formed in 1947, the CGS is a constituent society of the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC). The award, established in 1988, rewards distinction in presentations of papers by geotechnical graduate students from Canadian universities.