Hundreds of students gathered at the 20th edition of the American University of Sharjah (AUS) NGN 110 Introduction to Engineering and Computing Competition yesterday, November 21, to build a boat out of toothpicks and glue. The target was to have the lightest boat float and bear the weight of a half-liter bottle of water (three-fourths filled) dropped from a height of 25 centimeters. The competition had a large number of participants, with students divided into 112 groups. The event was held at the AUS Plaza.

Organized by the AUS College of Engineering, this semester’s event had 430 student participating. The competition is part of the first-year course Introduction to Engineering and Computing (NGN 110) taken by all AUS engineering students with the purpose of helping students enhance their teamwork, engineering design, problem solving, time management and communication skills.

Of the 430 students participating, in first place were Ahmed Mohammed El Oupy (mechanical engineering), Ismail Mohammed Al Ghussein (civil engineering), Hessa Jamal Al Yassi (chemical engineering), and Maya  Mohamed Wehbe (computer  engineering), with a boat that weighed 100.5 grams. In second and third place were teams with boats that weighed 132 grams and 155 grams respectively.

Aqeel Ahmed, Professor of Practice in the Department of Civil Engineering and organizer of the event, said:

 “The purpose of the competition is to help students gain confidence in practicing engineering while working with multi-disciplinary teams. In this course, students are required to learn the different ways engineers work and communicate with those in other professions. This competition gave students an opportunity to learn from their mistakes, thereby providing a valuable learning experience. I am very grateful to the participating students, volunteers, judges and the entire AUS events management team who made this mega event a great success.”

The criteria for evaluating the project was the application of teamwork, the technical background, the level of analysis and detail, creativity and innovation, the final report and oral presentation and the model and demonstration.

Judging the competition were Dr. Gilles Cormier, Senior Lecturer in Industrial Engineering; Dr. Hicham Hallal, Lecturer in Computer Engineering; Dr. Karnail Baldev Singh, Lecturer in Chemical Engineering; and Dr. Ming Foey Teng, Lecturer in Electrical Engineering.

Students from all seven undergraduate degree programs offered by the AUS College of Engineering participated in the competition. The college offers bachelor of science degree programs in chemical engineering, civil engineering, computer engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, industrial engineering and mechanical engineering.

In previous competitions, students were required to build design and construct small-scale bridges, tower cranes, helicopters and paper planes among other structures.