Five hundred engineering freshmen at American University of Sharjah (AUS) competed to build a sorter in the annual NGN 110 Introduction to Engineering and Computing Competition, held at the university plaza yesterday night.

The competition, in its sixteenth edition, is part of the first-year course Introduction to Engineering and Computing taken by all AUS College of Engineering (CEN) students with the purpose of helping students enhance their teamwork, engineering design, problem solving, time management and communication skills.

This semester's competition focused on building a sorter that could intelligently sort eight ping pong balls of different weights; light, medium and heavy. The eight ping pong balls consisted of three heavy balls completely filled with water (heavy), two half filled with water (medium), and three empty (light). The participating students were asked to build a sorter out of different types of materials such as paper, plastic, strings, glue, tape and cardboard, to sort the balls according to weight. The students were divided into 100 groups.

Dr. Richard Schoephoerster, Dean of Engineering at AUS said, "I am extremely proud of our introduction to engineering and computing competition. In my opinion, this is one of the most important courses and events in the college. This is the students' first opportunity to practice engineering, and the competition drives them to excellence."

According to Dr. Fadi Ahmed Aloul, Professor and Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and organizer of the event, "This competition encourages students to develop their creativity and innovation skills and teaches them to work in multidisciplinary teams, to follow time constraints and meet deadlines, to do research online, as well as to do engineering design."

"The excitement of the students is something we remember and are proud of. Students develop their ideas from sketches and eventually turn them into reality in a fun atmosphere. The students view this competition as a means of motivation and creativity to better understand engineering," he added.

The members of the first-place winning team were: Aniket Rajesh, Muhammad Alvi, Noor Kouli, Shaikha Kamal and Arwa Albastaki. Second place winning team included Saeed Al Manei, Hamza Farooqi, Abdalla AlHammadi, Mohammad AlHajjar, and Ahmed Ghith. Third place winning team included Amna Ghelaita, Abdullah Osman, Danayal Khan, Joaher Abdulla, and Fatima Alzarooni.

Students from all seven undergraduate degree programs offered by the College of Engineering participate annually 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 a catapult, light motor cars, small-scale bridges, tower cranes, helicopters, boats and paper planes among other structures.

The competition judges this year were Aqeel Taher, Instructor of Civil Engineering; Dr. Mahmoud Ibrahim, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering; Dr Rami As'ad, Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering; and Dr. Rana Sabouni, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering. The competition managers included Catrine Sayegh, mechanical engineering; Hammam Orabi, Laboratory Instructor; and Sameer Alwanah, Laboratory Instructor. The event was attended by senior university officials; as well as a large number of students.