A team of graduate students from the College of Engineering (CEN) at American University of Sharjah (AUS) was among the winners at the recently held 2020 edition of AI Robot, a intercollegiate robotics competition organized by Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) that challenges students in the country to design and build industrial robots for use in EGA’s smelters.

For this year’s competition, students were tasked to design, build and operate a drone or a semi-autonomous robot that could measure the surface temperature of the aluminum potshells—an environment with a high heat and a magnetic field. Participating in the competition for the very first time, the CEN team won third place and AED 10,000 for their project called The Leo, a mobile robot equipped with a robotic arm capable of holding a thermal camera. The team used magnetic shielding and cooling to protect the robot’s electronics against the harsh environment. The robot is remotely controlled with a laptop and an xbox controller, and its webcam and lights allow the operator to see where it is at any given time.

Team members Sara Tellab, Nidal Sherif, Muhannad Alkaddour, Ahmed Khalil, Mohamad Omari and Ammar Kiftaro—all enrolled in the university’s Master of Science in Mechatronics Engineering program—spent around four months designing, building and testing the project. They were mentored by CEN faculty members Dr. Lotfi Romdhane, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Associate Dean of Engineering, and Director of Mechatronics Engineering Graduate Program; Dr. Mohammed Jaradat, Professor of Mechanical Engineering; Dr. Shayok Mukhapadhyay, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering; and Ali Wadi, Lab Instructor, Mechanical Engineering.

“This success reinforces the stellar reputation our mechatronics program and the College of Engineering enjoy in the region. We are very proud to see our students, once again, proving that they are capable of coming up with new and innovative solutions to challenges that confront industry,” Dr. Romdhane said.

For more information about the Master of Science in Mechatronics Engineering (MSMTR) program, please visit www.aus.edu/cen/msmtr.

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