AUS students showcase engineering solutions at annual senior design competition

Graduating engineering students at American University of Sharjah (AUS) presented 117 projects at the annual College of Engineering (CEN) Senior Design Competition. The projects addressed challenges in healthcare, sustainability, infrastructure, computing and energy. All students in the College of Engineering are required to complete a two-semester senior design project as part of their graduation requirements, giving them essential hands-on experience in their field of study.

Dr. Fadi Aloul, Dean of CEN, said the competition offers a glimpse of how the next generation of engineers can help shape the region’s future.

“Engineering will shape how our region responds to the challenges and opportunities ahead. Preparing for that future means giving students the ability to question established approaches, bring different fields of expertise together, engage with experts in the field and turn technical knowledge into ideas with lasting value. The projects presented this year show the kind of forward-looking thinking that will be essential as the region defines its next chapter,” he said. 

The 21 winning teams and their projects are listed below.

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

First Place: Process Design for the Green Production of Dimethyl Carbonate (DMC) — Fay Almutairi, Hadeel Alrefaei, Muna Alali and Zainab AlEbrahim; supervised by Dr. Karnail B. Singh, Senior Lecturer of Chemical and Biological Engineering. 

Second Place (Tie): Controlled Release of Pesticides Using Metal-Organic Framework-Based Carriers — Ellena Danthi, Hana Elsergani, Maitha Alzaabi and Rahaf Alrasheedi; supervised by Dr. Rana Sabouni, Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Deputy Director of the Center for Biomedical Innovations.

Second Place (Tie): Improvement in Industrial Air Phase Bioreactor Configuration for VOC and Odor Removal — Abdullah Tariq, Ahammed Sebeeh and Dennis Mathew; supervised by Dr. Zarook Shareefdeen, Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering.

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Computer engineering program

First Place: ORCA: A Real-Time Computer Vision-Assisted Drowning Detection and Alert System — Mohamad Samer Zein, Omar Kasem Aloruk, Afif Ahmed Zughayer and Rayyan Anan Agha Alnimer; supervised by Dr. Mohamed Alhajri, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering.

Second Place: EchoVision: Deep Learning-Based Semantic Segmentation for Ultrasound Images — Ahmad Ali Abu Srour, Amar Yasser Fiad Aly, Mohamed Hussain Jasim Al Lami and Saifeldin Mohamed Hafez; supervised by Dr. Mohammad Daoud, Professor of Practice in Computer Science and Engineering.

Third Place: SynIoT: Topology-Conditioned Synthetic IoT Network Traffic Generation Platform with a Blockchain-Based Audit Trail — Hamza Ayman Kharouf, Karim Ahmed Abedelfattah, Khaleel Mohammad Al-Zamqan and Faris Ayman Nasser; supervised by Dr. Anastassia Gharib, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering.

Computer science program

First Place: A Deep Learning Approach to Detecting and Correcting Quranic Recitation and Tajweed Errors — Muhammad Zaid Dar, Eyad Nasr and Furqan Sajjad; supervised by Dr. Reham Aburas, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering. 

Second Place: Hardening Arabic Small Language Models Against Jailbreak Attacks — Jana Hisham Youssef Abdelbaki, Tala Shaker Ali, Sakina Saibeer Ahamed Bagalkot and Habiba Ali Elsayed; supervised by Dr. Imran Zualkernan, Professor and Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Third Place: GRB Helper: An Autonomous Framework for Transient Alert Classification — Halla Ahmad Da’as, Insiyah Zujar Pardiwala, Ezzeddin Ahmad Diab and Qusai Mohammad Al Tah; supervised by Dr. Tamer Shanableh, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, and Dr. Nidhal Guessoum, Professor of Physics and Sheikha Nama Majid Al Qassimi Chair in Education Across Disciplines.

Department of Civil Engineering

First Place: GIS-Based Study of Floods’ Impact on Roads in Sharjah — Khuloud Salim Alnaqbi, Mohamed Abdulrahman Aldarwish and Reem Abdulla Alsuwaidi; supervised by Dr. Tarig Ali, Professor of Civil Engineering.

Second Place: Comparing the Effects of Using Normal-Weight versus Lightweight Concrete and Different Concrete Grades in Construction — Fatima Fahad Kashwani, Mayar Ahmed Nass, Majid Sultan Alkhafaili and Nazem Suleiman; supervised by Dr. Rami Hawileh, Professor of Civil Engineering and Riad T. Sadik Chair  and Dr. Jamal Abdalla, Professor of Civil Engineering.

Third Place: 3D-Printed Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) for Sustainable Construction — Mohanad Abdelaziz Abdelmagid, Mohamed Rezk Elsayed and Taj Helal; supervised by Dr. Adil Tamimi, Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering.

Department of Electrical Engineering

First Place: NEPTUNE: Nondestructive Exploration and Precision Testing Underwater Navigation Equipment — Nawaf Al Natoor, Omar Rashed and Abdulla Al-Shareif; supervised by Dr. Bara Emran, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering.

Second Place: Satellite-Based Marine Monitoring System — Husain Alebrahim, Abdallah Saleh and Ziad Hegazy; supervised by Dr. Mahmoud Ibrahim, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Deputy Director, AI, Robotics and Connected Infrastructure  and Dr. Amer Zakaria, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering.

Third Place: Affordable SDR-Driven RF Measurement System with FPGA Processing — Marwan Emira, Rayan Sabeti and Tausif Islam; supervised by Dr. Oualid Hammi, Professor of Electrical Engineering.

Department of Industrial Engineering

First Place: PainDetect: A Multimodal Platform for Objective Pain Measurement — Jana Moh’d Alawawdeh, Muhammad Toofail Ahmed Vidha, Sarah Zaher Alibrahem and Shawki Mohammad Chawki Zaitoun; supervised by Dr. Abdulrahim Shamayleh, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Industrial Engineering,  and Dr. Mahmoud Awad, Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering.

Second Place: Operational Efficiency Enhancement for Noon Minutes — Ahmed Freije, Khaled Ammar Almuwahed, Malak Hatem Eldamanhoury and Yasmeen Riyad Khalid; supervised by Dr. Rami As’ad, Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering. 

Third Place: Route and Coverage Optimization Process for Transmed — Auhood Yousef Alajmani Alblook, Maha Mohamad Iyt and Rashid Qayed; supervised by Dr. Faisal Alkaabneh, Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering.

Department of Mechanical Engineering

First Place: Smart Hybrid Heat Sink Design for Compact Electronics — Alhasan Emam, Elshafey Elshafey and Mohammad Awadallah; supervised by Dr. Abdallah Ghazal, Visiting Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Dr. Fazal Hameed, Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Engineering.

Second Place: Solar Powered Car — Mohammed Hasan, Ali Onaisse and Abdul Wahid Shafiullah; supervised by Dr. Bassam Abu-Nabah, Professor of Mechanical Engineering. 

Third Place: Solar Array Deployment System for CubeSats — Jana Bebars, Ibrahim Al Mutoori and Ali Loay Qayed Ahli; supervised by Dr. Wael Abuzaid, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

“Working on PainDetect with Dubai Health and Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences gave us the opportunity to apply industrial engineering to a real healthcare challenge. Using wearable sensors in clinical trials, we collected physiological data to explore how machine learning could support objective pain assessment and clinical decision-making. The project’s recognition shows how data-driven research can lead to practical solutions for patient care,” said Muhammad Toofail Ahmed Vidha, whose team took first place in the Department of Industrial Engineering. 

The success of this year’s competition was made possible through the generous support of BEEAH and Sharjah National Oil Corporation (SNOC), whose partnership continues to reinforce AUS’ efforts in fostering innovation and bridging academic excellence with industry relevance.

“BEEAH congratulates this year's seniors at AUS, whose projects demonstrate how young talent plays a critical role in translating technical knowledge into innovative solutions for real-world challenges. As a long-time partner to AUS, we are proud to support this year’s senior design competition and foster the talent that will help shape a more sustainable and resilient future for societies in the UAE, the region and beyond,” said Khaled Al Huraimel, Group CEO and Vice Chairman, BEEAH.

"Our partnership with AUS is built on a shared belief that the energy sector’s future will be shaped by the engineers now graduating from its classrooms. Supporting these student grants through SNOC’s recently established Fund is a direct investment in national talent, and a reflection of the long-term value we place on collaborating with AUS. We congratulate this year’s winners and look forward to the contribution they will make,” said Khamis Al Mazrouei, CEO of SNOC.

Some senior design projects connect students with industry and government organizations. This academic year, 30 percent of the 117 projects were sponsored by these organizations, giving students access to industry expertise and mentorship while exposing them to challenges organizations are working to address. 

To learn more about CEN and student opportunities, click here.