KU students participate in innovation exhibitions

Khalifa University of Science and Technology, a research university dedicated to the advancement of learning through the discovery and application of knowledge,hosted back-to-back student exhibitions from 14 – 15 May, 2019 at the Main Campus.

Freshmen engineering students presented 39 innovative engineering prototypes on 14 May at the Engineering Design Spring 2019 (ENGR111) Term Project Presentation Day, while 144 senior engineering students unveiled the results of their extensive Senior Design Projects at Innovation Day on 15 May.

Dr Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice President, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, said: “The ENGR111 Term Project Presentation Day and Innovation Day demonstrate our students’ creative solutions indesign-stage concepts and prototypes and celebrate the students’ hard work and achievements throughout the year. These projects reflect the university’s research strength, our academic resources and faculty expertise, which keep us at the forefront of innovation. The twin events help us showcase our overall capabilities to stakeholders while also maintaining our leading position, both regionally and internationally.”

Addressing topics as diverse as unmanned aircraft designs, desalination membranes, wearable sensors, farming robots and solar houses, over 140 seniors from undergraduate engineering programmes – including Aerospace Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Petroleum Engineering – presented the results of their yearlong projects.

Also addressing a wide range of real-world challenges, freshmen engineering students presented projects ranging from solar cookers, coin-based waste dispensers, heartbeat sensors, self-driving suitcases, and blind aid sticks.  

Two competitions were held during ENGR111 Term Project Presentation Day: The Audience Award, which invited all visitors to vote for the most outstanding project solution; and the Judge’s Award, which included a judging committee comprised of engineering faculty, who selected the winning project based on the technical and presentation aspects of the solution. Saimon Amanuel, won the Judges Award for his project, titled ‘Smart Baby Temperature Alarm System,’ and Aryam Khalifa Dhay Alkaabi, won the Audience Award for her project, titled ‘Automated Stress Analyzer.’

Both Innovation Day and ENGR111 Term Project Presentation Day attracted a steady stream of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and industry representatives. Audience members clustered around posters, giving participants a chance to present their work and answer questions in real time.

The Khalifa University of Science and Technology merges the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research and the Petroleum Institute into one world-class, research-intensive institution, producing world leaders and critical thinkers in applied science and engineering. The Khalifa University of Science and Technology endeavors to be a catalyst to the growth of Abu Dhabi and the UAE’s rapidly developing knowledge economy as an education destination of choice and a global leader among research intensive universities.

Recently, KU announced that  a team of 12 Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering students was ranked ninth overall out of 104 universities in the Design Build Fly (DBF) 2019 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Competition in Tucson, Arizona,US.

The team designed and developed an unmanned, electric-powered, radio-controlled aircraft that successfully completed all three mandatory missions at the international competition in which participants included some of the top universities in the world. This is also Khalifa University’s eighth successive year of participation in the DBF challenge, an annual event sponsored this year by the AIAA, Cessna Aircraft Company and Raytheon Missile Systems.

The aircraft had to successfullycomplete three missions –a flight over a predefined 2000-foot path, carrying a rotating ‘radome’ as a payload, perform three laps followed by a successful landing, and carrying of at least four attack stores each weighing around 0.187 pounds and drop one in every lap.