AUIS Engineering students win first- and second- place prizes at local competition

  Students from the AUIS Engineering Department won first- and second-place prizes at the 2019 Engineering Exposition held on April 1 at Sulaimaniyah Polytechnic University.   University teams from across the region were invited to participate in the exposition and competition portions of the event. Judges of the competition deliberated before choosing the first-, second-, and third-place projects on display, the prizes for which were $1,500, $1,000, and $500 respectively.   In total, four AUIS teams participated in the event, led by Professor Abdelaziz Khlaifat and Dr. Shadi Vafaeyan. The winning teams both presented projects with solutions to everyday problems. The first-place prize (energy category) was a hydropower pipe system by which students were able to generate electricity using water flowing through a pipe. The second-place prize (mechanical category) was a hybrid solar wind system with which students hypothesized it would be possible to continuously generate electricity for 20 years - the estimated lifespan of the device. Students reported a number of local companies have already expressed interest in their prize-wining projects.    The participating AUIS students said the exposition and competition were an opportunity to showcase the results of their hard work. “Without the encouragement of our supervisor, we would not have made it to the competition,” said student Jehat Abid.   Student Omar Muafaq urged others to seek out similar opportunities. Muafaq said, “I encourage students to participate in any coming competitions and events because this was a...