April 8th, 2019: A team of engineering students from Canadian University Dubai (CUD) has taken the runners-up trophy in the grand final of the 4th IET GCC Robotics Challenge following on from their success in the UAE qualifying round last month.
CUD also played host to the day-long competition finale, which came to Dubai for the first time in its history this year. The event brought together qualifiers from the Emirates with counterparts from Kuwait, KSA, Bahrain, and Oman, to showcase their creative and technical robotics skills in a competitive arena.
Consisting of six rounds of challenges, the event tested the teams’ talents in coding and robotic controls through a diverse set of technical tasks, ranging from moving objects and navigating routes, to sumo fighting and football skills.
CUD students, Farouk Dalhata, Khalid Hassan, Nahid Ibrahim and Abdalrahman Al Ahmar were triumphant in two of the competition rounds, going on to take second place in the competition overall behind a team from Kuwait.
The challenge was judged by an expert panel from Kuwait, Bahrain, and UAE. The principal observer was Dr. Ibrahim Matar, from the Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA) branch of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, the largest multidisciplinary professional engineering institution in the world and the instigator of the GCC robotics competition.
Congratulating the University on its staging of the Challenge, Dr. Matar said, “The essence of this event is not the competition, but the gathering of talented young people who can share ideas and insights that will help to build the capacity of the industry across the region. This year’s challenge has been the best yet, and we will use this as the foundation to build events like this across the wider EMEA region.”
Speaking about the team’s success, soon to graduate engineering student, Farouk, said, “This year’s event was a real team effort and we owe a lot to our mentor, Dr. Ahmed Al-Gindy, who has continually guided and motivated us through the competition and practice sessions, and to Mr. Omar who has inspired us to keep learning.
“Being part of the CUD Robotics Club alongside my studies has been an invaluable experience for me. Robotics is the technology of the future – from transportation to healthcare, it permeates every aspect of life – and I’m sure that the skills I have developed here will contribute to my future career success.”
The CUD Robotics Club was established in 2015 and has grown from a small special interest group within the Faculty of Engineering to a popular student-driven club that plays an active part in the University’s community outreach and engagement.
Dean of the Faculty, Dr. Sherif Moussa concluded, “We are proud to have brought the finals of this growing regional competition to the UAE this year. From our annual high school robotics competition, to our degree programs that teach advanced skills in this increasingly pervasive field, we aim to be proactive in getting students at every level to engage with the technologies that will define their future.”
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