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The American University of Kuwait (AUK) held the 2nd Annual Electrical & Computer Engineering Exhibition 2014 (ECEE'14), in which alumni and students presented and demonstrated projects to compete for the Best Project Award, as well as the Students Choice Award. The event was organized by AUK's Electrical & Computer Engineering Department and student teams from the AUK-IEEE Student Branch (IEEESB), and was open to members of the AUK community.

ECEE'14 featured live demonstrations, poster presentations, and student talks, all of which were considered by a panel of judges for the Best Project Award. The judging panel was comprised of Dr. Ashraf Zaher, Associate Professor of Computer Engineering; Dr. Detlef Hummes, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering; and Dr. Seyed Esmaeili, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering. AUK students were also invited to cast their votes via email to nominate the winner of the Student Choice Award. AUK President, Professor Dr. Nizar Hamzeh, Dean of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Rawda Awwad, and the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department Chair Dr. Issam Damaj presented the awards to the participants and winners in each of the project categories

Eight projects participated in the exhibition. Listed below are the categories, projects, and teams:

Live Demonstrations:

Project Name: MTS: A Multipurpose Secure Smartcard System;
Team: S. Al-Murad, T. Al-Hajiri, and M. Al-Ammar
Supervisor: Dr. I. Damaj
Project Name: Automated Hardware Development under JAVA;
Team: Nawab, A. Al-Meslim, Y. Jawhar, and M. Al-Kazumi
Supervisor: Dr. I. Damaj
Project Name: A Wearable and Ubiquitous NFC Wallet;
Team: Al-Chalabi, H. Shahzad, and S. Essa
Supervisor: Dr. I. Damaj
Project Name: Vehicle Collision Detection System;
Team: Al-Mutawa, J. al Jaber, and S. Al-Mutawa
Supervisor: Dr. Mr. Khanafer

Poster Presentations:

Project Name: Smart Meter Tracker
Team: H. Al Hassan, R. Al Shatti, and R. Al Sanae
Supervisor: Dr. J. Yousafzai
Project Name: Gardening Robot (iPlant)
Team: B. Al-Mesbah, B. Al-Beeshi, and S. Al-Dousari
Supervisor: Dr. M. El Abd
Project Name: Mine Detection Robot
Team: H. Al-Nothary, T. Al-Kandari, and H. Al-Jenfawi
Supervisor: Dr. M. El Abd
Project Name: Cooperative Garbage Collecting Robots
Team: M. Al-Sharrah, M. Al-Bader, and D. Ismail
Supervisor: Dr. M. El Abd

In conjunction with the exhibition, the event also featured a seminar from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Seminar Series 2014 (ECESS'14). The seminar, Control Systems: History, Current Practice, and Future Trends, was given by Dr. Ashraf Zaher, Associate Professor of Computer Engineering.

Following the presentations and consideration from the judges, the project entitled Wearable and Ubiquitous NFC Wallet was announced the winner Best Project Award, while Automated Hardware Development under JAVA was declared the winner of the Student Choice Award.

"I would like to congratulate the winning project teams and all their fellow participators for a job well-done," said Dr. Damaj "ECEE'14 provided a unique and exciting opportunity to encourage undergraduate research, cross-collaboration, and social networking among students, alumni, and professionals in the field."

About the winning projects:

The Wearable and Ubiquitous NFC Wallet project

The objective of the Wearable and Ubiquitous NFC Wallet team was to create a wearable technology that is able to integrate multiple accounts into one safe, convenient, and wearable pass. This concept provides users with the ability to customize their passes by embedding information pertaining to their accounts on it. The team explained that since all of a userâs accounts are stored on a single tag, carrying around copious amounts of smartcards becomes obsolete. The NFC Wallet is ubiquitous; the software is web-enabled and users could manage it by using smart phones, tablets, laptops and other computing devices.

Automated Hardware Development Under JAVA

Embedded systems are used in daily life regularly. One particular device peeks the interest due to its many areas of application it is used in, namely FPGAs. FPGAs are targeted by different hardware descriptive languages, such as, VHDL. This language is more relatable to hardware designers than software designers. On the other hand, object oriented software languages and concepts are taught in all areas of studies that are related to computers and are more user friendly than hardware descriptive languages. H-Gen strives to link these areas of studies to real implementations and applications of hardware. The purpose of this project is to create a systematic refinement procedure and/or a hardware compiler. H-Gen is a high-level hardware development environment in which computer scientists and engineers develop hardware/software co-implementations. H-Gen stands for HDL Generator."

Dr. Mohammed El Abd, Head of the (ECEE'14) Organizing Committee, said: "We are proud of our students that who continue for the second year running to present high-quality capstone projects. We are impressed by the level of commitment displayed by our alumni who returned after graduation to showcase their projects and help make this event a success. In addition, we continue on our activity of organizing the ECE Seminar Series, which is tailored to support our 'ABET Student Outcomes' outside the classroom, and continue to be of interest to faculty members and other professionals."

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering strives to provide high-quality engineering education centered around the key principles of liberal arts, specifically, lifelong-learning, critical thinking, and effective communication. The department prepares students to become successful engineers, and be able to contribute effectively to their profession and community.

Released by the Office of Public Affairs on the 29th January 2015