4 May 2008 For the second year in a row, the School of Engineering at the American University in Dubai won first place in the Annual Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Senior Design Competition, held as part of UAE IEEE 2008 Student Day at UAE University in Al-Ain. AUD students Amir Ali Rajaei, Hamed Alizadeh Pasdar, and Shreya Dungarwal achieved the top spot at the May 3^rd competition with students from nine different institutions of higher education across the United Arab Emirates.

The objective of this competition is to recognize students' creativity and achievements, and foster a collegial and competitive environment among students from different universities. The senior design project contest is the key competition at the event with the largest number of participants. The competition allows the students to showcase their senior design projects, a culmination of the students' undergraduate experience. The senior design requires the students to apply and demonstrate the understanding of many different topics learned during their undergraduate career.

The AUD team, advised by Dr. Ali El-Haj-Mahmoud, Assistant Professor of Computer Engineering, participated with an impressive home monitoring and control system. The project provides a high-tech home security system (access control, intrusion detection, and fire protection). It also allows home owners to monitor and control the status of their homes (AC system, security, etc.) through the Internet using any web-enabled device from anywhere in the world. The project involved significant hardware and sensor design, embedded firmware development, and high-level client/server application programming.

"Once again, AUD students have demonstrated a great level of creativity and professionalism," commented Dr. Alaa Ashmawy, Dean of the School of Engineering. "Amir Ali, Hamed, and Shreya have reinforced earlier successes by AUD engineering students at national and regional competitions. Their performance speaks for the quality of our academic programs."

Other competitions held at the event included software engineering, common design, and community service competitions. The 2009 IEEE Student Day will be hosted and organized by the School of Engineering at AUD.