Students to compete in Arab Challenge after winning first-place in Palestine IoT and AI Challenge

Students from Birzeit University’s departments of electrical and computer systems engineering have won first place in the capstone projects category at the Palestine Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Challenge.  The students are now qualified to participate in the Arab IoT and AI Challenge that takes place in December 2019 in Dubai.

Organized by Al Nayzak for Supportive Education and Scientific Innovation, the challenge is a capacity-building and pre-incubation program for university students and startups that have innovative ideas in fields related to IoT and AI.

The winning project, titled “Optimal Power System Restoration in Mixed Grid,” was designed by students Mousa Hasna, Majdouline Farhat, and Nathalie Malabi under the supervision of Ahmad Alyan, a faculty member at the Department of Electrical Engineering, and Amjad Kamal, the director of the monitoring and control center at Jerusalem District Electricity Company (JDECO).

Taking graph theory as the theoretical framework of their program, the students’ project will find the optimal path (shortest with minimum losses) to transmit power as soon as the system suffers from a partial or complete blackout.

The challenge was held under the patronage of Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Ishtayeh with the support of the United Nations’ Program of Assistance to the Palestinian People (UNDP), the Palestinian Ministry of Telecom and Information Technology, the Higher Council for Innovation and Excellence, and El-Mokawloon El-Arab.