Birzeit University Takes First Place in National Engineering Competition

Birzeit University students took home awards for the first and fifth places in the national Distinguished Engineering Project competition, held by the Institute of Mechanical Engineering’s (IMechE) student branch at Al-Najah University.

The Institute of Mechanical Engineers, founded in Britain in the year 1847, is an engineering society that lists over 110,000 members in over 140 countries. It aims to better the world through the advancement of engineering worldwide and the global deployment of engineering initiatives.

Ameen Allan accepted the prize for first place on behalf of his partners (Mohammad Kawazbeh, Osama Baransi, Rand Musaffer, Malik Nawabeet, and Youself Al-Shayeb) for his graduation project in mechanical engineering, while Shaker Niarat accepted the prize for fifth place for his civil engineering project.

The first-place project, completed under the supervision of the Mechanics and Mechatronics Engineering Professors at Birzeit University, Drs. Sameh Awwad and Nidal Farhat, is a tray seeding machine that aims to help local growers by automating the seed-planting process in farms.

The winners of the first five places in the competition – which hosted 16 notable projects by students of various engineering sub-disciplines from the universities of Birzeit, Al-Najah, Palestine Polytechnic, Palestine Technical – Kadoorie, Al-Aqsa, and the Islamic University of Gaza – received honorary certificates from IMechE, and the three top places won financial prizes.  The first place winner won a nomination to attend the annual, worldwide engineering competition, which will be held this year in Seville, Spain.