QU Wraps Up the 2024 AI Competition for High Schools
Qatar University (QU)’s College of Engineering has successfully concluded the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Competition for High Schools 2024. This event aimed to elevate secondary school students’ awareness of the crucial role AI plays in addressing contemporary challenges. The competition sought to inspire creativity and innovation among students in devising AI-based solutions across various fields.
Dr. Khaled Kamal Naji, Dean of the College of Engineering at QU, emphasized the competition’s importance in enhancing AI awareness among students, fostering local capacity building, and providing a platform for idea exchange and application sharing.
Prof. Amr Mohamed, Head of the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the College of Engineering at QU, highlighted the competition’s objective of igniting student interest in AI to prepare them for future careers. Participating teams were tasked with developing solutions such as computer programs, mobile applications, or embedded systems tailored to address environmental, health, and accessibility challenges, using user-friendly tools suitable for school-level students.
This year’s competition saw the participation of 35 teams from 22 schools, including 13 boys’ teams and 22 girls’ teams. At the event’s conclusion, the winning schools were honored. In the boys’ category, Qatar School of Science and Technology for Boys secured both first and second place, while Musab Bin Omair Secondary School for Boys won third place. In the girls’ category, Qatar Technical School for Girls won first place, followed by Umm Ayman Secondary School in second place, and Umm Hakeem Secondary School in third place.
CSE SDP Contest Day 2024: All Winners
The highly anticipated senior projects’ presentations took place on May 6th at the state-of-the-art new engineering building H07. These remarkable projects, the culmination of tireless efforts by talented students, were subjected to rigorous evaluation by industry examiners. After careful deliberation, outstanding projects from each program, Computer Science (CS) and Computer Engineering (CE), emerged victorious. Exceptional teams of these winners will be chosen to proudly represent our department in the upcoming college contest. We eagerly anticipate the success that awaits our representatives as they compete at the college level, confident in their abilities, to make our department proud once again.
Winning Projects in CSE-SDP23 Contests Day
CE Rank 1
Project title: Q-SAR: Drone Swarm for Disaster Management
Students: Ali Elmancy, Abdalla Ahmed, Assem Alnajjar
Supervisor: Dr. Amr Mohamed
Abstract:
- SAR operations face difficult environments.
- Drones offer faster and more effective SAR missions.
- Design a drone system to enhance SAR missions.
- Radar sensors are used for under-rubble survivor detection.
- Leverage autonomous smart drones.
- Drone assembly and sensor integration.
- Design a wireless charging stations for drones.
- Develop a backend for ground control and monitoring.
CE Rank 1 (equally-ranked)
Project title: Marathon Monitoring System
Students: Aly Okasha, Mohammad Rayyan, Ibrahim koubeisi
Supervisor: Dr. Noora Fetais
Abstract:
The challenges in marathon organization, in particular participant safety and data collection. We’ve evolved a product to track participant positions, detect cheating, identify fainting, and easily transmit data to event administrators.
CE Rank 2
Project title: NABATEQ: Plant Health Monitoring System
Deep Learning Classification Approach
Students: Amro Moursi , Mohamed Tahar, Malek Hamad, Hamad Alansi
Supervisor: Dr. Uvais Qidwai
Abstract:
This project focuses on the development and implementation of an advanced plant health monitoring system. Our approach involves addressing the critical environmental factors essential for preserving plants’ well-being, including temperature, soil moisture, water levels, humidity, as well as the presence of essential nutrients like Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium.
Central to our methodology is the utilization of computer vision technology with Artificial Intelligence to provide health ranks for the plants under monitoring. By leveraging this data-driven approach, our system aims to provide precise and timely insights into the overall health and well-being of plants, offering a valuable tool for effective plant care and management.
CE Rank 3
Students: Abeer Madyar , Kawther Ahmed, Leen Alinsari, Razan Abdelgalil
Supervisor: Dr. Mohammed AlSada
CS Rank 1
Project title: Vaultexe/OSS Zero-knowledge Self-hosting Password Manager
Students: Ahmed Ashraf, Husam Snober, Mohammed Saqallah, Walid Ben Ali
Supervisor: Dr. Moutaz Saleh
Abstract:
In this digital age, we rely on passwords to protect our online presence on the web. With so many passwords to memorize, we experience password fatigue and easily fall into the trap of reusing weak passwords across different sites. This is a serious security risk, as a single compromised password can give attackers access to many other accounts. To address this issue, we introduce Vaultexe, an open-source self-hosted zero-knowledge password manager.
CS Rank 2
Project title: PassGuard
Students: Youssef Aly, Essa Ahmed Kamel Abou Jabal, Mohamed-Dhia Abdaoui, Khalifa Yousuf
Supervisor: Dr. Mohammad Saleh
Abstract:
The importance of a password in today’s world cannot be overstated. Unfortunately, a large number of people falls victim to data breaches because of their reliance on weak passwords, default passwords, reused passwords. It can be explained by a simple reason: it is more convenient for the general public to use predictable passwords and reuse them.
Here comes PassGuard, an offline password manager application, whose sole purpose is to provide password security and user convenience.
CS Rank 3
Project title: ReWisely: a ChatGPT-based comprehensive revision platform for generating user-personalized study materials
Students: Amani Mamiche, Asma Bahabarah, Khadija Khedr, Taqwa Ellabad
Supervisor:Dr. Moutaz Saleh
Abstract:
Our project aims to modernize the creation of revision material by integrating AI into a comprehensive, interactive, customized, and user-friendly web application. It focuses on developing a platform capable of handling vast amounts of data and offering assistance through text summarization, flashcards, question extraction, the Feynman technique, and mind-mapping functionalities.
Humanitarian Drone Competition by CSE Students
The CSE department has organized an “Humanitarian Drone Competition” as part of the course project for the “Computer Engineering Practicum” course..
The motivation for this year’s project is to show solidarity with people in Gaza. Unlike typical control circuits used in the drones, the students of the course were asked to design a control circuit for the drone with only passive electronic components and basic IC to control the motors of the drones. In order to achieve this, the students had to go through phases of idea description, schematic design, breadboard prototyping, and a final soldered prototype that has to have at least three functionalities that can assist the humanitarian mission.
The winning drones were judged based on their design, number of functionalities incorporated in the design, A4 poster and a video montage of their work carried out during the project.
The winners in the competition were:
Male Students
- First place: Yusuf Siddiqui, Iheb Zouari, Mohamed Ali, Mahmoud Ali
- Second place: Mubarak AlHajri, Abdulrahman Marwan Aboumadi, Ahmed Miqdad, Deya Aldeen Abdelbaset
- Third place: Muhammad Khan, Abdullah Irhimeh, Laith Nasrallah
Female Students
- First place: Isra Ali, Yoma Mohammed, Maya Attia, Nooralhodaa Elshawadfy
- Second place: Roaa Shady, Noha Elgamal, Amna Al-Ahmed
- Third place: Aisha Al Mannai, Naema Al Abdulla, Hila Al Dosari, Fatima Al Ali
The competition was judged by our faculty members Eng. Amelle Bedair , Eng. Farah E-Qawasma and Eng. Amal Elmasri. The prizes for the winners were awarded by the HoD Prof. Amr Mohamed.
Thanks Voltaat for sponsoring the prizes worth 2,000 QAR. Thanks to Dr. Wadha Labda for her kind support as well to make the awards ceremony in the ICET’23 events. Thanks for the course coordinator Eng. Naveed Nawaz, course instructors Eng. Leila Ghastli and Eng. Tamer Eltaras, and all other faculties for making this competition a successful one.
CSE Best Senior Projects 2023
On May 25th, the highly anticipated senior projects’ presentations took place at the state-of-the-art new engineering building H07. These remarkable projects, the culmination of tireless efforts by talented students, were subjected to rigorous evaluation by industry examiners. After careful deliberation, three outstanding projects from each program, Computer Science (CS) and Computer Engineering (CE), emerged victorious. These exceptional teams have been chosen to proudly represent our department in the upcoming college contest day on June 11th. We eagerly anticipate the success that awaits our representatives as they compete at the college level, and we are confident in their abilities to make our department proud once again.
Winning Projects in CSE-SDP23 Contests Day
CE Rank 1
Project Title: Developing a Stealth Drone ‘’Ash”
Students: Fatimaelzahraa Ahmed, Noof Qassmi, Syeda Rizvi
Supervisor: Dr. Abdulla Al-Ali
Abstract :
Drones have become a popular tool for illegal activities such as political attacks, causing serious threats to global security. In order to address this issue, our project aims to demonstrate the limitations of current drone detection systems by constructing a stealth drone, which is called “Ash”. The current drone detection systems focus on detecting the drone based on it is Radio Frequency (RF) signature and its appearance using computer vision. The designed drone will be capable of operating in three different modes which are Wi-Fi, 915 MHz radio frequency signals, and autonomous mode using global positioning system (GPS). The project objectives include building the drone from scratch. In addition, communicating with the ground station on 915MHz frequency with a low signal power. The transmitted signal content is encrypted to avoid interference and intercepting. The drone will be camouflaged to evade detection by optical sensors.
In this project, we are evading the RF analyzers and the optical sensors drone detection systems. We are using LoRa technology to transmit on 915MHz using chirp spread spectrum (CSS) modulation technique, which is not commonly used by drones. This makes it difficult to be recognized by the RF analyzer as a drone communication signal. To evade detection by optical sensors, we are camouflaging the drone by adding an air balloon envelope on top of the drone’s frame. This makes it appear as a flying air balloon to the detection systems, which should confuse these systems that use computer vision and artificial intelligence.
To sum up, this project illustrates the importance of detecting drones accurately and the need for anti-drone systems to adapt to new technologies and tactics used by operators of unauthorized drones. By highlighting the weaknesses of current anti-drone systems, we aim to contribute to the development of more effective technologies to protect global security.
CE Rank 2
Project Title: Haptic Gloves Handball Goalkeeping Training System
Students: Ahmed Ibrahim, Renz Chuateco, Sayer El-Hadidy
Supervisor: Dr. Noora Fetais
Abstract:
The growing interest in harnessing Virtual Reality (VR) and haptic feedback for sports training has led to innovative approaches in skill development and performance enhancement. In handball, there is a need for immersive and accessible training tools for a wide range of players. This Computer Engineering Senior Design Project combines a Unity-based handball simulation with DIY haptic feedback gloves to create an immersive, cost-effective, and versatile training experience tailored to the needs of goalkeepers. The primary objectives of the project included developing affordable VR gloves with haptic feedback for tactile sensations in virtual interactions, creating a convincing handball simulation in Unity with various training scenarios for diverse skill levels, bridging the gap between real and virtual worlds by immersing players in an environment where they can play and feel simultaneously, and facilitating skill development by breaking down complex motor skills into subskills for targeted practice and assessment. Our methodology involved researching and identifying suitable components and techniques for constructing cost-effective DIY haptic feedback gloves, designing, and assembling gloves incorporating selected haptic feedback components with necessary hardware and software, and developing a handball simulation in Unity, focusing on realistic physics, diverse training scenarios, and seamless compatibility with the gloves. Consulting with coaches and players ensured authenticity and relevance. We implemented a system for breaking down motor skills into subskills, allowing targeted practice and assessment in the simulation, with performance metrics and data analysis providing feedback and tracking progress. Finally, we tested and validated the VR glove and handball simulation system, refining the design based on feedback from users and experts in the sport. The project successfully yielded a custom-made, affordable VR glove with haptic feedback capabilities, providing tactile sensations and force feedback during virtual interactions. The handball simulation in Unity featured realistic physics and diverse training scenarios, immersing players in a comprehensive training experience. The system demonstrated the ability to break down complex motor skills into subskills, facilitating targeted practice and assessment. User feedback and performance data indicated a positive impact on skill development and overall training effectiveness. The outcomes of this project have significant implications for the future of handball training and sports training in general. The integration of VR and haptic feedback technology offers an accessible and engaging alternative to traditional training methods. Practicing complex motor skills in a simulated environment enables players to focus on specific aspects of their performance, potentially accelerating skill development. The immersive nature of the virtual environment can help maintain player motivation and engagement. Despite limitations in replicating the full range of real-world interactions, the promising results highlight the potential for further exploration and refinement of VR-based training systems in handball and other sports. This project successfully combined DIY haptic feedback gloves and a Unity-based handball simulation to revolutionize goalkeeping training, demonstrating the potential of this platform to improve athletes’ performance and serve as a valuable training tool for handball clubs, coaches, and players across various skill levels and demographics.
CE Rank 3
Project Title: Asthma Assessment Device for Pediatric Patients
Students: Asma Alnuaimi, Fatemeh Ahmadizadeh, Muneera Alghfarn
Supervisor: Dr. Khalid Abualsaud
Abstract:
Asthma is a common lung illness that causes breathing difficulties. It affects people of all ages and generally begins in childhood; however, it can also appear in adults for the first time. There is presently no cure, but there are basic treatments that can help keep the symptoms under control [1]. This project aims to monitor asthma attacks for pediatrics under twelve years according to the following parameters: oxygen blood level, respiratory rate, and pulse rate. The resulting measures would be compared to pre-determined health standards. The respiratory rate is calculated and deduced by analyzing the result of air pressure sensor. The pulse rate and oxygen level are obtained from an oximeter. These measurements were compared with the normal health status to decide if the child has an asthma attack or not. The result is given within two minutes. The values of the three parameters and the final status of asthma are displayed on the screen. The main advantage of the project is that it is a monitoring device that can be used in a hospital or at home where parents can constantly check the status of their children in a short period of time without having to go to the hospital.
CS Rank 1
Project Title: Integrated Accident Detection and Evaluation System Based on Vehicular Networks and Artificial Intelligence (IADES)
Students: AlDanah AlAnazi, Dareen Douglas, Maryam Al-Meraikhi
Supervisor: Dr. Devrim Unal
Abstract:
Vehicle accidents are a global concern that inflates annually, resulting in massive losses in human lives, resources, and finances. Although some accidents might be minor, others can be fatal or cause long-term disabilities. Hence, in this project, we present a hybrid system that detects, estimates, and reports vehicle accidents as quickly as possible. The project’s primary objectives are saving people’s lives by reducing the reporting time, increasing the response of appropriate authorities and companies, and clearing road blockage that emerged from damaged vehicles. Consequently, the system is designed to achieve the above objectives with multiple components and new emerging technologies such as Artificial intelligence. In detail, the hybrid system consists of two devices, an AI accident detection model and a vehicle device represented in a collection of sensors, and microcontrollers. Designing a hybrid system eliminates any failure occurrence to the two devices rather than using each individually. For instance, severe accidents could damage the vehicle device and increase the likelihood of uncertain and false reported information or total data loss at worst. Moreover, previous works failed to address this, alongside estimating the accident severity from the collected data the hybrid system produces. Consequently, this project will benefit future studies and innovations by developing it into an avoidance system that aligns with the Smart Cities technology concept besides reducing physical, social, and financial costs of vehicle accidents.
CS Rank 2
Project Title: WEvents: A Mobile Application for Events Planning and Organizing
Students: Anwar Al-Hakawaty , Fatma Qassim , Shaikha Al-Asiry
Supervisor: Dr. Saleh Al-Hazbi
Abstract:
Life is full of joyful moments that are worth celebrating and creating memories that last a lifetime in individuals’ hearts. By organizing events, individuals share these memories with others as opportunities to communicate and share news and unforgettable experiences. In some communities, organizing significant events is a chance to gain reputation and status. Above all, organizing an event is not easy; what is supposed to be a happy and enjoyable time could turn into a stressful experience because organizing an event requires thinking and keeping in consideration different aspects, including the number of guests, venue, food, and drink. Moreover, the organizer has to search for good and trusted vendors to supply their needs without exceeding the budget limit. However, some people tend to avoid the daunting task and hire a professional planner. Each planner has a unique style and finding a planner that can meet one’s expectations is a challenging task. Some planners use different platforms to display their work and advertise their services. Nonetheless, some of these planners are not trustworthy as they pass off other people’s work as their own. This project aims to provide a solution in the form of a mobile application “WEvents”, that could assist people in organizing major events and finding appropriate event supplies.
For meticulous people, it is an opportunity to view and select event related items provided by different suppliers with their descriptions and price; the app will help them organize an event from scratch without exceeding the budget while recommending budget-friendly items and supplies depending on their event type. Planners can upload their contact details on WEvents, while clients can easily choose between planners and the available options. WEvents combines all types of supplies in one platform where users can easily scroll through different supplies categories. Moreover, Wevent supports local businesses; vendors and event planners will profit by being reachable to targeted audiences, thereby expanding their businesses. In this application, our goals have been accomplished by providing user friendly application that modified and enhanced traditional event planning process. Users are now able to easily and effortlessly search, filter, and organize their supplies. Also, for people who want to hire event planners they can easily find and communicate trusted companies or personal planners, we significantly improved efficiency. In addition, it is now a valuable opportunity for vendors to advertise their products and services to targeted groups of customers. Overall, our project has transformed traditional event planning into a fun, easy, enjoyable experience for everyone.
CS Rank 3
Project Title: Nadulk: Chalet Booking App in Qatar
Students: Hajar Alyafei, Amna Mohammed, Noora Almarri
Supervisor : Dr. Saleh Al-Hazbi
Abstract:
Individuals look for entertainment in life to help alleviate life’s stresses and difficulties, and chalets have become popular gathering places in Qatar due to cultural support and the fact that they are often less expensive than booking a hotel. However, booking chalets has become increasingly difficult as there is no central platform for promotion and booking as those present in other gulf countries. Customers have to ask family and friends for recommendations, and owners have to use social media for promotion and WhatsApp for booking, leading to difficulties managing communication with customers. To address this issue, a proposed solution called the Nadulk Application has been created. This application will make the process of booking a chalet easier for both customers and owners, allowing owners to manage chalet listings and customers to view photos and descriptions to book a chalet. The application is designed to solve customers and owners of chalets problems and facilitates the booking and managing chalets process using the mobile app.
Part of Computer Science and Engineering Senior Design Projects Exhibition Day 2023 for Male Students
On 11 June 2023, the six teams participated at the CENG Senior Project Designs 2023, and happily 3 teams out of the six were awarded again!
Our students Asma Alnuaimi, Fatemeh Ahmadizadeh, and Muneera Alghfarn won the 1st place in Best Prototype, Most Creative Design Award with their project titled: “Asthma Assessment Device for Pediatric Patients” and supervision by Dr. Khalid Abualsaud.
Our CSE students Ahmed Ibrahim, Renz Chuateco, and Sayer El-Hadidy won the 2nd place in Best Prototype, Most Creative Design Award, with their project titled: “Haptic Gloves Handball Goalkeeping Training System” and supervision by Dr. Noora Fetais.
Our CSE students our students AlDanah AlAnazi, Dareen Douglas, and Maryam Al-Meraikhi won the 2nd place in Best Marketable Design Award with their project titled: “Integrated Accident Detection and Evaluation System Based on Vehicular Networks and Artificial Intelligence (IADES)” and supervision by Dr. Devrim Unal.
CSE Student Won in Huawei ICT Competition 2022
Congratulations to the Qatari team who managed to win the “Outstanding Performance Award” in the regional Final of the Huawei ICT competition (Middle East) that was held in Oman from 20th to 22nd of December. The team consists of three students: Hassan Khan from our CSE department at QU, and two other students from HBKU and CCQ
The Huawei ICT competition aimed at nurturing ICT talents to contribute towards preparing the next generation of ICT leaders for the digital economy. This year’s competition featured 15 teams representing 11 countries across the Middle East and Central Asia. A total of 45 students competed in the finals from an initial entry of 19,231 students from 472 universities and colleges across the region.
Additionally, Qatar University received the award of “Excellent Academy” due to the great operation of the ICT academy and the number and level of students who have been certified.
CSE Team Wins Best UREP 2022 Presentation
A CSE team of undergraduate students, supervised by our faculty member Dr. Noora Fetais, won the Best Presentation award in the 14th Annual Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP) competition, which was held on 18th of October 2022. The winning project is titled “Intelligent and Immersive Cultural Game using Virtual Reality” and the team consists of the students Yahia Boray, Hesham Zaky, and Omar Osman.
UREP is one of the main programs offered by Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) and designed to fulfil its aims in developing research infrastructure in Qatar by establishing the basis of scientific research at the undergraduate level. UREP provides a great opportunity for undergraduate students to experience scientific research and to engage in the various processes to build skills essential for the professional development of the students.
The developed game aims to preserve and spread cultural practices. It introduces new gaming mechanics, allowing user interaction with virtual game objects using hand gestures. The user’s objective is to hunt prey in their natural habitat which means that the player will physically change his location to hunt a specific prey using his falcon to mimic how the falcon hunts for its’ prey in the real world. This interaction with the real world, along with the incorporation of realistic graphics and mixed reality features, enhances the user’s experience and helps in preserving cultural practices.
Previous work tried to achieve the same goal by different approaches that led to different user segments and different usability cases. One major limitation in that work was the accessibility due to the use of specialized hardware. The hardware is accessible to only a small segment of users, and due to the challenges forced by the COVID19 situation reusing the hardware is prohibited in conferences or exhibitions.
As a result, not many will have access to the developed solution. The new implementation was designed to work on both Android and IOS to have a social interaction between the largest possible numbers of players. Other features that could also contribute to the goal of the project include building a virtual museum and displaying real falcons using the capabilities mixed reality has to offer.
Congratulations to the winning team!