ShareBy Esraa Alharran
KUWAIT: The Engineering Design Exhibition took place on Wednesday in the College of Engineering and Petroleum at Kuwait University. This event was used to introduce young engineers and inventors to the rest of the world. From the Mechanical Engineering Department, engineer Fahad Alotaibi focused on recycling - reusing tires to produce construction materials, new tires, and raw materials.
Alotaibi talked about his project to the Kuwait Times, saying, “The tough climate, economic prosperity, and cultural preferences, in addition to various other factors, led to an increase in the use of automobiles in Kuwait, thereby making it one of the largest tire graveyards. This pioneering project, “RE-TIRE,” is aimed at designing a unique mechanical device that combines multiple mechanical operations into one. A portable tire recycler was designed to solve this growing problem.”
VisualEyes
One of the outstanding electrical engineering projects took another route. They worked on a project called “VisualEyes.” Engineer Abdulbarie Alrashidi said that VisualEyes is an innovative and multifunctional smart glass that is aimed at improving the lives of blind people. These smart glasses offer innovative features such as emergency incident detection, object recognition, and barcode scanning. Thanks to its low cost and accessibility, VisualEyes is an effective solution with a positive impact on the lives of the blind. VisualEyes provides a great opportunity to transform wearable assistive technology and improve the lives of people with visual impairments.
Failaka Link Project
The Kuwait Times also conversed with engineer Munera Alotaibi (Civil Engineering Department). Their project, “The Failaka Link Project,” is an innovative infrastructure project with the goal of improving access to Failaka Island. “This project focuses on creating a sustainable and smart bridge design that aligns with Kuwait’s vision for technological advancement, environmental sustainability, and economic diversification. It integrates renewable energy sources, advanced technologies for structural health monitoring, and eco-friendly construction materials. The Failaka Link serves as a model for future infrastructure projects. The project prioritizes minimal environmental impact, efficient energy use, and improved accessibility, thus fostering economic growth and tourism development for Failaka Island,” Alotaibi explained.
Engineer Leen Adel and her team (in industrial engineering) said, “The Implementation of IE Tools at Numou” is a project that will analyze the status of a subscription-based brand for healthy food and utilize industrial engineering methodologies within food production facilities to insure both food quality and process efficiency, enabling precise decision-making devoid of randomness.”.
Optimization
From the Petroleum Engineering Department, engineer Maryam Alnamshan stated that our project - ‘Optimization of retrograde gas condensate production in shale reservoirs’ - aims t to maximize economic profits in shale reservoirs by using multi-stage hydraulic fracking techniques. Key objectives include optimizing the extraction process to yield the greatest return on investment, increasing well-bore permeability, adhering to environmental standards to minimize negative impacts on the ecosystem, and adhering to engineering standards to ensure safety, reliability, and integrity in the extraction process.”
The Hi-Lorm’
Moving to the computer engineering projects, ‘The Hi-Lorm’ project was one of the amazing projects that targets a specific group of people, often overlooked, with dual disabilities, namely the deaf and blind. Engineer Saud Alajmi noted that “these are individuals who neither see nor hear. They have a special tactile language called Lorm, which is expressed through sequential swipes and taps on the palm of the hand, forming letters in English. It features a wireless glove and 3D-printed glasses designed to facilitate communication and enhance mobility. The glove, equipped with touch sensors and vibration motors, translates Lorm language swipes and touches into English speech, outputting through a built-in speaker in the glasses.”.
“A microphone in the glasses captures the speech of the person in front of the deaf and blind user and converts it into a sequence of vibrations. The glasses also include a camera that identifies people speaking to the deaf and blind and informs the user, and there is an ultrasonic sensor for obstacle warnings. The caregiver app allows for remote chatting and monitoring, location tracking, and adding new contacts when unknown faces are detected. This innovative system significantly reduces isolation and dependence on human translators by deaf and blind individuals,” Alajmi explained.
NABTH
“NABTH” (from the Chemical Engineering Department) is an innovative project that combines the medical field and the sustainability world. Engineer Jenan Alfailkawy and her team explained that “the main purpose of this project is to extract PHAs from microalgae and lipids as byproducts. The PHAs will then be used in the medical field to manufacture heart valves. We utilized it because it is the market’s most promising sustainable replacement for plastic. Additionally, it comes up naturally from bacteria or algae and can biodegrade in aquatic environments and landfills.”
