HALBAN To reduce garbage in our environment, a group of five GUtech students has invented a bioplastic injector molding machine that can produce biodegradable plastic. “The aim of the project is to reduce the use of non-recycled plastic which causes environmental damage,” explained Ghadeer Al Lawati, Process Engineering Student at GUtech. The team comprising Ghadeer Al Lawati, Manar Al Hamdani, Samira Al Subhi, Tejaz Janardhan, Wafa Al Akhami won the 3rd place in the 7^th Engineering Students Exhibition held recently in the College of Engineering at Sultan Qaboos University. Their project was supervised by Prof. Dr. Najah Al Mahanna, Head of the Engineering Department at GUtech. 45 different teams from twelve universities in Oman participated in the Students Exhibition.

“The competition required an idea that adds something new to the industry while expressing both our engineering and entrepreneurial skills. With our idea we want to avoid harming the ecosystem. We proposed an alternative starch based biodegradable plastics that is renewable and can be recycled by adding plasticizer,” said Ghadeer. The students’ project was split into two stages. Stage one relied on producing biodegradable plastics using a type of corn that has a fast growing rate thus not competing with food resource. “By then adding plasticiser we gave it the thermoplastic characteristics and allowed it to be recycled,” she said. In stage 2 the aim was to construct a small injector molding machine in order to change the amount of plastics obtained in the first step. The student teams’ future ideas are to produce a high quality bioplastic product and to promote the invention in the plastics industry in Oman and abroad.

 

The eco-friendly car developed for the Shell Eco-marathon by a team of eight GUtech students was flown to Singapore recently. The team of Engineering and Computer Science students have placed the car inside a special wooden box including some padding. For the third time GUtech will participate in this global competition. The GUtech team will travel to Singapore along with their professors this week. The team is excited to be part of the big event. They have conducted a test drive last week on campus.

For the first time a female student will drive the car. “I was very interested participating in the competition. I was responsible for the software automatic programming of the car.” Said Shifa Al Hadi, 4^th year student in Computer Science. The computer programme will improve the car’s efficiency and reduce fuel consumption. “It will mainly focus on sensing and reporting car-related parameters to the driver.” Said Dr. Emmanouil Bouzakis, who has been advising the team on Engineering issues throughout their project. Mr Ali Alhumairi, lecturer at the Computer Science Department at GUtech actively advised Al Shifa about programming and the electronics hardware. The seven team members are very thankful to all their sponsors and supporters throughout the past months. Shell Development Oman, Oman Air, Oman Cables, Europoles Middle East, Engineering Village, Turbo Team and GUtech.

The GUtech ‘Megalodon team’ consists of the following members:

Mohamed Salman (team leader)

Al Shifa Al-Hadi (driver)

Arjawan Al-Hajri

Tejas Janardhan

Adhir Kallingapuram

Navaneeth Sadasivan

Yousef Dak Al Bab

Ayman El Yatmi