Tishk International University’s 6th National Innovation Competition in Engineering (NICE2021) was held on Wednesday, May 19th, 2021, under the theme of “Targeting Smart Sustainable Innovations.”
The aim of the competition is to gather students, supervisors, practitioners, educators, students of all Engineering Departments with interests in smart sustainable innovations from around universities in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq. Invitations were sent to universities in Kurdistan and Iraq. Online registration forms were set-up for each category and were closed on the 10th of May, providing the students a chance to finalize their projects’ abstracts and ideas. The forms were later processed by the Head of Departments and acceptance or rejection emails were sent to all participants three days ahead of the competition.
This year’s edition witnessed the participation of 146 projects among its seven categories, with more than 240 students, along with the participation of more than 70 jury members and the contribution of 10 different universities from across the Kurdistan Region and Iraq. The rate of participation based on University is listed below:
RATE OF PARTICIPATION BASED ON UNIVERSITY
Tishk International University 118
Cihan University 10
Koya University 8
Salahadin University 1
Erbil Polytechnic University 4
University of Raparin 2
Lebanese French University 1
Erbil Technology College 1
Kongu Engineering College 3
Sri Krishna College of Engineering and Technology 3
Further to this, 6 projects from two different international universities also participated in the competition and were evaluated through a virtual meeting by a special jury committee from the Mechatronics Department:
Kongu Engineering College 3 projects (9 students)
Sri Krishna College of Engineering and Technology 3 projects (9 students)
The table below shows a full description of the total number of projects from the seven participating institutions:
Institution Number of Projects
Tishk International University 113
Cihan University 10
EPU 4
LFU 1
Erbil Technology 1
University of Raparin 2
Koya University 8
Kingu Engineering College 3
Sri Krishna College of Engineering and Technology 3
Salahadin University 1
Total: 146
The table below shows the rate of participation of registered jury members of an academic background along and others well known in the industry:
Department Number of Juries
Architectural Engineering 15
Civil Engineering 8
Computer and IT Engineering 15
Interior Design Engineering 13
Petroleum and Mining Engineering 6
Mechatronics Engineering 8
Survey and Geomatics Engineering 5
Total 70
The participating students and the evaluating jury members were directed to the registration desks located in the main building entrance to receive their badges, lunch cards, program flow and assigned codes for their stands.
Jury members were later invited to the Coordination Hall to receive their evaluation forms along with gift packs as a sign of appreciation to their valuable effort and participation. Few instructions were also given by Dr. Halit Vural, NICE 2021 Chair of the Jury Members to further clarify the evaluation process criteria.
Project evaluation process started at 10:00 AM; students demonstrated their projects in order to be evaluated by the jury members. All of the participating projects were evaluated according to the following criteria: Project invention ingenuity, scientific approach, clarity and thoroughness in explaining the project idea, competency, technical skills and effort put into finishing the project.
The evaluation process was followed by the opening ceremony, which started at 11:00 AM by a welcoming speech from Dr. Abdul Samad Salahuddin Ahmad, President of Tishk International University, in which he thanked all the participating students, guests and jury members and signified the university’s ongoing commitment to further support the development of the engineering field through more sustainable and innovative projects from its students.
Following the opening, event sponsors received “Thank you” plagues from Dr. Abdul Samad Salahuddin Ahmad in recognition of the immense support, effort, and contribution that the sponsors have generously provided in establishing a remarkable and significant event.
This was followed by a presentation from Dr. Halit Vural, the acting Chair of NICE2021 and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering in which he addressed the main objectives, mission and vision of the competition,
the participating categories and the approximate number of participating students and projects. He also expressed much gratitude to all contributing parts for their valuable support towards the competition and all scientific activities in general.
Once the ribbon was cut, the project demonstration as well as the evaluation process begun and continued until lunch break. The jury members then handed their evaluation forms to the organizing committee staff responsible for determining the winners. The overall scores of each jury given to each project were averaged and the score-tied projects were evaluated according to a specific formula used to determine the rank.
NICE2021 was concluded with the closing ceremony that took place at the main building entrance at 4:00 PM in which Dr. Ezaddin Hasso, Head of the Mechatronics Engineering Department, gave a closing speech where he thanked all the participants for the dedication and effort put into developing their projects, and in turn making the event a great success. The top 3 winners of all seven participating categories and International winners were announced and were awarded with gold, silver, and bronze medals, and prize money as well as certificates endowed by the two Vice Presidents of TIU, Dr. Mehmet Ozdemir, and Dr. Wasfi Tahir Saalih.
