CAIRO: Three students from the American University in Cairo's Department of Mechanical Engineering will be heading to San Diego at the end of August to attend a major competition organized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Ahmed Talaat, Mohamed Nasr and Mohamed Hassan comprise one of four finalist teams who will be participating in the Student Mechanism and Robot Design Competition. They are joined by teams from the University of California at Berkeley, Pennsylvania State University and the National University of Singapore. The students have been working on the drive mechanism for a flying vehicle, formally known as an ornithopter or a "Micro-Air Vehicle (MAV). They developed a "flap and fold system whereby power is generated and sent to the wings from the motor. The project is innovative on account of the size, maneuverability and power generation of their device. The project was initially developed for a mechanical engineering course the trio was enrolled in at AUC, according to Nasr in a telephone interview with Daily News Egypt. AUC associate professor of mechanical engineering Mustafa Arafa taught the class and advised the students over the course of the project and suggested they continue working on it after the course ended. "When we knew about the competition we took it much further and decided to make it our prototype and enter it in the competition. We wrote up a report with analysis of the prototype and sent pictures, Nasr explained. In an email sent to Daily News Egypt, Talaat said "we had to modify the report, and complete our work to satisfy the specifications of the competition requirements. When asked about the group's reaction to being selected as a finalist for the competition, Hassan said, "We are very surprised because we were in competition with great universities. Berkeley, Harvard and MIT all submitted projects. It came as a great surprise that we are qualified. At the event, which is being held in conjunction with the annual American Society of Mechanical Engineers' Design Engineering Technical Conference, the students will be required to prepare a poster and give a 15-minute presentation on the design. Asked about the challenges of this endeavor, Talaat said "Really, every part for us was the most difficult in its own stage. "For example when we were doing the design to serve the course, we thought nothing can be more difficult than this. The same issue happened while manufacturing the prototype. Yet, the encouragement of our advisor Dr Mustafa Arafa was the motivation for passing these difficulties [sic], Talaat said. Speaking technically in an AUC press release Talaat elaborated, saying it was difficult to create a "practical design that can be manufactured easily, to have a single degree of freedom, to control the pitch angle through the design, and to reach a mechanism that controls the flap within certain angle. All three young men credited Professor Arafa for the success of the project. He is a recent recipient of the Egyptian National Award in Engineering Science. In the AUC press release, Professor Arafa explained that the project is very much relevant for surveillance and reconnaissance and that "these remote-controlled MAVs will be designed to be stealthy and highly maneuverable for operations in constrained spaces. He spoke to the achievement of his students as well in the release, saying "I am honored to have these three talented young men represent us in front of the whole world. Asked if excited about the upcoming competition, Talaat replied, "For sure excited - it is the first time for us to be in such an event and to compete on an international scale.
