National students from Ruwais Colleges to develop fuel-efficient car

Higher Colleges of Technology

Students at the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) could soon be building a new made-in-the-UAE car.

The HCT’s Ruwais Colleges and Shell signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to support engineering students in building an ultra fuel-efficient vehicle.

The MoU will enable Ruwais students to join other UAE and regional universities to take part in the challenge taking place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in July.

“HCT is now embedding practical teachings in all of its courses so there is nothing better than building a car for the students to apply the theories they have learned in class to real life,” said Gassan Frache, Chair of the Engineering Programme at Ruwais Colleges.

Eight engineering students from Ruwais College will be taking part in the competition that will take place from July 4-7.

The team manager of the project and president of the Student Council, engineering student Abdul Aziz Al Muhairi, told Gulf News about some of the competition’s criteria: “We have to make a car that will go the furthest with the least consumptions of fuel.

Shell will provide us with a diesel tank and they will measure it before and after the race to see how much we have consumed. What we are looking forward to most is competing against students based here in the UAE. As for the challenges that we might face one is design because it must be unified.”

According to WAM, The MoU was signed last week by Tayeb Kamali, Vice Chancellor of the Higher Colleges of Technology, and John Barry, Shell Abu Dhabi Country Chair.

Speaking on the occasion Kamali stated: “Shell’s eco-marathon campaign is a unique opportunity which enables our students and future UAE leaders to apply their engineering and project management experience to a real-time project with global implications. Developing a fuel-efficient car locally gives our students a platform through which they can impact the future of energy. We would like to thank Shell for its efforts in bringing this challenge to the region and we are looking forward to our growing UAE teams’ participation.”

“We are very pleased to support the Ruwais Colleges team’s participation in our 2013 programme. Providing UAE nationals with an opportunity to apply their engineering skills to conceptualise and produce energy-efficienct cars encourages understanding about the future of innovation and smarter mobility. These students will be given the opportunity to apply the skills gained through this programme to the development of their country and become future contributors to the economy of the UAE. We wish the students the best of luck at the global event in Kuala Lumpur in July,” said Barry.