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Accolades Ph.D. student Mohammad Shaqura chosen as finalist for IEEE Best Student Paper Award Mohammad Shaqura, a Ph.D. student in KAUST Professor Jeff Shamma’s Robotics, Intelligent Systems & Control (RISC) research group, was selected as a finalist for the Best Student Paper Award at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) International Conference on Mechantronics and Automation (ICMA) 2017, held in Takamatsu, Japan, from August 6 to 9. He was one of 10 finalists chosen from 500 submissions for various ICMA awards at the event.
1. Ph.D. student Mohammad
Shaqura was a finalist for the Best Student Paper Award at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) International Conference on Mechantronics and Automation (ICMA) 2017. Photo by Francesca Serra.
2. Ph.D. students Sherif
Tella (left) and Amal Hajjaj won best paper awards at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 2017 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. Photo by Meres J. Weche.
3. Ph.D. student Sofya Mudrova
won the best poster award at the 4th International Congress on Invertebrate Morphology. Photo by Meres J. Weche.
His paper entitled “A Novel Gripper Design for Multi Hand Tools Grasping Under Tight Clearance Constraints and External Torque Effect” is part of his research to “develop robotic solutions to assist human-based operations in a vast array of precision and hazardous applications,” Shaqura explained. “Today, robotic manipulators can commonly be found along industrial assembly lines, employed in medical applications and used wherever environmental conditions are so extreme as to make exploration impossible for humans.” “We targeted providing our gripper with ways to perceive and navigate the environment as well as measure and control the effects of its movements,” he noted. “What makes our robotic gripper versatile is that it is able to handle tools of different sizes in limited clearance space and—most importantly—with reduced control requirements.” The design and performance of the gripper were tested at the inaugural Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC) organized by Khalifa University and held in Abu Dhabi, UAE, in March. There, a team from RISC, KAUST Assistant Professor Bernard Ghanem’s Image and Video Understanding Lab (IVUL) and KAUST Assistant Professor Ganesh Sundaramoorthi’s Computational Vision Lab (CVL) won third place in the ground robotics challenge. “The challenge was an opportunity to check our system’s performance in a controlled environment and benchmark the efficacy of our solutions against other models,” Shaqura said. “I believe that my nomination for the Best Student Paper Award at ICMA was the result of our performance at MBZIRC, and I feel proud to belong to KAUST and RISC.”
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THE BEACON | OCTOBER 2017
KAUST Ph.D. students Amal Hajjaj and Sherif Tella win best paper awards KAUST Ph.D. students Amal Hajjaj and Sherif Tella, who are supervised by KAUST Associate Professor Mohammad Younis, principal investigator of the University's Nano/Micro Mechanics and Motion (NM3) lab, won best paper awards in August at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) 2017 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC/CIE 2017), which took place from August 6 to 9 in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. According to the ASME website, the conferences "highlighted emergent technologies that impact the critical engineering issues of product design and development, manufacturing and the management and integration of information systems throughout the product life-cycle." The events are important meetings for design engineers in academia, industry and government. Tella's winning paper entitled "Electrothermally Actuated Microbeams with Varying Stiffness" won the best paper award under the 11th International Conference on Microand Nanosystems (MNS). "I feel very great and happy for my achievement, and I appreciate the efforts of my co-author and supervisor," he said. "KAUST has given me great opportunities to work with state-of-the-art equipment in my dream academic career—this is my main motivation and has helped me to win the award." Hajjaj's paper entitled "Effect of Initial Curvature on the Static and Dynamic Behavior of MEMS Resonators" won the best paper award under the 13th International Conference on Multibody Systems, Nonlinear Dynamics and Control (MSNDC). "I presented my paper in front of a committee and lead scientists in the field," Hajjaj said. "It was really amazing when they announced the winner, and I was the first female student to win such a competition at the MSNDC conference." "Working at KAUST gives me the opportunity to enjoy the freedom of pursuing curiosity-driven research and achieving my goals," she continued. "My achievements couldn't be attained without the endless support, encouragement and inspiration of my advisor Professor Younis."
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