The “smart wheel chair” student project by students from Sultan Qaboos University’s College of Engineering has won second place at the seventh edtion of the Undergraduate Research Competition held in Abu Dhabi on April 29. This competition aims at encouraging universities to promote scientific research among undergraduate students and to make it an integral part of university education, given the significance of scientific research in advancing the country to the top ranks. It also aims to instill life-long learning, and to enhance career opportunities for young people as well as foster entrepreneurial mindsets and attitudes in education, research, and innovation.

The “smart wheel chair” project was selected out of 261 research projects from Abu Dhabi University 700 research projects from the participating Gulf universities. The project team included students Abdul Aziz Al-Siyabi and Salam Al-Sinani from Mechatronics Engineering, Ahmed Al-Farsi and Nasser Al Hatami from Electrical and Computer Engineering, supervised by Dr. Ashraf Salim and Dr. Ahmed Saeed Al Maashri the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the College of Engineering.

Dr. Ashraf Salim said that this achievement reflects the importance of their research and the quality of research at the University. “The Smart Chair is aimed at people with disabilities who have a complete disability, as well as those who have suffered accidents and lost their fingers and limbs. It provides them with many benefits, including services to paralyzed patients, relieving the burden on their loved ones and caring for them. Users can control the chair with eye movement, and it has an automatic brake stop in case of any unexpected bumps or sudden obstacles during its movement. The chair is self-controlled, without the need to have an assistant”. Dr. Ashraf said that the cost of the smart chair is between OMR 1000 to OMR 1200 and conventional chairs can be upgraded into smart chair by adding the algorithms at a lower cost.