The Rector honored the winners of the Student Forum and the graduation projects

How could KFUPM students, who were honored at the closing ceremony of the 8th Student Forum and Senior Design Expo, been able to "quickly" cut the supposed distance between scientific excellence and creativity in cultural, literary and creative fields beyond their specialty?

The answer, in theory, is that it is a deeply rooted culture in a university whose students' horizons extend far beyond mere academic attainment and, practically, it is reflected in awards that these students receive in fields far from their fields, including 40% of the awards granted in the last 7 student conferences.

When we asked a group of honored students, they stressed that the reason is due to the ideal educational environment and KFUPM model experience that combines the "knowledge", "skills", "values" and "behavior". In addition, the student at King Fahd University does not only read or learn or study, but he combines all these in a university life which has multiple tributaries and produces balanced characters capable of giving.

The University rector expressed his happiness to honor the winners in "two events that emphasize the University's concern for its students, its interest to provide a stimulating learning environment and to enrich the experiences of all students. He stressed that this honor is evidence of the university successful experience model, "which qualifies the students,

provide them with interactive and personal skills, formulate personalities capable of giving and achieves professional success.

Prof. Mohammad Saad Al-Homoud, Vice Rector for Academic Affairs stressed that the university's share of the winning awards in the last seven student conferences amounted to about 40% of the total prizes of each conference, through competition with more than (40) public and private universities, which clearly reflects the potential of KFUPM students. It is, also, a proof of the quality of the university's outputs and capabilities.

In his speech at the ceremony, he said that the KFUPM students presented (295) participation in the 8th Student Forum, 120 of them were accepted and after a comprehensive evaluation focusing on the clarity of the idea, originality and high quality results. 95 participations were finally accepted in the research tracks; innovation, entrepreneurship, community service, public speaking and art.

We are also celebrating the achievement of our students in Senior Design Competition. The senior design project courses are essential elements of all engineering programs. These courses integrate various components of the curriculum in comprehensive engineering experience so that the basic sciences, mathematics, and engineering sciences which the student has learned in his freshman-to-senior years of study can be applied.

Every year, senior design competitions usually organized every semester at the department level. Such competition is the driving force for creativity and innovation, at the same time, the Senior Design Exposition is held to establish a platform for the students from different disciplines and different departments to interact and exchange ideas and engage in a competition with their classmates. This time the Competition is organized at university level with more than 100 teams participated at the initial stage in term 162 representing all engineering departments. Then the committee of the Senior

Design nominated the best 35 teams from 4 collages and 10 engineering departments to participate in the final competition and Expo. In addition to the evaluation at the department level (counted as 70%), the criteria of the evaluation at the final stage focuses on innovation, achievement, impact, engineering methodologies and presentation (counted for 30%), with clear focus on the compatibility (Well-match) between the level of the awards and the quality of the projects.

Al-Homoud thanked the rector for his continuous support for all student programs and activities, and all committees’ members including faculty, staff and students who worked very hard throughout the preparation stages for this great event.

He also thanked BAE Systems and its partners for sponsoring the awards of the current senior design competition and their continuous support for the next five years.