AUC team competes int'l, with device to detect heart disease

CAIRO – 7 March 2017: A student team from the American University in Cairo (AUC) was chosen to participate in an international biosensor competition in September, becoming the only representative from the Middle East and Africa, an AUC press release stated Monday.


The team will be competing in Eindhoven University of Technology’s SensUs biosensor competition in the Netherlands against nine teams from top universities, including Imperial College London and Uppsala University.


Alaa Ahmed, an undergraduate student at AUC majoring in mechanical engineering and minoring in biomedical sciences, said, “I wanted to join the team because I’m interested in integrating sciences and engineering, and this was a direct link between them.”


In the SensUs competition, inaugurated last year, each team has to create a biosensor device for early disease detection through molecule and blood markers.


This year, the teams are asked to create original devices to detect heart failure at early states.


Abo Bakr Salamah, a team member and cardiologist by training, said, “heart failure is a daily practice or a daily suffering. It’s challenging to work with people from different backgrounds, but it also means there are more ideas.”


AUC’s team includes students from different fields, from a cardiologist to a computer engineer, bringing together a pool of diverse knowledge.


Hasan Azzazy, a professor in the Department of Chemistry who serves as the AUC coordinator and an investigator for the SensUs competition, said, “Students from across disciplines are constantly teaching each other. When they take part in the competition, they will continue to learn from all the other teams.”