Engineering graduate wins major award from technology industry leaders

Middlesex University graduate scoops top prize with innovative production line system using Siemens’ simulation software

A Middlesex University graduate has won an award from leading technology firms Siemens and Festo in a competition which received entries from around 80 engineering and technology students at 19 universities and colleges across the country.

Mohamad Shaat, who graduated in June with a first class honours degree in BEng Mechatronics, won first prize in the Connected Curriculum competition, an initiative supported by Siemens and Festo which brings industry and higher education closer together by offering students access to the latest simulation software. Middlesex University was one of the founding members of the programme.

The competition was created to champion the work of students taking part and 18 finalists were invited to showcase their projects at the recent Transform 2024 conference, hosted by Siemens in Manchester and attended by 4,000 industry leaders, technical experts, and policymakers. It judged entries on their complexity, innovation, problem solving and marketability.

Mohamad, who lives in West London, won a £2,500 Siemens’ training course, access to the Siemens’ Citrine software platform, and a £200 cash prize. He was also offered an interview at the company which he declined having already secured an engineering role before he graduated.

On winning his award, Mohamad said: “The biggest reward is receiving this incredible recognition from Siemens and Festo, which are giants in industry software and automation technology. I feel very honoured and proud to have won the competition ahead of so many entries from engineering students around the UK.”

As a mechatronics student, Mohamad is passionate about automation technology which enables industrial plants and systems to run automatically. For his final-year project, which won the competition, he designed a miniature production line system for an imagined bottled drinks company using a Modular Production system machine at Middlesex University.

The production line process involved fitting lids to the bottles and sorting them in the final stage according to colour, which indicated the flavour of the drink. In this way, the project combined the efficiency of mass production with the flexibility to tailor products to individual customer needs, which set it apart from traditional manufacturing.

Mohamad then applied Siemens’ technologies such as NX and Plant Simulation software to the process to identify bottlenecks and develop strategies to improve the system’s throughput. “As a result, I was able to enhance overall efficiency by reducing power consumption, costs, and resource usage and increasing the system's throughput,” he said.

His competition entry involved a 20,000-word report, an online blog documenting the development of his production line system, and a video presentation to the conference.

Mohamad, who is Palestinian, came to the UK in 2020 and chose to study engineering at Middlesex University due to the practical content of the course. His degree involved learning about a range of engineering disciplines: mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, computer engineering, and automation, while the department has state-of-the-art facilities and is supported by industry partners such as Siemens and Festo.

“I had friends at other universities on engineering courses that involved a great deal of theory as well as some practical work,” Mohamad said. “I chose Middlesex because I wanted the opportunity to do as much practical work as possible; all the projects are practical-based and test your engineering abilities. A lot of my course involved creating, building and trying out systems and I learned more by getting my hands dirty.”

Mohamad is now a Technical Service Specialist for medical engineering company Abbott. As a member of the firm’s North West London Pathology Team, he maintains and repairs blood analysis systems in local hospitals. The role includes managing installations and removals, repairs, instrument hardware or software upgrades, providing basic training to customers and ambassadors, and offering level 1 and 2 engineering services. He also schedules and performs planned maintenance (PM) activities.

“All blood tests at these hospitals go through our machines to give results to patients and their doctors,” Mohamad said. “It is crucial for everything to work smoothly to ensure patient care and that a patient can undergo their surgery or have the right treatment, for example. I am so pleased to have secured a job even before graduation in such a competitive market. It is a fantastic role and I feel the course at Middlesex really prepared me for it. Looking to the future, I hope I will be able to make a difference in the field of automation.”

Professor Mehmet Karamanoglu, Head of Middlesex University’s Department of Design Engineering and Mathematics, said: “It is fantastic that the projects of some of our engineering students were showcased at such a high profile event before 4,000 plus industrialists and technical experts.

“Eight out of 18 finalists from 80 submissions were Middlesex students and it was brilliant to see Mohamad do so amazingly well in such a tough contest. He is obviously going from strength to strength in his new role after graduating from Middlesex.”

Discover more about studying Mechatronics and Robotics BEng at Middlesex University.