“Stars of Science" is a new Arab reality TV competition organized by the Qatar Foundation in Qatar, Doha. Professor Fuad Mrad, Electrical and Computer Engineering, who spent a research leave at the University of Qatar during the spring 2009 semester, was selected to be the Program Technology Advisor and the Engineering Phase Mentor and he was able to fulfill his job with the help of Mr. Khaled Joujou, ECE Laboratory Manager. Two FEA graduate students participated in the Program. They were selected to be among 16 top contestants from the Arab World. The 16 contestants were selected after conducting 600 interviews from among 5,700 online applications.

The two AUB students were Bassam Jalgha, Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Mohammad Amin Abu Harb, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Stars of Science competition was held in Qatar during the past 4 months and aired on many regional TV channels. The final episode was aired on June 26, 2009.

Bassam Jalgha, won first prize, which consisted of $300,000 ($100,000 in cash and $200,00 to further develop his invention and commercialize it). His project was entitled “Portable Automatic Tuner of String-Based Arabic Musical Instruments”, also named “Douzan”, which is an automatic tuner that can tune any Arabic string instrument.

Mohammad Amin Abu Harb, received third prize. His project was entitled “Dual TV Watching Using Electronic Goggles”, which allows two viewers to watch two different channels on the same TV using an external device and smart goggles.

For more information about the Stars of Science Competition check  http://www.starsofscience.com/phase-3/english.htm