As part of encouraging students to “research and innovate,” enhancing cooperative learning, knowledge transfer, and the acquisition and transfer of skills among students, as well as competing to find innovative solutions to real-world challenges and contribute to sustainable societal development, under the sponsorship of Dr. Sherif Fakhry, the University President, Dr. Alaa El-Batsh, the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, and under the supervision of Dr. Abdullah Mohamed El-Ramsisi, students from the Mechatronics and Robotics Engineering department participated in the ITAC-ITIDA initiative competition to support graduation projects organized by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

Two graduation projects focusing on the design of a smart electric car won financial support. The first project was submitted by undergraduate students from the Mechatronics and Robotics Engineering department. It aims to convert a traditional gasoline-powered car with mechanical systems into an electric car, equipped with intelligent computer vision systems (AI-Computer Vision-CNN) for detecting road conditions, controlling the car’s movement within the lane, avoiding collisions, and detecting nearby objects with warning signals. This project previously won support (technical training) in VALEO competition.

The second project was submitted by undergraduate students from Communication Engineering department. It focuses on providing the car with an AI-based computer vision system for intelligent driver monitoring, identifying the driver, ensuring their alertness, monitoring natural driving behavior, and sending warning signals in case of drowsiness, alcohol consumption, or the presence of alcoholic substances in the car. The project also includes a digital recording system for monitoring the car’s performance (Vehicle Data Recorder VDR – Black Box), which can be used to analyze accidents.

Both projects work within an integrated system, utilizing a variety of sensors, integrated microcontrollers, digital communication networks, assembly boards, electronic connections, IoT, etc. This collaborative achievement represents a new and effective model of teamwork between undergraduate students from the Mechatronics and Communication programs, integrating their diverse skills to provide a comprehensive solution and build a complex system consisting of various subsystems (mechanical, control and integrated systems, digital networks, artificial intelligence, sensors, adaptations, etc.) for the development of a smart car. This project serves as a positive contribution from the Faculty of Engineering at the Egyptian Russian University to localize smart electric vehicle technology and achieve sustainable societal development.