Ahmed Binchi
So to start off, we have been documenting everything that's been happening with the illumination course, from the workshop that occurred to the exhibition to the work being presented in front of the esteemed Chancellor of the University. So first off this event was for the exhibition The event was the first of its kind since usually, the illumination course has a handwritten report instead of a project, which of course got presented. So what influenced the change this year? For the course, for it to be presented this way.
Dr. Emad
Okay, thank you so much for visiting me and having such charisma to this. Hopefully, it will be an inspiring interview in sha Allah. The course used to be kind of based on assignment submissions, and paper-based submissions, I used to ask the students to write articles to be published in scholarly recognized International conferences, and students went through this story and it was very successful. So you find students that graduate from the Department of architectural engineering having a publication in their CV and it was very successful, but when we came to last semester, I received a memo from the registration office. That the classes should be hosted in each department from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. And I was looking at that department and at the corridor and said how will these spaces host events and activities of students. How can I convert this department to look like home Like environment?
I want students to feel comfortable because they can stay up to like 12 hours here in the Department, which is more than at their homes. If you compare it to their homes, maybe they can sleep for 8 hours. They go outside for shopping, for 3-4 hours and then they come to the department so they can stay like 12 hours. So we need to make it a home-like environment. So, I came up with the idea of redesigning, our internal spaces to have more activities, and provide more spaces to the students to enjoy sitting and Entertaining themselves inside the building. So that's the main idea behind the assignment. And I sold this to the staff and they liked the assignment and they were very excited. I tell you, I did not expect such a level of submission from the students. Especially it was
Short assignment for 10 days. It was really amazing. It was amazing and I was really proud of the submission. I felt that we have quality students and once they like something they do it.
Ahmed Binchi
Yeah, definitely I agree with that. There were a lot of projects that were a bit far-fetched, but some of the projects were like very implementable. In your opinion will any of the projects actually be implemented in M8? Is there a possibility for that to happen?
Dr. Emad
See, most of them I can tell you most of the projects were Close to do. So the seven selected projects, they are not far away. In terms of ideas, I had 26 submissions, for the 26 submissions I had to filter them to seven submissions in terms of ideas, and in terms of presentations, we had many projects that had excellent ideas but presentation-wise were not up to the level and some ideas were super into the presentations,
but the ideas aren't realistic, you know, like merging classes, etc, which the University will not agree on it. That's why I had to filter them into seven projects based on the opinion of lighting designers and instructors. So the first two projects we shortlisted seven projects, first two projects, the first and the second one in projects, we're completing each other.
And if you look at the first project, it focuses on the envelope, Rather than the envelope of the courtyard rather than the interior space. The second project or second one project did not care much about the envelope of the courtyard, The Atrium. And they work on the indoor space and they use the mainstream in both was good. The material was a wood
structure there. So I think the first two projects can complete each other and can be in one project, and this is what was mentioned By His Highness. His Highness mentioned that I agree that the first two projects are doable and the best projects.
However, I saw other bright side ideas I assume bright ideas in the other remaining five. Please pick the bright ideas from the other seven and include them in one project. So we will be having a small group to redesign and include all those bright ideas and combine the first two in one project. So that will be The future plan roadmap for implementing these projects in M8, so it's not only one project or two projects, the closest to be in M8, the seven projects will be adapted and implemented in M8.
Ahmed Binchi
It's actually really nice. So I'm excited to see how it will turn out in the end in sha allah all goes well. So we recently also held the architectural annual exhibition So your years at the University, you've been through a lot of the annual exhibitions how in your opinion of course, did you see that there's a difference between the projects and how are they being like developed each year, enhancing in their creativity, in the use of Technology, etc...
Dr. Emad
Yeah, see the annual exhibition is another event that I need to comment on. It shows the best production of students for each course. It was successful this year and the past years also they were very successful. But in my opinion, my humble opinion is in order to make it more successful. We have to expose our work to the public. So next year, I'm planning to either I make it inside the university, but I add one more activity to the annual, like a job fair. So you have the projects and you have jobfair, and you can invite companies from outside. So they see the quality of the work
and also our graduates can stand beside their projects and also they can submit their portfolios and business card to companies. So that we need to link it to another activity in order to get the reward of that one. Yes, it is successful. It is nice. And I received one guest from Dubai who has offices in Dubai. He was so amazed
with the level of the students. He said that's really fantastic. I would love to collaborate with the university of sharjah with your graduates. I want really to hear from more and more and more from different Architects and different engineers in order to hear, I need to have A big event, I can call it a jobfair with the annual exhibition. Two events together, two birds with one stone that if we do it here if not then we have to find a certain location. Could be D3 or could be somewhere where you find, a lot of offices, engineering offices, then You show your work in there in D3. So, the companies, they will see the projects, and we can have our job fair over there. So, the companies they can talk to our students. So hopefully next year, I'll go with this approach.
Ahmed Binchi
It's a very nice approach I agree it would give an opportunity for the graduates to expand and everything
Dr. Emad
Employability is important.
Ahmed Binchi
Yes, Definitely
Dr. Emad
but we need to increase the employability ratio. One of the things to support employability. Of course quality graduates, plus quality employees and quality companies. We need to find a good company for our graduates that will save time for them. So that, at least we give back to our students something.
Ahmed Binchi
Definitely, I agree with that. Our final question. If you can give us a quote showcasing the achievements in architecture heading into the future. From like what you've seen from your students right now heading into the future. What can you give us?
Dr. Emad
See when I was a student, they give us a quote "Always be ambitious". And when they said boys, they said "boys and girls always be ambitious" and I think I can just follow the same statement and add to that statement to my previous Japanese University, Hokkaido University, "Always be ambitious, and leaders". So we want them to be ambitious about the future. Also, we want them to lead the market so "Always be ambitious and leaders".
Ahmed Binchi
That's a very nice quote. I agree with it very much. Thank you doctor. And that will be all of the questions for this interview, Thank you Dr. for giving us some of your time and the great words that you've shared with us.