Eskan Bank Launches the Seventh Edition of the Creative Engineering Award for UOB Students

Under the guidance of His Excellency Eng. Bassem bin Yaqoub Al-Hamer, Minister of Housing, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Eskan Bank, and in cooperation with the University of Bahrain (UOB), Eskan Bank has launched the seventh session of its annual award for creative engineering for the academic year 2019-2020, as had been customary, in order to encourage and show the creativity and talents of UOB students.

The Director General of Eskan Bank, Dr. Khaled Abdullah, directed architecture students of the College of Engineering to apply for the Award and participate with their projects, ideas and research to identify the challenges facing architecture, in relation to the balance between design and cost, and on the engineering standards that are taken into account on the ground, indicating that “the participation in the previous sessions of the Award was impressive and had a positive outcome.”

Regarding the current session, Dr. Khaled Abdullah pointed out that vertical development is one of the concepts applied widely and increasingly in all countries of the world, as it provides more sustainable housing solutions in the urban and housing issues.

Furthermore, Dr. Khaled stressed the importance of presenting models for designs that accommodate the lifestyles of modern Bahraini families and meet all modern needs, take into account the concepts of social and economic sustainability, be environmentally friendly and work to rationalize the use of energy and water for their residents.

Noting that through this Award, the Bank aims to explore the creative energies of university students, give them the opportunity to work on developing real projects that enrich their experience and expertise, and help them identify the needs of housing families and participate in developing solutions for them, which was evident in the previous award sessions. As the results of the past sessions achieved this goal every time, with the seriousness of the engineers and professors supervising and following up on the competing projects, which gave us an additional incentive to develop this award and add more richness to its content and its fruits.

For his part, the General Manager of Eskan Properties Company, Eng. Iyad Obeid, stated that “The Bank has chosen the theme of this year’s Award to match the current trend of establishing vertical projects that commensurate with the scarcity of space, while at the same time being keen to reduce the construction cost to make the units in these projects available to large segments of society.” Pointing out that the criteria for this year’s award were carefully chosen to suit modern housing trends and to provide an appropriate challenge for participants from a practical reality.

Also, he motivated the prospective participants, saying that “Through its award, the Bank is keen to involve students, future engineers, in creating innovative designs that can be applied in the future.” Noting that the Bank recognized the new generation’s interest in the option of living in the apartments of vertical buildings, which the bank had built in partnership with the private sector.

On the other hand, Dr. Fuad Al-Ansari, Dean of the College of Engineering, appreciated Eskan Bank’s interest in adopting an annual slogan for the Architecture Award in order to refine students ’skills in this field, stating that “ UOB is keen to establish this type of relationship with community institutions that are related to different disciplines to create a generation aware of the needs required from it after graduation, and confirmed that the parties’ keenness to hold this competition according to specific and realistic criteria shall achieve the Award’s desired goals.

It is worth noting that the Eskan Bank Award was launched for the first time six years ago, as the Bank seeks to explore the creative energies of university students through it, and to give them the opportunity to work on developing real projects, which enriches their experience and expertise, and helps them to identify the needs of housing families and participate in developing solutions for them. Also, this Award aims to stimulate creativity in the engineering field, create a competitive community among outstanding students from the colleges of engineering, and contribute to the development and growth of the university youth community by supporting the outstanding individuals of final years students in the colleges of engineering, in addition to educating students about the importance of sustainable solutions in the urban and housing sector, and motivating them to engage in scientific and practical research concerned with the urban field. Moreover, it aims to provide innovative solutions that serve real estate developers and individuals who are about to build their homes.

The conditions of the competition require that each participant submit a competing project for three categories of the Award, and three prizes will be allocated for the best design from each of the three categories. Also, the winner will be given the opportunity to work in Eskan Properties Company for a period of two months as a trainee and gain experience in preparation for entering the labor market.