Amman – 16 March,2015

 

“The Gunners”

 

Langston Hughes once wrote, “Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.”

 

The story begins with a competition by Airbus, conveniently named “Fly your Ideas”. Qusai, Osama and Abdul Rahman decided to participate on behalf of the German Jordanian University. Soon a fourth member, a very enthusiastic one joined, and he was Obada! They called themselves “The Gunners”. The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire as Ferdinand Foch said!

 

The team consisted of students from different backgrounds, it was: Qussai Masharqa and Obadah Yaghi from Mechanical Enginnering, Osama Deeb from Mechatronics Engineering and Abdul Rahman Al-Shawakri from Communication Engineering.

 

As with each start, it was not easy, and the team was lost at first with the endless possibilities. A glimmer of hope was there for the team though, and it was when Dr. Rami Alazrai -a professor of Computer Engineering at GJU- decided to help their team and become their mentor. Dr. Rami has a great reputation in helping students with their projects, and he was full of creative ideas. With the right team, motivation and hard work, everything was possible.

 

Their first idea was Magnetic Levitation of planes, in an attempt to conserve fuel energy. But they later thought better of it; it needed much more than the basic knowledge of bachelor students. The next idea was more appealing to the users, or so they thought. However, after consultations and discussion with their mentor, they found it was not feasible; maybe having robots serving meals in planes was not such a good idea.

 

Many nights and heated debates later, it occurred to them. The idea that will get them through the competition! They thought that instead of working on technical projects to improve flights, they should focus more on user experience and entertainment. They came up with the perfect entertainment system: SERVE, which stands for System of Entertainment, Relaxation, and Virtual Enjoyment.

 

And it worked! The concept and idea got them through the first stage of the competition, making it into the 2nd round with 100 teams qualifying out of 650! Their next goal is to make it to Paris! Where the top 5 projects globally will compete for first spot. It will not be an easy task! 

If the team is destined make it to Paris and compete for the first prize is yet to be determined, but it is our duty to support them in any way we can. You can follow up on their progress on their timeline on the airbus website, where they managed to win the award of best timeline for the second week after making it into the 2nd round. You can support the team by filling out their survey as well.

 

Link to the Survey:  http://goo.gl/forms/SDMq36zAiV

 

Link to the timeline: http://www.airbus-fyi.com/teams/2261/the-gunners

 

The Program Innovation and Entrepreneurship (PIE) Team at the Office for Industrial Links recently met “The Gunners” and were very impressed about their enthusiasm. And this is why we want to share their story hoping that many GJU students will follow their path!