SHARJAH - American University of Sharjah students have developed a ‘smart utility meter reader,’ designed to allow homeowners and utility companies to check the status of meters at any time and place. Mais Haj Hassan, Mohammad Abdul Salam, Mustapha Ezzeddine, and Mohannad Baseet, the four students who developed the innovative project with the help of their Computer Engineering professors Dr. Abdul Rahman Al Ali and Dr. Taha Landolsi, won the Future Generation Undergraduate category of the Middle East Electricity Awards 2017 that was recently held at the Dubai World Trade Centre. The project, entitled IOT-based Smart Utility Meters, was designed based on Raspberry Pi, the latest single system-on-chip computing platform, said Dr. Al Ali. “It is empowered by the Internet of Things and utilises cloud computing for storage and big data analytics as well as Google Maps,” he said.

“Using mobile phone and utilities’ operation centres, homeowners and utility operators can wirelessly access the meter to monitor and control home appliances and manage power, gas and water consumptions. Both utility companies and homeowners can check the status of the meter anywhere, anytime.”

The Ministry of Energy held the competition as part of Middle East Electricity, an international trade event. Students were asked to develop projects that dealt with alternative energy or energy efficiency. Nine teams from AUS, Higher Colleges of Technology – Sharjah Women’s Colleges, RIT Dubai, University of Bolton RAK Campus, and Birla Institute of Technology — Offshore Campus RAK, and Heriot-Watt University Dubai were shortlisted in the final round, with AUS taking the prize.