-- International jury nominates 30 finalist teams STUTTGART, Germany, July 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The finalists for the Mondialogo Engineering Award 2007 have been decided. Yesterday, at the Mercedes-Benz-Museum in Stuttgart-Unterturkheim, Germany an international jury nominated 30 teams to proceed to the final of the worldwide engineering contest by DaimlerChrysler and UNESCO. At the beginning of December 2007, the nominated teams will be attending the Mondialogo Symposium in Mumbai/India, where the best of them will be honoured with the Engineering Award. The ten winning teams can look forward to cash prizes each worth euro 20,000. Another twenty teams will receive an honorary mention, each carrying euro 5,000 in prize money. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020212/DCXLOGO ) A total of 3,200 students of engineering sciences from 89 countries had registered for the second edition of the Engineering Award. Key factors for the submitted projects to achieve a nomination for the final were their creativity and quality, their relevance for the United Nations' Millennium Goals and their feasibility. The intensity of intercultural dialogue and the exchange of knowledge between the engineering students also played a crucial role in the assessment. Deciding which of the participating teams best fulfilled these criteria was the task of a seven-member international jury made up of respected representatives from science and engineering: -- Peggy Oti-Boateng (Ghana), Director of the Technology Consultancy Centre at the University of Kumasi, Ghana, and member of the UNESCO Working Group for Technology and Poverty Reduction -- Kamel Ayadi (Tunisia), President of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations -- Ali Uddin Ansari (India), Director of the Centre for Environment Studies and Socioresponsive Engineering -- Paul Jowitt (Scotland), Director of the Scottish Institute of Sustainable Technology -- Shirley M. Malcom (USA), Head of Education and Human Resources of the American Association for the Advancement of Science -- Walter Erdelen (Germany), Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences at UNESCO -- Bharat Balasubramanian (Germany), Vice President Group Research & Advanced Engineering E/E, IT and Processes at DaimlerChrysler AG The engineering contest is a constituent part of the initiative "Mondialogo -- Intercultural Dialogue and Exchange", launched by DaimlerChrysler and UNESCO in October 2003. Mondialogo also includes an international school contest and is one of the most important private-public partnerships for the cultural arm of the United Nations. Through the Mondialogo Engineering Award, DaimlerChrysler and UNESCO are aiming to promote intercultural dialogue and knowledge transfer between engineering students on all continents and to campaign for understanding, respect and tolerance between cultures. At the same time, the contest is also intended to produce sustainable solutions for problems in developing countries. Every project team is made up of groups of students from two technical universities or colleges, with one group coming from a developing country and the other from an industrialized nation. The teams had six months in which to devise a technical solution that will have a direct practical benefit for the population of a developing country and help to improve the quality of life there. Partner teams generally cooperate via the Mondialogo Internet Portal, where a virtual office is set up for every project team (http://www.mondialogo.org/). In principle, though, to promote exchange amongst the members and achieve progress in the project idea, communication could take place using any channel. Although implementation of the proposed solutions is not part of the Mondialogo Engineering Award, previous Mondialogo projects show that most proposals do not remain purely theoretical. In all, 11 ideas developed during the first edition of the engineering contest have resulted in specific projects and have been implemented. Examples include new methods of drinking water preparation, the development of biofuels and the use of solar energy in rural areas. Nominated teams with US-participation: Team University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA Jagannath Institute for Technology and Management, Orissa, India Project Title Solar-charged, Battery-Operated LED Lanterns to Replace Oil Lamps in the Developing World Team John-Hopkins University (Engineers Without Borders), Baltimore, USA Zakhe Agricultural College (Agriculturalists Without Borders), KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa Project Title Sustainable Irrigation for Community Agriculture in rural South Africa Team Birzeit University, Deir Qaddis, Palestinian Territories University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA Project Title Wastewater Treatment and Reuse produced from Olive Oil Mills Team University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogota, Colombia Project Title Design and Manufacture of Dynamic Response Foot Prostheses for Landmine Victims in Impoverished Areas Team Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, India Fachhochschule Bingen, Bingen, Germany Stanford University, Stanford, USA Project Title Improvement of Health Conditions in Rural India using Renewable Energy Sources Team Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, Lima Peru University of Rochester, New York, USA Project Title Improving Diagnosis and Treatment of Tuberculosis and Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Peru Using Medical Imaging Techniques Team Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA HuaZhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy Project Title Inexpensive multi-functional medical equipment design Team National Advanced School of Polytechnics, Yaounde, Cameroon Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA Project Title Exploitation and Valorization of Certain Forest Products in Cameroon Team Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, Lima, Peru Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, USA Project Title Casa Ecologica Andina Team University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (Engineers without borders), USAEbonyi State University, Abakaliki, Nigeria Project Title The Adu Achi Water Development Team University of California, Los Angeles, USA Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, Lima, Peru Project Title Global Basic Needs in an Integrated Sustainable Approach Team Michigan Technological University, Houghton, USA PNG University of Technology, Lae, Papua New Guinea Project Title Sustainable Treatment of Wastewaters from Garages and Workshops Using Coconut Husk and Shell Wastes as Filter Materials Team The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, USA Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana Project Title Development of a sustainable fluoride filter for use in the Bongo District of Ghana, Africa More information on Mondialogo, the nominees for the Engineering Award and the members of the jury is available at http://www.mondialogo.org/. http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020212/DCXLOGO http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: DaimlerChrysler AG CONTACT: Sue Williams of UNESCO, +33 (0)1 45 68 17 06, Fax, +33 (0)1 45 68 56 59, ; or Andre Paris of MONDIALOGO, +49 (0)69/7434 88309, Fax, +49 (0)69 7434 88809, ; or Han Tjan of DaimlerChrysler Corporate Communications, +1-212-909-9063, Fax, +1-212-909-9065, ; or Ursula Mertzig-Stein, +49 (0)711 17-93315, Fax, +49 (0)711 17-94531, , or Susann Rohr, +49(0)711 17-97638, Fax, +49(0)711/17-97939, , both of DaimlerChrysler AG Web site: http://www.daimlerchrysler.com/ http://www.mondialogo.org/

Copyright