AUC Team to Compete in ENGCOMM Competition in Montreal
On November 12, the local phase of the Engineering and Commerce Case Competition (ENGCOMM) took place at AUC.
The competition, held every Spring in Montreal, Canada, is the world’s only student-led multidisciplinary case competition, devoted to bridging the gap between the fields of Engineering and Commerce through having structured teams of four students, divided equally among the two majors.
This year, ENGCOMM have broadened their scope by inviting previous participants to join forces with them by running a local competition for their teams and the winning team will participate in the international competition in February. Four AUC teams have competed amongst each other through solving a case in four hours and pitching it before panelists Hakim Meshreki, visiting assistant professor of marketing at AUC , Lotfi Gaafar, professor and associate dean for undergraduate studies of the AUC School of Sciences and Engineering and Aly Wally, CEO of Rabbit for Modern Industries, who collectively selected the winning team after a tough and intense round of assessment.
“The case was very challenging. It felt like it was a lot to do in four hours, but we were able to get things together to arrive at a feasible solution to a very difficult problem. The judges were very focused on what we were saying and posed very detailed questions, so we knew we had to be very prepared and any number we said had to be backed up with concrete information. But luckily, things went smooth”, remarked Mohamed Saeed, a mechanical engineering student and member of the winning team.
By the same token, Mostafa Awad, business and economics double-major student and also a member of the winning team reflected: “This competition has a different dynamic than any other competition because you’re given a case and you have to read it, analyze it and prepare a presentation within four hours. There is little time to waste, and you have to accomplish many things in a limited amount of time. It is a nice chance to work under pressure because every second is valuable. I’m appreciative for the opportunity to represent AUC in Montreal in February. I hope that my team and I can make the university proud.”
On their expectations, the team is anticipating a more challenging and harder case that is going to place them in a demanding position. Despite this, they believe they’re ready and are looking forward to the fun and learning aspect of the competition. “We’re excited to go and hopefully make AUC proud. I understand it’s going to be somewhat harder, but we’re all ready”, attests Ahmed El Naggar, member of the team and mechanical engineering graduating senior.
The competition will be held in downtown Montreal from February 18 to February 22, 2020. It will involve teams from 16 internationally recognized academic institutions, all consisting of engineering and commerce students. During the five-day competition, each delegation will compete in three cases. With our previous track record in the ENGCOMM competition, we are certain our team will #makeAUCproud and wish them all the luck in the world!