“Consumers should stop guessing the numbers of their power consumption and they should be positive that they are paying money only for the consumed amounts as determined by accurate readings.” Sherif Mourad, a member of a six-man group of seniors at The American University in Cairo, said.
In 2011, the Department of Electronic Engineering surprised Egypt by a group of six smart, bright and gifted students who decided to invent a conceptual sample of an automatic meter reading (AMR), a system that reads household power consumption and relays the data gathered to personal electronic devices. That invention was under the supervision of Ayman Hassan, an assistant in the department. They all cooperated and worked together to come up with the creation of a device that automatically sends precise readings to personal electronics, including a cell phone or a personal computer. Those discoverers also stated that this device can also be useful when it comes to sending data to the Ministry of Electricity and Energy to stay on track of the readings.
Those creators are very excited and enthusiastic about the would-be benefits of the device they created. “After the January 25th revolution we need to catch up with the latest international electronic trends that use automated systems and have them produced in Egypt. This will reduce the market price tremendously,” says Amr Henna, one of the inventors of this device, stating that the Egyptian economy could surely and certainly benefit from such inventions at the meantime. “It is high time that we pick up with the smart systems invented worldwide. Power failures like the ones we experienced last summer could have been avoided if consumption had been monitored.” Says Ahmed Megawer, another team-member states.
According to Ahmed Abou-Auf, chair of the Department of Electronic Engineering, the system allows households to monitor their usage of energy freely, which can empower the families to change their utilization behavior. Abou-Auf states that those students with continue producing such samples and will develop a business plan. And assures that the university will provide them all the equipment needed to feel comfortable producing whatever they want.
New Inventors at AUC
Farida El Far
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