A team of engineering students from An-Najah National University took first place in Palestine in the final qualifying competition of Microsoft’s global Imagine CUP 2013. Held at Bir Zeit University on April 15 th, the qualifying competition saw twenty three teams from different Palestinian universities competing against each other, aiming to advance and win the right to represent Palestine in international competition. 

The last qualifying round of the Imagine CUP brought four different teams -- all from An-Najah National University -- into competition with each other for first place. At the competition’s close, Team Fresco from the Computer Engineering Department won out for first place. Team members included: Firas Abd Al-Haq (Computer Engineering), Abd Al-Atheem Al-Bukhari (Computer Engineering), Sidqi Dweikat (Industrial Engineering), and Munir Al-Aghbar (Communications Engineering).   

The judges’ committee was headed by Dr. Sabri As-Seidam, Technology Affairs Advisor to President Mahmoud Abbas. A number of other technology specialists served on the committee including representatives from Microsoft and the Palestine Information and Communications Technology Incubator.

With its win, Team Fresco will move on to represent Palestine at the international Imagine CUP competition which will take place in July 2013 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Dr. Sufian Samara, moderator of the Student Microsoft Club at An-Najah, supervised An-Najah’s student participation in the competition. Student representatives of the Microsoft Club include Mohammed Diab, Mohammed Anan, Mohammed Abu Hasan, Aseel Hasan, and Ghaleb Dweikat.

The winning students of Team Fresco dedicated their success in the competition to Dr. Rami Hamdallah, thanking him for his continued support and for his encouragement of student participation in local and international competitions. For his part, Dr. Hamdallah noted that the success of all An-Najah students in the Imagine CUP demonstrated their persistence, talent, and distinction.