May 22^nd. An-Najah University, represented by its Department of Architectural Engineering, won all the awards in the annual Tom Kay Competition for Architectural Drawing which is organized by Riwaq Foundation in Palestine. Tom Kay Award Competition is held every year in honor of Tom Kay, a London-based Architect who lived in Ramallah for the last few years of his life. Shortly before his passing away in 2007, Kay left a will in which he allocated a fund for an annual drawing competition that targets engineering students at Birzeit University where he used to work.

Dr. Haitham Al-Ratrout, Head of the Architectural Engineering Department at An-Najah, mentioned that Ranya Na’eem Abdel Ghani Jamous, one of the students at An-Najah’s Department of Architectural Engineering, received the first award, while Theeb Abdel Lateef Mara’bi and Zain Ya’coub Ya’ish won the second and third awards respectively. Huda Sameer Abu Eisheh received an Appreciation Award.

Fida Touma, Director of Riwaq, said that the judges in the competition were, in addition to herself, Ada Kay, Tom Kay’s wife, Dr. Tina Sherwell, Director of the International Academy of Art-Palestine, as well as Lana Jodeh, an Architect from Riwaq. Touma said more than 28 students from the different Palestinian universities participated in the competition. Judging the students’ work was based on a number of criteria including the artistic formation of the work, the drawing technique, expression skills and drawing capabilities.

Dr. Khaled Hjazi, Teacher and Supervisor of the winning students, said that the Department of Architectural Engineering works have been ranked as the best ten works in the Competition which indicates the excellence and creativity that the Department’s students have.

An-Najah University President, Prof. Rami Hamdallah, congratulated the winning students on their great achievement and said that the Faculty of Engineering has always been in the lead in Palestine. Dr. Nabil Dmaidi, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, also congratulated the Department of Architectural Engineering represented by its staff and students on this big achievement. He also thanked the University President for his continuous support of the Faculty and its activities and hoped the Faculty would continue to make more similar impressive achievements in the future.