“I am pleased to announce that the project ‘A Corridor Design between the West Bank and Gaza Strip’ has been selected for a 2006 BE Award of Excellence, taking the first place in the University’s Engineering section of the competition. By these words Dana Wormer, the representative of the contest, announced the winning of the An-Najah Engineering students of the first prize on their above-mentioned project. The project was supervised by Prof. Sameer Abu Eisheh, Former Assistant of the University’s President and current Minister of Planning at the new Palestinian government. Others who also helped Others who helped to supervise the project were Engineer, Mazen Sonokrot Minister of Economy; Prof. Khalid Alsahly, Director of the Construction Transportation Research Center of the University; Prof. Osamah Abaza, Coordinator of the Masters Program of the Engineering Department; and Ranya Doleh, Nablus Municipality Engineer. The three winning students are from the Civil Engineering Department of the University: Maher Mufleh, Akram Eshtawi and Maysam Younes.
The team's project was evaluated by an independent jury panel comprised of educational leaders and business users of Bentley software. The project has been selected for its creativity, its excellent application of design and engineering principles and its effective use of Bentley software. The selecting committee stated that “this award is a tribute to your team's dedication and innovation in the fields of design, engineering and construction”.
Winning student Maysam Younes said that witnessing the daily developments of the political situation in Palestine had encouraged them to initiate their project, especially after the eruption of the Intifada and the Israeli restrictions on the freedom of movement between cities.