A team of civil engineering students at the Hijjawi Faculty for Engineering Technology in Yarmouk University is preparing to participate in an international competition that will be held in the United States of America, with a project idea of the use of ash resulted from coronavirus medical waste in the production of eco-friendly concrete.

The project supervisor, Dr. Faris Matalkah, said that the idea of the project is to activate the ash of medical waste by using special chemicals to produce what is called geopolymer concrete. He indicated that the ashes of this medical waste were brought from the incinerator of King Abdullah University Hospital, which is the ash of medical waste after treatment using special incinerators at high temperatures to get rid of harmful substances.

He added that this project aims to get rid of the medical waste ashes in general and the ashes of Corona's waste in particular by using it in the production of eco-friendly concrete, by chemical activation of the ash, thus reducing the environmental and health damage resulting from ash landfilling.

Dr. Matalkah confirmed that all public health and safety procedures have been followed to deal with this ash, pointing out that the students have conducted laboratory experiments that initially proved the success of the idea, and a video was produced summarizing the idea and its mechanism of action, which was sent for evaluation and participation in this competition.

Dr. Matalkah pointed out that this competition is targeting to approach university students in various countries in the world with the participation of more than 100 universities, pointing out that the American Concrete Institute will evaluate the idea of the project.

He added that the goal of the competition and the evaluation criteria is that students should demonstrate and explain how their use of concrete can positively affect the world, as the teams are encouraged to use creative means to present and explain their concrete approach or solution to a broad audience including why it should interest the public at large.

Dr. Matalkah said that the number of students participating in the project is seven, and they are: “Nour Al-Mahameed, Eman Al-Ghazawi, Nidaa Magableh, Sara Obeidat, Nassem Al-Rawashdeh, Jafar Bani-Melhem, and Ehab Al-Fuqaha. He pointed out that there are no costs for the project, as the initial experiments were conducted in the laboratories of the Civil Engineering Department, emphasizing that the idea is still in its early stages, as the team will develop it by conducting more engineering studies.

The Dean of Hijjawi Faculty for Engineering Technology, Dr. Mowaffaq Otoom, praised the efforts made by the students participating in the competition and emphasized that the faculty administration supports the various student activities because of their benefit reflected on the faculty, the university, and students. Dr. Otoom added that the faculty encourages the students to participate in such competition that contributes to developing students’skills and motivating them to innovate, create, and positively affect the reputation of the faculty as well as the university locally and internationally.

The top 20 submissions will participate in team interviews with judges on Sunday, March 28, 2021, during the Spring ACI Concrete Convention. The winners will be announced at the ACI Student Forum taking place on Tuesday, March 30, 2021