Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, today announced the launch of this year’s edition of Al Robot, a competition which challenges students from UAE universities and higher education institutions to design and build industrial robots for use at EGA’s aluminium smelters.

Since its inception in 2017, the Al Robot competition has provided students with the opportunity to develop their Industry 4.0 skills by practicing the application of their academic learning in the real world. The competition encourages the use of innovative and creative engineering skills which are fundamental to the UAE’s industrial future. 

For this year, students are required to design and build a robot that can measure the thickness of materials within EGA’s reduction cells, a task that is currently performed manually.

EGA’s Chief Executive Officer, Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, said: “The EGA Al Robot competition is now in its fifth year, and we are proud to look back at the innovative solutions university students have submitted throughout previous editions which are now in operation in our smelters. Developing the skills of our youth, and encouraging them to apply these skills in industry, is vital to the achievement of the UAE’s Operation 300bn industrial growth strategy. I look forward to seeing this year’s entries from the best students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in our country.”

Each selected team will receive AED 50,000 to design and build a prototype of their robots for testing at EGA. Winners will be announced in 2023, with finalist teams winning cash prizes worth AED 100,000 in total.

Last year’s edition of Al Robot required students to develop a robot capable of cleaning silt and mud from the aeration basin at EGA’s Al Taweelah site. The competition was won by a team from UAE University. Aeration increases the amount of oxygen in the water, safeguarding the marine environment.

EGA’s technology development team works extensively with universities in both the UAE and internationally to combine EGA’s industrial expertise with the latest academic thinking. EGA’s academic partnerships include Khalifa University, UAE University, Abu Dhabi University, Heriot Watt University, the American University of Sharjah, Rochester Institute of Technology and Higher Colleges of Technology in the UAE, the University of Auckland, University of New South Wales, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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Contacts at EGA:
Simon Buerk
-sbuerk@ega.ae 

About EGA 

Since 1975, when it was founded as Dubai Aluminium by His Highness Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emirates Global Aluminium has been innovating aluminium to make modern life possible.

Today EGA is the world’s biggest ‘premium aluminium’ producer and the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside the oil and gas industry.

EGA is equally-owned by Mubadala Investment Company of Abu Dhabi and the Investment Corporation of Dubai. It is the largest company jointly owned by the two Emirates.

EGA is an integrated aluminium producer, with operations from bauxite mining to the production of cast primary aluminium. EGA operates aluminium smelters in Jebel Ali and Al Taweelah, an alumina refinery in Al Taweelah and a bauxite mine and associated export facilities in the Republic of Guinea.

EGA’s aluminium is the second largest made-in-the UAE export after oil and gas. In 2021, EGA sold 2.54 million tonnes of cast metal. EGA is the only UAE producer and makes the UAE the fifth largest aluminium producing nation in the world.

EGA has more than 400 customers in over 50 countries. In 2021, value-added products accounted for 84 per cent of EGA’s cast metal sales.

EGA’s aluminium is primarily used in the construction, automotive, packaging, aerospace and electronics industries.

Around 10 per cent of EGA’s aluminium production is sold in the UAE to around 26 downstream aluminium companies that make products with EGA’s aluminium. The growing broader aluminium sector in the UAE supports 60,950 jobs. EGA itself employs over 7,000 of these people including almost 1,200 UAE Nationals.

EGA has focused on technology development for over 25 years. EGA has used its own technology for every smelter expansion since the 1990s and has retrofitted all its older production lines. In 2016 EGA became the first UAE industrial company to licence its core industrial process technology internationally.

As a corporate citizen of the UAE, EGA aspires in all its operations to be measured amongst the world’s leading metals and mining companies in meeting its environmental and social responsibilities. In 2017, EGA became the first Middle East headquartered company to join the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, a global programme to foster greater sustainability and transparency in the aluminium industry. In 2019, EGA’s Al Taweelah site became the first in the Middle East to receive certification from ASI for its sustainability practices and performance. EGA’s Jebel Ali site was certified in 2021. ASI certification is the aluminium industry’s internationally recognised standard for environmental and social performance and governance.

In 2021, EGA began production of CelestiAL solar aluminium, produced with solar power from the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park on the outskirts of Dubai. EGA is the first company in the world to make aluminium commercially using the power of the sun.

EGA was formed in 2014 through the merger of Dubai Aluminium and Emirates Aluminium.

EGA’s Jebel Ali aluminium smelter began production as DUBAL in 1979. At almost five square kilometres, this site is five times bigger than Dubai Mall.

EMAL started production in 2009 and its Al Taweelah aluminium smelter was the largest single-site aluminium smelter in the world when completed. EGA’s Al Taweelah site is five times bigger than Al Maryah Island at six square kilometres.

EGA has its own power stations at both sites, producing electricity to meet its needs. EGA’s electricity generation capacity is 6,474 megawatts, making EGA the third largest electricity generator in the UAE after the Dubai and Abu Dhabi utilities. EGA also produces water through desalination units at its power plants.

EGA began production at Al Taweelah alumina refinery in April 2019. EGA’s alumina refinery is the first in the UAE and only the second in the Middle East. The project reduces the UAE’s dependence on imported alumina and supplies over 40 per cent of EGA’s needs.

Bauxite exports from Guinea Alumina Corporation, EGA’s wholly-owned subsidiary in Guinea, began in August 2019. The GAC project was one of the largest greenfield investments in Guinea in over 40 years.

 For more information on EGA please visit www.ega.ae.