Engineering Spirituality

Spiritual Engineering: Introduction

I started my university years in 1967 at the Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University. I loved Science and mathematics but did not know which field to specialize in.  I liked electronics and this was the field I chose.

At the Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, EGYPT,  there was an amateurs group called ( جمعية هواة اللاسلكي و الإلكترونيات ) Radio and Electronics Amateur Society (https://helals.net/REAS/Radio&Electronics_Society01.html) which was formed in the 1960s to encourage students to think outside the box and to be innovative, in addition to learning new technologies with hands on practical approach to design, testing, packaging and presentation.

The group aspired to excel in the field of engineering to help the community and the country at large and improve the lives of people around them.

I joined the society in 1969 during my year 2 at the faculty of Engineering. With the members of the society, we used to stay duringthe summer holiday at the Society laboratory in the faculty of Engineering. It was spiritually motivating as we believed we can do big things.

Every year, the members start with making a big list of projects to implement some of the theories studied during the year. Projects allocated to individuals or teams of two. The Components sourced mainly from scrap electronic devices to reduce cost.

At the end of the summer holiday, the best designs were displayed in a Science exhibition/show. Initially it was just for the faculty students, however the following years the Society was able to display sophisticated state-of-the art designs that attracted the attention of the minister for Science at the time who opened one of the exhibitions.   The Media (TV and printed paper) were also interested. The Society and its members and their projects appeared on TV and in Al-Ahram newspaper (the most popular News Paper in Egypt).

Amongst the projects that I can remember: A digital calculator using electrical relay logic, a digital clock, a working TV showing all its components on a flat board, etc. 

The verses on the top of the page are my inspiration to be become a good engineer connecting my work as an engineer to my religion, to my spirituality.

I have always maintained that any success I have made, in my studies, registering few patents and winning the Australian design award in 1992, was a gift from Allah (our Lord). This spirituality through my working life helped me to realise that there is unlimited knowledge and we must keep learning and look at the Lord’s signs and learn from them.

The following is a list of patents:

http://patents.justia.com/inventor/mohammed-a-helal
https://patents.justia.com/patent/4237385 (Control of power supply)
https://patents.justia.com/patent/4246529 (Current integrating battery charger)
https://patents.justia.com/patent/4977353 (Communication system for single point emergency lighting)
https://patents.justia.com/patent/5154504 (Communications and testing for emergency systems )
https://patents.justia.com/patent/5192897 (Electronic high frequency controlled device for operating gas discharge lamps)

After Retirement, I thought to continue to be active in the line of Engineering Spirituality and started some projects which will be published when finished.