Projects

Prototypes, Research and Things That Had to Be Built Twice

Solar power carried on your back, a table-tennis table cast out of recycled carbonised concrete, and a tidy that keeps a phone from sliding off a boat deck. Each started as a problem worth building an answer to.

Prototype · Renewable Energy2025

Solar-Powered Backpack

A backpack that turns sunlight into electrical power, enough to run a flashlight or charge a phone mid-hike. First place at the Dubai Science and Econ Fair 2026, and exhibited at the London International Youth Science Forum Science Bazaar, Imperial College London.

Building it

Sultan wiring the pack's electronics at the bench, the backpack and trays of components laid out beside him

Working on the jumper-wired board, the backpack open on the table behind the parts trays

Standing beside the SolarStep poster and backpack at the London International Youth Science Forum's Science Bazaar

Receiving the Certificate of Excellence at the Dubai Science, Engineering and Economics Fair, medal around his neck

Design & Build · Recycled MaterialsSince 2025

Ping Pong Table from Recycled Carbonised Concrete

A full-size, playable table designed and built from recycled carbonised concrete, the hands-on counterweight to the mathematics. It went on to host a school tournament that raised funds for children's charities in Uganda.

From the drawing to the finished table

The RAL Classic swatch fan open at the blue chosen for the tabletop, ringed in green marker

A printed isometric render of the table, hand-annotated in red with the RAL colour codes for the top, legs, and court lines

Weighing steel fibres on the bench balance, trays of graded aggregate and sand laid out in front of him

Measuring a liquid sample into a small vial at the lab bench, a masked Ducon colleague looking on

Sultan weighing a sample on the high-precision balance, gloved, sieve pans and jars along the bench

Bent over the lab bench with a beaker and the balance, trays of crushed aggregate in the foreground

Closing the lid of the blue vacuum chamber in the lab, tubing running to a water jar on the bench

Six numbered cube samples of the mix soaking in a red tray of water, each marked with the time and its weight

Sultan in Ducon hi-vis and a hard hat, scooping the aggregate mix into a crate outside the workshop

In the lab with the Ducon team, holding up a finished sample cube of the carbonised mix

The visiting group on the plant walkway in hard hats, the crusher running behind them

Checking a cast leg with a spirit level before the top goes on, the second leg squared up beside it

Sitting on the edge of the table while a photographer shoots it from the other side

Seated at a desk with jars of graded aggregate and handwritten mix-design notes spread out in front of him

Mixing a small trial batch over the high-precision balance, aggregate samples in dishes beside it

Bent over the bench inspecting labelled sample jars and a mixing bowl, gloved and masked

Loading cast samples into the blue CarboCure chamber, a CO2 cylinder and regulator standing in front of the bench

Standing beside the open CarboCure chamber with three samples loaded inside, the CO2 line connected

A CO2 meter reading 810ppm beside the carbonation tank, air temperature and humidity logged alongside it

Standing behind the white formwork for the legs laid out in the yard, the curved cut-outs already shaped in each side panel

The materials lab: an engineer talking through the mix, cast sample blocks and a stack of test sieves on the bench between them

Four of the team in hi-vis in front of the aggregate crushing plant, a heap of graded stone beside them

The full group in the yard, stacked precast blocks and 3D-printed concrete columns behind them

Cutting the strapping off the wrapped tabletop on its pallet, the two cast legs already standing to one side

The table assembled but unfinished — bare grey concrete, both halves on pallets in the yard

Sultan standing on the finished table, arms folded, testing that it takes his weight

Beside the finished table with a hand on the cast net, looking down the length of the playing surface

Leaning on the corner of the finished table in hard hat and hi-vis, the yard behind him

Design Technology · Boat Basket Organizer · Nord Anglia School Dubai2024 to 2025

Boat Basket Storage

A boat tidy that hooks over the side and stops phones, wallets and fishing tackle sliding across the deck in rough water, designed for a Dubai boat-rental owner as the client. It was picked from twelve concepts and built from a CNC-routed frame, 3D-printed hoops with HDPE nets and push-fit caps, and a laser-cut tray. Then it went out on a day's fishing aboard the client's boat to be tested.

Download the full design folio (PPTX, 41 MB)

From the folio to the deck

The CAD model of the final design: two hooked arches, four capped hoops under ocean-animal backboards, and a divided tray at the base

A starfish backboard being laser cut from a sheet of red acrylic

The frame's two plywood arches laid on the bench after cutting on the CNC router

An HDPE net rolled into a cylinder and hot-glued, the glue gun beside it

The finished tidy hooked over the gunwale of the client's boat, the marina behind it

Close-up of one hoop: the black push-fit cap on its netted basket under the yellow shell backboard

The improved design after testing, modelled in teal: a top shelf between the arches and four sealed, lidded pots

The laser cutter tracing the wave-shaped side of the base tray out of plywood

One of the hoops printing on the 3D printer bed, a white ring with a scalloped rim

Chiselling a slot into the side of the frame with a mallet, since the CNC router could only cut from one face

The base tray glued up, its comb-jointed plywood walls and dividers forming six compartments

The tidy assembled on the workshop bench, hoops, backboards and tray all in place

The finished tidy hooked over the side of a boat: four netted hoops with capped lids under starfish, shell, fish and turtle backboards, and a plywood tray at the base holding a phone and fishing tackle

Fishing sinkers and packets of tackle sorted into the base tray's compartments

Competition · Aerospace Engineering2026

Water Rocket Competition

A water-propelled bottle rocket, designed and built with a team for the Emirates Aviation Rocket Competition, hosted by Emirates Aviation University and Boeing. Certificate of Participation, February 2026.

Building it

Three teammates under the school's shade canopy, one holding up the finished bottle rocket with its blue taped nose cone and orange fin, the build table of tape and scissors behind them

Two teammates fitting an orange fin to the bottle rocket's body at the table, tools and a water bottle alongside

Taping the rocket's body together at the build table, an orange fin cut-out and a reel of tape laid out in front of them

Contact

If Any of This Is Useful to You, Say So

Research groups, engineering teams, competitions, or anyone who wants to argue about the fishing paper. Email, call, or find me on LinkedIn.

Contact Details

Sultan Al-Farhan

Email: salt.alfarhan@gmail.com
Mobile: +971 52 927 0167
LinkedIn: Sultan Al-Farhan