Students from the University of Hail's College of Engineering have won first place in the Undergraduate Paper Competition at the ninth International European Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, held in Barcelona, Spain, from July 20 to 22.

The winning team, from the Department of Industrial Engineering, wrote a research paper examining the cultural and institutional factors that shape how Six Sigma methodology is applied in Saudi Arabia and Germany.

Sponsored by Siemens, the competition is one of the awards attached to the conference. It honours outstanding student research in industrial engineering and operations management, judged on research quality, originality, methodology, practical value and the ability to tackle problems facing industry and operations.

The university said the result reflects its students' strength in research and innovation and its efforts to build their research skills and prepare them to compete internationally, raising its academic and research profile.