February 21st, 2017: Three students from Canadian University Dubai (CUD) have won the opportunity of a lifetime to travel to Huawei Headquarters in China, following their recent triumph in the Seeds for the Future student innovation competition.
Undergraduate marketing majors Rhoda Makki, Sofia Alami Riad and Ahmed Alaa were awarded first place among the six teams in the finals of the intra-university competition for their parking management system, EasyP, a mobile app that aims to ease traffic congestion and air pollution by effectively controlling private parking facilities across the city.
Rhoda explained, “We were inspired by what seems to be a growing problem of access to parking space across Dubai. We recognized not only the frustration, but also the social and environmental implications of people driving around the city in search of parking, and we wanted to develop a solution to help. The app works with the owners of private parking facilities to establish an effective booking and space management system, as well as providing added value services to help save time for motorists.”
The Seeds for the Future competition was launched in November 2016 with the aim of encouraging university students to think innovatively and to develop projects that will help to improve community wellbeing. It was initiated by the UAE Ministry of Education and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, and supported by Huawei.
The EasyP team, which was mentored by Chair of e-Business at CUD, Dr. Anas Najdawi, was selected from ten original submissions and six short-listed projects to take the trip to China. Runners up in the CUD leg of the competition were Mehak Ashfar, Esraa Mostafa and Saeed Aljabri for their air quality monitoring app, IBreathe, while Anthony Ezeh, Marina Mikhail and Maryam Dakhan took third place for their anti-congestion innovation, Wherego.
The competition culminated with the top three CUD innovations representing the University in Abu Dhabi during His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis for Future Generations event. The EasyP team will now travel alongside other winning teams from universities across the UAE to the international HQ of the leading global ICT solutions provider, where they will embark upon a two week fieldtrip.
Speaking about the team’s victory and the prospect of their trip to China, Rhoda said, “We committed so much time and effort to developing the app and we are very proud that our work has paid off. We are now looking forward to what promises to be an exciting and challenging journey ahead.”
Assistant Professor, Dr. Ons Bouachir, who is coordinating the University’s participation in the challenge, said, “This competition has provided an excellent opportunity for students to apply their academic knowledge in a practical way and to learn new skills in communication, presentation and business development. They have been collaborating across disciplines to come up with business ideas that are both feasible and sustainable and developing their entrepreneurial potential in the process.”
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