Seeking to serve the UAE society and coping with its organizational decisions that are based on the principle of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) sponsored the “3rd Mobile Application Contest (MAC’08)” that was organized by Khalifa University for Science, Technology and Research (KUSTAR) and the American University in Dubai (AUD), where Etisalat also sponsored the Contest. An awards ceremony was held yesterday to announce the winning teams with the presence of delegates from the TRA headed by H.E. Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, TRA Board Member & Director General, along with Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, KUSTAR Manager, Dr.Wael Bazzi, Associate Professor of Computer Engineering at the AUD, Prof. Hassan Barada, Chairman of the MAC’08 Steering Committee, along with senior officials from Etisalat, the members of the Academic and Judging Committees, and the participating teams.
The participants in the contest consisted of 20 teams from 12 UAE universities and colleges, where they competed in developing new mobile phone solutions and applications that meet the various requirements of regional consumers. Participating teams contributed with a number of innovative mobile applications that are relevant to the Arabic and Islamic cultures. Those applications highlighted the potential talents of the students and the capabilities of programming mobile phones in a way that meets the requirements of today’s consumers. In collaboration with TRA, however, KUSTAR organized a free training program for the participants of the MAC’08, prior to the event. The training was held at KUSTAR – Sharjah Campus and included workshops on “Java2 ME”, a leading technology for developing mobile applications.
The contesting teams presented their projects in front of the Judging Committee comprising experts from the TRA, Etisalat, the UAE University, headed by the Chief Judge, Saif Bin Ghelaita, from the TRA, and the membership of Mohammed Al Ramsi, from the TRA, Ahmed Al Suwaidi and Yousef Al Asker, from Etisalat, and Dr. Yacine Atif, from the UAE University. After evaluating the projects, the Judging Committee chose three winners for the first three places.
To this end, the winner for the 1st Place was the American University of Sharjah with the project “Two Factor Authentication using Mobile Phones”, which was presented by the students Syed Zohaib Hussain Zahidi, Mariam Mohamed Ahmed, and Noor Al Nazli, under the supervision of Dr. Fadi Aloul. The 2nd Place went to KUSTAR with the project “Context Aware Islamic Companion”, which was presented by the student Mohamed Abdulla Tahnoon, under the supervision of Dr. M. Jamal Zemerly and Dr. Jawad Berri. The 3rd Place, however, went to Manipal University – Dubai Campus with the project “Catch-A-Cab”, which was presented by the students Mohammed Usman Zafar, Nikhil Dayal, and Saransh Yadav, with the supervision of Prof. M I Jawid Nazir.
MAC’08 has been a great opportunity for students and academics in all computing and telecommunications related disciplines in the UAE to consider the local and regional market needs in this field. It also reflects KUSTAR’s continuous commitment to build strategic partnerships and launch initiatives that would contribute to the development of the education and scientific research sectors in the UAE. This is in line with KUSTAR objective to emerge as a leading academic institute offering technology training for students from the UAE in order to improve their skills and contribute to enriching the telecommunications sector in the country and the region.
