When a dream becomes a solution
Dubai students to represent UAE at Microsoft’s Imagine Cup with app that enables reporting of abuse
dubai — Four students from the University of Wollongong, Dubai, will represent the UAE and the Arab World at Microsoft’s Imagine Cup 2015 World Finals, which will be held in Seattle, Washington, from July 27-31. They will compete with other winning teams from 33 countries.
Imagine Cup is Microsoft’s global student technology programme and competition which allows students across all disciplines to use their creativity, passion and knowledge of technology to create applications, games, and integrates solutions that can change the way we live, work, and play.
The talented trio — Heba Nayef, Artaza Aziz and Jawad Jandali Refai — of Freedom Fragrance, won the competition with their LAMAPP creation — a mobile app that allows the public to anonymously report any form of abuse through video and audio recordings.
“We are very excited to be representing the UAE and the entire Arab World at the Imagine Cup World Finals. For me, it is an example of how a simple dream can be turned into a tangible solution that touches the lives of people in so many ways,” said Heba.
“When we started the LAMAPP project, almost no one believed that we could make it, but thanks to Microsoft and their guidance throughout the competition, we have not only emerged winners but also developed a tool that can help scale down incidences of abuse around the world. I hope our participation at the Imagine Cup world finals will inspire other students to believe in themselves, take responsibility of changing the world and pursue their dreams,” she added.
Team Freedom Fragrance emerged winners in the World Citizenship category at the Imagine Cup Pan Arab semi- finals in June that brought together all 36 firstprize winners of national rounds from 13 countries across the Middle East and North Africa.
“This is an incredible opportunity for the team from the UAE to compete side by side with other teams from around the world and also to learn from their experiences. We know that today students and start-ups are looking for every possible opportunity to be successful in the face of numerous challenges, and it’s Microsoft’s goal and aspiration to give them the best possible tools to enable them to succeed,” said Michael Mansour, Head of Apps and Innovation, Microsoft Gulf.
“Microsoft Imagine Cup echoes our commitment to create social and economic opportunities through programmes and products that can transform education, foster local innovation, drive future prosperity and enable jobs and opportunities within UAE and worldwide,” he added.
The team will present an updated prototype at the finals of the competition, in Seattle, where they stand to win $50,000 (Dh183,647) and meet Satya Nadella, chief executive of Microsoft.
As part of Microsoft YouthSpark initiative, Imagine Cup empowers students to use their creativity to solve the world’s toughest problems through technology, as well as, provides the opportunity to develop an idea, create a product and set a clear business plan that will take their product to market.
Students can compete in the World Citizenship, Innovation and Games Competitions or Challenges that are mapped to the Software Development Lifecycle leading up to the World Finals, which prepare students to have a well-rounded project by competing in Pitch Video Challenge, Project Blueprint Challenge and User Experience Challenge.
The competition is currently in its 13th year globally and has grown to become the world’s global student technology competition with more than 1.65 million students from more than 190 countries having participated in the Microsoft Imagine Cup annual competition from inception.
Five finalists were selected from the 17 projects submitted at the start of this year’s UAE Imagine Cup challenge from students across seven universities in UAE. The three category winners from UAE, Team Freedom Fragrance (LAMAPP), Team YMAM from Ajman University of Science and Technology (Nanny Robot) and Khalid Al Awar from Khalifah University (Cayram) went on to take part in the Pan Arab Semi-Finals.