ADU Chancellor’s Innovation Awards recognize groundbreaking innovations

ADU Chancellor Dr Nabil Ibrahim and Winner

As the UAE steps up its efforts to become a knowledge-driven economy, Abu Dhabi University (ADU) has underlined its credentials as an incubator of innovation by awarding the 4th Chancellor’s Innovation Awards. Recognition was given to forward-thinking students, faculty, staff and schools. The winning breakthroughs included campus technology that electronically records attendance; connecting students with ADU alumni mentors online to maximize their career prospects; and an online portal that lets new students navigate a virtual tour of ADU’s dynamic student activities.

The awards aim to motivate innovation in ways that transform the campus, the community and the wider nation, particularly among young visionaries. Of all 550 institutions on the QS 550 World University Rankings, ADU is the youngest university – signifying the progress it has made in its 10-year history. To elevate students to the most competitive global standards, the university is in the process of securing international accreditation.

Speaking at the award ceremony, Dr Nabil Ibrahim, Chancellor of Abu Dhabi University stated: “Many of the world’s greatest innovations originated from universities; for instance Facebook started at Harvard – and our own students, faculty, staff and communities are more than capable of pioneering their own innovations. Over 60% of our region’s population is aged under 30, which means youths – particularly university students – are the main pacesetters when it comes to innovation. Our university is in itself a symbol of this youthful ambition, because our achievements in just a short decade have seen us ranked alongside some of the world’s very best universities that have been in existence for several centuries.”

However Dr Ibrahim was quick to point out that the benefits of the winning projects from the Chancellor’s Awards will not only be restricted to the ADU campus: “As a hub of some of the country’s most gifted talents who look at the world from a refreshingly differently viewpoint, we are delighted that these awards are making our campus an exciting reservoir of fresh ideas from young thought leaders. We anticipate a chain reaction of ripple benefits that will see our effervescent student community contributing to technological patents, industrial research or even starting their own innovation-driven companies. This recognition is a catalyst that empowers students to express their full inventiveness and originality, and the only limit is their imagination.”

The projects that were selected for recognition tackled intriguing themes such as enhancing community perception, improving student engagement, creative marketing as well as innovative use of social media.

The award for First Position was presented to a project that revolutionized the process of recording students’ attendance by innovating an ID card scanner for classrooms. The trio of masterminds behind this project, Dr Gehan Abu El-Enain, Wency Villamora and Henna Jabbar explained: “ADU is one of the most popular institutions attracting thousands of students to its world-class programs. Therefore any time that we save through our automated attendance scanners means more time that students can spend enriching their minds with our reputable faculty experts or interacting on our vibrant campus.”

Winning the award for Second Position was an ambitious project that augments the existing face-to-face orientation system through virtual campus tours. The team members Ayman Hanafy, Nikki Yu, Anne Shabaya and Hatem Deif commented: “Sometimes it is not possible to remember everything you learn during orientation because ADU has so many thrilling social, cultural, artistic or other extracurricular activities. Therefore our fun-filled virtual tour of campus life gives students an exciting port of call where they can enjoy orientation 24/7 at their own pace.”

The positive reputation of ADU’s alumni has led to the university having one of the highest rates of employment for students a year after graduation. To strengthen the ties between ADU alumni and current students, Dr Salam Abdallah, Awah Divine and Sabri Abbas won the award for Third Position for their project: “Students-Alumni E-Mentoring Network”. They elaborated: “One major reason why ADU is so popular is because of the employability of its graduates, so we are strengthening this by connecting ADU alumni with graduating students who have similar career interests. We also aim to ensure a smooth transition from high school to university life, so that first year students are socially, psychologically and academically prepared.”

In order to encourage innovation from an early stage, the awards are also open to schools. Teams from two of these schools – Sunrise Private School and Al Dhafra Private School – won awards for their projects which showed an impressive level of creative problem-solving.

It is anticipated that the spirit of friendly competition generated by this year’s awards will lead to even more ambitious entries in next year’s edition.