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Bill Gates praises students for IT project

ABU DHABI — Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, has sent commendation letters to UAE University students for their innovative IT project ‘Learning on the Move’.

Silvia Radan

Published: Thu 11 Oct 2007, 8:56 AM

Last updated: Sun 5 Apr 2015, 4:48 AM

The letters were received by Shaikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Chancellor of UAE University, at a ceremony held yesterday at his palace in Abu Dhabi.

Charbel Fakhoury, general manager for Microsoft Gulf, presented the letters to Shaikh Nahyan and the three students who created the project — Ghalya Ali Al Manneim, Hayfa Ahmad Jarrah and Noura Al Dhahery. ‘Learning on the Move’ was designed by the UAE University students for the annual international Imagine Cup, an IT competition, which was launched by Microsoft five years ago. This year, the competition’s theme was ‘Education for all’ and the UAE students came up with the idea of learning through mobile phones. They designed a software application, based on Microsoft technology, that allows students to access educational quizzes via SMS.

The users’ answers to the questionnaires are sent to a remote server, which instantly provides feedback.

This project, aimed at today’s mobile phones generation, won the UAE University team the Imagine Cup competition for the Gulf area and qualified it for the world finals, which took place in Seoul in August this year. “A total of 120 countries took part in the Imagine Cup competition and the UAE students’ recognition proved once again the standard of higher education here, which was not for the first time, nor it will be for the last that it is commended,” Shaikh Nahyan told Khaleej Times. Fakhoury added that “Microsoft is very proud of the UAE University students and their significant accomplishments.” He also pointed out that this was for the first time the Gulf countries participated in the Imagine Cup.

“We also expect that the UAE students will participate in the 2008 competition, which will be about how technology can help sustainable environment”, said Fakhoury.