Indian, Pakistani reach finals of global UAE competition

Two students from Masdar Institute will compete with 12 finalists at the annual global 'Go Green in the City' in Paris from September 19-22.
Indian national Hiba Riaz, 24, and Pakistani Arslan Anjum, 24, were selected among 1,183 teams for their project 'SolarWay' that aims to install solar panels on sidewalks in the suburb areas to generate clean energy.
"We noticed that the sidewalks are underutilized, especially in suburbs in the UAE where people barely walk around during the day. So the idea is to replace concrete with heavy-duty floor glass and solar panels to generate clean energy away from greenhouse gas emissions," said Anjum.
According to Anjum and Riaz, who are pursuing an MSc in Microsystems Engineering at Masdar Institute, 12km of SolarWay is expected to generate 2.5 million Kwh/hour, offsetting 1.8 million kg of carbondioxide. Therefore, it can cover up to 269 homes, 385 passenger vehicles driven and 4, 215 barrels of oil consumed.  
The two-member Masdar Institute team, and the only regional student team to make it to the finals, will be competing against students from leading universities in Germany, Azerbaijan, China, India, Kenya, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Brazil for the top prize.
Launched by global energy management and automation company Schneider Electric in 2011, "Go Green in the City" provides business and engineering students (second-year undergraduate or higher) with the opportunity to showcase innovative energy management ideas for smarter cities.
Winning team that will be announced in Paris in September 2016 will travel to Schneider Electric's global facilities, and gain employment opportunities with the energy leader.
"The challenging part is that electricity in UAE is cheap compared to other countries, and building anything that would compete to it is tough. Our project cuts costs as we will not need land and we do not have transmission losses," said Riaz.
She noted that their participation has helped them as students to analyze aspects of an idea before implementing it,while considering the technical and financial side.
"I know it will be very competitive, but I think we are prepared well in our business case and idea itself and we have a good chance," noted Anjum of the project that took them about four months to implement.
Submissions for the 2016 challenge came from students across the globe. Among the 16,400 registrations, 1,183 teams from 182 countries were shortlisted for the top 100 in May. A mentor from Scheinder Electric was assigned for each team.
Among the 100 semi-finalists, only 12 were selected for the finals.
"The SolarWay idea was the most developed among most enteries as it focused on the key criteria judges were looking for. It was innovative, practical and had a financial case," said Fadi Halawi, Tendering Team Leader for Major Projects at Schneider Electric.
The intiative's criteria included understanding user need, solution innovation, feasibility, green impact and people impact.
Halawi added, "What differentiates this initiative is its mentorship program as it introduces mentors themselves to new fields, while also helping participants to transfer their idea to reality and increasing their network in the company." 
 
The four-day finale will include business workshops, networking events, city tours and the main presentations.
 
This year, Schneider Electric received more than 16,400 registrations for the competition, up from 12,800 in 2015. A total of 102 teams submitted projects from the MEA region between February and May, which was a jump from 2015 where 22 submissions were received.

• Dubai