CUD students compete for Dh1m m-Gov prize

Dubai – A team of three engineering students from Canadian University Dubai, CUD, are preparing to compete for the Dh1 million prize fund at the finals of this year’s UAE m-Government Service Awards.

With their innovative application, SmartCart, Mohammed Baziyad, Ahmed Farrag and Moad Kawan are among the top five teams shortlisted in the university students’ category of the competition, which concludes with the grand finals to be held at the UAE Government Summit next week.

Launched under the directive of Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the m-Government Service Awards is an annual competition that aims to support the UAE’s Smart Government vision by bringing forward innovative solutions for the delivery of government services through smart technology.

The special category open to students from UAE universities seeks to engage young people in the development of new tools for smartphone applications, mobile websites and SMS technology. The trio was selected for the finals from over 400 original competitors, and has been working on the development of their app in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy.

Inspired by their own experience of peak time shopping, the students’ innovation aims to improve the consumer experience by providing efficiencies in supermarket purchasing through a self-scan checkout system. It also features a budget monitoring facility that enables users to keep track of their spending and receive alerts when they reach their budget limit, as well as useful consumer information.

Ahmed explained, “The application uses mobile technology to enable customers to scan their shopping while going round the supermarket, receive their total bill on their own device, and pay for their purchases through their smartphone with a pre-registered credit card.”

Mohammed said, “Our tool is aimed at reducing queuing in the supermarket, which will enhance the customer experience and promote efficiencies in the retailers’ operations. We have used RFID technology to eliminate any security concerns and also applied GPS technology to help customers find their nearest supermarket – initially using Coop outlets across the UAE.”

Mentored by CUD Professor of Engineering, Dr Emad Eldin Mohamed, the team saw the competition as a good opportunity to both apply and showcase the knowledge and skills they have developed during their university studies. This is the second year that the team has entered the m-Government competition and, according to Moad, they have applied the lessons from last year to reach the elite top-five ranking in this year’s contest.

He said, “For this year’s competition, we’ve come up with a simple idea that has an almost universal application. Everyone needs to purchase groceries and many people work on a monthly budget to do this, so we have combined these two ideas in one easy-to-use application.”

As part of the final judging process, the team was interviewed by TV presenter and City of Life star, Saoud Al Kaabi, who quizzed them about their application and how it was developed. The video will be shown to the judging panel as part of the final evaluation process and the winners will be announced at the UAE Government Summit on February 11.