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Dubai student plans to transform sustainability through gaming, motivating youth to get involved

His concept revolves around mobile application that employs gamification to encourage individuals to embrace eco-friendly way of living

Published: Wed 26 Jul 2023, 6:00 AM

Updated: Wed 26 Jul 2023, 2:41 PM

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Image used for illustrative purpose.

Image used for illustrative purpose.

A Dubai student has developed an application to raise awareness of sustainability among young people. His app incorporates gamification to encourage his peers to embrace a more sustainable lifestyle.

Arnav Kedia, a Grade 11 student at GEMS World Academy, Dubai, explains that his concept revolves around a mobile application as part of the sustainable tech industry that employs gamification to encourage young individuals to embrace an eco-friendly way of living.

He said: "We can use technology to make meaningful modifications to create massive environmental benefits. The idea of my application is that it uses gamification to urge young people to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle. It contains a virtual wallet where users gain points by participating in a wide range of sustainable activities, such as recycling, reusing, and using public transport."

How it works

The app collects users' points and rewards them with prizes for their effort. Image analysis detects people's participation in various positive actions, such as recycling, using eco-friendly transportation, and engaging in other eco-conscious activities, which helps them to accumulate virtual points.

"People can gain points on AI database system. There are several milestones. These points can then be exchanged for vouchers and concessions from environmentally friendly retailers and service providers. The aim is to ignite a paradigm shift in youth mindset towards environmental conservation."

Arnav, who is passionate about the cause, explains that through his experience and research, he has observed that there still appears to be limited awareness among individuals about the potentially disastrous consequences for humanity resulting from a slight global temperature rise.

"Very few people today seem to realise that a global temperature increase of merely a few degrees could be catastrophic for mankind. If temperatures increase by just one degree, sea levels could rise by seven metres, Greenland's ice could be completely melted, and half of the highest glacier on Mount Everest could disappear. In this challenging time, technology can help us construct the sustainable future humanity needs to survive," said the sophomore.

Highlighting the reasons behind his start-ups' potential success, Arnav feels it is essential to recognise that humans are inherently driven by the desire to accomplish goals and witness progress, which can be utilised to achieve sustainability goals. "Most importantly, humans like accomplishing things in competition with others. We are engaged and thrilled whenever we unlock a new level in our favourite video game. If we take the competitive and immersive setting that hooks young people to gaming and bring that to sustainability, we can create massive global engagement in environmental issues," he adds.

This summer's brutal heatwaves and other natural catastrophes are clearly reinforcing the youth's passion for pursuing a career related to sustainability.

Arnav said: "As today's youth will likely face the most severe consequences of climate change, the time has come for us to take the initiative. With a combined population of over two billion people, Generation Z can potentially prevent our planet's destruction. We can take pride in the fact that we have a solution to this. Technology has provided us with an avenue to take more tangible action.

With new discoveries and evolutions in environmental engineering, we can save our planet and ourselves from catastrophe," he added.

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