UOWD students shine at Arabian Business Achievement Awards
Monday, 24 November, 2014
UOWD students shine at Arabian Business Achievement Awards Final year students beat competition from 1400 other entries to be crowned Young Achievers of the Year at annual awards ceremonyFour final year students from the Univeristy of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD) have been crowned Arabian Business magazine’s Young Achievers of the Year for their work developing “Heroes”, a motivational smartphone app which has been designed to empower cancer patients, survivors and caregivers on their journey through the disease.Initially created as part of the students’ undergraduate Computer Science degree at UOWD, Fariha M. Khan, Abdul Basit, Artaza Aziz and Ashiqur Rahman’s project was among 1400 entries to this year’s annual Arabian Business Achievement Awards. After a rigorous process which saw the total entries shortlisted to 300, the innovative smartphone application project was one of just 14 winners praised at the lavish ceremony at JW Marriott Marquis Hotel, Dubai. The “Heroes” application stood tall amongst a list of global blue-chip companies honored at the awards including The Abraaj Group (who were crowned Financial Services Company of the Year), Gulf Bank (Bank of the Year) and Ethiad Airways (Airline of the Year).Fariha Khan, the student project manager behind “Heroes”, said of the evening: “Winning the award was absolutely amazing. We are honored and humbled to be alongside other category winners who are such important industry leaders and humanitarians. We are thrilled to see the feedback “Heroes” has been getting, and it’s really motivated us to take the project to the next level. We are currently working with interested parties to source investment and begin the business plan roll-out process which will allow us to bring the app to everyone. Heroes is a small step in bringing together people who have experienced similar things to us and our aim is to build an empathetic and supportive community for cancer sufferers and their families. It was built as a tribute to the people we love and we hope it will inspire other heroes too.”The award win comes on the back of other recent success and accolades for the group, among which was a third place win at this year’s prestigious Microsoft Imagine Cup (dubbed as “the world’s premier student technology competition”).The students behind the application have paid particular tribute to the support of UOWD staff members Dr Farhad Orouchian, Acting Dean of the Engineering and Information Sciences Faculty, Instructor Zeenath Khan, and Andrea Little, Student Counsellor – who helped the team focus on the latest approaches to cancer care.More information about the Heroes application can be found at: http://www.heroesofcancer.com/
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