Thursday, 08 May, 2008

The second annual Software Development Trade Show (SDTS) was organized by the University of Wollongong in Dubai's College of Informatics and Computer Science and hosted by Dubai International Academic City, Knowledge Village was held on 5 May 2008. The event provided an opportunity to current undergraduate final year students and recently graduated students majoring in Computer Science, IT, Software Development or related areas to compete, communicate and showcase their academic interests by presenting software projects undertaken at their respective institutions. Students demonstrated software solutions in their project teams and shared their knowledge with representatives from industry, academia, fellow students and visitors. Seventeen teams from eight universities across the UAE participated in the event. Participating universities included MAHE Manipal, Bits-Pilani Dubai Campus, American University of Sharjah, Khalifa University, University of Dubai, Amjan University, Higher College of Technology Mens and UOWD. An official judging panel which determined the prize-winners included representatives from the industry: Naima Shaikh, Executive Director from Dubai Holding, and Mark Walker, Platform Strategy Manager from Microsoft Gulf. The Official judging panel included two independent academic judges: Dr. Saad Ali Amin, Dean, Faculty of Information Technology from British University in Dubai and Steven Gill, Head of Computer Science from Heriot-Watt University. Places were determined by two main criteria including degree of positive impact on society and product/service functionality. The UOWD College of Informatics and Computer Science SDTS 2008 Organizing Committee included: Dr.Catherine Todd Dr.Mohamed Salem Dr.Farhad Keissarian Dr.Farhad Oroumchian Dr Halim Khelalfa Dr Latif Tchantchane Dr Soly Mathew Biju Mr Jaspreet Singh Ms.Maria PerieraFirst prize of prestigious Dubai Holding Internships were awarded to American University of Sharjah with the project Infopods, mobile Zigbee devices for real-time monitoring of XML-based Internet which enable RSS feeds on wireless zigbee devices and was demonstrated by student developers Ahmed Wasy and Mustafa Jabbar, under the academic mentoring of Dr. Imran A. Zualkernan and Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Ali. Second prize of digital cameras were awarded to MAHE Manipal University with the project Virtual Classroom which enables teachers to communicate with students via audio (VoIP) and visual based, interactive learning via a custom website interface. The student developers included Usman Zafar, Nikhil Dayal and Saransh Yadav, under the academic mentoring of Suman Patgar. Third prize of Microsoft software, Vista, went to Bits-Pilani for their project Innovative File Search Engine which enables easy searching and retrieval of files over the internet without the arduous searching through web pages and discounting irrelevant information. The student developer was Shoaib Khan under the academic mentoring of Dr. Sangil Vadivel. For the first time, an academic prize was awarded, which was judged on the same criteria as the first, second and third prizes but by the accompanying academics from the participating universities. This prize was awarded to Ajman University for the project Personal Pharmacy Application by the student developer Shayma AlRawi under the academic mentoring of Professor Mahir Subhi Ali. This application can be run on an individuals PDA to monitor pharmaceutical needs for family members. President of the UOWD, David Rome, welcomed guests to the event, and Ibrahim Jamel, Business Development, DIAC and Knowledge Village officially opened the SDTS 2008. To see more photos of this event, please click here