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Abu Dhabi: A total of 52 projects were selected from 631 submitted by a panel of educational and industry experts for the 8th UAE Educational IT Challenge 2008.
The UAE Educational IT Challenge is a national bi-annual event under the patronage of Shaikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Chancellor of the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT).
The highest number of entries came from students with a total of 526. Categories for this year’s competition included special needs, organisational/business, e-commerce and mobile applications.
"This year's IT Challenge has built on its own rich history as an innovative and internationally recognised platform for identifying, sharing and rewarding the best practices in information communication technology (ICT). Students, teachers and organisations from across the GCC have accepted the challenge to create projects promoting the education use of IT," said Dr Bradley Cook, Executive Committee, Abu Dhabi Women’s College.
The event aims to share new ideas, facilitate closer relationships between the educational sectors and showcase UAE’S information technology talent nationally and internationally.
"The IT Challenge is an indication of the vibrancy of our educational institutions in today's knowledge-based economy. It presents an excellent opportunity for all participants to share experiences and gain useful skills and insights," said Nahyan.
A total of 631 projects were submitted by teachers, students, secondary schools, tertiary institutions and businesses. Projects submitted covered topics, including teaching applications, communication tools, teaching people with special needs, road safety, tourism, environment, history of the UAE, mobile applications and online courses.
More countries were represented in this year’s IT Challenge than in previous years, with a total of 58 entries from countries such as Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen. Over 500 entries were from the UAE.
In his speech on Sunday evening, Mohammad Nasser Al Ghanim, Chairman of the Jury Panel, 2008 UAE Educational IT Challenge, announced that some of the projects in this year's competition are of such high quality that he will be sponsoring them and take their efforts forward.
Dr Willy Chiu, Vice President of High Performance on Demand Solutions (HiPODS) at IBM Software Group Strategy, spoke to the audience about a new project under way.
HiPODS is a technology group which delivers end-to-end integrated solutions using technologies from the entire IBM portfolio.
Chiu’s group is currently working on the ‘Blue Cloud’ project, a leading cloud computing solution based on joint work with Google.
Cloud computing is an emerging approach to shared infrastructure in which large pools of systems are linked together to provide IT services.
The winners of the UAE Educational IT Challenge 2008 are:
Best UAE National Teacher Project Qurtas v2.2 (Banknotes Database) -- Al Maarif Secondary School, Sharjah Mohammed Ali Alhousani
Best UAE National Student Project A Man-in-the-Middle Attack Tool for Switched Networks -- College of Information Technology, UAE University, Al Ain Muna Muneer Otaibi Wadha Rashid Tamimi
Best Organizational Project Enhanced Learning and Training Center, HP Advanced Technology Lab -- Abu Dhabi Men's College, Abu Dhabi Mohammed Arif Amin Nafith Salama Farrukh Zaheer Sanjeev Ananth Mohamed Ali Mohamed Eid Aldahham Al Mansoori Imran Abdulla Hasan Abdulla Al Marzoogi Naser Mohamed Ahmed Sultan Al Sheikh
Best E-Commerce Project Oman Government Portal -- Majan College, Oman Maha Mohammed Abdallah Al Bulushi
Best Mobile Applications Project Smart Office System with Mobile Phone Control -- Preston University, Ajman Zainab Raheed
Best College or University Teacher Project Learning 2.0 -- Zayed University, Dubai Janet Martin
Best Secondary Teacher Project Qurtas v2.2 (Banknotes Database) -- Al Maarif Secondary School, Dubai Mohammed Ali Alhousani
Al Reem & That Al Salassel Web Cam Community Link That Al Salassel, Al Ain Aisha Kamis Salem Aldhari
Best College or University Student Project i-College (An Online College System) -- Higher College of Technology, Muscat, Oman Jafer Abdul Rahman Jafer Batcho Al Zidjali
A Man-in-the-Middle Attack Tool for Switched Networks College of Information Technology, UAE University, Al Ain Muna Muneer Otaibi Wadha Rashid Tamimi
Best Secondary Student Project Personal Website to Teach Robotics, Photography and Karate, Aswath -- Indian School Al Ghubra (ISG), Oman Aswath Sridhar
Windows Forums, Benna and Hadi Al Majd Indian School, Dubai Benna Iqbal Hadi Mohammed
Mind Map Sukainah Bint Al Husain Secondary School, Dubai Hajar Abdul Rahman Al Ansari Abeer Mohammad Al Janahi
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