With a view to achieve the vision of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, and fulfill the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai to achieve a smart Government, Lt. General HH Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior launched on Wednesday the Ministry of Interior’s Award for Smart Applications. The launching ceremony was attended by a large number of officials from national institutes and universities, as well as areas of scientific research.

“The UAE Government fully understands the importance of establishing a knowledge-based society, and keeping pace with ongoing developments and practical applications of modern technology. Therefore, our initiative today aims at motivating our Emirati students to tap into their energies, and leverage the new research paths we provide for them to serve the public. This would ensure better and easier access to the Ministry of Interior’s services by community members. It also stimulates competitiveness and innovation among students, universities and colleges and encourages them to share and apply their creative achievements for the service of the community,” indicated His Highness.

For his part, Major General Nasser Lakhrebani Al Nuaimi, Secretary General of the Office of HH Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, in his capacity as Chairman of the Executive Board at the Ministry of Interior, indicated that as per the Award’s mechanism, universities will assign work teams, and appoint a team who will be in charge of registering his team for the award by filling the registration form on the ministry’s website, www.moi.gov.ae. Moreover, the Customer Service Department will subsequently organize workshops to prepare the various sectors to accommodate the smart phones application services.

He added that registration for the award was opened as of September 18 and continues through October 17, 2013. “The award aims at encouraging both universities and students to submit creative and innovative solutions in the field of smart phones and mobile phones applications, given the importance of providing government services at any time, to meet the needs of customers and exceed their expectations,” he continued.

Major Dana Humaid , from the General Directorate of Strategy and Performance Development, the General Secretariat of the Office of H.H Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, gave a presentation, showcasing the award’s goals; notably providing community members with access to services of the Ministry of Interior’s various sectors, as per international-best standards. This can be achieved by several means, namely; improving services’ efficiency; supporting the process of continuous improvement and development in various sectors of the Ministry; fostering innovation and creativity to establish a knowledge-based society; and honing talents and skills. “This goal can also be reached by promoting strategic partnerships with higher education institutions; harnessing students’ potentials and encouraging positive and beneficial competition between them, with a view to prompt innovation in the various scientific and technical fields, and increase customer satisfaction beyond expectation,” she added.

Major Humaid also highlighted the award’s criteria, which include creativity, innovation, ease of use, professionalism, specialization, antecedence and need, efficiency, effectiveness and added value. She also tackled the evaluation mechanism, as well as the prizes that include team prizes.

The prizes are:
First place: AED 100,000
Second place: AED 75,000
Third place: AED 50,000

The supervisory staff prizes are as follows:
First place: AED 10,000
Second place: AED 8,000
Third place: AED 7,000

The universities’ prizes include: commemorative shields, certificates of appreciation and esteem, prizes for members of the supervisory staff and prizes for jury members.

The ceremony was attended by a number of assistant undersecretaries, Directors General, and senior officers from the Ministry of Interior and the Abu Dhabi Police, along with a number of university and institutes’ deans and officials. .

General Conditions for Participation

The general conditions for participation were identified as follows:

Students enrolled and attending the various universities and HCT in the UAE may register for this award, as one team representing the University. A work team consists of 2-5 students maximum, and each university is entitled to participate with more than one team in one or several award categories. Moreover, the application must be linked to a major, subsidiary or complementary service at the Ministry of Interior and its affiliated sectors, providing services for external clients.

Other conditions stipulate that the mobile phone applications/solutions should be linked to one of the ministry’s services provided to individual customers (“G2C”, Government to Citizen) or business individuals (“G2B”, Government to Business); not services provided to other government agencies. For participation via mobile phone, it is preferable to choose an application that is available in the common operating system platforms IOS, Android, BlackBerry OS, and Windows App stores. The mobile phone applications and solutions must be developed at the University by students themselves.
 

We accept Guest Posts

Download the Dubai City Guide iPhone mobile app

DubaiCityGuide.com is owned and managed by Cyber Gear