Software engineering students from ALHOSN University, a leading Abu Dhabi-based university dedicated to high-quality value-based education, clinched top honors during the 6th Mobile Application Contest (MAC 2011) held last May 21, 2011 at the Park Rotana Hotel in Abu Dhabi.

The SAWACAE (‘Mobile Software Application for Water Consumption Awareness’) mobile communications platform developed by Hussain Al-Bloushi and Mohamed Sobhi Toubar pushes content created by water and electrical distribution companies on the Middle East’s water scarcity issue to mobile phone users. It provides information on water conservation, water security and other environmentally-related news, and awards won by consumption-conscious consumers. The ALHOSN team used various cutting-edge programming tools, such as the Android Application Development Kit, the Oracle database management system, ASP.NET, and C#.

Judges were impressed with the originality, quality and cultural focus of SAWACAE and awarded it third place out of a field of 15 competing teams. The victory was a remarkable achievement for ALHOSN given that the university was participating in the annual MAC for only the first time and its team had only three months to develop the application. The ALHOSN team was supervised by Dr. Adel Khelifi, Associate Professor and Chair of ALHOSN’s Software Engineering Department, and Dr. Mohammed Ghazal, Adjunct Professor at the Software Engineering Department.

“We congratulate our very talented group of software engineers and would like to express our deep pride in their accomplishment. They are truly inspirations to the rest of our students and we believe that this is just the beginning of a bright career in the programming field. We would also like to commend Dr. Khelifi and Dr. Ghazal for guiding our students and showing how outstanding teaching and motivational skills combined with high-quality supervision can draw formidable performances from our youths. Our professors and our talented students involved in this project truly deserve our admiration,” said Prof. Abdul Rahim Sabouni, Vice Chancellor and CEO, ALHOSN University.

The annual Mobile Application Contest is a regional competition open to students majoring in Software Engineering, Communication Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, and Telecommunications interested in showcasing their skills in developing mobile applications and meeting fellow students from other Arab and North African institutions. MAC 2011 was hosted by Khalifa University’s Computer Engineering Department and sponsored by the UAE Telecommunication Regulatory Authority, Nokia, Research In Motion and the Khalifa Fund.

This year’s MAC participants created applications based on the Android operating system and Nokia’s Qt Development Kit. Entries were judged based on originality, usability, quality, and cultural focus.

The participation of the ALHOSN University Software Engineering Department in MAC 2011 comes in response to the booming market for mobile phone applications and the high demand for talented mobile software engineers.

ALHOSN University is gaining greater recognition as a provider of an academically engaging and culturally rich education. The university opened its doors to students of all nationalities in 2005 and currently offers 11 undergraduate and 7 graduate programs under the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Faculty of Business, and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
 

We accept Guest Posts

Download the Dubai City Guide iPhone mobile app

DubaiCityGuide.com is owned and managed by Cyber Gear