ADU awards 32 winning teams around 120,000 AED in the “3rd UAE Undergraduate Student Research Competition”

32 student-winning teams were awarded around 120,000 AED by Abu Dhabi University during the finale of the “3^rd UAE Undergraduate Student Research Competition” on Thursday evening (21^st May). Held under the patronage of H.E Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mubarak Al Nahayan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and with “Tawazun” as the silver sponsor, the nation-wide competition attracted around 250 research submissions from around 800 undergraduate students in various fields including electrical, environmental, civil, mechanical, chemical engineering, energy, architecture and urban planning, information technology, public relations and mass communication, business administration, management, economics, finance, marketing, biology and public health, chemistry, physics and education.  

Addressing the triumphant teams, Dr. Richard Gibb Provost of Abu Dhabi University explained that research, development and creation of knowledge is and has always been critical to the development of mankind and the economic and social development of society. “Society cannot progress, develop and compete effectively and sustainably without competitive human capital and human capital needs to be underpinned by research. The development of a knowledge-based economy is clearly articulated by the UAE’s wise leadership as a key strategic goal on all levels, and that is where universities come in as their role in research and development is vital for that transformation and is recognized world-wide. The UAE is clearly moving from consuming knowledge to producing knowledge and universities have a critical role to play in that transition, which is where this competition derives its importance. Traditionally research has been associated with professors, faculty and doctoral postgraduates, however, we are now witnessing a shift in the way competitive economies depend on research as a key lifelong skill that encourages creativity.  The Undergraduate Student Research Competition was the first in the UAE to recognize and support research at the undergraduate level and all the competition’s participant teams have played a huge part in advancing undergraduate research in the UAE ”.

On his part, Dr. Ashraf Khalil Director of Research at ADU said: “We are very proud of the success of the 3^rd Undergraduate Student Research Competition as evident by the number, quality and variety of research topics that were presented throughout the sessions by student teams representing around 25 higher education institutions from across the nation. It was not an easy task but 60 judges from academia and industry chose the best research papers from a total of 250, awarding the 32 winning team around 120,000 AED. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4^th  place winners in each category of the competition were awarded 5,000 AED, 3,000 AED, 2,000 AED, and 1,000 respectively”, concluded Dr. Khalil.