Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates 5 May 2018:  Abu Dhabi University (ADU), an internationally recognized academic institution for quality education and applied research, awarded and honored 30 teams from 12 different universities and colleges across the UAE at the sixth edition of the United Arab Emirates Undergraduate Research Competition (URC). 

Spanning subjects within Engineering, Physics, Architecture, Interior Design, Education, Social Sciences, Health Sciences, Business Administration, and Arts, this year’s winning papers received an award value of AED100,000. 

The day-long event was held in the presence Dr Mohamed Yousif Baniyas, Executive Director of Higher Education Sector at Department of Education and Knowledge; Dr Samer Al Samahi, Assistant Undersecretary for Development and Planning; Salem Mubarak Al Dhaheri, Executive Director of Community Relations at ADU; Dr Waqar Ahmad, Provost and Interim Chancellor of ADU; and Dr Ashraf Khalil, Director of Research at ADU and organizer of the URC, along with a selection of ADU faculty members and students. 

First-place honors were awarded to 14 teams representing seven universities including the University of Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates University, Khalifa University, New York University Abu Dhabi, American University in Dubai, Birla Institute of Technology, and the University of Rochester, and included the subjects such as “Molecular Assessment of Brain Dendritic Cells in Rhizopus-Infected Mouse Model”, “The Benefits and Challenges of Adopting Blockchain Technology in the MENA Region”, “Study on caffeine consumption: Assessment of behaviors, attitudes and knowledge among adults in the United Arab Emirates”, “Economical Design of Disturbed Regions in Concrete Structures: Numerical Simulation and Comparison with STM Predictions”, “Robotic Hand for Amputees”, “On Students’ Perception of Online Educational Videos”, and “Gender inequality in gains from migration”. 

Placing second were 14 papers represented by nine different universities: Abu Dhabi University, the University of Sharjah, New York University Abu Dhabi, City University College of Ajman, Khalifa University, Birla Institute of Technology, Middlesex University Dubai, Zayed University and American University of Sharjah.

Placing third were three teams from Abu Dhabi University who presented papers on chemical and environmental engineering, electronic electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering.  

Under the theme “Create. Innovate. Inspire”, around 260 research papers were received by this year’s the evaluation committee, comprised of 66 professors and field experts from various academic institutions of higher education.

Under the patronage of His Excellency Hussain bin Ibrahim Al Hammadi, UAE Cabinet Member and Minister of Education, the sixth edition of the URC attracted more than 800 undergraduate university students.

Since its inception, the number of participating student teams has grown from about 50 teams representing only eight universities to 260 teams today from 33 universities across the UAE.