Running from 20 January 2021 until 20 February 2021, the University’s ‘ADU Innovates!’ 2021 competition will see students from across various disciplines put their creativity to the test
 
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates—26 January 2021:  Abu Dhabi University’s (ADU) Innovation Center has launched its annual ‘ADU Innovates!’ competition to celebrate UAE Innovation Month 2021. In line with the UAE’s knowledge agenda, the competition calls on students to showcase their creativity and innovation by submitting out-of-the-box ideas that could further improve student lives, their learning experience, and academic success. 

ADU students are invited to submit their ideas in one of three categories: ‘ADU Students Excel!’, focuses on improving teaching methods, classroom experience, course curriculum, and extracurricular activities; ‘ADU Gives Back!’ encourages ideas to enable ADU to give back to the UAE through social-engagement projects with high schools, government institutions, NGOs, or environmental agencies; the ‘Surviving Social Distancing’ category, introduced to support the community during the COVID-19 pandemic, seeks to enhance mental and physical wellbeing to cope with social distancing and remote learning.

Commenting on this year’s edition of ‘ADU Innovates!’, Dr. Petra Turkama, Director of Innovation at ADU, said, “Recognizing innovation as a cornerstone of our academic development, we are committed to equipping students with the tools and resources needed to achieve academic success and channel their inner creativity to come up with groundbreaking and innovative ideas that can then be brought to life.” 

Dr. Turkama continued, “To capture the spirit of UAE Innovation Month, which is always a dynamic time for us at ADU, we are bringing ADU students together to collaborate and exchange creative ideas and enable them to engage in creative competitions and work closely with one another. Innovation has long been core to our ethos. We wholeheartedly believe in the power of creativity to empower our students and drive success both in and outside the classroom, in line with our 2022 vision to deliver a holistic learning experience. We urge all our students to make the most of our program this month by challenging themselves to take their creativity to new heights.”

The ‘ADU Innovates!’ 2021 competition will run from 20 January 2021 to 20 February 2021 and the winning students will be announced on 28 February 2021. Students who wish to participate can register and submit their ideas through innovation.center@adu.ac.ae. Deadline for submissions is 20 February 2021.

Established in 2017, the ADU Innovation Center serves as a hub for innovation within ADU in teaching, research, and operations. The Center is a focal point for innovation activities across all areas of the University, focusing on three activity streams: student experience, outreach to companies, government and schools, and internal operations. The Innovation Center looks at ways to enrich the student experience through a variety of channels, including the provision of more elective courses, experimental teaching methods, value-added extracurricular activities, access to business case studies from local and international organizations, peer learning, mentoring, student support, cross-course collaboration, and meaningful internships. The Center also runs an Entrepreneur Club and an incubation program for advanced innovators.