Five Student Projects Turn Heads at Abu Dhabi Municipality Innovation Nation Activities

Zayed University students participated in the "Innovation Nation" activities, which was organized by the Abu Dhabi City Municipality for the UAE Innovation Month, which comes in line with the UAE's strategy to prepare a new generation of talents as it transitions into a competitive knowledge-based economy.

The students showcased five main projects nominated by the College of Technological Innovation; all served innovative concepts and solutions that would ensure the public's safety and security nationally and globally.

The Bus Safety System, which was prepared by Ahmed Al Shamsi, Malik Al Rashdi, and Rashid Al Mansoori, aims to dedicate technology and especially wireless sensor networks to create a system that will keep children safe during life-threatening situations. "Our project aims to protect children, during their journey in a school bus, from toxic gases, flames, and suffocation." 

"We installed and tested specialized sensors and placed them within various areas within a school bus; the system recognizes toxic gases and reports increased temperatures caused by possible flame accidents within the bus. The system directly triggers alert sounds and sends an SMS to the responsible parties, which includes the type of incident and location of the bus, for quick action," Al Mansoori said. 

He added, "Kids left alone in the vehicles would be eliminated, as our motion sensor, when installed, sends an SMS to the owner of any moving subjects within a stationary vehicle with the engine switched off." 

Ayesha Ali Alderei seeks to help the visually impaired, with her Third Eye. "People with disabilities might face many challenges during their ordinary life; hence, we began searching for solutions for this matter and merged them into one device as we like to call it "The Third Eye." A tool that can help visually impaired persons while facing any barrier on the way by detecting any motion and then alerting the user using both vibration and sound," she said.

Another was the Air Quality System, which was prepared by Ayesha Almentheri and Maryam Ghanem Alkatheeri, to detect CO carbon monoxide and flammable gases. "We must cooperate to solve this problem as it has become an important problem that we face in many regions, such as the Amazon rainforest wildfires in Brazil, the wildfires in Australia, and other fires that we witness in the news every day," Almentheri said. 

"On this basis, we decided in our project to create an Arduino-based system that calculates the percentage of gases emitted to the atmosphere in hospitals and factories — using the MQ9 sensor due to its high sensitivity and fast response time. If the gas emissions exceed the required limit, the staff will get a call. As well as Arduino will send a text message to the concerned authorities (General Directorate of Civil Defense) and the hospital crew," she added.

The Qout Smart Vending Machine, prepared by Mouza Tariq Alali, focuses on the smart vending machines operated through Vendron software and powered by solar energy. "Smart vending machines are intended to be installed in labor camps and construction sites. It offers several types of free items, such as juices, fruits, water, and dates to the laborers, as the heat and high temperatures usually drain away their energy and cause them dehydration, which sometimes leads to death." 

She further added, "The Smart Vending and Self-service solution is a plugin-based framework operated through Vendron software that empowers the smart vending machines to be capable of delivering the products by using QR code."

Last but not least, the TMC project (Track my Car), was prepared by Jawahir Thoban, Wadhha Almahri, and Al Shaima Almarzooqi, which is GPS-based system that helps in locating and tracking stolen cars via mobile devices. "Each car will be equipped with our device and tracked by our app, which runs google earth maps," Thoban said.