du and Microsoft Launch the 'Let your dream mobile application out' competition

Creating a new platform for young and talented scientific minds, du, the UAE’s new telecom operator and Microsoft have joined hands to organise the 'Let your dream mobile application out' Competition for all students of Colleges and Universities in the UAE. The competition will run from 5 February to 18 March 2008. The competition is designed to unleash the students’ creativity and innovation in developing intelligent mobile application suites around the themes – social networking, lifestyle and environment. This presents an opportunity for all students from Universities in the UAE including members of the du-Microsoft .Net Club at the University of Sharjah, UAE University and the American University of Dubai to discover how far their ideas can really take them while creating a different era of next generation mobile applications. Osman Sultan, CEO du stressed on du's commitment to giving back to the community and the youth segment in particular, “Education and career is something we consider an important responsibility. The du-Microsoft .Net Club initiative, co-partnered with Microsoft, has gathered momentum over the past year and is set to play a significant role in providing students with access to career forming opportunities. We have designed this competition to make students a part of the telecom revolution sweeping the UAE. They not only get to showcase their potential but also get recognition and rewards to catapult them into the big league in mobile application development.” In order to participate, University/College students and members of du-Microsoft .Net Club have to submit entries on one of the following themes: 1.Social networking– new ways of connecting with people? Synopsis: People already use their mobiles to talk, text, chat and view the web. How do you think these capabilities could be integrated that facilitates communication between groups of people for everyday tasks? For example, planning a night out, a camping trip, family event or even a dinner meeting involves a lot of tracking down and talking with different people. How could this be made easier using a mobile application? 2.Lifestyle – how could a mobile application make your life easier? Synopsis: Most mobile phones already incorporate to do lists, calendars and calculators and notebooks. Taking these a step further, and given that people in the UAE love to shop, how would you develop a single application to make you a power consumer? Hunting around and finding the best price on something you really want and saving this information for later, or creating a wish list. 3.Environment – how can you use your mobile to save the world? Synopsis: There are many simple things that can be done in your daily routine to minimize environmental impact on society but this is easy to forget while going about your daily business. How could you develop a mobile application to keep track of your environmental impact, ultimately making reducing your consumption FUN? Five winners of the competition stand to win AED 2000 worth of Plug-Ins voucher besides getting their names acknowledged on the du website. For full details of the competition and the terms and conditions, students can log on to http://www.du.ae/en/create4mobiles/ Last date for submission of entries is 18 March 2008. The 5 winners of the competition will be announced on 25 March 2008. The recently launched du – Microsoft .Net Club is a community created to familiarize students with the latest technological developments and, above all, provide them the means to tap into their own potential to discover innovative ways for learning and enrich the world around them.