####Transportation Symposium

The second NYU Abu Dhabi Transportation Symposium took place from Nov. 20 to Nov. 21. The symposium sought to find solutions to the most pressing problems of urban mobility. The event was hosted by the NYUAD Institute and organized by Dean of Engineering Samer Madanat alongside other engineering professors.

According to the description of the event, the symposium is particularly important in current times, because the world population is expected to grow to nine billion people by the year 2050.

####Hack The Meal Plan

On Nov. 21, the Student Dining Committee and the Campus Life Policy Committee hosted an event called Hack the Meal Plan. According to the organizers of the event, the current meal plan needs to better suit NYUAD’s growing community. The aim of the event was to gather the members of the NYUAD community in order to rethink the meal plan. The proposals resulting from the event will be formally presented to NYUAD Finance Operations and Tamkeen in the coming week.

Chair of the Student Dining Committee junior Yumi Gambrill co-led the event.

“People brought some great questions and suggestions that led to the creation of two proposals that we believe take into account the diverse needs of the student body while reducing some of the inefficiencies associated with the current plan,” said Gambrill. “[NYUAD Finance Operations and Tamkeen] are very open to hear what we will propose.”

####High School Debate Tournament

On Nov. 26, the NYUAD Debate Union convened a high school debate tournament. 30 students from three high schools around the UAE came to NYUAD to attend coaching workshops, also led by members of the Debate Union. The tournament started with three debates during the day, and narrowed into a grand final and third place final.

Sophomore Chris Wheeler, member of the Debate Union, spoke to The Gazelle about the event.

“So basically, this is hopefully the start of a bigger project to develop school debating in Abu Dhabi,” said Wheeler.

####Flame Ultra Lounge

On Nov. 24, NYUAD hosted the Flame Ultra Lounge. Residential Assistants from the A2 Residential College and members of university administration helped staff the event. The event took place in the West Forum, with free entrance. Food and mocktails were available. The event initially required an RSVP but people were later allowed to enter without a reservation. The party lasted until 1 a.m. and over 200 people attended.

####Ultra Violet Live

On Nov. 25, the Inter Residence Hall Council organized the fifth annual talent competition, Ultra Violet Live. It was the last event organized by the IRHC this semester. The winner of the competition is selected every year to represent the NYUAD community at UVL at NYU New York. This year, the judges for the competition at NYUAD included Alexander S. Onassis Professor of Hellenic Culture and Civilization Phillip Mitsis, sophomore Raghav Kumar and junior Gaby Flores. The winner was freshman Ana Karneža. Flores shared her thoughts about the turnout of the event with The Gazelle.

“The West Forum looked amazing,” said Flores.“The people who performed were insanely talented and also super brave.”

####Arab Voices — Here/There/Then/Now

The Arab Voices festival, starting on Nov. 25 and ending on Nov. 28, is currently being held at the NYUAD Arts Center, in coordination with the Theater Program. The festival consists of dramatic readings of plays written by Arab and Arab-U.S. American authors.

On Nov. 25, there was a dramatic reading of the plays She, He, Me, written by Amahl Khouri and The Boatman, written by Sameh Mahran. The next day, the event included a presentation of Oh My Sweet Land by Amir Nizar Zuabi and The Hour of Feeling, by Mona Mansour. After some of the presentations, the audience had the opportunity to engage in a Skype call with the playwrights. Freshman Daniel Rey, who attended the stage reading of Oh My Sweet Land, shared his views on the event.

“Arab Voices has been a unique experience for understanding migration stories from the Middle East,” said Rey. “The audience was really impacted by what we saw, and the silence in the room spoke louder than our words or applause could.”

Freshman Sara Pan was also positively impacted by the festival.

“I left the Black Box with tears I couldn’t contain,” said Pan. “[The experience] expanded and enlightened my perception of gender; why is it that there are only these binary constructs of being a woman or a man?”

####NYUAD Students Win Cognit-Etihad Airways Hackathon

NYUAD’s hackathon team of junior Brooke Hopkins, junior Megan Moore, junior Zane Mountcastle, sophomore Emil Goldsmith Olesen and sophomore William Held won the Cognit-Etihad Airways Hackathon hosted at NYUAD this past week from Nov. 21 to Nov. 23.

This year’s competition saw 30 competitors selected from Emirati universities including the Institute of Applied Technology, Higher Colleges of Technology, Khalifa University and NYUAD.

The hackathon task was to use IBM Watson, a question answering program that responds in natural speech, to improve the travel experience.

Students were guided and evaluated by IBM Watson’s chief developer, Sam Richard.

Ultimately two teams of students, from the Higher Colleges of Technology and NYUAD, won the Cognit-Etihad Airways Hackathon. In a statement to the Gazelle, NYUAD’s team collectively described their winning design as, “a personal travel assistant that guides users through the travel journey, seeking to make travel more accessible by providing personal advice and information with speech to text and translation features.”

As a reward for winning the hackathon, both winning teams are receiving free business class tickets to New York City with Etihad to visit IBM’s headquarters.