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On Feb. 10, a team of five NYU Abu Dhabi students were awarded AED 1 million for placing first in the m-Government Service Award, under the category of Best M-Government Service by University Students in the UAE in cooperation with UAE Federal or Local government entities. The competition aims to inspire the creation of innovative solutions in the field of smartphone applications. Maitha Salem Al Memari, Quan Ho Vuong, Kai-Erik Marechal Jensen, Lingliang Zhang and Kenny Song were part of the RoadWatch team.

RoadWatch, their winning entry, is a driving assistant that incentivizes good driving behavior through gamification. The app, available on mobile, smartwatch and web platforms, functions by using data from United Arab Emirates’s Ministry of Interior to alert the driver in real time about changes in the speed limit, the state of the road and any emergencies ahead.

The original idea for the RoadWatch came in early October. Zhang was inspired to create an app that could address the difficulties he encountered as a new driver in the UAE.

“It was very dangerous driving to Dubai every time. I'd almost get run over by other cars all the time,” explained Zhang.

"A lot of people have bad driving habits, and that makes the roads risky. I think the most useful thing about RoadWatch is how it looks at your patterns and reward[s] you for driving safer," he added.

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[/big_image]Zhang and Vuong at work. Photo by Megan Eloise/The Gazelle

The team decided to work together long before they discovered the m-Government Service competition.

"We knew early on that we wanted to work together and were looking at different things we wanted to do. We narrowed it down to this competition in April last year and started looking for government partners," said Vuong.

Team member Kai-Erik Jensen credited the success of RoadWatch to this initial friendship.

RoadWatch marks the first major award for NYUAD that involves collaboration with both Emirati and international students in one prize-winning team. Zhang argues that this partnership was crucial in both the development and outreach stages of the project.

"A couple of us have worked in Silicon Valley, so we could bring in the technical knowledge of how to build an app like Roadwatch. But without an understanding of local culture and how to work with the Emirati government, we would have gotten nowhere. To be successful, you need to have a good understanding of local culture, how things get done and how people collaborate."

"It’s great to work with a group that is very diverse and [has people with] different viewpoints but [who] can still understand one another and communicate," added Song.

While the full award is for AED 1 million, the rules of the m-Government Service Award stipulate a split of the prize money in half, between student teams and their respective universities.

"We’re hoping that some of the money can go to recognizing the efforts of the design studio, and specifically our mentor Matt Karau. Matt was invaluable throughout the process," stated Jensen.

Vuong hopes that the success of RoadWatch would inspire other NYUAD students to enter similar competitions.

"We hope that we’ve shown that this is possible, so that other students will try these things in the future."

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[/big_image]All five members of the RoadWatch team. Photo courtesy of Lingliang Zhang