Abu Dhabi University Undergraduate Research Competition and Proud Zayed University Professors

 This past Thursday was a full day at the Abu Dhabi University 2nd Annual Undergraduate Research Competition - to learn more about it you can visit the website: website (scroll down). I can say that it was a valuable learning experience for the students and gave the mentoring professors moments of intense pride.

The research journey began with many rounds of writing abstracts and then sending them in with all the required documents on February 28 - in all 248 submissions from 21 universities around the UAE were sent in and 100 accepted for paper submission. Three research teams were selected from my Capstone class from the male students and three teams were selected of female students from Dr. Damien Arthur's class to be among the 100 student teams to present at the competition held last Thursday. 

The real hard work began then with wrapping up research and writing the final papers which were submitted on May 2 - then good news arrived when we heard that three teams from our College were selected for the finals and three teams for poster presentations. (Needless to say the College of Business from Zayed University Abu Dhabi was very well represented!) 

The preparation for the big day involved many practice sessions and perhaps more than a little stress - this was a first for all the students involved. The day began early, and all the students were early. We looked at the program first thing... 

All the College of Business teams were in the same session after lunch

Required Selfie!

None of our teams presented in the morning, but many of the students (and of course Damien and I) attended the presentations of teams from around the UAE. I know my students were a bit surprised how interesting it was and how time passed quicker than they imagined it would.

After lunch we got to the room early to get good seats - a selfie and photos followed of course.

Waiting to present

The first group presented on Emiraitisation and the public sector - they knew their stuff and did very well.

Waiting for questions (yes, the research process involves a lot of waiting)

Published abstract

Published abstract

The second group presented on entrepreneurship and Emirati youth - and demonstrated they understood the issues and were ready to answer all the questions posed of them.

The entrepreneurial process

Then Damien's group of female students presented and not only did they impress me, they impressed the judges and were awarded first place in the business track! Their research involved looking into the perceptions of expats of Emirati employees and they handled a sensitive topic extremely well.

The ladies with their cheque! (Photo courtesy of D. Arthur)

Published abstract (photo courtesy of D. Arthur)

From January, this has been an interesting and rewarding journey on the research path... I am super proud of the effort and courage to do something new on the part of all my students. I will let Damien's tweet tell you how he felt! "I have never been more proud of my students than I am today. 1st prize in the UAE student research comp!" 

Congratulations to all the students and I hope you remember how much fun this was and that you encourage your younger siblings and friends to participate in the coming years... and even continue the research journey yourself :)