2009/2010 Nikai student winner Mouza Saeed al Hassani of Al Ain Women's College receives her award from H.E. Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, Minister for Higher Education and Scientific Research and Chancellor of the Higher Colleges of Technology and Nikai Group Chairman Paras Shahdadpuri.
Innovation, dedication and passion were celebrated at the Higher Colleges of Technology annual conference on September 18 as four winners were announced as the student and faculty of the Nikai Awards for the 2009/2010 academic year.
The annual conference had the theme The Way Forward from access to success. About 1500 faculty, staff, senior management and VIP guests attended the event at Dubai Men’s College which was inaugurated by H.E. Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, Minister for Higher Education and Scientific Research and Chancellor of the Higher Colleges of Technology.
The Nikai awards are given annually by the Nikai Group which supports innovation in education, to students and faculty members who demonstrate great aptitude, creativity, innovation and dedication to their studies and field of endeavor at the HCT.
In the student category there was one overall award winner, while the faculty awards were divided into the two semesters.
The 2009/2010 Nikai student winner was Mouza Saeed al Hassani of Al Ain Women’s College. Mouza was selected by the judging panel as she “not only met the high standards of academic excellence as set out in the criteria, but also distinguished herself through her many contributions to the community and the college”. Mouza received 26 nominations for the award and her prizes included a 32″ LCD TV and a cash prize.
For this award the judges considered the students’ suitability under the criteria of Academic Excellence (maintaining a minimum semester GPA of 3.5); Community Service; Significant contributions to student life and college activities and Awards/distinctions received.
In the faculty awards, entries were nominated for innovation in teaching and the criteria considered were Quality; Creativity and timeliness; Efficiency and cost effectiveness; Sharability and replication; and Sustainability. The Semester One winner was Tridib Chatterji from Dubai Women’s College for his The Google Project, which uses 25 free tools from Google to enhance students’ learning.
Mr Chatterji said the project embraced the entire cognitive process in Bloom’s Taxonomy knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
The winning entry for Semester Two was called SharePoint Student Workspaces: The Power of Collaborative Workplaces in the classroom at ADWC. The joint winners were Tom Smith and James Ryan of Abu Dhabi Women’s College.
The duo’s innovative project enables communication and collaboration between staff and students on and off campus 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, providing students with an accessible flexible sharing environment.
The faculty prizes in the Nikai awards were a 32″ LCD TV each and cash prizes.
Nikai Group Chairman Paras Shahdadpuri said the corporation’s partnership with HCT, through the awards, was aimed at playing a pivotal role in enlightening, educating and motivating the students, faculty and professionals across the HCT colleges.
HCT Vice Chancellor Dr Tayeb Kamali thanked the Nikai Group for its long association with the excellence in innovation awards.
“It is through close partnerships like this one that the Higher Colleges of Technology is able to provide such high standards for the education and development of its students and also to nurture and assist innovation,” Dr Kamali said.
