Al Akhawayn Students Crowned National Innovative Developers and win Trip to India

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Published on Saturday, 12 May 2012 14:05

Ifrane, May 10, 2012 – Computer Science students Wassim Benhallam (‘12), Ali Elouafiq (‘12), and Ayoub Khobalatte (‘12) won the first prize at the 2012 Moroccan Innovation in Information Technology (Innov'IT) contest organized by the Association of Users of Information Systems in Morocco in partnership with the Moroccan Federation of Information Technology, Telecom, and Offshoring (APEBI) at the Hassania School of Public Works in Casablanca on May 5, 2012. 

Among 14 institutions and engineering schools, Al Akhawayn University team was awarded the first prize for their social network application JabekLah. The application is an e-support platform, and is designed to allow users to ask the community connected to JabekLah any type of assistance through a mobile terminal. The APEBI offered to the award-winning Al Akhawayn students a trip to India's IT city, Bangalore, where they will present their projects to potential investors and Indian companies. The winning team received tablet devices and a bank card with a purchase fund.

Within the framework of promoting information systems in academia, this year’s competition was launched on January 21, 2012 under the theme of Mobile Services. Students from different programs in engineering information systems across Morocco were required to create a mobile service for individual customers and businesses. The challenge was also to allow access to the service through a mobile terminal (smartphone or tablet) to services provided by government or private businesses, and to promote the access to and sharing of information of common interest. 

"The level of participation was very high in terms of technical, innovative, functional, and marketing tools,” said student Ali Elouafiq. “Thanks to our supervisor, Professor Riduan Mohamed Abid, and to the academic curriculum we follow at Al Akhawayn University, we were able to be distinctive at different levels of the competition." 

“The competition was a very good challenge to our students,” said Dr. Abid, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Al Akhawayn and Academic Supervisor of the team. “Contests like this one are of paramount importance and reflect the quality of institutions and their students in the real world. Al Akhawayn University has a lot of potential and students Wassim, Ayoub, and Ali have proved so with their commitment and creativity, no matter how hard it had been throughout. »

The runner-up prize was awarded to students from the National School of Computer Science and Systems Analysis for the application "MoBuy" which aims at bringing services such as ticketing and electronic payment to end users through mobile terminals. The third prize went to the team from the Hassania School of Public Works for the application "MesPas", a tracking system via a mobile terminal. 

To view a promotional video of the winning application, JabekLah , click here .