December 1, 2016, 

Some people decorate their cars, some people raise flags, others paint their faces with the colors of the union. Everyone expresses their feelings in their own idiosyncratic way, but one thing in common among all of these people is that they all love the United Arab Emirates.

A team from the American University of Ras Al Khaimah’s computer science program, Dr. Said Elnaffar, alongside Aisha El Allam and Maryam Abdullah, two junior students, used their creative talent to express their love for UAE via technology and programming; they developed a smartphone app, called ‘Happy Birthday, UAE’ that is a game-like app where the user attempts to collect the seven pieces of the UAE National Day logo by scanning a QR code displayed on another user’s phone. Each time this code is scanned by the camera, one piece is added to the logo until all pieces are collected.

Speaking of their inspiration for creating the app, Aisha commented, “We all love and appreciate the peace and prosperity that the UAE offers us, so we created this app with the intention of allowing people to connect and socialize based on their mutual love for this country. The app was also designed so that people have to physically meet and talk to each other, rather than ‘socializing’ in cyberspace.”

This app won the first place in an innovation competition at AURAK and was showcased at the RAK Exhibition Center during Innovation Week, attracting many visitors to try it out for themselves.

The first version of the ‘Happy Birthday, UAE’ app is available on the Apple Store and Google Play in Arabic and English. Future versions will be augmented with more intriguing ideas.