Dubai, June 14, 2011: A team from the University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD) won the first prize in the 'Split Second Contest' organized recently by The Republic at Living Rooms, Dubai Festival City.
The UOWD team, consisting of Khaled Al Najjar and Soroush Atarod, both students of the Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, led by their coach, Dr Mohamed Watfa, Associate Professor in the Faculty, completing the assembling of a PC in less than 18 minutes, followed by a Middlesex University team which took 28 minutes.
The contest entailed assembling and disassembling of a PC (from original components) in which eight students representing four universities (AUS, Middlesex, UOWD and Bits Pilani) had to assemble and disassemble the computer in the quickest time possible including the motherboard, power supply, hard drive and video card.
The first prize winning team walked way with a fully functioning PC which was assembled by Khaled and Soroush!
This was the first contest of its kind in the UAE and the organizers are planning to make it an annual event, in which contestants will try to beat the record set by the UOWD team this year.
Khalid Al Najjar said, 'Since this competition was the first of its kind in the UAE, it was quite challenging. Not only did the assembling and dissembling of the hardware require concentration and speed, but it also called for strategies to tackle problems. Some participants injured themselves while assembling the parts. Despite this minor setback, we remained calm, and continued focusing on the competition.'
Soroush Atarod said, 'It was one of those competitions in which a single mistake could lead to failure. However, with the support of our mentor we were able to achieve the first rank. The competition was well organized and we enjoyed every single moment of it.'
The contest was sponsored by Cobone, Geekay, Coolermaster, Gigabyte and Golden Systems. The judges included top rated computer professionals and editor of Windows magazine.
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About the University of Wollongong in Dubai
Established in 1993, UOWD was the first foreign university in Dubai to be licensed by the UAE Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research. Located at Dubai Knowledge Village, it boasts 3,600 students representing almost 100 nationalities. It is closely associated with one of Australia's best performing research and teaching Universities, the University of Wollongong, Australia.
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© Press Release 2011
