Dubai students reveal prototype to ensure food safety in community fridges

Dubai students reveal prototype to ensure food safety in community fridges

Dubai: Two students in Dubai have come up with a project that helps ensure the safety and quality of food donated to community fridges using automatic sensors. Aptly titled ‘Generous DXB Smart Refrigerator,’ the award-winning prototype is an example of how different segments of the community can support the UAE’s National Food Loss and Waste Initiative, Ne’ma, that aims to halve food waste and loss in the country by 2030, or even earlier. Shahad Elshehaby, 19, an electrical engineering student at the College of Engineering and Ali Burman, 20, an Information Systems Security student at the College of IT at University of Dubai (UoD) invented the prototype under the supervision of Soheila Ali, 35, a PhD candidate at the university and senior corporate excellence programme specialist at Excellence and Knowledge Department of Dubai Municipality. The students created the project as an entry to Software AG’s Future Disruptors Programme 2022 UAE chapter and won the first place amid stiff competition from several other UAE universities. They are now in the process of registering Intellectual Property rights of their project and preparing to launch Generous DXB through sponsorships. Speaking to Gulf News about the project, the students said the challenges of food