DUBAI // A college student has won the honour of showcasing his classroom project at a high-profile renewable energy conference next year.
Muhammad Ilyas designed a piece of playground equipment that reuses energy, which will be exhibited at the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) in Abu Dhabi from January 17 to 20.
Last year, the conference drew 25,000 delegates from 150 countries, including business executives and venture capitalists.
"Major players will be there," said Bernard Walsh, one of six judges at the student design competition where the project was picked. "They will get exposure to the world market."
Mr Ilyas, 29, from Pakistan, will receive Dh10,000 to build a working model of his project to display at the summit.
He has only two months to complete the piece in between juggling night classes in interior design at Preston University Ajman and a full-time job at an engineering consultancy.
The opportunity came as a surprise, since it was not the intended prize of the competition, which was held last week at the major interior design exhibition, Index. Eighty students from nine universities, who had come to display their equipment designs, were split into two teams and given four days to combine their projects into two playgrounds.
Mr Ilyas's team lost. But soon after, the judges - including one who helps to organise the WFES - told Mr Ilyas about his individual win.
"Every designer dreams of doing some famous designs," Mr Ilyas said. "I am always trying to do things differently."
The project, named the Flying Jack, features a 7.5m pole with two baskets designed to carry one person each. The baskets rise up the pole when each rider's teammate jumps on a platform on the ground. The faster they jump, the quicker the basket goes up, and the first rider to ring a bell at the top wins. The bell will prompt an LED-lit sign to flash messages such as "Don't smoke" or "Don't waste water".
The project raised eyebrows from the start, said Mr Ilyas's teacher, Alma Saad Houdifa.
"From the beginning, everyone was making fun of him: people flying? But he was so stubborn and so excited about it," she said. "He has so many great ideas."
chuang@thenational.ae
Results
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Match info:
Real Betis v Sevilla, 10.45pm (UAE)
The Breadwinner
Director: Nora Twomey
Starring: Saara Chaudry, Soma Chhaya, Laara Sadiq
Three stars
Jawan
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The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
Multitasking pays off for money goals
Tackling money goals one at a time cost financial literacy expert Barbara O'Neill at least $1 million.
That's how much Ms O'Neill, a distinguished professor at Rutgers University in the US, figures she lost by starting saving for retirement only after she had created an emergency fund, bought a car with cash and purchased a home.
"I tell students that eventually, 30 years later, I hit the million-dollar mark, but I could've had $2 million," Ms O'Neill says.
Too often, financial experts say, people want to attack their money goals one at a time: "As soon as I pay off my credit card debt, then I'll start saving for a home," or, "As soon as I pay off my student loan debt, then I'll start saving for retirement"."
People do not realise how costly the words "as soon as" can be. Paying off debt is a worthy goal, but it should not come at the expense of other goals, particularly saving for retirement. The sooner money is contributed, the longer it can benefit from compounded returns. Compounded returns are when your investment gains earn their own gains, which can dramatically increase your balances over time.
"By putting off saving for the future, you are really inhibiting yourself from benefiting from that wonderful magic," says Kimberly Zimmerman Rand , an accredited financial counsellor and principal at Dragonfly Financial Solutions in Boston. "If you can start saving today ... you are going to have a lot more five years from now than if you decide to pay off debt for three years and start saving in year four."
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The%20Specs
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Intercontinental Cup
Namibia v UAE Saturday Sep 16-Tuesday Sep 19
Table 1 Ireland, 89 points; 2 Afghanistan, 81; 3 Netherlands, 52; 4 Papua New Guinea, 40; 5 Hong Kong, 39; 6 Scotland, 37; 7 UAE, 27; 8 Namibia, 27
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
More on animal trafficking
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
MATCH INFO
Sheffield United 3
Fleck 19, Mousset 52, McBurnie 90
Manchester United 3
Williams 72, Greenwood 77, Rashford 79
Women & Power: A Manifesto
Mary Beard
Profile Books and London Review of Books
