(Guest bloggers) Abu Dhabi 2030 Plan: Sustainability

This is a guest blogger post by one of the participating groups of students who looked at Abu Dhabi Plan 2030 and then developed a poster presentation of their chosen theme.

By: Mohamed Khalifa, Zayed Al Mazrouie, Ahmed Siddique

The Abu Dhabi 2030 plan is a comprehensive plan for the future development of the city of Abu Dhabi. The plan has been created to deliver the vision of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of UAE and the ruler of the city of Abu Dhabi, to fulfill the grand plan that was first established by the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan with the ongoing evolution of Abu Dhabi. The Abu Dhabi 2030 plan is a long term-strategy plan to achieve a safe and secure society and a dynamic open economy. Sustainability is a key aspect to achieve the Abu Dhabi 2030 plan. 

Sustainability

Culture: Qasr Al Hosn Festival

The Qasr Al-Hosn festival is Abu Dhabi’s historical and cultural celebration.  It takes place in a 250-year-old fort located in Abu Dhabi. The festival gives UAE community and visitors the opportunity to experience all parts of UAE culture and heritage through activities for the past centuries. The festival gives people an understanding of how life was at the beginning of development of the city of Abu Dhabi from all living aspect.  The Qas Al-Hosn festival is a part of the strategic plan of AD 2030 as it shows that even though the country has developed dramatically throughout the years, a sign of culture and heritage still exists in it. It will give the UAE community and visitors a chance to enrich UAE heritage and not exclude it due to the country’s development; thus leading to patriotism in the UAE community.

Man weaving traditional baskets at the festival
Photo credit: Muhammed Al-Maskari

Traditional crafts at the festival

Photo credit: Jassim Al-Nowais

Environment: Masdar City

Masdar City strives to be one of the most sustainable communities on the planet that has been initiated in 2006. The mission behind the existence of Masdar city is to conserve energy and find new ways to survive with green energy development. The city runs on a 22-hecatare field of over 87 thousand solar panels. Due to us ‘human beings’ destroying/overusing most of our planets resources, conservation is a brilliant idea at this time. The existence of Masdar City and its future development in the city of Abu Dhabi can help the UAE on the long term with conserving resources for future purposes. It also helps the Abu Dhabi in going green and helps with the future of the environment of the city.

Masdar, people and environmentally friendly

Society: Developing islands

The population in the UAE is greatly increasing thus leading to an increase in demand of housings. Abu Dhabi has reached its capacity in housings within the city itself; therefore, Abu Dhabi’s government has decided in a long-term plan of making use of islands to provide more households for its community. The Hodariyat Island is a new island located near Abu Dhabi and extends up to the end of the Al Khaleej Al Arab street. The entrance of the island is located near Al Bateen are where a bridge connects the island to Abu Dhabi itself. This island is planned to be an extension of the city of Abu Dhabi, providing the community with more land for business projects and households to who are in desire of it. Another developing island is known, as Al Reem Island is a project that was recently launched, which consists of businesses, apartments, a university, a child youth care center, and more. Al Reem Island also plays a role in the strategic plan, as it is another extension and investment to the Abu Dhabi 2030 plan. 

Future plans...

Economy: Investment in Education

Education is the key to success of any developing country and Abu Dhabi has taken that into as a major factor of the Abu Dhabi 2030 plan. The city of Abu Dhabi has a lot of government schools and a couple of government universities that educate its students within the finest academic facilities. The government schools education used to educate its students all the subjects in only Arabic, but for the recent couple of years, all subjects were given in English except main Arabic-taught subjects. This would help students develop their English language with the development of their formal Arabic language. Another investment in education is the Zayed University campus of Abu Dhabi, and the Higher College of Technology. Both these institutes provide students with high quality education through highly respected professors in the finest educational facilities. These educational facilities are well respected internationally and help educate the UAEs community and prepare them to invest in Abu Dhabi’s economy. Abu Dhabi’s investment in education has been one of the highest investments from all of its factors as it seeks to educate its community for a further economic and social development. Abu Dhabi 2030 plan would be easily achieved if the community took part in the development process.  

Zayed University campus Abu Dhabi

Photo credit: Mohamed Al-Khazraji 

Desert clean up project: a lesson in strategic implementation

One week to go until the end of the semester and graduation! Yesterday we took our class field trip to the Al Ain desert - to clean a small patch of well used public desert, that also happens to be strewn with garbage of all descriptions!

I know more traditional professors and people education in the rote learning tradition will not understand how these projects have anything to do with learning... well, you do not teach critical thinking, problem solving and strategic implementation memorizing definitions.

Action learning is a movement gaining steam in academia - it involves not only hands on learning but applying theoretical concepts in real situations... Our desert cleaning project in Al Ain involved discussing the AD 2030 and UAE 2021 plans, but also the nitty gritty of strategic implementation. The vision of the UAE and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi is based on sustainability of the economy, environment, the society, and culture. The desert has everything to do with all four... But there is a serious litter problem. Of course not everywhere is this "bad" and the students looked hard to find a "bad" spot that was also easy to get to. The desert in the UAE is breathtakingly beautiful, just certain well-used spots need some TLC!

It started with a small group in charge of the project (Hamad, Khalaf and Surour - awesome job guys!). They were tasked in finding the best place, leading class discussions on what would be needed, how we would organize, getting permission from the municipality, transportation, etc. I was in charge of sending countless email :) The municipality was very supportive and actually offered to send workers to help us out... Hamad knew what I would say to that and respectfully declined the offer!

Enthusiasm grew for the project over the past 8 weeks or so... being able to motivate is a helpful skill among professors of Generation Y students!

On to the photo essay :)

We arrive at the chosen - pre-scoped out site in the Al Ain desert. 

Garbage was everywhere, and actually was worse than I thought it would be... the students said it was because it was so close to the road and some great sand dunes...

Each group needed gloves, heavy duty garbage bags and a "stick" - Ace Hardware knew by the third group to visit that they were Zayed university students :)

There were skills to be learned, bags to be opened and lots of garbage! And every time you dug a little in the sand there was more :) Seriously some of it was super gross, luckily by the time we hit really gross stuff we had been at it awhile and had built up our immunity!

There were some weird "treasures" found... and I just love this photo showing enthusiasm, and even joy in our desert clean up project :)

Skills became talents :) Yes, not all students were feeling 100%, but they came out anyways!

Close up of the camels grazing - thanks Salem for the pic :)

Camels!!!!!!

OK, it is not that strange to see camels in the desert - but we all took photos and were excited all the same... and of course it was a stark reminder of the real dangers of trash in the desert... the camels graze in the open desert and eat the plastic... but the plastic isn't digested and the lump can grow so big the camel will die a quite painful death.

The January 2014 men's graduating class in the College of Business at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi with the "fruits" of our labor... some of it had already been hauled down to the big green garbage container just a few feet away (yes those containers are every km or so... the municipality provides them, people just don't use them!)

Part of the beautiful clean "patch" of desert!

Relaxing after the clean-up :) We had a lovely early dinner around the fire...

This is part of the great beauty of the desert - relaxing and sharing stories around a fire... watching the sun set, having the professor give suggestions on how best to manage the fire, ignoring those suggestions... etc!

The Maghreb prayer - I asked permission to take a photo and then to post it - they said of course Miss, this is who we are and why we are.

The Maghreb or sunset prayer is one of the five prayers that Muslims pray daily. I have had the honor of seeing my students pray on many occasions, but I wanted to share this special moment with you. The owner of the camels had noticed us cleaning and then joined the students in their prayers. He then talked with them and said he would send over camel milk from the evening milking to thank and welcome us. A photo of the still warm and frothy camel milk is below.

After dinner he came himself and sat around the fire - and asked about our project and then spoke of the importance of teaching each generation - parents to children - about cleanliness, the ways of the desert, their heritage and Islam. He asked each student to introduce himself, and from their names he would sometimes tell a story about the father or grandfather and guess where they were from. He also spoke of how proud he was of them and how proud the university and their parents must be.

He then asked if the professor (me) wanted to hold a falcon. So we walked the few feet to his truck and there was one of the most beautiful falcons I had ever seen! It was a Shaheen and had a royal lineage... let me tell you there were some excited students to see his falcons and hear about his hunting adventures around the world.

Camel milk is destined to become a super food in the next decade... and it is delicious :)

Me in a very warm jacket made for cold desert nights and a majestic Shaheen falcon

Action learning will always have "unintended" teachable moments... this project had too many teachable moments for all of us to count! Bravo gentlemen, I am proud of you... when you start your jobs in organisation in Abu Dhabi, just remember this was a valuable team building exercise :)

Smile and courage, Dr. Connie

Capstone research poster presentations: research for the future of the UAE

For our past National Day celebrations at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi my students presented their research in the form of a poster presentation. While I desperately missed the military band - my students made my heart fill with pride as they presented their research with pride, intelligence, eloquence and creativity.

I will again use photos as my medium to guide you through their projects - you will see common themes and notice that they are all strategic and practical in nature... My fault sorry :)

My instagram of a tweet concerning an email (yes I have a klout score of 60 - I know how to use social media for effect!) I knew I was asking a lot of them... and I was a wee bit stressed :)

The above photo describes the pressure I put them under - while they had been working on these projects for awhile, they might have been on the back-burner as the deadline is far - and the deadlines for course projects are more pressing. Of course, I had no need to worry - but I figured a few "panic email" and rants in class would help :) The two week deadline was a bit short - considering they had no idea what a research poster was when I told them I had "volunteered" them for National Day!

Setting up -everyone there helped :)

The set-up was interesting - they had brought gawa, dates and karak from home - and while we "found" tables to use, there were no table clothes (if I had asked our wonderful facilities team they would have been there - but I am a simple girl and my life never involves table clothes - they know to ask ahead of time now or bring their own!)

I would like to note that the men's Student Council (aided by  Student Life) set up our very traditional display back drop - chainsaws, scratches, pizza and very little sleep all involved!

Waiting for the "show" to start

The provost and his people

I was really pleased that the provost made time for each poster and spoke with all six groups - asked questions and was interested in their research and looking forward to the results. There was also great support from other staff and faculty from the men's campus - and fellow students. I remember my poster presentations as a graduate and post-graduate student and they were always a good way to learn about what others are doing (yes, I credit my ability to teach research poster making to CIRRELT)

Now to the projects - as I said, they are largely strategic in nature (e.g. they are concerned with the strategic direction of the UAE and Abu Dhabi), but they are also practical and interesting - problems or issues they would like solved. I just try to teach them that the best way to solve problems is by doing robust research - YOURSELF :) (of course as professors we help them out)

The group I have never had a moment's worry about!

The first project is about convincing an Emirati neighborhood (by developing a financial and strategic argument and plan) to install solar panels on their roofs. They used an interesting research method - the majalis - to speak with their fathers, uncles, brothers and neighbors about their project, what type of information would be needed and finally to convince them that the project was worthwhile.

The motivation for the project was to follow the lead of the government - who are investing billions in green energy - and make a difference and change habits on an individual level.

Venture capital with a twist

This group decided to work on a purely finance project - with a twist. There is a need for venture capital for projects in the UAE (OK, they might have been told to read the GEM UAE 2011 Report) and my students have big dreams and access to some extremely successful business people in the UAE. Combine all this and you get the development of a business model for a venture capital fund that incorporates capital and knowledge to support ideas from young Emiratis (men and women).

Why are there no "garage" based successes in the UAE?

This group is my tech savy group - and we started with the question why are licenses for home based business so restricted - mainly geared to traditional women's crafts, cooking and artisanal endeavors. What about the app maker or tech guy that wants to be "legit" and grow his business... so yeah, why not? (Yes, GEM Report involved again!). They are doing a great job and are contacting the right people - and proposing some great policy :)

Ambition student - ambitious project - ambition goals!

The Abu Dhabi pension plan has the lofty goal of achieving financial stability for 90 years...  Ibrahim is working on this project by himself and en'shallah he will be presenting it to the Executive Council. I can't really say much (it will be the first project I supervise here where I have to sign a confidentiality agreement) - but the project is looking at other pension plan reforms (including Canada) and all I can say I am proud for all the work he is putting into it!

Exporting dates to Canada! (and other less important places like the US)

This group is doing a project near and dear to my heart. The UAE has some of the best tasting dates in the world (and there are more date trees than in any other country as well) and yet I can never find them in Canada. There is a projection that dates (and camel milk) might become the super foods of the next decade - but the UAE industry needs to concentrate on innovation and new markets to extract all the value they can from this valuable resource. The students are doing a case study on a local company who are working on this - and I cannot wait to "sample" the results :)

Looking for success stories of Emiratisation

Emiratisation is a big issue here (and in the region) where there is still a surprising degree of unemployment among Emiratis - in particular the youth. While much negative attention is giving as to why it is not working - these students decided to look to a place where it is working - and look to why it is. In a second stage they will also look to the lessons of affirmative action in the US... looking for methods that might be "translatable" to this context.

I think all the students enjoyed doing this - and I think I will try to organize it next semester as well - when we don't publicly present our research sometimes it just sits on a shelf... I have a stack of projects from last year, and before when I supervised projects on the women's side, most which warrant further work to turn them into conference articles, and all that deserve a blog post...

Great job gentlemen! Now to finish off the final report :)

Sir Bani Yas Operations Management field trip (a blog post by photos)

This past Saturday I was the second chaperon for the Sir Bani Yas field trip (I paid my own way those who think professors are spoiled here!). I have been wanting to go for over four years - so it was kind of like a dream come true!

Dr. Batoul and students in her Operations Management organised the trip - and yes, it is possible to get students to come on the weekend!

Sir Bani Yas Island is a project that was start over 40 years ago by Sheikh Zayed as a nature reserve - and there is now a wonderful hotel that you can stay at and go on safaris to see the animals, archery and many other activities (which we didn't do so I can't comment on).

Here is the wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Bani_Yas

It was quite amazing... and I will let my photos do the talking!

We arrive after a longish drive... past the turnoff for Liwa... this is our "ferry"

On the bus - I am sure the few tourists who were with us were wondering "what the heck?"

Flamingos on the ride to the hotel - I think they are prettier, was told by one student that "they are prettier on the plate Miss" (there is strictly no hunting on this island of course)

Group photo with Dr. Batoul

Our half the group ready to go on the safari!

Giraffes! A gift from Kenya to Sheikh Zayed

 

I think this one is called Reem...

Mahas and other "Dhabs" relaxing in the shade

 

A very cool thing to see!

After lunch we arrive to practice some archery 

The boys do well

I do better of course :) (I will never say if that sign means 10 feet or 10 metres!)

The Water Supply Game: Teaching Supply Chain Dynamics to Emirati Students

This past Monday the Student Life Committee of the College of Business (surprise, I am Co-Chair) organised a campus swap for our female students. Professors Claire Sherman, Taiba Hussain, Catherine Budd, Marc Poulin (fellow former U Laval and CIRRELT alumnus)  and myself organised for some of our Abu Dhabi students to visit our Dubai campus.(Now, for my readers in Canada I can explain the Abu Dhabi vs. Dubai feeling as Victoria to Vancouver and Quebec City to Montreal).

It was a lot of fun - and although things did not go exactly as planned, the young ladies met and got to know one another and saw how things are done in the same University, same country, just different campuses. The highlight of the day for me was playing the "water game" with the students. What is the "water game" you ask? Well, let me explain through words and photos (and a link to an academic article only hard core nerds will click on).

So first - water game? Well, the game originated as the Beer Game in MIT in the 1960s to teach supply chain dynamics and the bullwhip effect, the Research Consortium I worked for at Laval adapted the game for the Canadian forest products industry - you can play the game here online (it is super fun, available in French and English and yes, if you email I am sure Phillip Marier will help you out with presentations and the like).

I have played the Wood Supply Game countless times, as a transfer tool with managers, with students, with colleagues, in competition, and just for fun.  and Phillip and I wrote an article about the game in 2004 (yes, I was a nerd even before I got a PhD) - that article is available here.

As obviously the Beer Game is out as a concept, and for that matter the forest products industry is pretty foreign and exotic here - so Marc (an operations professor extraordinaire) decided to adapt the game to the local environment and call it the water game. Using and adapting some great open source material online here is the story of our experiment in learning!

While the students were on the tour, Catherine, Marc and I set up the playing table. I was in charge of photography :)

Marc and Catherine setting up the game

There are four positions per "supply chain" - Factory, Distributor, Wholesaler and Retail. Each "company" has information exchange on the "top sheets of paper"  and goods exchange on the "bottom sheets of paper". Of course, one of the first things we learn when we live supply chain dynamics (e.g. waiting for an out of stock item) is that information and goods travel in different directions and at different speeds!

When the ladies got back from lunch, Marc explained the game. Of course, until we start playing it is hard to conceptualize what to do - so we started week by week, step by step. What ensued was frustration, many laughs, confusion, light bulb moments, and yes, even fun!

Listening to the rules of the game

We named each "supply chain" and ended up playing 6 rounds or weeks. Really the game requires more time, but my goodness I had fun (and I took over the factory position in one sc when two ladies needed to leave).

Arabian nights results

Desert dreams result

Honestly, I cannot remember the team which won - and it is based on inventory (1 dhs) and back order (2 dhs) costs - but really, the game needs to be played for about 30 or 40 rounds for all the information and decisions to work themselves through the system.

Marc compiling results in an excel sheet he had prepared

This was just a first experiment teaching and playing the game here and it would be wonderful to play it in the future with about 4 - 6 hours. Really though, it might have been "harder than the test I took last week" as one student said, to learn the initial dynamics, but the learning curve is steep when we are doing and learning at the same time.

End of the game, certificates and participation gifts!