A team of graduates and students from the American University in Dubai developed the first UAE Windows XP theme pack for Microsoft that was launched at GITEX 2005.

AUD students; Lina Nader, Elias Bejjani, Zaid Al Adham, Ahmed Jadallah, with Charbel Fakhoury, General Manager for Microsoft Arabian Gulf, and Assem Hijazi, Localization Program Manager, Microsoft Middle East & North Africa at Microsoft Stand, GITEX 2005. The package offers new Arabized solutions and is part of one of the first development projects between Microsoft and a university in the region.

Ms. Dania Bazzy, AUD's Director of External Affairs, said: 'We are privileged to be part of Microsoft's premiere project with a University in the region. Microsoft's official launch of this package will cater to the entire region, and stands as an evidence of our students' performance, hard work and dedication. It also reinforces the university's commitment to provide a collaborative, career oriented, and technology driven education.'

The AUD team was involved in both the creative process of designing the icons and backgrounds, and in the technical development process of the first ever localized XP theme pack. The software package included backgrounds, music, icons and a screen saver inspired from the UAE culture.

'We are very pleased with the exceptionally high standard of the work carried out by the AUD students, and we look forward to future projects with them,' said Assem Hijazi, Localization Program Manager, Microsoft Middle East & North Africa.

These creative minds worked on the various elements of the pack and tested the finished package. A new Windows Media Player skin, which changes the appearance of the Media Player console, was also included. The entire pack was tested to Microsoft's high professional standards, to qualify it as an official Windows XP pack.

The work on this project commenced in January 2004 and ended in April 2005, with team members working both on AUD campus and Microsoft offices to develop this software. The team members included current and former Information Technology and Visual Communication AUD Students.

Microsoft and American University of Dubai have partnered up on a long term partnership to provide Farsi localized Microsoft products. The team of 15 AUD students lead by Dr. Khalid Khawaja as a supervisor and Dr. Mulhim Al-Doori as project manager. The immediate focus and goals are to extend the IT glossaries to include the new terminology of Windows Vista and Microsoft Office2007. This initiative was kicked off in June 2006 and through the dedication of AUD students we will start the actual localization and plan to complete the project by mid 2007. The students will get an insight on how Microsoft localizes its products into 100 languages and show case the tools and processes.

These acquired skills can be later leveraged by the students for future career opportunities. The effort involved requires project management, computer talent and language skills. Over 500,000 words will be localized and hundreds of hours will be spent on testing and quality assurance of the products. This is a unique opportunity for both Microsoft and AUD to build on that will enable the Farsi speakers worldwide to use their native language. This is truly a “Proudly Made in AUD” initiative.

On Monday 11th December 2006 a lunch gathering was held to launch the second phase of the Microsoft Localization Project. Microsoft and the American University of Dubai have partnered up on a long term partnership to provide Farsi localized Microsoft products. The first phase was completed successfully with its immediate focus and goals being to extend the IT glossaries to include the new terminology of Windows Vista and Microsoft Office2007.

The team of 10 students from the Database Development and Operations concentration, called DIG (Database interest Group) under the supervision of Dr. Mulhim Al-Doori were involved to design and develop a sales force automation system for the Lead process of Oracle Academy (formerly "OAI"), wherein universities transact in-kind software grants. The team met with ORACLE at Dubai Internet City once a week over the course of a semester as an extracurricular complement to AUD's Advanced SQL course.

The team delivered most of the components of the project from scoping, documentation, prototyping and proposal. Technologies employed included Oracle Database and Oracle Forms and Reports. The team was exposed to the opportunity to develop core working skills. These include time management, interpersonal communication, and adapting to change.

Since September 2006, the IT department became a local Networking academy with a fully equipped CISCO lab on campus. The Networking Academy program utilizes a blended learning model, integrating face-to-face teaching with a challenging web-based material/curriculum, hands-on lab exercises, and Internet-based assessment. Academic graduates taking the network concentration subjects (introduction to Network, Data Network using CISCO routers and switches) are prepared for networking and IT-related careers in the public and private sectors, as well as pursuing a higher education program in engineering, computer science and related field.

During our introduction to networks class, students learn about the fundamentals of computer networks and have the opportunity to study specific technologies that are popular in the market and endorsed by CISCO labs available on campus. Then, advanced courses related to CISCO routers, switches and WAN are offered. Upon passing and completing these courses, students would be eligible for sitting in for CISCO CCNA-1, CCNA-2, CCNA-3, and CCNA-4 exams. Students who pass AUD subjects and CISCO exams would be granted CCNA certifications that are valuable to working in the market place.

Dr. Ghassan Kbar is the CISCO Curriculum Leader at AUD

The IT department has developed a partnership with a local software company called Sharesoft Solutions FZ LLC with an office in Dubai Internet City .

Sharesoft Solutions FZ-LLC is operating as a financial IT service provider dedicated to serve the needs of the regional stock exchanges that have witnessed growth and continue to have tremendous potential. Sharesoft has realized that in order to accommodate such growth, technological alignment is necessary since the need for a powerful technological infrastructure is no longer questionable. Therefore, Sharesoft aims to provide the market with advanced and superior solutions that would cater to all aspects attributed to the regional securities' markets ranging from analyzing market data trends through various analysis tools to executing orders with a single click.

Sharesoft‘s mainstream project is the Boursati ™ platform, which aims to become the leading online and mobile securities trading platform serving investors in the GCC region. This platform caters the need for an advanced mean of financial analysis and trading in the regional securities' markets.

Dr. Basel Dayyani is helping Sharesoft define and utilize state-of-the-art processes for the company including company and software development processes.

Dr. Haikel Hichri is advising Sharesoft on how to produce and maintain a higher quality code. Duties include advice on documentation processes, review of code and documentation, and Development of an SDK product.