Abu Dhabi Women's College students design web site for OPEC

The combined efforts of Fatema Ali Al Hosani, Iman Hasan Al Marzouqi, Sara Jasim Al Zaabi, Amal Jaber Al Mazroui, Asma Issam Al Hassani and Noora Hasan Khoori can be found at http://conference.opec.org. All of the students are in ADWC's Web Development Program.

The opportunity to design the site arose when OPEC Governor and National Representative Mr. Ali Al Dhaheri met with Dr. Brad Cook, Director of ADWC, to discuss ways in which UAE students could actively participate in the high profile conference.

OPEC specifically wanted to provide an opportunity for ADWC students to showcase their talents as representatives of the future female workforce of the UAE. After brainstorming several ideas, the decision was made to give the students a chance to put their IT skills to use and design the OPEC Conference site.

"This is a tremendous statement on the skill level of our students and the confidence that both industry and government have in our graduates," noted Dr. Cook. "We are very proud that our students were honored in this way."

Tanja Samonig, a faculty member in ADWC's IT department, was ADWC's link to the OPEC-Abu Dhabi Organizing Team. When she became aware of a potential opportunity for the students to work with OPEC, she met with Dr. Cook to start the process. Samonig believes the experience of creating the site was a tremendous opportunity for the students. "The Web site does a great job of representing the talent of our students and provides them with a global presence."

Christian Lear, also a faculty member in ADWC's IT department, agreed with the assessment. As Webmaster for the project, Lear was tasked with overseeing the technical aspects and coordinating the students' involvement. "Our students came up with fourteen designs for the site, all of which were presented to OPEC. The organization chose a fusion of two of the designs and the students went to work on incorporating OPEC's requests into an actual template."

Lear noted that the students gave him feedback on the fusion of the designs and together they continued to make changes to the template until they were ready to present it to OPEC for approval. OPEC was delighted with the final design and gave the team the go-ahead. Lear and the students continued to work together to complete the project and the site went live on OPEC's server on 20th November.