Masdar
Institute Master’s Student’s “One-Click-To-Go” Banking Idea Wins 1st
Place at Emirates NBD’s Future Intelligence Competition
News and Features Writer
28 January 2016
A
Masdar Institute Master’s student from the Engineering Systems and
Management Program won 1st place at a university challenge hosted by
Emirates NBD for his innovative “one-click-to-go” mobile application
idea that has the potential to make banking transactions faster, easier
and more efficient.
The “one-click-to-go” application would
allow users to program the transaction they wish to perform at the ATM
ahead of time on their smartphones, significantly reducing the amount of
time spent at the ATM.
“The idea came to me after observing the
long queues at the ATM machine. Even though most people are there just
to withdraw money, it takes a long time to complete this simple
transaction. I started thinking about innovative ways to speed up this
process,” explained Jean Philippe Ramos de Oliveira, who presented his
winning idea during Emirates NBD’s Annual Innovation Day, which took
place during the UAE’s National Innovation Week celebrations held in
November of last year.
Ramos de Oliveira believes this idea can
also be extended beyond the ATM to inside the bank itself, where
“one-click-to-go” banking could make all types of transactions,
including cash deposits and money transfers, more efficient.
UAE-based bank Emirates NBD has shown
serious interest in the “one-click-to-go” app, and a team from Emirates
NBD’s IT Innovation Group is holding discussions internally to explore
the next steps.
Emirates NBD’s “Future Intelligence
University Challenge” attracted participants from three universities
across the UAE. The theme of this competition was “Biometrics in
Banking”, focusing on the new technology that is increasingly being
employed by banks and finance institutions around the world.
Biometric-based technologies have the potential to enable banks to
deliver financial services in an affordable and secure way. According to
a report by Goode Intelligence, it is estimated that by 2020, companies
that develop biometric systems to the banking industry will increase
their revenues by US$5.5 billion.
Ramos de Oliveira’s app incorporates
biometrics by requiring fingerprint identification to complete the
pre-programmed ATM transaction.
Emirates NBD hosted the university
challenge as part of its business strategy on innovation to collect the
most innovative ideas from the country’s talented and inventive
students, and remain at the forefront of providing unique offerings to
its customers.
“We knew that we would receive some
truly innovative ideas from Masdar Institute,” said Manal Al Ansari,
Innovation Manager, Group IT, Emirates NBD. “We held our first
competition at Masdar Institute last March and were impressed with the
novel banking ideas developed by their high caliber students.”
Min Lin, a Masdar Institute Master’s
student also from the Engineering Systems and Management Program,
jointly presented the idea with Ramos de Oliveira at the university
challenge. Lin received first place during the first Emirates NBD
challenge held at Masdar Institute last March.
As a reward for their participation and
exemplary banking ideas, Ramos de Oliveira, Lin and Olim Alimov, a
Master’s student in Engineering Systems and Management who participated
in both competitions, were offered internship opportunities at Emirates
NBD over the summer.
With some 23 local and 34 foreign banks,
the UAE’s banking sector has benefited from being in a very sound and
robust position. In fact, the UAE’s banking assets outpaced the growth
of the country’s gross national product (GDP) by 70%. However, with a
strong banking sector comes steep competition, which is why Emirates NBD
is searching for innovative banking solutions that will place them
ahead of the curve in terms of customer satisfaction and ease of
banking.
Dr. Karim Karam, Assistant Professor of
Engineering Systems and Management, Masdar Institute, and advisor to
Ramos de Oliveira, was extremely supportive of his student’s ideas and
encouraged his participation in the competition. Commenting on Ramos de
Oliveira’s entrepreneurial spirit, he said, “Jean has the type of
innovative spirit that we love to see in our students. His enthusiasm
and entrepreneurial ambitions are truly contagious.”
Masdar Institute’s main function is to
conduct cutting-edge research in advanced energy and sustainable
technologies and information science is key enabling field.Efforts to
support innovation and entrepreneurship in information science and
encourage students to embark on entrepreneurial endeavors directly
supports the Institute’s goal of developing high-caliber professionals
with the skills needed to drive the UAE’s knowledge-economy
transformation.
Erica SolomonNews and Features Writer
28 January 2016
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