MDX Dubai wins First place (Hat-Trick Year) at the Fifth Annual Undergraduate Student Research Competition

Middlesex University Dubai students competed at the 5^th Annual Undergraduate Student Research Competition in Abu Dhabi on 8th May 2017. This event has grown substantially since its inception and this year it attracted 454 submissions from 1,036 students from universities across the UAE. Following the early submission stage, a select number of students were chosen to present their research findings.

The competition was fierce this year, with approximately 250 student research projects presented to the judging panels throughout the day. All our students presented their research expertly, and were commended for their skills by the judges.

Our 3^rd year Tourism student, Rachel Simmons (supervised by Dr. Cody Paris) was awarded first place in the Management category, and was presented with a cheque for Aed 5,000.

Congratulations to Rachel and Dr. Cody on this fantastic achievement!

Please see below for details of her project, and the work of our other student researchers:

Students	Mentor	Presentation
Leanne Dsouza, John Lozano, Carol Arbo, and Carhl Ulep	Engie Bashir	User Centered Design Approach – Colab: Student Collaboration Coursework Tool
Alina Vakil, Leanne Menezes, and Rumana Vakil (aided by Rea D'Souza)	Vijaya Kumar and Subhadra Satapathy	Small and Medium Enterprises in UAE: Challenges and Potential Solutions
Rachel Simmons	Cody Paris	Understanding the ‘Push and Pull’ factors for domestic tourism: A case study on Fujairah, United Arab Emirates.
Giannina Feldbauer	Cody Paris	Investigating Generation Y attitudes and risk perception towards terror attacks and its effects on tourist behaviour: A qualitative case study on France
Nesa Hajirasouli	Evelyn Stubbs	Does Instagram act as a platform for Fitness professionals to advance within the Fitness industry?
Aqsa Butt	Evelyn Stubbs	Does "the West" enrich a student’s degree due to democracy and freedom : A comparative study of students at a offshore campus and the home campus of a British University.

 
Massive congratulations to all participating students and to their supervisors- Cody, Engie, Eve, Subhadra, and Vijaya! Thank you to Vijaya and Subhadra for supporting all our student researchers at the competition yesterday.

Since this competition began in 2013, our MDX Dubai students have been consistently numbered among the winning researchers across a range of categories. This illustrates the healthy student research culture in our university and the talent of our undergraduate students. We look forward to continued success in future research events!

Students participation in the competition is coordinated by the Student Research Committee comprised of Dr. Fehmida Hussain, Dr. Lynda Hyland, Dr. Tenia Kyriazi, and Dr. Anita Kashi Shrivastava.  The committee works with students and supervisors to ensure that all participants are well prepared for the competition.  Beyond this competition, the Student Research Committee provides support for student research through a range of programmes and events including the MDX annual student research competition in November, student research assistant programme, and the support for co-authoring of publications between faculty and students. 

• Rachel’s win is the third year in a row that a Middlesex Student has won first place, and the fifth student finishing in the top three in the past four competitions.

Past wins for MDX at the Research Competition:

2017- Rachel Simmons, Tourism, 1^st place Business Management, Supervised by Dr. Cody Morris Paris

2016- Eva Lachner, Media, 1^st place in Social Science, supervised by Eve Stubbs

2015- Jennifer Osayawe Atu, Law and Politics, 1^st place in Social Science, supervised by Dr. Cody Morris Paris

2014- Donya Saberi, Law and Politics, 2^nd Place Social Science, supervised by Dr. Cody Morris Paris

2014- Deena Abdo, Law and Politics, 3^rd Place Business Management, Supervised by Dr. Cody Morris Paris and Dr. Tenia Kyriazi