Three ideas, three companies, three AUS success stories

American University of Sharjah (AUS) alumni presented their achievements at an event entitled "From Ideas to Breakthroughs: Three Ideas, Three Companies, Three AUS Success Stories," on Tuesday, November 1.
Speakers at the event were Ahmed Taha, creator of iHungry, a menu hosting website for restaurants; Iba Masood and Syed Ahmed, co-founders of gradberry, the Middle East's first career portal exclusively for student internships and new graduate jobs; and Hassan Bin-Jamil, director of Tagit, which currently tags with Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) 70 percent of the certified diamonds in circulation through the supply chain, with clients from New York, Hong Kong, Dubai, Antwerp and Mumbai.

iHungry is a menu-hosting website for restaurants that deliver within Sharjah University City. According to Taha, the idea of creating the website came to him one day when he was bored and hungry. Going through his pile of menus, with nothing better to do at the time, he decided to scan and PDF all his menus for easy access. He then decided to share them and the idea of iHungry came into being. "Just last month, we have over 15,000 hits on iHungry," Taha said.

Similarly, in its first month alone, gradberry has been home to a community of 3,700 graduates and has successfully placed several students and graduates in internships and full-time positions. The website has garnered international interest and been featured on BBC World. It aims to "plant fruitful careers" by easing the transition from university to careers for students and allows graduates to explore several career options through job and employer insights, industry analysis and entry-level advice. "The idea behind gradberry is that it is never too early for students to begin thinking about their careers," said Masood, CEO and co-founder of gradberry.

Tagit started with research efforts on RFID in 2005 with a vision to be the leading provider of simplified RFID integrated solutions. "Our applications are designed to optimize business processes by streamlining and automating recurring tasks," said Bin-Jamil.

The event was organized by Ali Khawaja, instructor in the Department of Management Information Systems at the School of Business and Management. Held in the Main Auditorium, the event had an extensive turnout of students wanting to find out more about the successes of their seniors and peers and to learn about the companies that are at different stages of development.