Can an app reduce road accidents in the UAE? Yes, says the team of five students who created RoadWatch, the winning app for the UAE government’s 2016 mGov competition. (Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum personally handed them a well deserved prize of 1,000,000 AED).

The national competition asked university teams to create a mobile app designed for government services. Partnered with the UAE Ministry of Interior, Kai-erik Jensen (junior, from the U.S.), Maitha Salem (sophomore, from the UAE), Kenny Song (NYU Shanghai junior, from the U.S.), Quan Vuong (junior, from Vietnam), Ling Zhang (senior, from New Zealand) created the RoadWatch app — a smart, real-time driving assistant with three components: a phone app, smartwatch app, and web app.

The phone and watch app are for drivers, who can track driving habits like speeding, tailgating, swerving — factors that are then quantified into a driving safety level. It also gives real-time audio alerts on road conditions from the police. Impressively enough, the companion smartwatch app can monitor driver biometrics to alert drowsy drivers. The app is also is available in 15 languages.

The web app is for police use. With a map-based interface, police officers can draw zones with audio alerts and dynamic speed limits (e.g. if there is an accident, construction, sandstorm) to alert drivers. A heatmap allows the police to view anonymized, aggregate data on regions for speeding, swerving, and hard stopping to improve police patrol zones and road planning.

“I’m extremely excited and proud that our cross-campus NYU team has won the 2016 mGov competition. The funding, recognition, and government relationships we built during the competition will enable us to develop the app further and create safer roads in the UAE,” said Kenny Song.

The team, having worked on this project since the fall semester, received help refining the app from the Ministry of Interior. Four finalists from 94 teams were chosen, and a public voting process was held to ultimately decide RoadWatch as the first place winner. The team was invited to attend the World Government Summit in Dubai from February 8 to 10, where they were given a platform to talk about their app.

The future looks bright for the RoadWatch team. They’ll meet with various government agencies in the next few weeks to see how their app can be developed for public release or integrated into existing government apps.

Find out more about RoadWatch here.