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Canadian University Dubai Students Create Smart Garbage Bin
The AI-driven household waste sorter uses “social robotics” to improve refuse management.
Canadian University Dubai (CUD) students have developed an innovative solution for sorting household waste. The system uses artificial intelligence, mechatronics, and so-called “social robotics” to swiftly and accurately sift through garbage. Known as the Social Robot Garbage Classifier, the project is a collaboration between students from the School of Engineering, Applied Science and Technology, and the Department of Public Health.
The idea for the smart garbage bin was formulated initially by Computer Network Engineering major Jehad Al Jaghoub, who explained, “Often people will not sort recyclable materials, or will accidentally place items in the wrong bin. Our goal is to improve the outcome of recyclable garbage sorting and, ultimately, to see these smart bins installed across Dubai. The mechatronics system uses sensors, allowing the robot to interact with users and understand their waste disposal needs. Precision-engineered actuators then translate this input into actions, ensuring that trash is correctly sorted and discarded”.
Co-creator and Public Health major Abdullahi Suleiman added: “The camera-based waste detection system uses advanced image recognition algorithms to identify items swiftly and accurately, enabling bottles, cans, and other recyclables to be identified with remarkable precision. This advanced system minimizes errors, guaranteeing that waste is accurately sorted and disposed of, significantly contributing to sustainable waste management”.
The university students’ prototype waste management system will soon compete in two regional innovation competitions, including the Institute of Engineering and Technology GCC Robotics Challenge, which showcases solutions for socially interactive robotics.
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The students are supported in taking their creation to competitions by CUD Assistant Professor Dr. Salih Rashid Majeed, who summed up the project by saying, “This smart garbage bin is a remarkable innovation at the intersection of social robotics and mechatronics system design and represents the university’s strategy to harness the power of artificial intelligence to deliver sustainable practices. The social aspect of the robot creates an intuitive and user-friendly waste disposal experience that has the potential to reshape waste management as we know it”.
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Microsoft Plans $10 Billion-Plus Gulf Expansion Despite Iran Conflict
Security is shaping Microsoft’s approach, from resilience work with governments to what it will say about how the money splits by country.
Microsoft is planning more than $10 billion of investment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters, calling the spending schedule aggressive. The Iranian conflict that began on February 28 has not persuaded the company to scale back.
“We’re sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we are in fact adding to them,” Smith said. The $10 billion-plus total does not, however, show how large those additions are.
The investment, which Smith described as part of Microsoft’s continued infrastructure expansion, is aimed at cloud and AI infrastructure and at the company’s growing regional operations. Microsoft also intends to put more than $400 million into subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.
The spending fits the region’s own ambitions too. Gulf governments have been investing heavily in AI infrastructure as part of a push to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas and turn themselves into global technology hubs. Major cloud and AI providers have been drawn in part by the land and relatively low-cost energy on offer.
Microsoft is widening its partnerships with regional AI companies, though not on identical terms. In 2024, it invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based G42 for a minority stake, and Smith currently sits on G42’s board. Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai are working with Microsoft on selected priority areas, but Smith said the company does not plan to make capital investments in either.
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The conflict has added another strand to Microsoft’s work in the region. Since it began, Smith said, the company has supported regional partners with digital resilience assessments, and it is now working with Gulf countries through a digital resilience initiative focused on preparedness and the protection of critical data.
So far, the company has given no country-by-country breakdown of the investment, citing security among other factors. So while the headline figure is public, how Microsoft divides the spending among the four countries is not.
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