Muscat: A group of Omani computer science students from GUtech have won second place in the Regional Imagine Cup Competition 2015, a Microsoft Global Competition recently held in Bahrain.

To inspire people to read books on their mobile phones, the students have invented a mobile reading app, called ‘ReadAthon’ – Regain the Joy of Reading.

“We believe our app will encourage people to read more books,” said Alya Al Shanfari, Computer Science student at GUtech.

The students competed with 33 other Computer Science and Computer Engineering teams from throughout the Arab world.

“We are looking forward to next year’s competition with greater imagination from our students’ beautiful minds. I think Oman should establish its own Imagine Cup, as there are many young Omani innovators and entrepreneurs who could truly excel on the world stage,” said Prof. Dr. Basel Dayyani, Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at GUtech. “At the Computer Science Department in GUtech, we follow in the footsteps of the man who loved beauty to bring about amazing technology, Steve Jobs. Our equation is Knowledge = Infinity,” noted Prof. Basel Dayyani, who supported the team and attended the competition in Bahrain.