Students of the College of Fine Arts and Design at the University of Sharjah won the first prize in all categories of the Arab StarPack contest, which was organized by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in cooperation with LibanPack (Association of Lebanese Industrialists). The designs submitted by the students of the College won the first three places in all categories in addition to the second and third places. They were assessed along more than 500 works submitted by University students from various Arab countries.

The contest includes three main categories; the first is the Visual Packaging category, which is based on improving or proposing a new visual design for product packaging with the aim of improving the brand identity. The design submitted by student Sara Al-Qaisi won first place and was titled "Olive Oil." Student Maryam Al-Rifai won second place for redesigning the cover of a flour product, and student Muhammad Al-Jandali won third place for designing a food product.

The Structural Packaging category includes proposing a new or improved structural packaging design (new mold/ new die cut) of an existing package. The student can suggest changing the existing packaging material proposing a new sustainable material. The student Majed Barakat won first place in the structural packaging category for his project titled "Ice Cream" in which he invented a new idea for packing ice cream to suit the high temperatures in the United Arab Emirates, relying on the idea of recycling plastic materials to preserve the environment. Dana Salam also won second place for her project titled "Capsules Saffron." Students Reem Al Balushi, project "Samosa", and Fatima Ba'Obaid, project "Dates", won third place in the same category.

As for the Save the Food category, it falls under the structural category but is dedicated to food and agricultural products. It involves offering a new smart or intelligent packaging to improve the supply of food to a growing global population and to prevent its waste and if possible the extension of shelf life of perishable products. Student Fatima Ba'Obaid won first place for her project "for a local product", whose idea was inspired by daily life after noticing that the usual way of packing this type of food does not help consumers who do not use the full quantity, hence the idea to change the packaging method so that it can be saved. Student Shahd Hamid El-Din won second place for her project "Tomato Paste."

For her part, Prof. Nadia M. AlHasni ,Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Design, affirmed that the College is always working to provide the opportunity for its students to participate in many local and regional competitions that contribute to the development of their practical skills and qualify them for the labor market, as the competition in which they participated recently aims to develop students' skills in the fields of packaging and packaging of products manufactured in the United Arab Emirates. It also aims to promote the concept of comprehensive and sustainable industrial development in developing countries and achieve its goals such as developing flexible infrastructure and promoting innovation, thus contributing to creating networks of communication between students and workers in the field of packaging from various Arab countries.

Ms. Nada Abdullah, lecturer at the College and the supervisor of all the participating works, added that a training course was held to develop students' skills in this field, and an exhibition of the winning projects and participation in the competition was organized to encourage creativity and innovation for students in the field of design.