9-year-old Emirati girl wins Toyota dream car contest

A 9-year-old Emirati girl has won Toyota Dream Car Art Contest in Japan

Minhal Adnan Sami, aged 9, won the ‘Engineering Inspiration Award’ for her Ecofix Car, a vehicle that runs of fruit and vegetable compost, and is able to reuse the compost to grow food in villages and rural areas, thus helping people and the environment.

Eight months following the launch of the Contest in the UAE, which saw more than 1,000 local entries in the competition’s first iteration in the country and more than 875,000 global entries, one of the shortlisted entries has been awarded the first ever ‘Engineering Inspiration Award’ at the competition finals that were held in Japan.

The ‘Engineering Inspiration Award’ – granted to the entry that most inspires Toyota's automobile production staff has been newly-established this year.

Unlike other entries, the winner of this category, the ‘Ecofix Car’, was converted into a 3D clay model by Toyota’s Prototype Production Division. Along with all winning entries, the clay model will be exhibited at Toyota facilities throughout Japan over the course of one year.

“Following the tremendous support from across the participating schools in the UAE, we were very excited to see how we fared in this global competition. Minhal’s entry was a very strong one, getting not only shortlisted for the competition in Japan, but also becoming the inaugural winner of the brand new Engineering Inspiration Award category,” said Saud Abbasi, Managing Director, Al Futtaim Motors.

“Competing with 875,000 entries from 81 countries, our local talent proved that inspiration can truly come from every corner of the world and from every walk of life. Our young artists had some fantastic efforts that addressed societal issues and sustainable eco-vehicles to keep our planet green, and we’re very pleased that our first ever participation resulted in such an impressive award.”

The 10th edition of the Toyota Dream Car Art Contest will start at the end of 2015 for next year’s competition. Al-Futtaim Motors will announce details of the competition in the near future, including details on accepting new entries and the categories.

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