TRA Holds Preparatory Meeting for the UAE Hackathon 2019 Launch

With the participation of universities and government entities

Mobilk - The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) held the preparatory meeting for the launch of the UAE Hackathon 2019, which will be held under the slogan "Data for Happiness". The meeting took place in TRA Dubai office, in the presence of TRA strategic partners from a number of federal entities, local e-governments and national universities.

The meeting aimed to identify the general features of the UAE Hackathon 2019, and review the latest updates on the event preparations, in addition to discussing the main challenges of the Hackathon second edition.

The meeting started with a presentation by H.E. Salem Al Housani, Acting Deputy Director General for e-Government Sector, in which he presented the results and lessons learned from the UAE Hackathon 2018. He praised the high level of cooperation between the various parties, and expressed his aspirations that the UAE Hackathon 2019 will continue last years success. 

The team of experts overseeing the Hackathon presented their vision for this years edition, which will be held in conjunction with the Innovation Month in the seven emirates. The team identified the tasks required by the various parties to achieve the aimed success. An open discussion took place on the challenges presented to the competitors, which will be based on local needs, government priorities and top directions of the country.

In this regards, H.E. Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, TRA Director General, said: "The UAE has recently made significant progress in many technical and scientific fields. This progress is a real interpretation of the success of the Fourth Industrial Revolution Strategy and the UAE Artificial Intelligence Strategy, launched by our wise leadership to achieve the UAE 2071 Centennial Plan. The data importance is based on being the main element of all the important technical changes. Success of concepts such as smart cities, Artificial Intelligence and e-participation depend on big data. Hence the launch of the UAE Hackathon, which aims to highlight the importance of big data and the labour market needs in the next few years."

H.E. Al Mansoori emphasized that the UAE Hackathon is an opportunity for free competition between ambitious people who have the spirit of innovation. He added: "The participants will study and analyze data sets to find solutions to the challenges faced in many areas such as education, health, transportation and others. Successful ideas will receive support from the participating entities and will be adopted and developed to become practically applicable."

The UAE Hackathon 2019 will be held next February in conjunction with the UAE Innovation Month. The first week will be held in Abu Dhabi, the second week in Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah, the third week in Sharjah, Ajman and Umm Al Quwain, and lastly the fourth week of the Hackathon will be held in Dubai. The Hackathon closing ceremony will take place on the 3rd of March in conjunction with the International Open Data Day.

The Hackathon notion is based on mini-teams that represent all segments of society from employees, students, entrepreneurs, IT professionals and others, to develop solutions and ideas in areas identified in the Hackathon, using big data provided by UAE government entities.

UAE Hackathon aims to increase the chances of achieving the objectives of the National Index and National Agenda of UAE Vision 2021, in addition to supporting the countrys directions towards the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Artificial Intelligence, digital government, smart city and the big data era. Moreover, it aims to enhance competencies, disseminate knowledge and innovation in data analysis to develop solutions and decision-making, encourage government entities to disclose and disseminate their data in the official UAE Government portal, and enhance the spirit of integration and teamwork between federal and local entities.

The Hackathon will create strategic partnerships to shape the challenges, link them to happiness and wellbeing, and adopt the winning ideas. The Hackathon will have a global impact by implementing and promoting ideas in other countries as part of the UAE soft power. The Ministry of Economy will provide patents for the ideas, solutions and programs reached. Additionally, a comprehensive marketing plan will be developed that takes into account regional and global media.