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Tribune News Network
Doha
THE third edition of the Arab Innovation Academy, a collaboration between Qatar Science & Technology Park and the European Innovation Academy (EIA), concluded recently with the honouring of the three winning teams.
The day started with pitching by the 30 teams, followed by shortlisting of 10 teams of which three were declared winners.
To mark 2020 as the Qatar-France Year of Culture, a student delegation of 10 students from France also participated in the programme for the first time.
Salamtak won the first place for developing an online system for the management of chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension and providing both patients and healthcare professionals with a real-time interface to monitor vital data.
Hamza came second for developing a programme which assists with Arabic writing, automatically correcting grammatical errors, just like Grammarly in English, whereas the third place was secured by Go Star for creating a platform for parents to create gamified daily life tasks for their children such as cleaning their room or feeding the pet.
Chief Business Officer of first-place winner Salamtak Muhammad al Mukdad said: “I feel amazing! It has been ten challenging days, but it has been a great experience with wonderful people from around the world. We intend to find investment and start building this platform in Qatar.”
A number of teams won special awards including Doctorle, a consultation service for diabetics that helps them manage their lifestyles. The Doctorle team will get a chance to showcase their innovation at the upcoming edition of the World Innovation Summit for Health.
The LimPap team was also recognised for their innovation that aims to produce paper by using completely sustainable sources instead of paper. The team will get an expedited interview with XLR8 - Qatar Science & Technology Park’s flagship Accelerator Program.
Hayfa al Abdulla, QSTP innovation director, said: “Congratulations to this edition’s winners! They’ve shown true determination and brilliance. The AIA is one of the most successful platforms for promoting Qatari home-grown talent as well as regional capacities and fostering innovative ideas.”
Alar Kolk, president, EIA, said: “I am proud of each participant and believe that the programme will shape their determination to continue innovating. The intensive programme has given them a solid foundation to successfully launch their tech startups and realise their business ambitions.”
Earlier, 190 university students had convened from all over the pan-Arab region to start this year’s Arab Innovation Academy (AIA) programme. These students were selected for their innovative tech-based ideas and entrepreneurial mindset, and came from diverse backgrounds and academic fields.
The innovation academy gave the aspiring techpreneurs ample exposure to real-life experiences and experiments on how to develop and launch new tech ventures, in a real marketplace with real customer feedback.
AIA is the first and the largest entrepreneurship programme in the pan-Arab region, first brought to Qatar and the Middle East in 2018 through a collaboration between Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP) - part of Qatar Foundation Research, Development and Innovation (QF RDI) and the EIA, considered to be the world’s largest extreme entrepreneurship programme.
Following on the success of the first two editions, AIA 2020 received an overwhelming response and close to 800 applications. With Qatar-based students making up almost half of the participants in the third edition, other applicants came from Palestine, Kuwait, Algeria, France, Oman, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco and Turkey.Salamtak, Hamza and Go Star bag the first second and third prizes respectively
Doha
THE third edition of the Arab Innovation Academy, a collaboration between Qatar Science & Technology Park and the European Innovation Academy (EIA), concluded recently with the honouring of the three winning teams.
The day started with pitching by the 30 teams, followed by shortlisting of 10 teams of which three were declared winners.
To mark 2020 as the Qatar-France Year of Culture, a student delegation of 10 students from France also participated in the programme for the first time.
Salamtak won the first place for developing an online system for the management of chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension and providing both patients and healthcare professionals with a real-time interface to monitor vital data.
Hamza came second for developing a programme which assists with Arabic writing, automatically correcting grammatical errors, just like Grammarly in English, whereas the third place was secured by Go Star for creating a platform for parents to create gamified daily life tasks for their children such as cleaning their room or feeding the pet.
Chief Business Officer of first-place winner Salamtak Muhammad al Mukdad said: “I feel amazing! It has been ten challenging days, but it has been a great experience with wonderful people from around the world. We intend to find investment and start building this platform in Qatar.”
A number of teams won special awards including Doctorle, a consultation service for diabetics that helps them manage their lifestyles. The Doctorle team will get a chance to showcase their innovation at the upcoming edition of the World Innovation Summit for Health.
The LimPap team was also recognised for their innovation that aims to produce paper by using completely sustainable sources instead of paper. The team will get an expedited interview with XLR8 - Qatar Science & Technology Park’s flagship Accelerator Program.
Hayfa al Abdulla, QSTP innovation director, said: “Congratulations to this edition’s winners! They’ve shown true determination and brilliance. The AIA is one of the most successful platforms for promoting Qatari home-grown talent as well as regional capacities and fostering innovative ideas.”
Alar Kolk, president, EIA, said: “I am proud of each participant and believe that the programme will shape their determination to continue innovating. The intensive programme has given them a solid foundation to successfully launch their tech startups and realise their business ambitions.”
Earlier, 190 university students had convened from all over the pan-Arab region to start this year’s Arab Innovation Academy (AIA) programme. These students were selected for their innovative tech-based ideas and entrepreneurial mindset, and came from diverse backgrounds and academic fields.
The innovation academy gave the aspiring techpreneurs ample exposure to real-life experiences and experiments on how to develop and launch new tech ventures, in a real marketplace with real customer feedback.
AIA is the first and the largest entrepreneurship programme in the pan-Arab region, first brought to Qatar and the Middle East in 2018 through a collaboration between Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP) - part of Qatar Foundation Research, Development and Innovation (QF RDI) and the EIA, considered to be the world’s largest extreme entrepreneurship programme.
Following on the success of the first two editions, AIA 2020 received an overwhelming response and close to 800 applications. With Qatar-based students making up almost half of the participants in the third edition, other applicants came from Palestine, Kuwait, Algeria, France, Oman, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco and Turkey.Salamtak, Hamza and Go Star bag the first second and third prizes respectively
