Under the patronage of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ministry of Economy, Ericsson organized the “Together Apart” Hackathon and the time has come to unveil the six winning teams who contributed with unique solutions that are in line with UAE Vision 2021 tackling key topics in the vision including healthcare, sustainable environment, and education.
H.E. Dr. Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, Minister of State for Entrepreneurship and Small and Medium Enterprises said: “Innovation is a central pillar in the UAE’s economy, and the progress of the “Together Apart” Hackathon represents the positive impact that public-private partnerships have. These solutions, put forth by the participants, will be sure to benefit the goals of the UAE Vision 2021. We are keen to support initiatives that drive innovation in the country and enhance our position as a preferred hub for global innovation.”
Saeed Al Zarouni , Senior Vice President , Mobile Network Etisalat says: “UAE has always been at the forefront of technology with a focus on creating an ecosystem to stimulate the creation and enable futuristic innovations. Etisalat has also worked in line with the UAE leadership’s vision by fostering innovation accelerating the adoption of latest technologies by mentoring and collaborating with the next generation of innovators. The ‘Together Apart’ hackathon serves as a great platform to witness innovative ideas demonstrating the talent in the country and the immense possibilities of the future. We are happy to have been part of this initiative and looking forward to seeing the solutions showcased at Expo 2020.”
Saleem AlBlooshi, Chief Technology Officer, du says: “du is aligned with the UAE Vision 2021 to drive technological advancement and accelerate sustainable development. The Together Apart Hackathon serves as a platform to encourage the best minds in the UAE to come forward to develop solutions for the benefit of the nation. We will work with participants to turn their creative ideas that exemplify the core of innovation into reality.”
Wojciech Bajda, Vice President and Head of Gulf Council Countries at Ericsson says: “Ericsson is excited to see these innovative ideas come to life and support the participants in the process. We have challenged them to propose technology solutions for the most vital areas of the UAE’s national agenda. We congratulate the winners and look forward to working with them to turn these concepts into actionable and sustainable change.”
Maya Moukbel, Head of Innovation, Ericsson Middle East and Africa says: “We’re thrilled to be driving this initiative forward through the Ericsson Innovation Hub in the UAE, where we can tap into local talent and contribute to the UAE’s digital landscape. Ericsson’s UAE Innovation Hub continues its commitment to supporting the UAE’s Vision 2021 and providing a platform for the nation’s innovation community as it builds creative and productive partnerships with customers, academia, and startups, accelerating the development of new use cases and business ideas.”
Working with UAE innovators, disruptors, and creative people to design technology-based solutions linked with the UAE Vision 2021, the “Together Apart” Hackathon aims to speed the road towards a more connected future and solve global concerns. Participants from across the UAE were invited to submit innovative solutions that demonstrated the power of connectivity and 5G while drawing inspiration from the UAE Vision 2021’s six broad themes: World-class healthcare, first-rate education, competitive knowledge and digital economy, sustainable environment and infrastructure, safe public and road safety, and cohesive society and preserved identity.
The finalists submitted their proposals to the judging panel, which chose six winners. Senior leaders from the public and corporate sectors, including BecanWellness Solutions, Du, Dubai Future Foundation, Ericsson, Etisalat, Nasdaq, and SOMA MATER, served on the judging committee.
The winning solutions are:
Members: Hessa Saif Almehrzi, Fatima Suhail Alghfeli, Noor Akram Issa, Yomna Mohammed
Quoting the team about their solution: “Our solution aims to create a sustainable path for energy by converting the sound into electric current. Airplanes are considered to have one of the largest engines with the highest noise potential, we believe that we can use our device to convert airplane loud noise into electricity that can supply appliances during flights. Our project is innovative and adaptive as it can be developed to fit anywhere with sound and provide everywhere with electricity!”
Members: Hamad Al Hammadi, Rohan Mitra, Alya Al Shehhi, Samarth Rai
Quoting the team about their solution: “Hayaa is an Artificial Intelligence (AI)- driven application that uses the sensors in your smartphone and smartwatch to classify emergencies, alert the authorities and coordinate any formalities so that medical attention can be provided as fast as possible. It can detect emergencies such as car accidents, fires, heart attacks and much more”.
Members: Himanshu Upadhyay, Siddiq Anwar, Mohammad Yaqub, Mecit Can Emre Simsekler
Quoting the team about their solution: “RenAIssance re-imagines a world where high-quality medical care can be consistently provided to improve healthcare outcomes across the globe. RenAIssance endeavors to provide risk-based decision-making tools to healthcare providers looking after patients suffering from kidney disease by leveraging its cutting-edge AI platform. It integrates disruptive technologies and innovations in medical Internet of Things (IoT) devices and 5G technology with its cloud-based, medical Intellectual Property (IP)-rich AI platform to deliver its services.”
Members: Ayesha Al Marri, Natasha Madhu, Maya Hiba
Quoting the team about their solution: “Insights is a web application that will revolutionize the e-learning experience by compensating for the loss of nonverbal communication due to the virtual environment. This is made possible by analyzing the emotional states of students during a lecture and classifying it into positive, negative, and neutral sentiments. The results collected are then displayed to the instructor in real-time to infer the engagement levels of students during lecturing hours.”
Members: Bittu Jacob, Mohammed Naseeb
Quoting the team about their solution: “Organic Chain digitizes local food supply chain in the UAE by bringing traceability & transparency of these food crops from farm to the market and enhancing organic farming with IoT-5G technologies for better yield. As the crop travels from the farm to the retailers, at each stage transactions are registered with help of a barcode. Public can use our mobile application to scan barcode of these fruits/vegetables at retail stores which gives information of how organic they are, crop quality, farm data, harvested date, etc”
Members: Jayroop Ramesh , Niha Abdurabb Thodika, Taha Ameen Ur Rahman
Quoting the team about their solution: “Mindspire is an AI-powered mobile application aiming to help individuals suffering from depression and anxiety through early detection of symptoms and personalized guided cognitive behavioral therapy. By the intelligent analysis of pseudo-anonymized emotional tones and undertones from speech, in conjunction with psycholinguistic factors, Mindspire tailors the right digital therapeutic intervention for each and every user.”
The six winning teams will receive support in testing, developing, and scaling their ideas and will also be given the chance to showcase their solutions at the Swedish Pavilion in Expo2020. One team will receive the grand prize to visit Ericsson’s headquarters in Sweden to pitch the team’s solution and interact with the entrepreneurial community.
