Future Technology Week in association with Microsoft, Dubai World Trade Centre’s (DWTC) new umbrella brand for a quartet of specialised industry trade exhibitions, is set to host the second live Hackathon series.
Running 29-31 March across four DWTC halls, the inaugural Future Technology Week will feature Gulf Information Security Expo & Conference (GISEC), the Internet of Things Expo (IoTX), The Big Data Show and Gulf Enterprise Mobility Exhibition & Conference (GEMEC).
The live Hackathon event will feature more than 40 developers, designers and coders pitching and developing new software technologies to a panel of judges. The winning hacker will win a three-month internship at Pacific Controls Middle East, enter the Microsoft’s Imagine Cup and receive one year free access to the global technology giant’s tools and software including Microsoft cloud (Azure).
Conceived to increase industry professionals’ insights into early access developer platforms, advance design skills and capacity to make valuable hacking connections, this year’s Hackathon will feature three themes, Smart Transportation, Smart Environment and Smart Cities. As part of Smart Transportation developers will be tested on the basis of creating applications that can improve travel smart services across new and existing applications for ticketing and traffic information. Smart Environment will focus on participants developing an application which offers smarter solutions to consume less water and energy improve recycling and help public spaces stay digitally connected. Smart Cities will revolve around developers’ applications that integrate an array of social, economic, environmental and health solutions into the blueprints of future smart cities.
“A key enabler in our drive to develop the nation’s young talent by creating innovative breakthroughs in technology, the second Hackathon aims to bring together the brightest minds to develop, design and deliver the smart applications of the future,” said Trixie LohMirmand, Senior Vice President, Exhibitions & Events, DWTC. “There is no limit to the online world of applications and ideas continue to be the starting point of innovation. We are excited to see the outcome of how these innovative projects are brought to life by these entrepreneurial young developers.”
Entries at the Hackathon will be judged by Sajaad Chaudry, Chief Business Officer, Pacific Controls, and Necip Ozyucel, Cloud and Enterprise Business Group Lead – Gulf, Microsoft.
The winning project will be entered in Microsoft’s Imagine Cup UAE, the local leg of the world’s premium student’s technology competition that encourages youth to apply their imagination, passion and creativity to technology innovations.
“With the digital universe growing every two years, and with machine generated data expanding from 11% in 2005 to over 40% in 2020, Microsoft firmly believes that greater insights can be accessed by converting raw unstructured data into meaningful and intelligent actions,” said Necip Ozyucel, Cloud and Enterprise Business Group Lead, Microsoft Gulf. “The Hackathon is a great example of our deep partnerships in the UAE around data science and machine learning giving young talent the opportunity to leverage latest cloud tools for building creative applications that fuel progression and endorse smart living in line with the vision of the country”.
The abundancy of multi-use applications will also be a recurring theme at the second annual IoTX. Dilip Rahulan, Executive Chairman and CEO, Pacific Controls, the Keynote Sponsor of the IoTX Conference, added: “IoTX hosted by DTWC focuses on the most transformative technology shift since the Internet and it is apparent that integrating business and lifestyle to the IoT realm has reached a tipping point. It is no longer a trend but an absolute business requirement. Pacific Controls regards IoTX as an excellent platform to showcase, various live IoT applications that we have delivered to our clients for over a decade. Being a pioneer in the IoT, smart city & cloud spectrum, we have always promoted this event by being the main sponsor from its inception.”
Future Technology Week is supported by Dubai Smart Office as Smart City Partner to drive awareness on Dubai’s Smart City initiative. The Big Data Show and IoTX has attracted sponsors including Microsoft as Hackathon & Business Intelligence Analytics Partner of The Big Data Show; while IoTX has Pacific Controls as Keynote Sponsor; Huawei, Intel Corporation and SAP as Diamond Sponsors; Advantech B&B SmartWorx, Cisco, Dell and Ericsson Middle East as Platinum Sponsors; General Electric and MachinesTalk as Gold Sponsors; and Cybercom, Red Solutions and WebNMS as Silver Sponsors.
Key sponsors of GISEC include Strategic Partner BT, DarkMatter as Cyber Security Innovation Partner; GBM as Diamond Sponsor; Spire Solutions as Platinum Sponsor; Cisco, Fidelis Cybersecurity, VMWare, and Forcepoint as Gold Sponsor; Guidance Software as Silver Sponsor. Furthermore, The Big Data Show has attracted Microsoft as the Hackathon & Business Intelligence Analytics Partner.
IoTX opens on March 29 and concludes on March 30, the one-day GEMEC runs on March 29, GISEC opens on March 30 and ends on March 31, and the one-day The Big Data Show runs on March 31. Meanwhile, the exhibition segment runs for three days from March 29 to 31.
Future Technology Week and its associated segmented exhibitions and conferences are strictly trade-only events open to business and trade visitors only. Visitor attendance to Future Technology Week exhibitions is free of charge but conference attendance is charged on either a single conference or ‘season pass’ basis. For more information on conference charges, please visit www.futuretechweek.com/visit