TRA Holds The UAE Hackathon 2019 Inspirational Ideas Forum
Inspirational Ideas Forum at its office in Dubai
The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has held The UAE Hackathon 2019 (data for happiness and wellbeing) Inspirational Ideas Forum at its office in Dubai, in the presence of its strategic partners, project incubators and a number of UAE Hackathon participants who had presented distinctive ideas.
In his opening speech, H.E. Salem Al Housani, Acting Deputy Director General for Information and eGovernment Sector, said: “We are meeting today as government entities, incubators and entrepreneurs to adopt a series of innovative and inspiring solutions that were presented during the UAE Hackathon 2019 and put them into practice. The Hackathon success is determined by its impact on society, which is measured by the number of ideas adopted by government and private entities. Based on the directives of the wise leadership, the country’s current policy is to make the UAE an open global laboratory, and to become a source of leading initiatives and innovations that would be adopted and applied worldwide.”
Al Housani emphasized that the Hackathon importance is based on its role in supporting the UAE Vision 2021 and the UAE 2071 Centennial Plan. He added: “The Hackathon strengthens the UAE position in the UN OSI, which focuses on two main dimensions: the first is open data. The Hackathon concept is based on providing data to the participants to draw ideas, projects and innovative applications. The second dimension of the UN OSI is the activation of e-participation. The OSI focuses on the efforts of the 193 member states to deepen the participation of individuals in the development of smart services by participating in policy modification or application innovation, which is what the Hackathon aims to, where participants help government entities overcome the obstacles they face, or develop services by creating smart applications. "
The Forum was attended by a group of project owners who presented their inspirational projects and explained the projects benefits for the stakeholders in particular and the UAE in general. The project owners answered the questions of the Forum participants who represented TRA strategic partners and the incubators.
TRA has teamed up with a global think-tank to select 100 inspirational ideas that can be applied in practice and to enhance the concept of innovation as a daily practice in the government work, achieving the UAE Hackathon success story.
A new five-stage system will be implemented in which government entities will be evaluated based on their participation and contribution to the success of the Hackathon activities and the achievement of its objectives, such as hosting, posing challenges, adopt inspirational ideas and transform them into real-world projects and applications.
TRA had organized the UAE Hackathon 2019 in its second edition under the slogan “data for happiness and wellbeing” in conjunction with the UAE Innovation Month, and under the patronage of H.E. Ohood bint Khalfan Al Roumi, the Minister of State for Happiness and Wellbeing. In this edition, 258 teams presented more than 258 projects as solutions for 13 challenges: emerging technology, innovation, safety and health, employment, education, social development, innovative solutions to serve justice, enhancement of social relations in the UAE community, enhancement of lifestyle of the UAE, exploring the future of maritime and land transport, integrated infrastructure and the environment. The participants used more than 1000 data sets to implement their projects.
