Global technology company Software AG has launched the 2023 edition of its annual Future Disruptors Programme, now held in UAE and Saudi Arabia every year. This year, the programme challenges UAE university students to design IoT, AI and machine learning based sustainable smart city and industrial innovations.
The UAE chapter is now in its fourth-year themed Transforming today’s industries for a sustainable tomorrow in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), encourages students to develop real world skills by prototyping disruptive IoT sustainable solutions to be potentially embedded into the future. It sets them on the track with industry 4.0 skills, vital for driving UAE’s economic growth, enhancing public services and elevating quality of life for citizens and residents.
An independent jury of esteemed industry and business leaders will review all use-case proposals and the top three innovations will be developed as prototypes through an extensive six months of trainings and workshops by Software AG experts and advocates, mentors from leading regional organisations, for showcase at GITEX 2023.
The winning innovators will be applauded for their technological innovation through an internship at Software AG’s IoT centres in UAE and Germany, in addition to potential career opportunities. The finalists and winners are determined based on a point-based system and incorporate innovation, transformation, evolution and simplicity as some of its parameters. Students are recommended to uphold the values of sustainability as set by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as their guiding star to create prototypes.
Rami Kichli, Senior Vice President, Middle East and Turkey, Software AG said, “The Future Disruptors Programme enables young students to strengthen digital skills and initiate 4.0 transformations. The student ecosystem, engineers and technologists, have to constantly evolve to stay in sync with the fast-changing needs of nations. The programme stimulates Industry 4.0 transformations in line with UAE’s vast potential of disruptive technologies and its goals, towards the development of new sustainable smart city and industrial concepts for further advancements in the country, in line with the country’s net-zero 2050 target.”
The 2022 UAE edition of Future Disruptors Programme was won by a team from the University of Dubai for Generous DXB Smart Refrigerator. The team created a prototype that ensures food safety in community fridges through automatic smart sensors to check safest zone for edibles. The team leveraged Software AG’s Cumulocity IoT, machine learning, analytics and dash boarding for the use case showcase.
Software AG in the region works extensively with universities to boost practical experience with academic learning. Software AG’s academic partnerships across the region include, in UAE: University of Dubai, BITS Pilani, American University of Dubai and Sharjah, Zayed University, Rochester Institute of Technology of Dubai (RIT), University of Wollongong, Canadian University, Middlesex University, University of Birmingham and in Saudi Arabia: King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, King Saud University, University of Hail and many others. The company also works with leading external entities for the programme. Some past-present collaborations include: Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST), the ICT regulator in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Digital Dubai, DEWA, Enoc, Du, Injazat, MoroHub, amongst several others.
Entries for the programme are now open in the UAE until 8th June 2023. Saudi Arabia will open entries in August/September 2023.
For more details or to register for UAE, https://info.softwareag.com/Future-Disruptors-2023-registration.html
