To nurture future generation of computer coders, Dubai-based Gemini Property Developers, in collaboration with the Emirates Talent Association and Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University, recently sponsored Emirati Hackathon Competition and Awards. The ‘Emirati Programmer’ is one of a kind UAE national initiative which qualifies young talents to showcase innovativeness and excellence in programming. The initiative is part of UAE Vision 2021 and supported by the UAE Ministry of Community Development.
145 Emirati coders, including 42 students of Artificial Intelligence (AI), 103 new students in the field of computer games, applications programming, participated in the Hackathon competition. Twelve students reached to the finals, which strongly boosted the Emirati talents participating in the global competition in programming and AI, aimed at positioning the UAE among taking the lead in the world.
Four winners earned the title ‘Innovative Emirati Programmer’, who also won the gold medal in the four main categories namely ‘Artificial Intelligence’, ‘Games Development’, ‘Programming Robots’, and ‘Applications Development’.
Sudhakar Rao, Chairman of Gemini Property Developers, said: “We hold a greater responsibility of nurturing the young human capital who will hold the helm of affairs in our succession. We feel honoured to support future scientists of the UAE. Contributing to innovation, education and creativity is part of Gemini’s business philosophy that is reflected in our way of doing business. Gemini Group believes in and practices out of the box ideas that benefit our business and society as a whole.”
The winners of Hackthon Competition were selected by an international jury panel led by experts from Microsoft, Google and Apple, as well as a jury from the government sector represented by prominent figures from Dubai Police, Community Development Authority, Roads and Transport Authority and Dubai Health Authority. The students' projects were based on specific criteria, including the ability to link creative programming and artificial intelligence’ to the UAE's national trends and initiatives, particularly in the development of a competitive knowledge and innovation-based economy.
The event included honoring the winners in ‘Games Development’ – (Kudo) category, awarding the gold medal to Aliaa Hareb Lahdad in the 7-10 age group and Rawda Abdullah Al Medhani from the 11-15 age group; while the silver medal was awarded to each of Khalifa Sohail Al Zarouni in the 7-10 age group and Sultan Sohail Al Zarouni from the 11-15 age group. Reem Khalid Al Shamsi in the 7-10 age group was awarded the bronze medal with Salman Al Aboudi from the 11-15 age group.
“The success of the Emirati Programmer is a strong demonstration of our commitment to equip our national human resources with complete skills aimed at accelerating our transition to a knowledge-based and competitive economy, which has been the main approach adopted by our nation to build a sustainable future for the present and future generations, ” said H.E. Lieutenant-General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, Deputy Chairman of Police and General Security in Dubai, and Chairman of the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University 's Board of Governors, and Chairman of Emirates Talent Association.
The Emirati Programmer initiative was launched on 2017 aiming to teach the young generation the language of the future; coding. This initiative is a step towards equipping kids, as young as 7 years old, with the 21st century skills highly needed by everyone these days. Consequently, the initiative supports achieving the goals of UAE Vision 2021, in harnessing the potential of Emirati human capital and investing in the promising talents in innovation, leadership and knowledge in order to make the UAE one of the world’s most advanced countries.
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