Egypt hosted the 11th Arab Robotics Championship from March 23-26, dubbed one of the most powerful competitions in the Arab world in the field of robotics. The event, hosted in Sharm El Sheikh, was inaugurated by Egypt’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Yasser ElKady and the Governor of South Sinai Khaled Fouda.
With the participation of 144 teams from 11 countries, the competition is organized by the Arab Robotics Association, Techno Future and Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA), under the auspices of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT).
The competition entails a number of technological events with 800 participants. Seven robot competitions — covering the age range of six years till university students— are organized with various technological techniques to encourage participants to pay due consideration to technology, math, science and engineering and create a distinguished generation capable of creativity, innovation and excellence in the fields of technology sciences. The winners will qualify for the world championship held in the United States.
Minister El Kady highlighted the significance of disseminating the robot culture in the Arab world in light of expansion in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and robots to reach all aspects of daily life. He hailed the importance of the event in displaying the creative energies of young people interested in technology and exchanging experiences among the teams from different Arab countries.
The CIT Minister added that Egypt possesses a keen and experienced youth capable of developing the country, underscoring that Egypt supports creation and technological innovation.
The Next Technology Leaders (NTL) presidential initiative was launched for enhancing young people's capabilities, where the second phase involves the implementation of the "Future Programmers" program to train school students in the latest technologies and programming fundamentals, in cooperation with MCIT and the Ministry of Education and Technical Education (MOETE) to form a key base of qualified young people to build a strong robot industry.
El Kady showcased the projects that are implemented to support technological innovation through cooperation with major international companies and institutions to provide training and develop the human element, establish laboratories of excellence in Egypt, and spread creativity centers nationwide, thus creating an enabling environment for innovation and entrepreneurship.
He added that the ICT sector is full of success stories for promising young people who have reached important positions in international companies, and established companies that have been able to expand in foreign markets, where other companies joined Silicon Valley incubators in the United States. He pointed out that the Information Technology Institute (ITI) is currently organizing RoboCup Junior Egypt 2018, for students starting from the age of six years, with the participation of 850 students nationwide.
The opening ceremony of the Arab Robotics Championship was attended by the President of the Arab Robotics Association Ismail Hassan Yassin, Chairman of Techno Future and President of eleventh Arab Robotics Championship Ayman El Qabbani, and the Director of the Planetarium Science Center (PSC) at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the head of the arbitration committee Ayman El Sayed.
Yassin presented the shield of the Arab Robotics Association to the CIT Minister and El Qabbani also presented him with the shield of the eleventh Arab Robotics Championship, in recognition of his efforts in supporting creativity and technological innovation among young people.
Yassin also presented the shield of the Arab Robotics Association to Khaled Fouda and El Qabbani presented him with the shield of the eleventh Arab Robotics Championship, in recognition of his efforts in supporting the Championship in its current session.