The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), represented by the Center of Digital Innovation (CoDI), hosted the annual forum of the UAE open source software community in the UAE "OpenUAE" in the presence of a group of university students and experts in this field.
The gathering was attended by a group of experts and decision-makers in relation to the subject of utilizing the open data sources. The agenda included several important topics such as technology trends and their role in enabling society, the open source community in the UAE, the future of skills, the innovation community, and others.
The list of participating entities included the Ministry of Education, Dubai Electronic Security Center (DESC), University of Sharjah, Khalifa University, Emirates NBD, and Google.
The event also included a live broadcast of almost 30 minutes from Google headquarters in the USA, in which Dr. Vas Krish presented a detailed explanation of the Internet of Things (IoT) and using modern technology in the manufacture and control of robots, and open source software solutions.
Commenting on the event, H.E. Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, Director General of TRA and the UAE mGovernment, said: "With the availability of modern sophisticated means of communication, and high-speed internet, the challenge is not about accessing sources of information and data any more, but about analyzing and utilizing them to serve national goals in various economic and social fields, and most importantly, using them in providing data to ensure that the right decisions are made on a timely manner.
Al Mansoori added, "Organizing this event here in the presence of UAE university students and youth is part of our commitment to developing the UAE's young talents and developing their skills to be able to take their part in the responsibility of leading various sectors in the country."
In his speech during the meeting, Engineer Majid Almadhloum, Director of CoDI, said: "Our community is characterized by many positive young energies that we need to pay attention to and develop."
Almadhloum added, "From this point, we have established and embraced 'OpenUAE' to provide a platform that enables programmers to interact with experts from different academic and private sectors, and work together to overcome the challenges and adapt modern technologies and concepts such as the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence that are based on the software. All of this will support the development of the country and its leadership position in this field."
OpenUAE is one of TRA's sponsored initiatives. More than 400 people have joined OpenUAE since its launch in 2016. The main tasks of this initiative are to provide a discussion platform, exchange ideas and organize competitions related to open data sources at the national level.
