Dubai, UAE, November 29, 2016: Yesterday, the Accenture Digital Connected Hackathon, held internationally in collaboration with Expo 2020 Dubai, and locally in partnership with Etisalat Digital, took place in Dubai and seven other cities in Europe and the Middle East simultaneously: Rome, London, Madrid, Amsterdam, Dortmund, Prague, Istanbul and Dubai. As international collaborators on the event, Accenture Digital, Expo2020 Dubai, along with Etisalat Digital in the UAE, are leveraging their expertise and platforms to help youth in realising their technology projects through the “Connect. Collaborate. Create” competition aimed to encourage collaboration and inspire the creation of social innovation projects for a more inclusive future. Participants were asked to create innovative ideas focusing on the three themes at the centre of the World Expo to be held in Dubai in 2020-21: Opportunity, Mobility and Sustainability, inspired by Expo 2020 Dubai’s core theme ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’. Please find below information about the event and the winners: - “Squirrels” is the winning team for Dubai
- “Portakal” is the winning team of the international competition; the team will now travel to the UAE to present its ideas to Expo 2020 Dubai
- 292 participants presented 62 ideas across 8 cities: Rome, London, Madrid, Amsterdam, Dortmund, Prague, Istanbul and Dubai
The competition brought together 292 participants organized in 62 teams, with expertise in development, design and marketing. The winners from Dubai
The winning team in Dubai, who fought off fierce competition from 7 other teams, was Team “Squirrels”, which consists of energy expert Charles Blaschke, design genius Sarah Hamawi, programming wizard Ali Obeid and branding and marketing expert Vivek Mehta, was the winning team from Dubai. The team was passionate about giving back to the nation and the world and their ideas was ‘TAQAS’, an innovative solution to help individuals reduce their energy consumption and utility bills in their homes. Using gamification and sharing, it compares members of a specific community to its peers, global communities and competitions to show how they perform and make an impact on the largest challenge of our time, climate change. Using this tool, individuals will have the power to not only save money, but do their part in creating a truly sustainable, connected digital future. The team built a completely functional android app including code comments and open source libraries. The overall, international winning team, awarded with a €1000 voucher and a trip to Dubai to present its project to the organisers of Expo 2020 Dubai, was Portakal. Their project, “Planty”, was an integrated, mobile kit for micro farming that allows people living in urban areas with limited access to space, soil and water to grow their own fruit and vegetables, and at the same time to reconnect with nature. Planty brought together a range of simple equipment and digital tools to educate and guide users. Local winners: - 1st place: Team “Squirrels” from Dubai with project “TAQAS”, an innovative solution that helps individuals reduce their energy consumption and utility bills in their homes.
- 2nd place: Team “Look Ateam” from Dubai with project “Connected Life @work”, a solution that uses biometrics and vital data from users to help them in case of emergency.
- 3rd place: Team “Kaprix” from Dubai with project “Online/offline refugee rescue circle”, a crisis management that will be used by rescue volunteers and refugees to alert and broadcast an emergency.
International winners: - 1st place: Team “Portakal” from Istanbul with project “Planty”, a mobile integrated kit for micro farming that empowers individuals who parted away from the nature to reconnect with it by easily guiding and educating them.
- 2nd place: Team “AGerman” from Dortmund with project “#CryptoVote”, an intuitive web interface that solves the problem of possible manipulations of elections
- 3rd place: Team “Squirrels” from Dubai with project “TAQAS”, an innovative solution that helps individuals reduce their energy consumption and utility bills in their homes.
The teams built innovative, scalable and replicable application prototypes by using technologies such as the sensors and connected devices through digital platforms for IoT, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented and Virtual Reality and blockchain. Each project was assessed according to the strength of their concept, design and development, by a local jury composed of representatives from Expo 2020 Dubai, Etisalat Digital and in addition to other partners across the eight cities and Accenture Digital team members. Speaking on the success of the event, Tony Karam, Managing Director of Accenture Digital in the Middle East and North Africa, said: “The whole world is witness to the UAE’s strong track record in innovation. It is through ground-breaking approaches to ordinary matters, that the nation was able to transform itself to what we see and live in today. Accenture is keen on playing a key role in motivating the youth to share their creativity with a wider audience. Through events, such as the hackathon, we aim to be the catalyst behind the conceptualization of great ideas, which will ultimately evolve to further excel the UAE in its drive towards excellence. We appreciate the support received from our partners, and we are delighted to see the big players in the IT sector come together to encourage the youth.” Marjan Faraidooni, VP Legacy at Expo 2020 Dubai said “The Accenture Digital Connected Hackathon brings Expo 2002 Dubai’s theme, Connecting Minds, Creating the Future, to life. It has been so inspiring to see young people from eight cities across Europe and Asia come together to create solutions to challenges in the areas of Opportunity, Mobility, and Sustainability. Expo 2020 Dubai believes in the immense power and potential of technology to connect people, create opportunities and collaborations that lead to a more inclusive future, and we look forward to welcoming the winners of the Expo 2020 Dubai special prize to present their ideas to us.” “Etisalat Digital participation in today’s event aims at fostering innovative ideas by supporting budding entrepreneurs and allowing them to experiment with the latest technologies. It was an overwhelming experience to see many talented youth showcasing innovating projects to build digital experiences revolving around Expo 2020 Dubai”, said Francisco Salcedo, SVP, Etisalat Digital. The Accenture Digital Connected hackathon was intended not only as a way to connect people, but also a way to recruit talented people: individual participants whose teamwork, problem-solving and goal orientation impressed the judges, and whose profiles were in line with Accenture recruitment plans in the participating countries, may be offered internships or employment in Accenture Digital, or elsewhere in the company. To see what happened during the 24hour competition, search for #AccentureDigiHack on social media.
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