The Minister of Industry and Minerals, Ahmed Abu Hisa, participated virtually last Saturday (29 July) in the opening of the fifth edition of the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence (IoTAI) Challenge held in Dubai.
Libya was participating in this challenge for the first time under the auspices of the Ministry of Industry and Minerals, represented by the Technological Industrial Pole.
It will be recalled, that the IoTAI challenge is a regional capacity building and pre-incubation programme for high school students, senior university students and startups that have innovative ideas in the areas of IoT, AI and related fields.
Beyond being a competition, the organisers say the annual challenge considers itself ‘‘a digital transformation movement’’. It aims to build qualified Arab calibres in the technical fields through the delivery of support, training and workshops to participants.
Participants compete in local finals and winners from each country qualify to the regional finals that take place within the activities of the IEEE Global Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things (GCAIoT) in Dubai in December every year.
In his introductory speech to the event, Minister Abu Hisa emphasized that Libya will be a major supporter of such programmes and initiatives that aim to support and train young people in the field of science and technology.
The Technological Industrial Pole is the local participant in this event, and it is the real tributary for transferring new ideas into real projects, he added.
The minister also affirmed that his Tripoli-based Libyan government has taken it upon itself to support technology and information to establish projects that keep pace with the rapid developments in the world of technology and informatics.
It aims to involve young people in these programmes through intellectual participation and creativity in all fields.
Concluding, the Minister stressed that Arab countries, in order to keep pace with these developments, must unite with each other, and that supporting these programmes with joint efforts is the only way to create joint Arab integration in the field of Internet of Things technology and artificial intelligence.
