ABU DHABI, 23rd November, 2015 (WAM) -- Mubadala Development Company, the Abu Dhabi-based investment and development company, and IBM, today announced the launch of Cognit Technology Solutions as the business entity to provide IBM?s computing system 'Watson' to organisations in the Middle East and North Africa, MENA, region. Cognit has been established specifically to apply IBM?s Watson computing capabilities to local industries and to support a regional ecosystem of entrepreneurs, app. developers and startups who are creating Watson apps and services throughout MENA.
Cognit was announced during a media conference at the New York University Abu Dhabi, NYUAD, campus against the backdrop of UAE Innovation Week. Sami Issa was introduced as the newly appointed General Manager of Cognit. Issa was joined by Mounir Barakat, Executive Director, Information and Communications Technology at Mubadala, and Brian Mulada, Chief Financial Officer, IBM Watson. A panel line-up featuring dignitaries from organisations representing three of the high-growth sectors for Cognit, healthcare, education and government, outlined the vision for cognitive computing to transform their industries at Tawam Hospital, Abu Dhabi Education Council, ADEC, and Dubai Municipality. IBM?s Watson represents a new era in computing which uses natural language processing and machine learning to reveal insights from large amounts of unstructured data. IBM is currently working on hundreds of projects to expand Watson's industry domain knowledge across areas including healthcare, law, education, insurance and finance, as well as teaching the system languages such as Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese and now Arabic. Homaid Al Shemmari, CEO, Aerospace and Engineering Services, AES, at Mubadala, said, "Cognit will enable technological innovation all around us, providing Watson technology to local forward-thinking organisations across multiple sectors. The joint venture is a significant addition to Mubadala?s ICT portfolio and fortifies our ambition to develop the UAE as a regional ICT hub. Mubadala and IBM are committed to Cognit and confident about the success of the joint venture.""The collaboration with IBM to bring Watson applications to the region is aligned to the UAE?s strategic goal and vision to become a knowledge-based economy," said Mounir Barakat, Executive Director, Information and Communications Technology, AES, at Mubadala. "Establishing this joint venture is a definitive reflection of Mubadala?s strategy to foster long-term economic growth and deliver world-class solutions to the MENA region."Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2015.
