Application submission starts on October 6th, 2010 for the first annual MENA mobile contest to be initiated from Qatar
Doha: QU Wireless Innovations Center (QUWIC) launched yesterday the first ever annual regional and multi-platform mobile application development contest across the Arab world. The contest which was announces earlier, was officially launched in a press conference in QUWIC's offices. The contest which covers multiple phone platforms comes as an initiative of QUWIC with the support of co-sponsors, the Qtel Group and Al Jazeera Network.
The contest is designed to encourage greater grass-root regional involvement in mobile application development, and to provide a platform for MENA mobile developers to demonstrate their creativity and skills. Individuals and teams of maximum 2 members above 18 years old can participate in the competition to develop Arabic mobile applications for the platforms; iPhone OS (3.2.1 or later), RIM OS (Blackberry) and Android OS.
Although applications in other areas are welcome, priority will be given to applications targeting any of the following areas:
- Healthcare
- Media: News delivery and gathering
- Education
- Environment
- Sports
- Financial services
Since its foundation in 2009, QUWIC has identified the emerging field of mobile applications development as a key strategic area of innovations, with a clear focus on developing Arabic language applications which deliver local and regionally relevant content.
This contest supports the wider objective of QUWIC to position Qatar as a regional hub for research and development (R&D) in telecom and wireless applications and services. It also aims to discover and encourage young talent from the MENA region to play an active role in this important and emerging space.
"We are very proud to be the organizers of this event as we intend to bring more regional focus and relevance to this important and growing area" said Dr. Adnan Abu-Dayya, Executive Director, QUWIC. "Our aim is to become a major contributor to developing culturally relevant applications in Arabic that will improve the quality of life in our communities. All applications will be evaluated according to certain criteria and the winning applications will be awarded valuable prizes. Most importantly, we will explore opportunities and provide support for commercial development and market deployment of the winning applications through different channels and in collaboration with our partners".
Contestants should register through www.quwic.com/contest. During registration, contestants must submit their entry form to include the following attachments:
A 200-300 word narrative describing their suggested application in Arabic or English language, and a Microsoft Power Point presentation in Arabic or English language (not more than 15 slides), portraying the application and its functional aspects. Each contestant can submit up to three different applications to be considered for the Contest.
All submittals will go through a screening phase (December 5th - December 11th, 2010) to ensure eligibility and conformance with the Contest terms and conditions. Following the initial screening of applications, comes the Filtering Phase (December 12th - December 18th, 2010). During this phase, all accepted applications will be evaluated according to relevance to the Arab world, innovation, implementation feasibility, and status of development. The top 5-8 applications will be selected in each platform category. ("Short-Listed Applications") for further evaluation. Owners of short-listed applications will be notified.
In the final Evaluation Phase (December 26th, 2010- Jan. 6th, 2011), a judging panel of 5-7 members will be formed by the organizers to evaluate Short-Listed Applications and to hear presentations and see demonstrations. Contestants at this stage will be asked to submit a video recording and other relevant material of their applications such as screen shots of applications on handset. They will also participate in a tele-conference session with the judging panel.
Finally, award ceremony will take place between (January 24th - January 26th, 2011) where top 6-8 finalists will be invited to visit Qatar where they will appear in front of a judging panel to identify first and second place winners for each of the three platforms. Followed by an award ceremony to announce winners over a dinner banquet and to award prizes.
The contest will be open to students and professional individual developers in the Arab countries , and to all native Arabic speakers around the world.
Wadah Khanfar, Director General of Al Jazeera Network stated, "Al Jazeera is pleased to support this project. Putting a greater importance on grassroots and culturally specific application development in new media across a range of different disciplines is an important endeavour for the region. With its emphasis on youth in the Arab world, this initiative promises to be an excellent platform for discovering talented young mobile developers as well as helping to foster creativity and innovation."
QUWIC is already active in developing Mobile Tele-Health, Educational and Informational Applications that utilize emerging wireless technologies and products to create regionally relevant applications for a number of customer-driven uses.
"The preparation for the contest has been going on for a long time to reach this stage. I would like to thank our sponsors, the Qtel Group and Al Jazeera Network for their collaboration and support. We are looking forward to the results of the contest and I am confident that we will be proud of the quality of talent that we will discover," concluded Dr. Abu-Dayya.
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About QUWIC
QUWIC is an applied research and development center founded in Qatar by Qatar University in Collaboration with and at the Qatar Science &Technology Park to leverage the use of emerging wireless technologies in creating solutions and smart applications for use in a number of markets including Transportation, Utilities, Healthcare, and Environment.
QUWIC was founded with the objective of filling the existing gap in the region for institutions focusing on applied research and solutions delivery.
QUWIC has strategic objectives in the areas of local capacity building, innovation leadership, and in becoming a virtual R&D center for local and regional partner.
For further information please contact
Aziz Louksah
+974 55736001
aziz@tugboatbranding.net
info@quwic.com
© Press Release 2010
