Omani Students Achieve Advanced Global Positions in Academy of Sciences Program Challenge

Muscat: The Center of Excellence for Advanced Telecommunications Technology and IoT of the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation at Innovation Park Muscat announced the winning teams of ‘The Green Redesign: Improving Energy Efficiency in Cities Using 5G and IoT’ challenge of the second cohort of the Junior Academy program.

The program was established in a strategic partnership between Ericsson, Ministry of Finance and Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel) and in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and New York Academy of Sciences.

Among the 85 international participating teams of ‘The Green Redesign: Improving Energy Efficiency in Cities Using 5G and IoT’ challenge, the first place went to ‘Greetopia’ by Rawnaq Nasser Al Seyabi from Nusaiba bint Kaab School (Girls) in Muscat Governorate.

The second place went to ‘Hydrogen Sustainable Cities’ project by Ahd Abdullah Al Riyami, Al Shifaa Abdulaziz Al Kharousi, Maithaa Ahmed Al Mayahi, Noor Younis Al Kharousi and Roua Yousef Al Kharousi all from Salma Bint Qais School in South Al Batinah Governorate alongside Emma P. from Slovakia.

As for the third place, it went to ‘Green Power: Building a Sustainable Farmhouse Using 5G and IoT’ by Dana Ahmed Al Nedabi from Soroor Basic Education School in A’Dakhiliyah Governorate.

The Junior Academy program aims to provide young students with the opportunity to learn how to research and develop innovation skills and compete to find solutions to global societal challenges in the field of technology and science. The program can contribute to deepening the participants’ knowledge and enabling them to take the initiative to contribute to providing solutions to technical problems. The program also comes in line with the goals of Oman Vision 2040 to shift towards a knowledge-based economy, and to provide current generations with the necessary skills to face the future, by refining their capabilities and empowering them with knowledge that allows them to grow as individuals in the Omani society.

The Center of Excellence for Advanced Telecommunications Technology and IoT is one of the offset projects from Ministry of Finance currently conducted at Innovation Park Muscat as a joint partnership between Ericsson, the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation and Omantel. The center acts as a research center for developing 5G use cases and IoT use cases as Proof of Concept (PoC) before deployments in commercial networks. It supports small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as start-ups moving towards next-generation network evolution by incubating their ideas and concepts into reality. – ONA