Winners bag cash prizes at Information Technology Authority event

Energy Monday 18/December/2017 22:02 PM
By: Times News Service
Winners bag cash prizes at Information Technology Authority event

Muscat: Mobile applications promoting homemade food, linking car owners with garages and facilitating family voting system have won cash prizes amounting to OMR10,000 at Sas48H, a 48-hour competition by Information Technology Authority (ITA).
Held for three days from December 14 to 16, 2017, in Bank Muscat’s headquarters, the Sas48H contest concluded last Saturday evening, witnessing the participation of 100 participants, who worked on different and creative ideas in the mobile app and web development fields.
The closing ceremony was attended by Dr. Salim Bin Sultan Al Ruzaiqi, CEO of ITA, Waleed Alhashar, Deputy CEO of Bank Muscat, and a number of ITA and Bank Muscat officials.
The contest aimed to promote entrepreneurship by encouraging young Omanis to turn their innovative ideas into reality and establishing emerging Omani companies in the information and communication technology (ICT) field, especially in website and mobile applications
development.
After working for 48 hours continuously, and successfully passing the evaluation, the first prize went to Mum’s Food app, which was developed to support home businesses, and promote and sell homemade food to users through easy delivery and ePayment system.
The second prize went to Garage Pocket app, which aims to link automotive service centres with customers, enabling them to request repairing or maintenance at any time. The third prize was claimed by Together app, which facilitates communication between family members, helping them share photos and videos, as well as enabling them to make decisions through a voting system and create to-do lists.
Dr. Salim bin Sultan Al Ruzaiqi, remarked, “We congratulate all the winners and participants for their great work and wish them success in future pursuits.”
“I urge them to continue working on their projects, through which they have proved that they are able to innovate and excel in producing ICT electronic platforms/apps of high quality and are ready to move on to the Omani market.
“Sas48H was a result of our cooperation with the Republic of Estonia, and it is one of our endeavours to promote entrepreneurship among Omani youth in various ICT fields, to prove that they are capable of producing and implementing creative ideas within 48 hours, only if they could organise their thoughts and coordinate their efforts in programming, design, marketing and management to produce implementable projects that can compete in the local and regional markets.”
“We invite whoever wishes to improve his/her skills and competencies in various ICT fields to join the training programmes and initiatives provided by ITA or to benefit from all the facilities and services offered at the Sas Centre for entrepreneurship, Sas Centre for Virtual Reality and Sas Centre for Mobile Apps Development, among others,” he stressed.
Waleed Al Hashar, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Bank Muscat, thanked the ITA for organising the Sas48H competition and congratulated the winning teams and all the participants for their innovative ideas to enhance ICT’s role in business and society.
“Sas48H competition is an innovative initiative targeting an important segment, including developers and programmers who have interest in smart phone technology and applications. Bank Muscat always strives to support Omani youth involved in various fields, including information and communications technology, in view of the importance of this sector in supporting business development and helping establishments to keep abreast of the latest developments; thereby, complementing the comprehensive development of the Sultanate. We encourage Omani youth to establish companies in the emerging ICT sector, and benefit from the technical consultancy and the training services provided by the SAS Centre, as well as obtain financial funding to start their businesses.”
Some 315 candidates had registered to join the contest, 100 of which were selected and moved to the next phase and participated in the contest held at Bank Muscat’s headquarters between December 14 and 16. The participants were divided into teams and worked on 18 creative ideas out of the 38 proposed ideas, in different areas such as tourism, logistics support, open source and other vital sectors, for 48 continuous hours.
During the 48 hours, the participants developed 18 creative ideas as smart phones apps or websites, in various fields, including marketing and promotion, health, education and other service sectors.
In the business sector, a number of projects were implemented such as the Tawasul project, which is a smart platform to manage and promote events, as well as provide all the necessary information to invitees. WAFFer is a mobile app specialised in collecting all discounts, promotions and offers available in the Omani market, as well as facilitating the purchase of products. Kashka is a mobile app to promote traditional Omani fashion. Shubak is an online platform which lists all the main events and activities that are being held in Oman and enables users to book tickets to attend the events of their choice. Rial is an electronic platform to enable users to invest in various sectors with limited amounts starting from one Rial.
In the health sector, Blood diamond is an app that lists all the medical reports and relevant information about donators to facilitate easy access, whenever required. Holo lab project is an app based on augmented reality technology, through which users can conduct chemical experiments simulating the reality.
In the education sector, Eschool app was developed to enable direct and instant communication between parents, school management and teachers to discuss student’s educational and behavioural level or performance. Career positioning system was developed to guide students and professionals on how to achieve their career goals with the help of experts and specialists.
In the construction sector, Tawafuq was implemented to facilitate the establishment of professional organisations for property owners and enable them to manage and maintain their properties and services offered. Bunian aims to gather a large number of contractors and engineering consultancy offices to facilitate the construction and building process, and enable users to select among them after reviewing their previous works. In the booking area, a number of apps and platforms have been implemented, such as Ahjiz to enable users to book for entertainment facilities, including for play yards, resorts/farms, camping equipment and halls, whereas Malabna facilitates booking for various sports events. Mawahib is a website and mobile app that links all the talented people and talent hunters who are looking for creative people to implement certain projects or tasks, either full-time or part-time. In addition to these, the ‘GPS system for Fishermen’ was implemented to serve fishermen during their fishing trips, and it provides them with lots of services, such as weather information and the fishing areas.
Winners have the opportunity to join the Sas Centre for Entrepreneurship at ITA, which seeks to incubate and establish Omani emerging companies in the ICT sector. These incubated companies will be provided with a range of services and facilities, including an equipped office in the knowledge Oasis – Muscat, technical consultancies, as well as monitoring, training, accounting, financial, marketing and legal services, government support and financial assistance.