Ministry of Communications & IT and GE Form Strategic Partnership and Launch a Digital Innovation Challenge to Solve Egypt's Industrial Challenges

GE
Designed to leverage both the power of the Industrial Internet and the creativity and ingenuity of the Egypt’s young people, the GE Egypt Digital Innovation Challenge will support Egypt’s vision to build an innovative society that seeks to produce advances in science, technology and overall knowledge.
6 September 2016
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GE Africa (Lagos)
  • The challenge is held in cooperation with the Technology Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC)
  • The challenge aims to find digital solutions for industrial challenges in healthcare, transportation, and energy
  • Three winners will each be awarded EGP 100,000* and given the opportunity to receive training and develop their ideas on GE's open source industrial software platform, Predix 

GE (NYSE: GE) today announced the launch of the GE Egypt Digital Innovation Challenge, in partnership with the Ministry of Communications and IT (MCIT). The Challenge is an open innovation competition to encourage Egyptian minds to find digital solutions for some of the country's industrial challenges in healthcare, transportation, and energy. The initiative is held in cooperation with the Technology Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC); an affiliate of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA). Ideas can be submitted online from September 5 – November 30, 2016.http://invent.ge/EgyptDigitalChallenge

One winner will be selected from each of the three categories, and will win a cash award of EGP 100,000*, as well as an opportunity to receive training to develop their software solution on Predix. Predix is an operating system and platform for building applications that connects industrial assets, collects, and analyzes data, and delivers real-time insights for optimizing industrial infrastructure and operations.

Yasser El Kady, Minister of Communications and Information Technology in Egypt, stated: "We aim to create a strong base of competent entrepreneurs capable of utilizing technology to address Egypt's challenges. This new partnership supports our mission and helps innovators and software developers master and design digital solutions for industry, and showcases their capability to work with the government and global technology innovators."

The competition calls for students, SMEs, and entrepreneurs with a passion for innovation to submit digital solutions that solve the challenges below. The three sectors included in the competition go hand-in-hand with the government's current vision for Egypt to drive sustainable development across industries:

  • Energy : Egypt has announced a target of doubling the country's energy efficiency rate, with a target of renewable energy reaching 20% of the energy mix by 2022. We are looking for a digital solution that will help stabilize the electric grid as various power sources, such as gas, wind, solar and coal, go online and offline.
  • Healthcare : The government aims to achieve equitable access to 80% of essential health interventions. The challenge is to develop a digital solution to help track a hospital's installed base of equipment, and improve process, operations, and flow. 
  • Transportation : Egypt has a goal to raise the share of Egypt's rail freight operations from 1% to 10% over the coming 15 years. We are asking for a digital solution to remotely monitor the rail fleet and record information about operations, maintenance cycles, and scheduling.

Dr. Hossam Osman, CEO of TIEC, added: "Our aim is to stimulate open innovation among software developers and the digital community. We look forward to seeing the innovative solutions that are developed through the GE Egypt Digital Innovation Challenge, and are confident that participants will help Egypt become a global competitor in high value-add innovation."

Ayman Khattab, President & CEO, GE North East Africa, stated: "At GE, we prioritize investment in Egypt's youth; we believe it is our responsibility to provide them with the right access to information and skills development training, such as with Predix, allowing them to explore new opportunities. As a digital industrial company, we know that science and technology have the power to solve global challenges, and by partnering with the MCIT and TIEC on this competition, we believe we will enhance the ecosystem's confidence in solving their own country's problems."

In the region and around the globe, GE's approach to open innovation is helping to address customer and country needs more efficiently and effectively. By sourcing and supporting innovative ideas wherever they might come from, we can apply GE's scale and expertise to solve some of the world's toughest challenges.

* Terms & conditions apply. The cash prize is subject to the Egyptian tax law and its regulations. 

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