QU, HBKU, QCRI and Huawei Qatar launch Artificial Intelligence National Competition for 2022

Qatar University College of Engineering (QU-CENG), Hamad bin Khalifa University (HBKU), the Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), and Huawei Qatar have announced the launch of Qatar’s 2022 Artificial Intelligence Competition: Mena region.

The competition is aimed at raising awareness of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies globally, support building capacity in this timely and crucial area, and provide a platform for participants to share AI ideas and applications, Qatar University (QU) has said in a statement.In his speech, QU-CENG dean Dr Khalid Kamal Naji said: “This is a competition challenging students, developers, professionals and researchers to develop and demonstrate how humans can collaborate with powerful AI technologies to tackle some challenges for different applications.”“This opportunity will also raise awareness of AI technologies in Qatar and the Mena (Middle East and North Africa) region, support building local capacity in this timely and crucial area, and provide a platform for participants to share AI ideas and applications,” he added. “The competition consists of two tracks, and participants are required to submit either a ‘Concept & Design’ or ‘Proof of Concept & Demo’.”QCRI director Dr Ahmed K Elmagarmid said: “The competition consists of five phases: idea submission, December 31; announcement of shortlisted ideas, February 7, 2022; project submission, May 1, 2022; project testing and demos (track 2), March 15, 2022; and announcement of the winners, May 29, 2022.”“Only one submission per group will be considered in the evaluation stage, and we encourage the participants to register early so that they can begin to plan and build their solutions/demos and submit them on time,” he added.Dr Mounir Hamdi, dean of the College of Science and Engineering at the HBKU, said: “We are looking for creative and innovative AI solutions, which can be deployed to resolve practical problems, including but not limited to healthcare solutions, AI in smart cities, fintech and in education, automatic and real-time detection of trolls over social media, real-time AI solutions for assisting sports referees to take prompt decisions, crowd monitoring and behaviour analysis and prediction.”"The competition will recognise the developers who are paving the path for future innovative AI technologies that can be deployed to support infrastructure and address challenges for different applications,” he added.Gao Zouping (Zoe), managing director of Cloud BG, Huawei Qatar, said: “The AI national competition is open to all individuals who are from the Mena region.”“High school, undergraduate and graduate students are able to participate in the competition,” she said. “Experts (for example, professors and/or professionals) can act as mentors for high school and undergraduate students.”“Mentors will not receive a prize, but their efforts will be acknowledged, and a certification will be provided,” Gao added. “Participants are eligible to participate either individually or as a team.”“The maximum number in a team should not exceed three participants,” she said. “Any participating team is allowed only for a single submission.”Dr Abdullah Khalid al-Ali, head of QU-CENG's Department of Computer Science and Engineering, explained: “Artificial intelligence is considered one of the pillars on which the technology industry is based in the current era, and it refers to the ability of digital machines and computers to carry out specific and intelligent tasks that these computers were not able to devise by traditional methods, such as the ability to think or learn, and the ability to study patterns and deduce their outputs after a process.”“Experiment, training and analysis, and AI work to reach intelligent systems in various fields of our current era, such as education, security, transportation, guidance in energy expenditure, navigation systems and data analysis,” he added.Dr Mohamed al-Hitmi, head of QU-CENG Electrical Engineering Department, said: “Indeed, there is a great impact of AI on education as it can support and improve the learning process.”“Artificial Intelligence-based platforms can also facilitate the learning process, especially with the challenges that we face due to (the coronavirus) Covid-19 (pandemic),” he added. “Moreover, the creation of applications based on artificial intelligence that serve not only students but also teachers and educational institutions as a whole, and from here it was necessary to invest in AI.”Kindi Centre for Computing Research director Dr Abdulaziz al-Ali said: “The details of the two tracks are as follows: track 1 of the competition is 'Concept & Design', (where) the teams are requested to describe their concept and design in the form of an article.”“A presentation that shows the proposed solution must be presented in front of the juries,” he elaborated. “The evaluation criteria for this track will be mainly on your innovative idea (40%), the feasibility of implementation (30%), and the impact of the proposed solution on the society (30%).”“Track 2 of the competition is 'Proof of Concept & Demos'. In this track, the teams are requested to articulate their proof of concept in the form of a detailed article,” al-Ali said. “A technical presentation must be done to show the proposed solution and the conducted experimentations, in addition to a live demo to demonstrate the actual implementation of the proposed solution.”“The evaluation criteria for this track will be on the innovative idea (25%), the feasibility of implementation (25%), performance (25%) and the impact of the proposed solution on the society (25%),” he added.