Dell EMC  announced the winners of ‘Envision the Future’, the annual graduation project competition for Turkey, Middle East and Africa region. The competition in its third year witnessed significant growth from the previous editions with over 329 project submissions by more than 1,450 senior undergraduate students, representing more than 70 universities in 18 countries in the region.

In its third edition, ‘Envision the Future’, sponsored by the Egyptian Centre of Excellence (COE), aims to inspire and support technological innovations among youth in the region. Aligned with the Dell 2020 Legacy of Good goal to apply the expertise and technology of Dell EMC to drive human progress in underserved communities, the annual competition provides the opportunity for students to propose creative solutions to urban challenges with advanced technologies.

The competition also saw the participation of seven new countries including Oman, from where the German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech) proceeded to feature among the winners in addition to Princess Noura University from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The winners were selected from a group of 31 shortlisted projects from nine countries, chosen through a blind review process by 25 professors from leading universities, located around the world and outside of the META region, ensuring the fair evaluation of all submitted projects. The winners were judged in the criteria of project idea, implementation, and presentation by technical experts from Dell Technologies.
Participating students from the German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech) demonstrated an automated irrigation system with the Internet of Things (IoT), using different sensors and a mobile application for accurate monitoring of the system. The project from the other winning team, Princess Noura University from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, aims to capitalize on the data collected across time bound events in the region such as hackathons to provide insights through data driven analysis and interactive visualizations. Through the availability of information, effectively classified into different categories, the platform contributes to building the innovation ecosystem in the region.
The other competition finalists creatively used emerging technologies such as IoT to prevent drowsiness-related traffic incidents by King Faisal University, build a medical shield by Alexandria University, smart home by King Saud University and BitCube Cryptosystem by University of Dammam. King Abdulaziz University also used Artificial intelligence (AI) to build a face recognition-based mobile application for a safe dismissal routine while Cairo University used big data to propose healthcare innovation titled ‘Microphage’.
Witnessing significant year on year growth, the ‘Envision the Future’ competition saw 154 per cent more project submissions from last year. The increasing number of participants also witnessed an upward trend in female student participants, growing from 521 students last year to 794 this year. The third edition of the competition was uniquely characterized by all-female winning teams from both universities, the German University of Technology and Princess Noura University, indicating a positive trend of growing interest and skill in technology, among the future female workforce.

By providing an opportunity for students to showcase their ability to build world changing innovations, the competition drives the next generation of IT leaders to review a wide range of emerging technologies and apply the knowledge acquired from the Dell EMC Academic Alliance program in their respective universities. The annual competition coupled with the program prepares students for future careers in a transforming industry by equipping them with relevant marketable knowledge and skills.