Following last year’s success, the Huawei ICT Competition is scheduled to take place for the 5th consecutive year. Students are set to learn about topics – such as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and big data – to create valuable and meaningful applications for society. Huawei invited universities and colleges across the Pakistan to participate in the Competition, with a total of ten teams to be selected for the regional final this year. The Huawei ICT Competition, held under the theme ‘Connectivity, Honor, Future’, will run from October to December, and is larger part of Huawei’s commitment towards nurturing the next generation of ICT leaders across the world. This year’s competition is being held in partnership with Huawei ICT Academy, Academy Support Centers and Learning Partners. More than 25 Virtual and On-campus roadshows and awareness sessions were conducted at universities all around Pakistan by Huawei’s Talent Ecosystem Development team. More than 10,300 students registered to date for the international competitive and communication-based platform hoping to increase their ICT knowledge, improve their practice and application skills. All of the registered participants will sit for the next stage of the competition, known as the preliminary exam. On site and online examinations are underway, with 15 on-site locations confirmed. Allgovernment-issued SOP’s being followed during the on-site examinations. The results of the preliminary exam will come out next week and the top students will make it to the next stage of the competition; enablement training and certification exam. The top 500 students from preliminary exams will attend the enablement training FREE in the coming weeks and the Huawei certification exams by the end of the training. The competition will welcome thousands of undergraduate students from across the Middle East including Pakistan, and will be held virtually in compliance with social distancing measures. Winners of the regional competitions will receive a certification, future learning opportunities, a USD20,000 cash prize and more. Dr. Waheed ur Rehman, Assistant Professor at University of Peshawar, said: “The need for advanced technologies is rapidly increasing, not just in Pakistan, but across the world. Innovation from our young ICT talent will be key to development of our future digital economy. Therefore, we are proud to be a part of the prestigious Huawei Middle East ICT Competition, which greatly contributes to the development of the ICT talent ecosystem in Pakistan. This is a valuable opportunity for students wishing to learn and grow in the ICT world. With the growing need for more ICT professionals, Huawei is providing students a platform to compete against national talent and develop their skills. Through our collaboration with a global leading technology company, such as Huawei, we are confident in our ability to affectively contribute in achieving Pakistan’s vision.” In the past 4 years, over 10,000 undergraduate students across Pakistan applied for the Huawei ICT Competition each year. Last year’s ICT Competition saw 10 countries’ tech talents head for the Huawei Middle East ICT Competition final, in which team Pakistan took home the award for first prize.
