By: Bakinam Khaled - Mohamed Elttar

Vodafone Egypt launched a hackathon of assistive technologies based on artificial intelligence for people with special needs, to be the first private sector company in Egypt to develop tools dedicated to facilitating the lives of individuals with special needs in aspects of their daily and practical lives, under the auspices of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. , over the course of 3 days, from January 22 to 24, as part of the company's interest in providing various services and facilitating the lives of all individuals.

It is scheduled that registration for the "Hackathon" will start on December 25, and the qualifiers will start from January 8 to January 12, and registration will be available to students of the last academic year up to the age of 35, provided that applicants have special needs. Engineering graduates, or any educational background in finance or marketing, in addition to Vodafone Egypt employees. Five teams will be formed to compete, provided that three winning teams will be selected from among the applicants, who presented innovative and distinguished models. They will have an opportunity to obtain Vodafone Egypt support. To transform their ideas and models into practical aids or products.

For his part, Mahmoud El-Khatib, Head of Business Sector at Vodafone Egypt, said that the Hackathon is a competition designed for individuals who have ideas for useful and innovative practical tools, and need support to transform the idea into a real product, and it is an important event in which developers who have skills in the field of software development gather to participate in Developing projects or applications that help provide various services in an easy way for anyone to use, pointing out that anyone who has the spirit of innovation to adapt modern technologies such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence or technical development in formulating tools that help people with special needs in the workplace can participate in the hackathon.

For her part, Naglaa Kenawy, Head of Human Resources Sector at Vodafone Egypt, said that the Hackathon is a great opportunity to develop the skills and capabilities of young people, by helping and guiding them on how to start implementing their ideas and projects. It is also a good opportunity to embrace creative ideas that contribute to facilitating the lives of individuals with special needs, whether In public life or in the workplace, within the framework of Vodafone Egypt's keenness to employ people with special needs and benefit from their capabilities, and to create opportunities and initiatives that help them unleash their ideas and dreams, and an opportunity to express their needs and even contribute to providing some innovative solutions.

It is worth noting that Vodafone Egypt, represented by Vodafone Smart Solutions, launched the “Digital Community Hackathon” last year to support young cadres in the field of digital transformation, as part of the company’s efforts to support youth in innovation, and its belief in the importance of creating opportunities and initiatives that help them launch Unleash their ideas and dreams, and work on implementing many activities and ideas of a distinguished and creative nature.