It is held under the auspices of the Ministry of Development and witnessed the honoring of 10 innovators
“Mada” Forum is a technological platform to support people with disabilities
Working to enrich the Arab market with the latest software
Supporting entrepreneurship and innovators at various stages of innovation
Developing ideas and transforming them into comprehensive technological innovations and solutions
Discussing policies and strategies for harnessing scientific research and artificial intelligence
Employing artificial intelligence and robotics to serve people with disabilities
2:02 AM, Saturday, December 9, 2023
Doha – Ibrahim Salah:
Under the auspices of the Ministry of Social Development and Family, the Mada Innovation Center held the “Mada Innovation Forum 2023”, which aimed to discuss the latest innovations and assistive technology solutions that enhance the digital access ecosystem and work to enrich the Arab market with the latest software, in addition to exchanging experiences and consulting on the most prominent topics of digital access and assistive technology and the most prominent trends. Global in this field, believing in the importance of creating a more independent world for people with disabilities.
The Center announced the victory of 10 innovators during the Mada Innovation Award 2023, which aims to improve the ecosystem of digital access and assistive technology by increasing the number of technological solutions that support people with disabilities in the Arabic language in the local and global markets, In addition to supporting entrepreneurship and innovators in the various stages of the process of developing their ideas to transform them. To comprehensive technological innovations and solutions, in the presence of a number of officials from various entities, as well as innovators and developers in the technology sector.
Mr. Fahd Muhammad Al-Khayarin, Assistant Undersecretary for Social Development Affairs at the Ministry of Social Development and Family, honored the winners of the Mada Innovation Awards 2022 and the 2023 Award, in addition to honoring the members of the award’s jury.
During the forum, two discussion sessions were organized with the participation of a group of experts and specialists in people with disabilities, assistive technology, and artificial intelligence. The first discussion session was titled “From Idea to Impact: Effective Design of Innovation Ecosystems for People with Disabilities,” both at the level of policies and strategies and how to use and harness scientific research. And artificial intelligence, with an explanation of the role of the media in promoting the innovation ecosystem. In the second discussion session, the success stories of the Mada Innovation Program were reviewed in light of its actual launch in 2017 and the access of some participants to have their innovations used by more than 150,000 users, and some of them were incubated within major companies.
During the forum, an accompanying exhibition was carried out, divided into two parts, including the five winners of the award during the previous edition, who were supported by the Mada Innovation Program, in addition to the 18 companies sponsoring the Mada Lab, which provide technological solutions within the State of Qatar, and which were hosted to introduce this technology and focus on The latest technologies that rely on artificial intelligence, robotics, and natural language processing to serve people with disabilities and enhance their integration into society.
During the exhibition, the winning innovations during the last edition were displayed, such as the Kalami application, which is an interactive educational platform for deaf people in Qatari Sign Language, which contributes to developing their educational skills, in addition to the Ma’an application, which is the first application that supports electronic communication between people with autism, and the Deepphone application, which helps people with autism. People with communication difficulties, by recognizing their incomprehensible voice and converting it into understandable words using artificial intelligence and the Field of Vision application from Ireland, which is a small field that contains a place for the ball during football matches for blind people and is used for the blind inside the match field, and the fifth innovation that won the Arabization grant « Predictable Arabic, which is widely used in the UK and has a local demand and was not available, has been made available to people with learning and communication difficulties.
Amani Al Tamimi: Continuing global leadership in the field of digital accessibility
Ms. Amani Al-Tamimi, who is in charge of the duties of CEO of the Mada Center, said: Continuing global leadership in the field of digital accessibility is our permanent goal, and innovating auxiliary solutions is our constant obsession to ensure a sustainable and comprehensive digital future, since the launch of the Mada Innovation Program, which is a platform for creating ideas and creating solutions in the Arabic language that contribute to Improving the lives of people with disabilities and supporting their independence.
She continued: We worked hard and took innovation as a strategic approach on which we built our programs and projects until we became today a center of excellence in digital access in the Arabic language in the world. This achievement would not have been achieved without your active participation and contributions in order to enhance the comprehensive and sustainable ecosystem and stimulate the role of technology to bridge the digital gap. Reducing inequalities by empowering and promoting inclusion for all, as well as encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship.
She added: What distinguishes this year’s edition is the emergence of a group of innovators in the field of assistive technology for people with disabilities, members of the Mada Innovation Club, who have proven that, with their determination, they were able to develop ideas and visions to overcome challenges and contribute to sustainable development.
She announced the addition of a new group of innovations in the Arabic language to the Mada Innovation Program file, bringing the number to 66 innovations, and continued: With your participation and support, we are determined to continue to strengthen the innovation ecosystem and overcome the challenges and scarcity of digital access solutions in the Arabic language by creating programs dedicated to business acceleration to increase the number of innovations in the Arabic language. Innovations, dissemination of research projects. We also seek to create a market for the private sector to meet the needs of the Arab world in the field of digital access and assistive technology and achieve a high positive impact on people with disabilities and the elderly.
Nour Al Mazrouei: 232 innovators applied for the 2023 award
Nour Ahmed Al Mazrouei, Head of the Assistive Technology Department at the Mada Center, confirmed that the Mada Innovation Award is the first award of its kind globally that aims to support the development of innovative solutions that enhance accessibility for people with disabilities within the paths of supporting entrepreneurs, direct grants, and Arabization, and obtaining a prize worth one million Qatari riyals.
She said: The award follows two paths: Arabization, provided that there is a technological solution available in the market, but it needs to be in the Arabic language, while the second path depends on direct grants with the presence of the idea and we support it until it comes to light.
She continued: During the first edition of the award in 2022, 132 innovators applied, and 5 of them were selected. In the current edition, 2023, 232 applied for the award, and 10 distinguished innovators will be selected by the jury according to many criteria to study all the advanced solutions and choose the best of them, explaining that the application for the award was It is open to everyone to apply from all countries of the world.
She explained that Mada Center introduced the award thanks to its belief in the capabilities of people with disabilities and its keenness to provide them with the correct digital access, and assistive technology is the only way to enable them to live independently and achieve all their goals.
She pointed out that the solutions provided were for all hearing, motor, and visual disabilities, whether visually impaired or blind, with the center’s keenness on solutions for Arabization in light of the abundance of solutions outside the Arab world, which qualifies it to spread locally and globally in the Arabic language.
She indicated that the winning innovations are followed up with financial prizes being delivered in stages until the project is fully completed, while moral and guidance support is provided to the innovators.
Dr.. Ashraf Othman: Using technology to enhance the independence of people with disabilities
Dr. indicated. Ashraf Othman, Head of the Research and Innovation Department at the Mada Center, indicated that before the launch of the award, focus sessions are held with people with disabilities to determine their needs and how to make assistive technology enhance their independence and enable them to access digital content. Accordingly, all of these needs are transformed into case studies and then published on the website. Mada Innovation Program and its launch worldwide for all innovators in order to present their ideas and find solutions to these cases.
He pointed to the development of the award from the first and second versions, especially in the number of participants, with the great interest from Arab countries to participate, given that the number of participants in the last version was 152 participants and the current version is 232 participants. He revealed cooperation and partnership with research institutions in the country and abroad, such as Hamad Bin Khalifa University and Doha University of Technology and Science, as a joint research team to find solutions to the most prominent challenges facing individuals with disabilities, in a way that serves innovators in developing their innovations and thus working to increase scientific papers and increase the number of open source data. .
