Winners of the GE Egypt Digital Innovation Challenge complete training on Predix, the platform for the Industrial Internet of Things

GE (NYSE: GE) today announced that the three winning teams of the GE Egypt Digital Innovation Challenge have successfully completed their four-week online training on Predix, GE’s platform for the Industrial Internet of Things. Once completed, all winners were granted a one-year license to use Predix to develop their solutions on the platform, and received the remaining 50 percent of their EGP 100,000 cash award.

Through GE Digital, the leading software company for the Industrial Internet, the winners received a four-week online, interactive and blended course specifically designed for the unique challenges and opportunities of industrial data. Through a combination of instructor-led online training, self-paced modules, virtual lab access, tutorials, guides and assessments, the winners utilized community forums and group discussions to help further develop their applications.

“I was honoured to be a part of GE Egypt Digital Innovation Challenge,” said Ibrahim El Sayed, winner of the energy challenge. “As promised by GE, I participated in one of the most prominent industrial software trainings, and will soon start materializing my idea. This has been a great experience and I am looking forward to more opportunities and challenges to help grow my career.”

Ayman Khattab, President and CEO, GE North East Africa, added “It is with great honor that I congratulate the winners of the GE Egypt Digital Innovation Challenge, who showcased Egypt’s enormous talent in software development. Egypt has a strong pool of young talent and the country has the potential to be a hub for software development. I was impressed with the number and quality of applicants. As the world’s leading digital industrial company, we believe that GE has the necessary assets to help address Egypt’s industrial challenges, and this initiative is an example of our continued commitment to the country.”

In May 2017, the three winners were announced at an Award Ceremony attended by H.E. Engineer Yasser El Kady, Minister of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), at the Ministry. The Challenge was held in partnership with the Technology Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC), an affiliate of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA). The 2016-17 GE Egypt Digital Innovation Challenge featured more than 185 university students, entrepreneurs and software developers, who submitted their digital solutions for Egypt’s challenges in transportation, healthcare and energy.

Yasser Ashoush, one of the winners of the transportation challenge, added, “I’m always interested in participating in activities related to TIEC; when I heard about the GE Egypt Digital Innovation Challenge, I immediately wanted to be part of it.  We have now completed the Predix training, which will help us create and develop our application on the industrial platform. We are proud to participate in this GE initiative and proud that our solution can help improve the efficiency of Egypt’s rail sector.” 

“We are currently developing our solutions to help track healthcare assets for mobile medical equipment and medical staff personnel,” said Hany Hammad, one of the winners of the healthcare challenge. “Our team is currently working on moving our prototype to Predix, and the cash award helped us deploy more resources towards enhancing our prototype and hiring two new developers.”

The challenge was developed in an effort to drive innovation in Egypt and help address the country’s needs more efficiently and effectively. By utilizing GE’s scale and expertise and supporting innovative ideas, some of Egypt’s toughest challenges can be solved.