Oman- Upgrade programme: TRC announces winning projects

The Research Council (TRC) announced the three winning projects of the third edition of Upgrade – a programme designed to transform graduation projects into startups in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector on Monday.

As per a statement, this year's Upgrade focussed on transforming the 4th Industrial Revolution products into start-ups.

Upgrade has been developed and supervised by TRC, SAS Centre for Entrepreneurship at Information Technology Authority, Omantel and Riyada.

Out of the 11 graduation projects that reached the final evaluation stage of the programme, Upgrade's three winning projects, that will be incubated under the programme to be transformed into startups, were 'Renewable Energy Management System for a Smart City (REMS)', prepared by a team from SQU, 'Development of E-Voting System Based on Blockchain Technology', prepared by a team from the Middle East College, and 'IoT water quality monitoring and notification system for red tide', prepared by a team from the Middle East College.

Each of the three winning teams will receive financial support of RO12,000, comprehensive incubation, support and development programme, as well as training on startups at one of the companies outside the sultanate.

The awarding ceremony was held under the patronage of H E Talal al Rahbi, deputy secretary general of the Supreme Council for Planning.

A total of 125 graduation projects applied for this year's programme from 17 academic institutions; one of them being an academic institution from outside the sultanate.

Asila al Zeidi, strategic programmes specialist at the Communications and Information Technology sector at TRC, said, 'We thank the programme's focal points who spared no effort for the programme to be delivered to the biggest possible segment of students, encourage them and guide to register with the programme.'

Registration continued from March to May, followed by three-month qualification rounds. Laila al Wahaibi, CSR manager at Omantel, said, 'We are delighted to celebrate the conclusion of the third cycle of 'Upgrade' and announce the three winning teams for this year.'

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