Inaugural Challenge to Focus on Using Metaverse in Education and Will be Open to Students from Local Universities in UAE
Khalifa University of Science and Technology and Microsoft UAE announced their intentions to collaborate on a metaverse competition for university students in the UAE.
To be named ‘Metaversity Hackathon’, the theme for the first year will focus on using the metaverse in education or ‘meta varsity’. The first year’s competition will be open to invited participants from local universities but will be expanded later as a public event for all universities. Winners will be rewarded by Khalifa University.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University, and Naim Yazbeck, General Manager, from Microsoft UAE , in the presence of officials from both partners, on the sidelines of the 15th edition of GESS Dubai Exhibition and Conference, one of the largest events in the Middle East for education professionals as well as local and international education solutions providers.
Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University, said: “Khalifa University is delighted to partner with Microsoft Gulf to launch the Metaversity Hackathon and assist in nurturing innovation and creativity among students. We believe our academic and research expertise together with Microsoft’s technical capabilities will bring increased synergy to the competition, while strengthening the knowledge base of students.”
Naim Yazbeck, General Manager, Microsoft UAE, stated: “Metaverse technologies have many applications and the potential to further enhance the way we provide an engaging and stimulating learning experience for our students. Hackathons can uncover new, exciting use cases but more importantly present an opportunity to aspiring coders to experiment with cutting edge technologies. We are excited to be supporting Khalifa University on its mission to provide both – a learning experience and an opportunity to innovate to the UAE’s student population.”
Microsoft UAE will provide technical readiness to participants, while additionally offering technical mentor experts to coach them during the ‘Metaversity Hackathon’ competition. Moreover, participants will also learn ways to adopt Microsoft technology and hardware in the mixed reality space for the competition.
As a research-intensive academic institution, Khalifa University is closely involved in organizing and hosting hackathons, bringing together students to collaborate on coding for developing software or hardware projects, to help create a functioning product. Students of Khalifa University continue to win top awards at global and regional hackathon competitions.
Clarence Michael
English Editor Specialist
16 November 2022
