Beykar Technical Director Selçuk Bayraktar handed over prizes to the winners of the summit (Al Jazeera)
The sixth edition of the Take-Off Entrepreneurship Summit concluded in Istanbul, Turkey, with the participation of Turkish officials and the presence of prominent Arab entrepreneurs and investors.
Turkish Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatge Kager said his country was striving to transfer the success and gains it has made in the defense industries to other areas of technology as well.
Kager pointed out that the Technovest Aerospace Technology Festival has become an entrepreneurial factory in Turkey.
Technovest is an important way to discover the talents of young participants to showcase their technological innovations, such as rockets and robotics, with the support of government institutions, and is held annually by the Turkish Technology Team Endowment in several states in Turkey.
The Tech Off summit, organized in cooperation with 43 Turkish institutions, under the leadership of the Turkish Technology Team Endowment, the Ministry of Industry and Technology, and the Presidential Investment Office, aims to turn entrepreneurial dreams into reality.
Tech of Istanbul Summit witnessed a large presence of entrepreneurs (Al Jazeera)
Awards
At the end of the "Take Off" Istanbul summit, Selcuk Bayraktar, technical director of Baykar, the company that produces Turkish marches, gave a speech in which he stressed the importance of innovation and keeping pace with progress in the world of entrepreneurship, and handed the owners of the winning projects at the summit various financial prizes, and the grand prize amounted to $ 300,<>.
The process of evaluating the projects, ideas and applications submitted by one or more evaluators, where the idea takes into account that they provide a solution to the problem in question, and that they are appropriate for the market. The business model, team quality assessment, customer and partner information, and product availability (pilot model) are also verified.
Arab participation
The Takeoff Istanbul summit was attended by many Arab investors and entrepreneurs.
Sheikh Mansour bin Khalifa Al Thani, one of the major Qatari investors involved, said that Takeoff Istanbul is a special event for entrepreneurship, adding that it has started strategic cooperation with many technology projects participating in the summit.
Tariq Mehyar, from Jordan, spoke about Al-Jazari participating in the summit, reviewing the company's journey since its beginnings until it became a startup that is constantly evolving.
Mihyar pointed out – in his speech to Al Jazeera Net – to the name of the company inspired by the name of the Arab Muslim scientist Ismail Al-Jazari, who is one of the greatest engineers, mechanics and inventors in history, and is described as the "father of robotics" and modern engineering.
Mehyar explained that the company is currently interested in developing engines used in the manufacture of drones, ships, tanks and cars.
Multiple Domains
Abdul Latif Babli, a young Syrian from Breva Café, presented at the Tech of Istanbul summit the project of coffee beans that replace their drink.
He pointed out – in his speech to Al Jazeera Net – that the idea is innovative and facilitates those wishing to drink coffee at any time or place without the need for water or a dedicated machine.
Also participating in Tech Off Istanbul was Osama Abdulhadi of Jordan's Messol, the first big data and artificial intelligence company in the Middle East and Turkey.
Abdul Hadi told Al Jazeera Net that the company is specialized in the field of smart selling through big data, so that the user requests the data of decision-makers in the targeted companies from more than one billion data records and obtains them directly with the e-mail and phone number so that he can reach the decision-makers at the push of a button, away from the traditional costly marketing methods and long and stressful sales procedures.
Educational Platforms
From Qatar, Sheikh Abdulrahman Al-Thani presented the online platform "My Teacher", a platform supported by Qatar Foundation and Qatar Science & Technology Park that collaborates with schools and parents to deliver distance learning lessons in an innovative way.
In the field of healthcare, the Jordanian company "Shifa" participated. The company's director, Mohamed Bdeir, said that it provides a quantum leap in medical services and medical education, rather than just providing analytical services, as it acts as an advanced companion that contributes to the detection of diseases and provides accurate recommendations by combining machine learning techniques and comprehensive analysis of patient history, which enhances the ability of doctors to make quick and informed decisions.
Bdeir added to Al Jazeera Net that "Shifa" also provides innovative educational services in the medical field, as it provides modern information and continuous training for doctors to enable them to keep pace with the latest medical developments.
As for teaching Arabic to non-native speakers, Take Off Istanbul participated in the "Unlocked Arabic" project (Arabic Unlocked), a smartphone application launched from Britain.
Asad Masoud said the app was downloaded by more than half a million users and was primarily intended to facilitate non-Arabs' understanding of the Koran.
He added that they are in the process of adding other languages to the application to teach native speakers Arabic.
The two-day summit witnessed a race in various fields, including topics such as medical and health services, automotive, aviation, logistics, energy and business administration.
It also includes the fields of financial banking, digital advertising, data automation, gaming, artificial intelligence, as well as robotics, wearable technologies, education, as well as agricultural and natural technologies, transportation, and communication technology.
Source : Al Jazeera