ABU DHABI (ALETIHAD)
The unmanned Systems Exhibitions (UMEX) and the Simulation and Training Exhibitions (SimTEX), held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Ruler of Abu Dhabi and taking place from 23 to 25 January 2024 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC), has concluded the Ministry of Defence (MoD) Coding Competition, with 178 participants competing across two tracks of programming challenges.
Organised by UAE Ministry of Defence and ADNEC Group, the Coding Competition aimed to build and discover national competencies in specialised programming sectors. As the only event of their kind in the region that focuses on unmanned systems, robotics, and artificial intelligence industries, UMEX and SimTEX were the ideal platform to introduce this fun and entertaining feature.
The first three winners in each round were honoured with plaques in addition to one-of-a-kind prizes to enhance the spirit of competition among all participants in the competition. Track 1 of the coding challenge consisted of 142 participants, with Zayed Hamad, Naser Helal Alrowahi, and Ahmed Ali Aktebi winning first prize on day one, two, and three of the contest, respectively.
Track two of the competition, which featured 36 participants, included the UMEX 2024 Drone Programming challenge, taking a place across three different levels, designed to assess participants’ abilities through several advanced challenges. Over the three days of the exhibitions, Salwa Omar Abdullah Albaraki took first place and a prize of Dh50,000, followed by Khadijah Rashed Mohammad Alsaradi and Issa Hamad Salem.
The Coding Challenges provided an opportunity for participants to demonstrate their expertise in software development, hardware design, and operations planning for drones in a fun and competitive way to stay up to date with the latest technologies in the industry.
The competitions included two main tracks with the aim of attracting Emiratis with specialised skills in a variety of programming languages including C, C++, Go, Java, JavaScript, Kotlin, PHP, Python3, Ruby, Scala, Swift, and TypeScript, to showcase their programming skills in five daily competitions.
As a leading global gathering for drones, robotics, components and unmanned systems, this year’s UMEX and SimTEX 2024 exhibitions have reaffirmed and strengthened their status as essential platforms for innovation and growth in the unmanned systems sector.