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Khalifa University opens Seventh Forum

ABU DHABI - Under the patronage of His Highness Shaikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince’s Court and Vice Chairman of Khalifa University Board of Trustees, the Khalifa University opened today the UAE’s seventh Information and Communication Technology Research Forum (ICTRF2013), at its Abu Dhabi campus which runs from May 12th to the 14th, 2013.

The first day was attended by Dr. Mugheer Al Khaili, member of Khalifa University’s Board of Trustees, among other guests and students.

The forum follows the recent Global Information Technology Report which ranked the UAE 25th out of 144 countries. The report scored nations across 10 factors including skills, infrastructure and digital content and economic and social impacts along with the country’s market and regulatory framework in ICT. The UAE moved up five places overall in the rankings from last year, including a jump of 30 places to 2nd in government usage of ICT.

This year’s forum was extended by two days to include the presentation of graduate student papers and posters, and to hold a workshop on Cloud Computing. The theme of the forum was “ICT Research and Innovation towards Creating Ubiquitous Smart Societies” and included sessions on ICT and Sustainable Communities (Green ICT and Transportation), Future Generation Networks (Security, Infrastructure), and Intelligent Healthcare Systems (computational healthcare, healthcare robotics).

The forum featured presentations from world renowned national and international speakers, including David Bernstein, Managing Director of Cloud Strategy Partners in the USA, who spoke on “Covering the Planet with Computing – The Intercloud,” and Professor Abbas Jamalipour, Professor of Ubiquitous Mobile Networking, from the University of Sydney, Australia, who spoke on “Wireless Distributed Networks Enabling Cloud Communications.”

Other speakers included Professor Paolo Dario, Professor of Biomedical Robotics, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna University, Italy, Professor Magnus Boman, School of Information and Communication Technology, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, Professor Kin K. Leung, Tanaka Chair in Internet Technology, Imperial College, UK, and Mr. Madhav Narayan, Senior Regional Director, GCC, Enterprise Business, Samsung Gulf Electronics, Korea. In addition, several prominent faculty members from Khalifa University spoke, including Professor Bayan Sharif, Dean of the College of Engineering and Professor Mohammed Ismail Elnaggar, Director of the Semiconductor Research Center and Electrical and Computer Engineering Chair.

ICTRF2013 was co-organized by ETISALAT-BT Innovation Centre (EBTIC) and the Emirates Advanced Network for Research and Education (ANKABUT). It is sponsored by the TRA (Telecommunications Regulatory Authority) in partnership with Etisalat, Abu Dhabi Education Council, the Institute of Applied Technology (IAT), Abu Dhabi Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (ACTVET), and the ICT Fund.