ITIDA to help Wild Card winners implement COVID-19 challenging projects

30 / 03 / 2020

By Marwa Nassar - -

Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) pledged to help winners of the ‘Wild Card’ online hackathon implement their projects which will help respond to the fallout of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

The three-day hackathon – which wrapped up on March 29 – was initiated by Robusta, an Egyptian tech & product agency, and many governmental agencies and private organizations along with a well-connected network of VCs, accelerators and community outreach partners have joined to try to take on the coronavirus and challenge its global impact.

More than 100 teams from the Europe, the Middle East and Africa region (EMEA) joined the hackathon and started working together with a focus on finding and developing innovative solutions to support the healthcare system, business continuity, and community wellbeing areas in which solutions will be prototyped.

For its part, ITIDA has decided to contribute to this initiative through offering up its facilities to support and serve all the winning teams or startups to develop, implement and fabricate their projects in its Electronics Innovation Complexes (EIC) located in 3 governorates, including Cairo at the Smart Village, Alexandra’s Borg Al-Arab Tech Park, and Assiut’s Tech Park.

The Innovation complex (EIC) – established under the national presidential initiative “Egypt Makes Electronics” (EME) – has 4 integrated divisions that are well equipped with development kits, tools, electronics components, measurement equipment.

The winning teams will enjoy access to a set of tools that enable them to run PCB fabrication and assembly facilities up to 4 layers. Additionally, each complex is fully equipped with industrial grade digital fabrication facilities (FABLAB) for mockup & package prototype, along with a state of the art co-working space.

ITIDA will continue to support the winning teams to bring their prototypes to the next level through its portfolio of development programs and initiatives.

Yet, ITIDA is committed to remain consistent with the guidelines of the World Health Organizations (WHO) and precautionary measures of the Egyptian Ministry of Health to ensure that the workplace is safe and guarantees safety for its employees and visitors.