Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), has opened DEWA Innovation Week 2016. 

This takes place from 20th - 24th November 2016, in conjunction with the 2nd UAE Innovation Week, which is organised annually in adherence to the directives of Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to celebrate innovators in the UAE. 

The opening ceremony was attended by DEWA's Executive Vice Presidents, Vice Presidents, and senior officials. 

Al Tayer toured the Innovation Week activities including the Innovation Hub, the Future Dome, and the Innovation Exhibition. The Innovation Hub features four main themes: Green Planet, Immersive Experiences, Smart City, and Connected World. The Future Dome features many activities including I-Talk sessions and Innovation Talk. 

During the Innovation Week, DEWA highlights future innovations related to electricity and water. DEWA will also organise its Creativity and Innovation conference on Thursday 24 November. International experts will discuss innovation in sustainability, renewable energy, and water. 

In his opening speech, Al Tayer welcomed participants to Innovation Week, noting that the UAE has become one of the leading countries in innovation. He emphasised that the UAE Government is working to transform the country into a knowledge-based economy by encouraging innovation, Research and Development, launching strategies and initiatives to further develop government innovation by making it an organisational task, and developing staff abilities to make them innovative and creative. 

"Thanks to the long-term vision of our wise leadership represented by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the innovation has become an integrated system and a stable culture in all government and private organisations. These strategies have helped the UAE come first in the Arab World in the Global Innovation Index 2016, which measures the performance of 128 countries in innovation. The UAE was also ranked first regionally and 16th globally in the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report 2016," said Al Tayer. 

"At DEWA, we adopt innovation as a major pillar for continuous improvement and development. DEWA adopts innovation as a corporate value and a standard practice to develop government services, and improve the overall efficiency and performance of government work. It is making every effort to enhance knowledge and creativity, while providing an environment capable of encouraging innovation," he added. 

"In DEWA, innovation is not limited to only one week each year, but we continuously work to promote innovation among our staff to make DEWA the most innovative utility in the world. This contributes to enhancing Dubai's position as one of the leading smart cities that encourages innovation and shapes the future. We also make sure to involve, and work together with our customers, partners, and all stakeholders to develop the latest advances in energy and water, to further motivate innovation and instil it as a lifestyle amongst us all." 

He added DEWA organises international competitions that promote innovation and attract innovators from the UAE and abroad. "These include the Solar Decathlon in 2018 and 2020. The decathlon, which is held for the first time in the Middle East and North Africa, challenges teams to design and build smart houses that operate solely on solar power. Ebtikari was launched in the first Innovation Week last year, and was the first government platform to attract technological solutions from around the world using crowd sourcing. This year's Innovation Week features a number of activities including the Hackathon, where creative minds from different backgrounds work together to turn challenges into innovative applications and solutions, and the DEWA Future Utility Cup, which attracts modern technologies and emerging companies," Al Tayer said. 

"I am confident that this year's Innovation Week activities will meet your expectations, and inspire you for more innovations, thus contributing towards achieving DEWA's vision to become a sustainable innovative world-class utility," he concluded. 

DEWA's Innovation Week activities include a competition for students to design, build, test and race solar-powered remote control cars. The competition promotes Shams Dubai initiative, as it will encourage the young to learn about clean energy, in a highly-engaging manner. This further establishes DEWA as a forward-thinking supporter of innovation and sustainability. The final race will take place in Q1 of next year. 

DEWA will also announce the winners of the DEWA Future Utility Cup, which is a first-of-its-kind global start-up competition. The competition is the result of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between DEWA and the global start-up incubator 1776, to accelerate the pace of innovation in energy. It will tap into 1776's extensive network of over 3,000 start-ups that have participated in the 1776 Challenge Cup in 2015 and 2016. 

Source: WAM