June 2015 Page | 1

MOSAIC Newsletter nº3

Maghreb region

Algeria Page 2

Morocco Page 3

Tunisia Page 7

Mashriq region

Egypt Page 9

Jordan Page 10

Lebanon Page 12

Palestine Page 14

Syria Page 15

Europe

Big Data Value Initiative (BDVA) Page 17

Cooperation with Mediterranean Partners to build Opportunities around ICT

and Societal And Industrial Challenges of Horizon 2020

June 2015 Page | 2

Algeria

Organization of the 2nd Forum Enterprises – University of Blida

http://www.univ-blida.dz/images/int-rec-

bul-05-imprimeur-final.pdf

This major event, which will take place on 7, 8 and

9 April 2015 at the headquarters of the SAAD

Dahleb University, wants to be a privileged space

for the development and implementation of the national policy of densification of the industrial

fabric, with main objective to catalyze synergies

between the world of scientific creativity, and that

of its valorization on the field grace to the

entrepreneurial initiative for the establishment of centers of performing productions, creative and

innovative. This is a big advance in a

socioeconomic sphere that is increasingly taking

the form of a complex system in which interactions, interconnections and interdependencies, must be

optimized to assure optimum performance. This

Forum will also provide a platform for dialogue and

consultation, to lead to a database encompassing all existing expertise and mobilized for the benefit

of economic development of our country. This

exhibition space will be attended by one hundred

exhibitors from all socio-economic segments

namely : • Production enterprises of all sizes and in

all sectors,

• laboratories for scientific research,

• Support Institutions and support, • Financial Institutions Accompanying

2nd International Conference on Networking

and Advanced Systems

May 6-7, 2015 | Badji Mokhtar University, Annaba,

Algeria

http://lrs-annaba.net/ICNAS2015/

The second conference ICNAS 2015 is a scientific

event that brings together scientific expertise on

several areas of scientific research. This biennial

conference is the successor of the conference ICNAS 2013. In fact, the areas of

interest ICNAS 2015 are valid with a cross between

different research themes.

Through this conference, the scientific frontiers are

pushed and multidisciplinary investigations allow

researchers and young researchers to propose their

ideas and contributions. The conference deals with topics relating to networking, management and

systems that revolve around this technology. The

systems are advanced systems by their design,

implementation and applications.

June 2015 Page | 3

The 12th International Symposium on

Programming and Systems

April 28-30, 2015, USTHB, Algiers, Algeria

http://www.isps.usthb.dz/index.html

The International Symposium on Programming and

Systems (ISPS) is a biennial event that brings

together top researchers in Computer Science from all over the world to present and discuss recent

research results in various areas of the field.

Strong of its experience that accuses more than 20

years, the ISPS conference has evolved and managed to gather around her a scientific

participation of high quality and growing interest.

Indeed, from its first edition in 1991, the growth

has been steady and substantial through the eleven past editions. From the edition held in 2011,

ISPS has earned the IEEE label and the conference

papers were indexed through IEEE Xplore.

Beside,ISPS now benefits from the expertise of an international program committee whose members

have been chosen for their technical quality.

ISPS is already at its twelfth edition, a sure sign of

maturity and quality ! And the managing team aims to continue in this way and ensure the

continuation of the high quality of the conference.

The purpose of the 12th ISPS conference is to

bring more and more together researchers, engineers and practitionners interested in the

computer science and technological advances.

Papers describing advanced prototypes, systems,

tools and techniques and general survey papers indicating future directions are encouraged. All

papers must describe original work, not previously

published or submitted to another conference.

ISPS’2015 have four main tracks, covering different domains of computer science including

Communication Technologies and Systems

Security, Information Technology, Computational

Intelligence and Computer systems and Applications.

Morocco

Fourth generation mobile phone technologies

On Wednesday, March 18, 2015, The Chief of

Government Abdelilah Benkirane has validated the

appraisal report by the Telecommunications

Regulatory National Agency (ANRT) on the granting of licenses for fourth generation (4G)

According to the ANRT, 2 billion dirhams ($200

million), is the amount of money paid in an auction by the three Moroccan telecommunication

operators namely Maroc Telecom, Meditel (Medi

Telecom) and Inwi (Wana Corporate), that won

licenses for 4G technologies .The first operator has paid 1billion dirhams for more quality of service,

while Meditel and Inwi paid 500 million dirhams

each.

860 million dirhams have been added by the three

operators to contribute to the costs of the redevelopment of the frequencies, the agency said.

[1]

4G was officially launched in Morocco Wednesday, June 17 by inwi, 21 cities are covered as well as

Casablanca-Rabat and Mohammed V airport

Highway. [2].

Inwi and Meditel offer access to 4G 3G priced at no

additional cost. "The launch of 4G represents a new

milestone in the development of

telecommunications in Morocco”. Morocco Telecom announced that the last technical tests are

undertaken before the opening of its 4G + network.

The service will be launched from July 13, 2015, a

deployment must be ensured, covering all major

cities and major roads, motorways and railways. [3]

June 2015 Page | 4

Moroccan-Ivorian partnership in ICT field

On Monday, June 15, 2015, Morocco and the Côte

d'Ivoire were associated in Information and

Communication Technologies (ICT) field.

The Moroccan Federation of Information

Technologies, Telecommunications and Offshoring

(APEBI) concluded a partnership agreement with

his Ivorian counterpart the Group of ICT sector operators of Côte d'Ivoire (GOTIC) defining a

framework for cooperation between the two

entities. [4]

Morocco is in the 78th place in the World

Economic Forum ranking

Morocco displays a sharp rise in the rankings in

2015 of the World Economic Forum (WEC) on

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). After the 99th place in 2014, he arrived 78th

this year. The kingdom knows the most important

progress in the ranking. With an index of 3.9 in

2015, Morocco ranks in 4th place in Africa (behind Mauritius, Seychelles and South Africa). [5]

Moroccan companies prospecting in the ICT

sector in Kenya

15 Moroccan companies falling within the

Information and Communication Technologies

participate in a B2B Technology Mission organized

by Morocco Export sector in collaboration with the

Moroccan Association of Technological Societies - ASTEC, in Nairobi from 7 to 12 June 2015. [6]

The report of the International Data

Corporation (IDC)

International Data Corporation (IDC) has delivered

its report on the beginning of January on

"accelerating innovation and growth around the 3rd platform." Morocco is in good position at the level

of North African region.

According to the report, growth rates of the ICT

market in North Africa is growing rapidly. Morocco will record a positive growth of 8.5%, the report

states that over the next two years, the North

African companies will make the leap by

implementing mobile Business Intelligence Solutions, as well as predictive analytics and

metadata management solutions. The report notes,

that the telecommunication sector will be the

principal sector that will encourage investment in

the region exceptionally in Morocco by the launch of 4G, fiber and investment data centers; Followed

by the public sector, this former is the engine of

growth in the northern region of Africa mainly in

Morocco. [7]

June 2015 Page | 5

INWI Taps Aptilo Networks and Smartcom for

carrier Wi-Fi

INWI, the third largest telecommunications

operator in Morocco, says it has selected Aptilo Networks and Smartcom for an upgrade of INWI’s

public Wi-Fi service to “Wifi7dak,” (WIFI near to

you).

According to the company, the upgrade will increase bandwidth, support network expansion

and add new payment functionalities.

The Manager of Product and Services, Innovation, Strategy and Partnerships at INWI Julien Muller,

declared that INWI has deployed the Aptilo Service

Management Platform (SMP) which provides highly

scalable Wi-Fi services to increase INWI’s bandwidth capacity and support growth of the Wi-Fi

network [8].

Microsoft, AFEM and INWI launch Cloud

Startup Academy

Microsoft 4Afrika, The Association of Women

Entrepreneurs in Morocco (AFEM), and INWI

officially launched the Cloud Startup Academy the first entrepreneurship programme in Morocco

whose mission is to help young Moroccan women.

The event was attended by Mr Abdelilah Benkirane,

Head of Government; Mr Mamoune Bouhdoud, Minister Delegate of the Ministry of Industry, Trade,

Investment and the Digital Economy; Mr Ali

Faramawy, Microsoft Vice President, Middle East

Africa; Mr Fernando de Sousa, General Manager of

Microsoft 4Afrika; and all partners involved in the project: AFEM, INWI and Microchoix.

Accelerated training of six months in the Cloud and

the new information and communications

technology (NICT) will be followed by 50 Moroccan

women, at the end these 50 women will be able to launch a startup that specializes in Cloud solutions.

"Today, we are proud to announce the launch of

The Cloud Startup Academy for Moroccan SMEs: a

project that aims to foster entrepreneurship and create jobs by unlocking the power of Cloud

Computing. In an increasingly interconnected

world, this is the kind of high-impact approach

whose ripple effects will be felt across the entire ecosystem” said Mr Ali Faramawy, Microsoft Vice

President, Middle East; Africa [9].

IDC: Moroccan ICT market driven by banking, telecoms, infrastructure

The Moroccan IT services market is set to expand

at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.3% over the coming years to total $472.37

million in 2017, according to the latest insights

from International Data Corporation (IDC). Drawing

on the conclusions presented in its recently released 'Morocco IT Services Market 2013–2017

Forecast and 2012 Vendor Shares' report, the

research firm expects this sustained growth to be

June 2015 Page | 6

primarily driven by large-scale banking,

telecommunications, and government infrastructure

projects.

IDC also reported that the country's IT services

market is going through a shift as organizations are

increasingly embracing new technologies to help

them become more productive and agile. And since most of IT projects in Morocco are in the

infrastructure buildout phase, IDC expects support

and installation and integration services to grow

faster than other services. "Government-initiated projects in education and healthcare, along with

infrastructure modernization projects, will drive the

demand for these services," says Azzedine Kabli, a

senior research analyst for IT services and software at IDC Morocco. "In addition, as increasing

numbers of new organizations establish operations

in the country over the coming years, the demand

for support and installation services is only likely to increase further." [10]

New IBM Global Delivery Center for Morocco

IBM has announced a new Global Delivery Center in

Casablanca that will create up to 400 information technology roles in Morocco over the next three

years. The centre will enable IBM to deliver a range

of technology services to clients in Morocco and

across French-speaking Africa.

The new Morocco Global Delivery Center will offer

IBM clients in the region high value application

development, application maintenance and systems

integration services. It will address the increasing demand for flexible software capability to harness

the benefits of emerging technologies such as big

data, cloud and mobile.

IBM is working closely with the Moroccan

government and local universities, and the Center

is expected to help stimulate economic activity in

the country.

"The centre is part of a broad programme of

investment that IBM is making across Africa and

reflects IBM's commitment to providing the high-

value technology services required by clients in Morocco and French-speaking Africa," said Abdallah

Rachidi Alaoui, Country General Manager, IBM

Morocco. "It also highlights IBM's commitment to

partnering with local universities and academic institutions to deliver high value skills highly

relevant in today's marketplace." [11]

[1] http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2015/03/154301/morocco-grants-4g-licenses

[2] http://www.tic-maroc.com/2015/06/inwi-lance-

la-4g-au-maroc.html

[3] http://www.h24info.ma/economie/maroc/officie

l-maroc-telecom-lance-sa-4g/34281?utm_source=Newsletter_Datarget&utm_

medium=email&utm_campaign=

[4] http://www.aujourdhui.ma/geeks/nouvelles-

technologies/partenariat-maroco-ivoirien-dans-le-domaine-des-tic-119009#.VZLHgFIWb7E

[5] http://www.huffpostmaghreb.com/2015/04/16/

tic-maroc-classement-world-economic-

forum_n_7077178.html [6] http://www.h24info.ma/economie/maroc/des-

entreprises-marocaines-en-prospection-du-secteur-

tic-au-kenya/33630

[7] http://www.le360.ma/fr/economie/tic-le-

maroc-en-tete-de-la-course-30827 [8] http://www.biztechafrica.com/country/morocco

[9] http://www.biztechafrica.com/article/microsoft-

afem-and-inwi-launch-cloud-startup-

acade/8311/?country=morocco#.VZNONBt_Oko [10]http://www.biztechafrica.com/article/idc-

moroccan-ict-market-driven-banking-telecoms-

in/7517/?country=morocco#.VZNQaBt_Oko

[11]http://www.biztechafrica.com/article/new-ibm-global-delivery-center-

morocco/6399/?country=morocco#.VZNRdBt_Oko

June 2015 Page | 7

Tunisia

National E-health strategy workshop

The National Center of Informatics had participated

in the national conference and workshops dating

with e-health strategy and vision. This event had

been held at Hammamet, from February 15th to 17th, 2015. The subject of this event was the

development of actions and roadmap for an

implementation of the Tunisian national strategy in

digital health and the definition of a vision on Tunisian e-health in ten years (2025).

At the opening of the event, the Health minister

said that "The best use of the techniques of e-

health will certainly to tackle societal challenges

and enhance to help to improve the quality of services provided to citizens and to promote access

to medical services". Present at this opening

session, the Minister of Information and

Communications Technology and the Digital Economy , said that “the development of a national

strategy for e- health will be one of main axes of

the national Digital Strategy 2018”,(PNS 2018) .

He added that the priority is to put the essential tools of the information technologies and

communication for economic and social

development.

This event is the opportunity to deepen the

awareness of the imperative to develop a clear and

coherent roadmap and to establish a new national strategy on E- Health. This roadmap, will lead to

pilot projects ready for implementation.

Workshops was organized on this occasion to study

these projects that focus particularly on the digital health record , creating a smart care card, digital

administrative management, facilitating access to

medical services and means of protection of

medical data . These workshops and interactive sessions are using a very innovative method which

is the "World Cafe".

In fact, the specific objectives of this workshop

were:

Providing a unique opportunity for

stakeholders to discuss the subject Knowing the opportunities offered by digital

technologies in the health sector

Drive change in attitudes needed to adopt

digital solutions in the interest of the patient Create the necessary synergies and a spirit

of collaboration between all stakeholders

Ensure adherence and engagement in E-

health strategy.

June 2015 Page | 8

The National Center of Informatics

participated in JDEPT'15

MOSAIC project was present at the First research

days “LES PREMIÈRES JOURNÉES DOCTORALES DE

L’ÉCOLE POLYTECHNIQUE DE TUNISIE (JDEPT'15)”,

organized by Sercom laboratory in collaboration

with the Polytechnic School of Tunisia, the 22nd and 23rd April 2015, at Polytechnic School of

Tunisia.

The objective of this workshop was to promote and foster interaction between young researchers in the

various laboratories of Polytechnic School of

Tunisia, and industrial. This objective goes with

objectives of Mosaic project.

Polytechnic School of Tunisia research community

and many industrial representatives were present,

whatever their specialties:

Digital Communications and Optics,

Information Systems,

Sensor Networks, Advanced Systems Scientific Computation, Control Theory,

Modelling, Economics and Finance,

Industrial Management, Applied Mechanics,

Electrical Engineering etc ...

National Centre of Informatics was being a part of

this event. Moreover, it was an occasion to present

the Euro-Mediterranean Projects (MOSAIC and Med-Dialogue).

The First “Focus Event” of MED-Dialogue

The First “Focus Event” of MED-Dialogue project

was held at Regency Hotel, in Ghammath-Tunisia, the 7th and 8th May 2015. This event is a cross-

regional cooperation meeting in which Information

and Communication Technologies (ICT)

stakeholders from Europe and Mediterranean

Partner Countries (MPC) gathered to discuss ideas and hopefully develop an “ICT vision” and identify a

“regional strategic priorities in the ICT” for the MPC. In fact the information and conclusions that

would be gathered from this event will be used to

provide feedback to the EC in order to develop targeted collaboration projects in the future and to

provide Policy and Regulatory recommendations for

the MPC

During the two-day’s workshop, more Than Thirty experts in the ICT field, from Tunisia, Algeria,

Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine,

June 2015 Page | 9

Germany, Greece, Spain, France, were present,

commented and updated the results produced by

MED-Dialogue project in his first year.

This Focus event was, also, an occasion for a

representative of MOSAIC project to introduce its main purpose which is building two Technology

Platforms (TPs), one for the Maghreb and one for

the Mashrek. It was further explained how TPs

could reinforce the voice and visibility of ICT actors

from MPC within Europe and the Commission, and how industries and academia can take benefit

simultaneously at national and regional levels. By

intensifying their links, reach and possibly

membership with MPC organizations with similar also set the ground, through their active members

in the identification and validation of common

research interests and the forging of common

Research and Innovation Agendas.

MED-Dialogue strengthened cooperation with

MOSAIC in order to allow concrete steps towards

the translation from research into innovation and help to strengthen the links between the

stakeholders in order to foster collaborative

projects via both, the strategic research and

innovation agenda as well as the role of the as tool

for its implementation.

Egypt

TIEC showcase MOSAIC potentials and Horizons in the industry academia

Collaboration Conference- 6.8 April 2015,

Cairo, Egypt

IAC (Industry Academia Collaboration)

conference is an

international event

fostering the massive opportunities for

cooperation between

the academia sector

and industry sector.

June 2015 Page | 10

Having attended by more than 400 attendees from

Europe, ASIA and GCC. Well known figures coming

from every corner in the world shared thoughts and discussed the possible engagements with the

different parties in MENA region. TIEC was keen to

position MOSAIC high and be available on both

scientific and industry communities’ screen. We

have showcased the platform and the efforts done so far. Hence, Many MNCs CEOs and University

representatives are in direct communication with

TIEC to explore further the possible ways of

collaborations and injecting efforts to support the platform.

Research and Innovation in the MED: EU

Different instruments towards shared goals workshop, 25 May 2015, Cairo, Egypt

The workshop took place in last may aimed to bring stakeholders of research and innovation

clusters funded under different EU programmes

(such as the FP7, CBC-MED, bilateral RDI

programmes) in the EuroMed region to explore the

potential synergies & share experiences.

The conference gathered stack holders of all

supported EU projects to identify the opportunities

and barriers for further collaboration under H2020.

TIEC promoted MOSAIC platform in this event to

disseminate the message to every corner in the

community and respond to all enquiries related to the platform.

Jordan

MOSAIC will take place in final conference of EU-JORDAN NET II

FP7, EU-JordanNet II project is a 36-month project targets to

promote Jordanians to conduct

with EU-Horizon 2020 and

cooperate with EU institutions in

the areas of Food, ICT, Energy and Health. EU-Jordan Net II will

organize during the period Sept. 13-15 it is

brokerages events and final conference. Mosaic will

attend these events and prepare it is agenda to take place in these events will play strong role to

attract people from EU and Jordan in it is network.

MOSAIC expects to establish booth in this event

and gives details regarding it is activities and benefits abroad. More details you can find it in the

main website of EU-Jordan NET II: http://www.eu-

jordannet.eu/

MOSAIC honored Mobility Grants from EU-

Jordan NET II

EU-Jordan Net II

announced the second call

for small Mobility Grants

for Jordanian researchers and developers (from

universities or the private

sector) to visit European

organizations targeting establishment concrete

cooperation and relationship between EU and

Jordan for coming projects and events.

Abdoul Rjoub, the MOSAIC coordinator in Jordan gained the grants of 2600 Euro to visit

Southampton University in UK for possible

submitting a proposal with the hosting next

October.

June 2015 Page | 11

MOSAIC takes place in JoSTA Network

Conference

Jordanian Scientists &

Technologists Abroad-JoSTA

Network seeks to reverse the

brain drain of Jordanian

scientists and technologists, by connecting them with their

counterparts in Jordan, and

encouraging them to work for Jordan

virtually or physically, though the implementation of joint research and development activities and

business ventures, which would assist in building

scientific and technological base to serve the socio-

economic and development in Jordan. JoSTA will organize it is first conference in August 13, 2015. It

will be existed opportunity for MOSAIC to get place

in this conference for future cooperation with

Jordanians abroad, MOSAIC will open a booth, will give a talk and disseminate flyers regarding it is

objectives and targets. More details you can find it

in the website of the JoSTA: http://josta.gov.jo/

The 9th Jordanian International Electrical and Electronics Engineering Conference

Jordan Engineering Association

will organize the 9th Jordan International Electrical and

Electronics Engineering

Conference, (JIEEEC 2015), in

Amman, Jordan, from 12 - 14 October 2015. The conference

committee has set up a high quality technical

program, where researchers from around the globe

will present their ideas and cutting edge research.

MOSAIC – Jordan will present research papers in this conference and will organize a workshop

"Toward Horizon 2020" in this conference. MOSAIC

will also organize booth to disseminate flyers giving

opportunities for new people to collaborate with MOSAIC activities in the future. MOSAIC tag is also

added in the dissimination of JIEEEC Conference as

Golden partner of the conference, more details you

can find it in the main website of the conference at: http://www.jeaconf.org/jieeec

2015 IEEE Jordan Conference on Applied

Electrical Engineering and Computing

Technologies (AEECT) It happens only in Jordan!

More than 3 conferences in

ICT fields workshops, round

tables, new projects and

many international activities are taking place

every year in Jordan, this is

only because Jordan the most stable country in

MENA region, the stability of Jordan makes EU, US and major countries abroad to invest in this

country and continue their cooperation with

Jordanian people and institutions. The 2015 IEEE

Jordan Conference on Applied Electrical Engineering and Computing Technologies (AEECT) international

conference provides a unique forum to discuss

practical approaches and state of the art findings in

using the applied electrical engineering and computing technologies to solve national problems

that face Jordan and other developing countries.

This conference is the third of a series of

conferences organized by the IEEE – Jordan

Section. The conference will take place in Dead Sea – Jordan during the period of November 3-5, 2015.

MOSAIC partners have already sent scientific

papers for possible publishing in the proceedings of

this conference, MOSAIC will organize also a round table giving opportunities for industries and

academic to aware about MOSIAC and it is major

role in developing the academic and industry and

bridge the gap between both sides. More details regarding AEECT conference you can find it in the

website of the conference at:

http://ewh.ieee.org/conf/aeect/CFP.html

MOSAIC participates in next activity of OASIS 500 – Jordan

Oasis500 is a leading early stage and seed

investment company, the first of its kind in Jordan and the

MENA region. Our program at

Oasis500 includes

entrepreneurship training, mentorship guidance, business

incubation and acceleration,

and additional follow-on

June 2015 Page | 12

investment and funding if required, turning new

business ideas into startups and helping existing

entrepreneurs grow their companies with our angel investor and mentor networks. We nurture creative

ideas in Information Technology (IT), Mobile and

Digital Media, as well as ideas in the Cultural and

Creative Industries sector, transforming them into

startup companies. MOSAIC – Jordan participated in very attractive idea in the area of water and

water management, the idea has been accepted to

be presented in the next workshop that will take

place in Amman Jordan during the period of August 16-19, 2015. Dr. Abdoul Rjoub the coordinator of

MOSAIC in Jordan will take place in this event and

will investigate opportunities for cooperation

between OASIS 500 and MOSAIC in future activities.

Lebanon

AUB Innovation Day

The Office of Grants and Contracts and the newly

established Center for Research and Innovation

organized a student activity entitled “AUB Innovation Day” to disseminate and publicize the

IDEAL Business Competition and to promote

innovation and entrepreneurship culture among

AUB students. The event took place on Tuesday, February 10th, 2015 from 11:00 am until 3:00 in

front of the Jaffet Memorial Library, AUB. Several

student and faculty groups and centers and other

organizations which have similar objectives to the IDEAL project were invited to contribute and

participate in the event. As a result the event

attracted 130 participants who participated in the

different small competitive activities organized by

more than one partner.

http://www.ideal4lebanon.org/category/news/

MENA Games Conference & Exhibition in Beirut (February 25, 2015)

The region’s gaming industry has been steadily

growing in the past few years. Although some countries show more activity than others (read:

Jordan’s gaming sector steadily grows), the

potential of the region has been quick to attract

international interest, from game developers like Ubisoft looking to localize some of their most

popular titles to the recognition of Wixel Studio’s

Reine Abbas as one of the most powerful women in

gaming.

With the purpose of supporting the Online Mobile

and console game Industry growth in the Middle

East & North Africa region, IFP Group is organizing

the MENA Games Conference & Exhibition (MEGA 2015). MEGA 2015 will be held in Beirut at the

Historical Train Station on the 26th and 27th of

March 2015.

The Conference & Exhibition will attract representatives from 400 International and local

companies serving the gaming industry in all its

sectors: “game publishers, developers,

infrastructure and mobility providers, mobile payments, analytic and user acquisition services,

design to platforms and online advertising

companies.”

Source: http://www.wamda.com/events

June 2015 Page | 13

Microsoft Lebanon Announces Winners of

Imagine Cup 2015

Microsoft Lebanon announced the winners of the

Imagine Cup 2015 competition on the 22nd of April

at Microsoft offices in Lebanon. Microsoft Imagine

Cup, a cornerstone of the Microsoft Youth Spark

initiative is the World’s premier student technology program and competition targeting students

between the ages of 16 and 24 years old from all

academic backgrounds.

Lebanese students from AUB, AUL, AUST, UOB,

BAU, Haigazian, LAU, LIU, LU, NDU, RHU, USEK,

USJ and 2 School Students were invited to partake

in the Imagine Cup and benefit from the opportunity to expand their technical knowledge as

well as develop their soft skills.

This year’s competition received more than 71

registrations and a total of 11 projects reached the

finals as follows: 4 teams in the World Citizenship

category, 5 teams in the Innovation and 2 teams in the Games category.

Source: http://web-release.info/

Cisco Supports United Nations’ Girls in ICT Day in Lebanon with Girls Power Tech

Initiative to Inspire Youth to Create the

Digital Jobs of Tomorrow

Cisco hosted its first ‘Girls Power Tech’ mentoring sessions in Lebanon this week, as part of a global

mentoring initiative to support and complement the

United Nations’ Girls in ICT Day’ on April 23, 2015. An annual day of activities was organized by the

International Telecommunications Union aimed at

improving the understanding of careers in ICT

among girls. The event was held simultaneously at

Cisco office in Beirut and at the Chamber of Commerce in Tripoli. Cisco has supported Girls in

ICT since its inception in 2011.

Source: http://web-release.info/

Alfa Celebrated International Girls in ICT Day for the Third Year with the Participation of

Female Students from Several Schools who

Competed in Technological Innovation(May

22, 2015)

On the occasion of “the International Girls in ICT

Day,” an International Telecommunications Union

(ITU) initiative, Alfa, managed by Orascom

Telecom, organized for the third year a tour in the

company offices for female students from several Lebanese schools. The visit included an interactive

discussion with the women in the Alfa team as well

as technological innovation competitions.

Alfa seeks through this initiative to encourage girls

who are about to start university to pursue studies

in the ICT field by informing them about the

various employment opportunities available to them in the sector.

http://web-release.info/

June 2015 Page | 14

Global Entrepreneurial Network EO Launches

a Chapter in Lebanon (June 1, 2015)

Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO), one of the

largest and most influentialcommunity of

entrepreneurs, is launching in Lebanon on the 17th

of June at the Four seasons hotel in Beirut. The

reception, which is an open invitation, starts at 6:00 pm.

EO is a global, peer-to-peer network of more than

10,000 influential business owners with 147

chapters in 48 countries. Founded in 1987, EO is one of the first entrepreneurship-supporting

communities to educate and mentor entrepreneurs

through their journey. The network is credited with

pioneering the concept of such communities that provide dynamic peer-to-peer learning and

connections to experts.

http://www.wamda.com/events

More Than 500 Professionals and

Entrepreneurs Attend the Endeavor Lebanon Gala Dinner in Support of Lebanese

Entrepreneurship

On Thursday June 4th, Endeavor Lebanon held its

second fundraising gala at the Beirut Music Hall

Waterfront, bringing together over 500 business

people and entrepreneurs. In support of the country’s growing entrepreneurial ecosystem,

leading entrepreneurs SelimEdde, founder of

Lebanese multinational technology company

Murex, and Chris Rogers, founder of global wireless company Nextel, attended the gala and inspired

the crowds with their key notes, success stories,

hope and faith in Lebanon.

http://web-release.info/

Palestine

Interview and cooperation with PITA

Palestine

A teleconference was conducted with Dr. Mashour

Abudaka, Director of PITA (Palestinian Information

Technology Association), former minister of IT and

telecom, and former minister transport in Palestine. The meeting was attended by all MASHRIQ and EU

partners in MOSAIC.

Several topics have been discussed including the identification of priority areas in the MASHRIQ

region such Health, E-education, big data,

demographic change, well-being, and others. Dr.

Abudaka confirmed the importance of MOSAIC’s role as it complements the role of the existing ICT

associations in the region specially the

establishment of the domain clusters. He also

highlighted that it would be more beneficial if

MOSAIC works with close cooperation with all ICT associations, not only PITA, but also Etsal in Egypt,

Ijma3 in Lebanon, Int@J in Jordan, among others;

which is important to to facilitate networking and

R&D&I projects at a more international level and in cooperation with Europeans. Another topic

discussed is SWOT analysis where Dr. Mashour

identified the different aspects of SWOT analysis

including the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that ICT industries in MASHRIQ.

June 2015 Page | 15

Towards Establishing an Arab Big Data

Initiative

Big Data is a new term emerged recently, referring

to large or complex that data processing where

traditional methods and techniques are inadequate

to handle, such as data analytics, capture,

curation, search, share, storage, transfer, integrate, visualize, among other challenges and

needs. Sometimes people refer to it with focus on

predictive analytics, or on extracting value from

data. Big data can be also described by the following: Volume – Size of the data, Variety -

subject to which Big Data belongs, Velocity - the

speed the is generated/updated, Variability -

inconsistency of data objects, Veracity - Quality of the data, and Complexity - Data management of

large volumes from multiple sources, languages,

formats, and others.

An informal industry-academia initiative called (Big

Data Palestine) emerged recently, with support

from MOSAIC partners, to exchange ideas and to

build awareness about how private and public

organizations can make more values of their data. The involved parties then agreed to expand the

initiative to involve more Arab countries, with a

direct support from MOSAIC. The initiative will be a

platform for different people to discuss and exchange know-how, best practices, opportunities

and ideas on how to find more values to their big

data. The initiative will bring scientists, technology

providers, and stakeholders who have Big Data; such as Telecom industries, hospitals, tourism

companies, factories, governments, etc)

MOSAIC will sponsor the first brainstorming and

networking meeting, which will take place in Lebanon around end of August. The meeting is

under preparation and will be opened for interested

people to join and present ideas, challenges,

and/or technologies related to Big Data. A working group, under MOSAIC's umbrella, will be also

formed during this meeting. This group aims to

create an ecosystem and awareness around Big

Data in Arab countries.

Syria

Google Developers Group - 17/1/2015

A group of young Syrians, specialized in Google

services and tools, have organized a first meetup

for Google Developers Group Damascus, Saturday

January 17. The group worked in collaboration with Syrian Computer Society Network.

The over 350 attendees had the opportunity to

learn from the specialists about Google’s tools, and its technological platform secrets in a way that

matched their needs.

With the support and encouragement of Google, the GDG initiative is held in many countries and

cities around the world in order to form a space for

developers and IT experts to share their ideas and

experiences, helping to overcome the obstacles and challenges faced by global Google users.

GWA-Group disseminated Mosaic project during

this event.

TEDxYPU Syria - 29/1/2015

On January 29th 2015, TEDxYPU held in

“Damascus University” auditorium, under the

theme "Ideas Out of the Box". TED is a nonprofit

organization devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading”. Started as a four-day conference in California 26

years ago, TED has grown to support those world-

changing ideas with multiple initiatives. In the spirit

June 2015 Page | 16

of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of

local, self-organized events that bring people

together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine

to spark deep discussion and connection in a small

group. The audience made up of students,

entrepreneurs, innovators, industry leaders, and

change makers. TEDxYPU included 9 talks, each of it has a duration of 18 minutes as follows:

Ammar Joukhadar: CEO and owner of Elixir for

intelligent software Mahdi Al-Osh: Head of the research Chair at king

Saud University

Anan Al-Haffar: Professional expert in children

medicines Missak Baghboudarian: Conductor of the Syrian

National Symphony Orchestra

Firas Enayeh: Managing partner at Momentum

Nashwa Haj Hussein: Co-founder of Little Village School

Ismail Al-Jubbah: System Architect and instructor

at Yarmouk Private UniversityMahmoud Al-Moufti:

Broadband Specialist at MTN SYRIA

Omar Al-Khiami: National President in Junior Chamber International Syria

Nazar Poladian: Managing Partner at M Plus

Services.

GWA-Group disseminated Mosaic project during

this event.

StartUp Weekend - 21-23/2/2015

The international event “StartUp Weekend”, was

hosted for the second time, and was held during

the period 21-23/2/2015 in the garden of The Information Technology in Damascus.

The event was participated by 17 teams, who are

enthusiastic for their ideas, and 120 specialists and

experts in the field of SME, in addition to people from different age groups, including technicians,

designers and administrators, and media.

A training camp held before the event, and

included lectures to help participants start building their teams. In Addition, the 17 teams had the

chance to meet entrepreneurs, websites developers

and designers, and marketing experts, and they

discussed their ideas, during 54 intensive working hours. By the third and final day of the event,

teams were ready to present their ideas and

achievements in front of the panel, which included

experts in the business sector.

At the end of the event, three teams won the first

three prizes, which included financial and logistical

support to launch their own projects, in addition to training courses to help them complete their

careers in collaboration with JCI, ATTAEI and

SANAD.

GWA-Group disseminated Mosaic project during this event.

HIAST ACM 2015 Programming Contest- 25-

26/05/2015

The second programming contest HIAST ACM 2015

took place on 25-26 May 2015 under the sponsors

of the Syrian Computer Society, Kassem IT and

Modern Integrated Solutions. 22 teams participated

June 2015 Page | 17

in the contest from different years and specialties.

10 teams were qualified to participate in the Syrian

programming contest the end of September 2015.

The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) is a multitier, team-based,

programming competition. The contest involves a

global network of universities from all the countries

divided into national and regional contests that advance teams to the ACM-ICPC World Finals.

The contest is sponsored by IBM. Headquartered at

Baylor University, with autonomous regions on six continents, the ICPC is directed by Baylor Professor

William B. Poucher, Executive Director, and

operates under the auspices of the Association for

Computing Machinery (ACM). GWA-Group disseminated Mosaic project during

this event.

MOSAIC was present at the Big Data Value

Association (BDVA) Summit in Madrid

The first BDVA Summit (www.bdva.eu) was held

from 17th to 19th June at the University Politécnica

de Madrid. Its aim was to drive forward the Big

Data Value ecosystem and its Digital Agenda for

the benefit of Europe, its Companies and Citizens. The Summit aimed at fostering the ability to

network with peers and the cooperation on

research and innovation activity around Big Data.

The Summit also collected input for Europe's future Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA)

in the Big Data Value domain; how Big Data will

affect businesses and how industry can drive

technological developments.

Over 360 persons attended the Summit to discuss

the goals and drivers of the Big Data Value domain; From Large organisations to SMEs, from

Universities to User Organisations, from Business

professionals to Technology implementers.

The Summit included the presence of

representatives from Industry, the European

Commission, several institutions from Spain (the

Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism, the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the

Centre for Industrial Technological Development)

as well as managers of EC funded projects and

major stakeholders and entities active in the field of Big Data. The attendance to the BDVA Summit

was fully open to BDVA Members, Big Data Value

stakeholders and any entity interested in the field

of Big Data regardless of membership.

June 2015 Page | 18

MOSAIC Partner AnswareTech s.l. was the overall

coordinator of the organization of the event. A

delegation of MOSAIC partners were present: Answare (Tonny Velin, Jesús Martínez, Diego

Expósito and Beatriz Rodríguez), Universidad

Autònoma de Barcelona (Daniel Franco and

Alejandra Campos), Holken Consultants (Hadmut Holken), UM5A (Abdellah Idrissi), CNI (Nesrina

Haimaci and Faical Sboui), Brizeit University

(Mustafa Jarrar) and American University of Beirut

(Fadi Zaraket).

The first Day was dedicated to inform about the

initiatives and the strategies evangelised and

adopted around the field of Big Data in Europe and

Spain - goals, activities, roadmaps, expectations. Attendees were informed about Big Data Market

Trends & Opportunities. All the presentations were

provided in a plenary session format.

The second and third days were organized around

multiple parallel sessions where existing and

dynamically established working groups covering a

specific Big Data topic met and debated to drive the ecosystem and their business or research

forward; for example groups for: data

management, data processing, data analytics, data

visualization, impact, application areas, skills, etc.

Participants raised their issues in their field and found partners and groups to help resolve them.

The dynamic engagement allowed all parties,

including non-members of BDVA, to propose new

topics for further exploration by all. In these parallel sessions participants were able to

contribute to the discussions on the BDVA topic

addressed by the Working Group: Challenges and

issues to address, Opportunities and strategies, Provide technical feedback, Impact expected BDV

work areas. The Working Groups were ideal work

spaces to network on a specific topic of Big Data.

Working groups were also relevant to provide

technical input for the updated SRIA of the Big Data Value Public Private Partnership.

The event represented an ideal opportunity for

MOSAIC Mediterranean Partner Countries partners to network with European partners and to

exchange ideas and viewpoints on Big Data topics.

As a result MOSAIC MPC partners are thinking of

creating a similar Big Data initiative in the Arabic world: The Arab Big Data initiative.

See more at: http://www.bdva.eu/?q=summit