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UAE Offers $1 Million Prizes to Designers of “Useful” Robots

February 14, 2015

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February 14, 2015 – In the last week the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced at a government summit involving 93 countries and focused on how innovation and technology can make governments more effective, the launching of AI & Robotics for Good, a contest with two $1 million US prizes.

The idea is to promote useful designs that serve higher education, healthcare or social services. Why two prizes? One will be awarded to a local UAE entry, the other to an international contestant. This follows last year’s successful Drones for Good competition in which two prizes of similar value were awarded, one to a local UAE entry and one to a Swiss-based team.

Mohammed Abdullah al-Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs for the UAE government stated that it is logical for such a contest to come from the world of Islam. That’s because the word algorithm is derived from, al-Khwārizmī, a Persian mathematician, astronomer, geographer and scholar who taught in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad in the 9th and 10th century. al-Khwarizmi means native of Khoresm, once a powerful dynastic empire in the world of Islam, and today a city found in the Central Asian state of Uzbekistan. When al-Khwarizmi (see a statue image of him below) taught his mathematical theories it was during the Abbasid Caliphate, considered by many to be the golden age of Islam. His mathematical genius is credited with forming the basis of modern computing.

The AI & Robotics for Good contest states any solution can win, from hardware to software or any combination in between. If interested in entering visit the web site. More information is forthcoming to those who register.

This contest follows last summer’s announcement by the UAE expressing its plans to fund the development of a mission to land a robotic probe on the surface of Mars by 2021. That would make the UAE the third nation on Earth to successfully land a probe on Mars. The other two are the United States and the Soviet Union. The Beagle, a European Space Agency, lander did reach the surface of Mars but never successfully deployed. It was recently spotted by an American Martian orbiter.

Why is the UAE hell bent on investing in robotics, artificial intelligence and space? One reason is the recognition that fossil fuels cannot remain the mainstay of the economy in a world trying to mitigate climate change from the build up of carbon dioxide. The other is focused on creating high technology jobs for UAE citizens.