A good number of Moroccan students are carriers of innovative projects that remain a dead letter. To bring these creations out of anonymity, Intel launched, in partnership with Mohammed V Souissi University and the National Higher School of Computer Science and Systems Analysis (ENSIAS), the Intel Business Challenge competition.

A national competition crowned in its first phase by the presentation, Wednesday in Rabat, of trophies to the four winners. An awards ceremony organized within the framework of the innovation week which is held from May 20 to 25.

“A week that will allow doctoral students and engineers in technological hubs to improve their performance”, believes Radouane Mrabet, president of Mohammed V-Souissi University, considered a pioneer in patents since it has to its credit 18 patents filed by the professors who teach there.

According to Mr. Mrabet, who announced the holding of another day dedicated to innovation on July 2nd, the proceeds from these patents that will be published will benefit the inventors. Represented in the ceremony by Abdelilah Afifi, the Ministry of Higher Education, Executive Training, and Scientific Research is, in turn, lending a hand. Mr. Afifi, future budget director in Lahcen Daoudi's department, emphasized the action program, spread over the 2013-2016 period, which aims to develop the knowledge economy.

He even recalled the very recent creation of the research and innovation directorate under the supervisory ministry. For Intel, the competition seems to be quite expensive. “Through Intel Business Challenge Morocco, Intel reiterates its commitment to education, thus aiming to encourage research at the university level, to inspire entrepreneurship, and to train the next generation for business leadership positions”, explains Karim Bibi Triki, General Manager of Intel for the Levant and North Africa.

“It is a question for us of developing the skills of young Moroccans by offering them the possibility of working with the necessary tools and resources in order to concretize their ideas, to be the innovators of tomorrow, and therefore participate in the economic development of Morocco”, he continued.

For information, the winners carrying business projects will participate in the regional Intel Business Challenge Middle East final which will be held in June in Dubai, just as they will participate in October 2013 in the Intel Global Challenge in Silicon Valley.

This being said, Intel and ENSIAS proceeded at the same time to the inauguration of the Intel Software Lab Incubator program. This is the second software incubator in Morocco after the one created in January by Intel at Al Akhawayne University in Ifrane. Intel Software Lab Incubator is intended to encourage students to work on cutting-edge software, to allow them to develop innovative projects in the field of mobile applications, and to enrich the list of Open Source software development courses. May this initiative be sustained!