Sharjah 24 – WAM: The Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT) Entrepreneurship Centre held an online workshop titled "How to Become an Entrepreneur", which is the first in a series that aims to prepare AASTMT students, who are willing to participate in the "Arab Rally for Entrepre-neurship".
This year, the annual competition focused on entrepreneurship in the maritime sector. The virtual workshop was hosted by Dr. Wael El-Desouky, Director of the Entrepreneurship Centre, AASTMT, with the participation of more than 50 students repre-senting the academy from Egypt, UAE, Syria and Greece.
Kickstarting next month, the competition will have two finals. The first will be held in Expo 2020 Dubai and will be open for all university students. The second will be held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, and will be exclusively for students from the Academy.
Dr. Ismail Abdel Ghaffar Ismail Farag, President of AASTMT, said, "Since the launch of the Academy, we have always set our sights on stimulating creativity and innovation among our students, encouraging them to think freely, heading towards establishing projects and opportunities that will promote the growth of the industry."
"Inspired by the UAE Innovation initiative, these workshops were launched with a commendable effort from the Academy’s branch in Sharjah. We hope to open the doors for our students to a promising future in a field filled with great opportunities. This is the ideal time to start a small tech company that can grow and expand its business steadily, especially with the rapid adoption of digitalisation in the maritime sector, which is still a virgin arena for creative entrepreneurs. Our ambition is to see each of our students with their own project before they graduate," he added.
Dr. Capt. Ahmed Youssef, Associate Dean, College of Maritime Transport and Technology, AASTS stated, "Our goal is to conduct research that promotes the growth of the blue economy in the UAE, while also empowering our students to engage with new technologies, including blockchain, the Internet of things, cloud technology, automation, robotic solutions, artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science.
"This series of workshops with the Arab Rally organised by the Entrepreneurship Centre at AASTMT, will help students to master the skill of transforming scientific ideas into commercial projects," Youssef added.
Dr. El-Desouky urged students to participate in the competition as it allows entrepreneurs to start work on the project within a year, after getting all the required support.