The annual ICT Competition, which is organised by tech giant Huawei, aims to drive ICT skills and bridge the digital divide in Europe. It was held this year in Istanbul with the theme of "Connection, Glory, Future".
Hundreds of students, teachers, and government representatives from more than 10 European countries convened for the main event and the award ceremony.
Huawei's ICT Competition Europe began in 2015 and has, since then, garnered participation from over 700,000 individuals.
At the event this year, Jim Lu, President of Huawei's European Region, announced plans to train an additional 100,000 people in the next five years, in an effort to help them reach their potential.
Huawei's Chief Strategy Officer in Europe, Tide Xu, also spoke at the event and identified two major industry trends, low-carbon development and intelligent transformation. He asserted ICT technology's pivotal role in driving these advancements.
UNESCO support
Lending her voice in support of the initiative, Soledad Patiño, Coordinator of the UNESCO Global Skills Academy, credited programs like Huawei's ICT Competition for closing the digital divide. She expressed confidence in their ongoing partnership with Huawei, to bring about substantial change for millions worldwide.
The competition involved over 700 students from 22 countries and 100 universities, who competed in four ICT fields: artificial intelligence innovation, networking, cloud computing. Teams from the Türkiye MEF University, Poznan University of Technology, Italy's K Labs, and Turkey's Erzurum University of Technology secured the first prizes.
Some of these regional winners will be heading to Shenzhen, China in May for the global finals.
