Officials posing for a photo during the announcement of collaboration between Siemens, Texas A&M University and Hamad Bin Khalifa University.
DOHA: Students at two universities in Qatar will now have access to MindSphere, the cloud-based, open Internet of Things (IoT) operating system from Siemens, as a training tool to develop pilot projects and prototype applications for industry and education. The collaboration between Siemens, Texas A&M University and Hamad Bin Khalifa University will see 100 students using MindSphere as a practical tool for learning about the IoT, through Siemens’ MindSphere Academics Program.
“Our partnership will help students to develop essential skills for successful careers in Qatar’s increasingly digital, industrialized economy,” said Adrian Wood, CEO of Siemens in Qatar. “Equipping students with digital skills is a key part of Qatar’s transition to a diversified knowledge economy. By collaborating directly with Texas A&M and Hamad Bin Khalifa Universities, I am pleased that we are also taking a step forward in closing the gap between academia and the private sector.”
The MindSphere Academics Program helps institutions and educators to create learning environments that explicitly focus on the theories, concepts and practical aspects for a deeper understanding of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). It aids institutions to enrich their IoT curriculum and enables students and researchers to solve real-world challenges by developing custom IIoT applications, and test and deploy them on the platform.
As part of the collaboration, students from the two universities will also take part in an annual Siemens hackathon during which they will have the opportunity to develop prototypes with MindSphere. Initial training for staff and students will be provided by Siemens on-site in Qatar, and remote support services will be available to students during the academic year.
Dr. Cesar Octavio Malave, dean of Texas A&M at Qatar, said this collaboration will elevate the already world-class engineering education students receive at the branch campus. “At Texas A&M at Qatar, we strive to provide a wealth of opportunities for students to develop into engineering leaders who will lead the next several decades of Qatar’s growth and development. This collaboration with Siemens will provide our engineering students with skills that will enhance their value to the workforce and to the State of Qatar and make them even more highly sought after in industry.”
MindSphere is a cloud-based operating system for the Internet of Things that helps companies understand data by quickly and securely connecting products, plants, systems and machines to the digital world. By unlocking the wealth of data from every machine and system in a business, MindSphere can transform this data into productive business results using powerful industrial applications with advanced analytics. MindSphere is a secure and scalable industrial end-to-end solution from asset connectivity to actionable business insights utilized to increase productivity and efficiency across the entire enterprise.
Dr. Mounir Hamdi, dean of the College of Science and Engineering, HBKU, said: “Rapid digital innovations have gone on to advance learning and teaching methods in academia. Partnering with a leading global technology giant such Siemens, which is at the forefront of digital innovations, provides our College of Science and Engineering students with an invaluable opportunity to gain a competitive edge in the market once they graduate. Using the MindSphere platform will undoubtedly expand their working knowledge of the IoT and other key digital innovations – advancements that are integral to Qatar’s growth and diversification.”
