Future of retail hub launched at Sharjah Innovation Park

With industry disruption and innovation at the forefront, the Sharjah Research Technology and Innovation Park (SRTI Park) and PLM, a global design and technology company, has launched Retail R&D Experience Studio, a partnership for innovation in retail, aimed at bringing together the best in the industry.

“The future of retail will feature a high level of digital competition. Suppliers will boost direct-to-consumer relationships while traditional retailers need to cope with the market transformation to better serve their customers. Technology will continue to grow and shape business transactions as well as consumer behaviour. Those who can differentiate themselves will continue to survive and thrive,” Hussain Al Mahmoudi, CEO of SRTI Park, highlighted at the launch of R&D Experience Studio.

Al Mahmoudi also invited business leaders and retail industry stakeholders to visit the Retail R&D (research and development) Experience Studio located inside SRTI Park for an interactive study on how the industry responds to the ever-changing wants and needs of consumers.

“The prevalence of technology will continue to grow and shape the business. We are glad to launch the Retail R&D Experience Studio with PLM to bring together the best in the segment,” he added.

Al Mahmoudi noted Retail R&D Experience Studio is a big addition to SRTI Park’s thriving ecosystem. “The centre will be a main driver in thought leadership of retail innovation in our region. It will be a platform to engage retail sectors, academia and the government to co-innovate and leverage regional retail opportunities and challenges,” he further explained.

Pedro Rodrigues, CEO of PLM, added, “As design and technologies disruptors, we focus on exceeding our customer’s expectations, with our fully integrated range of solutions. Nowadays, business boundaries have become blurred because of technology and global integration.”

Retail R&D Experience Studio promotes the quintuple helix of innovation - public, private, academe, ecology and society. Public involves the government in developing opportunities while the private sector pertains to the industry, companies and the economic system. The academe is also involved in bringing schools and university to the centre of the debate and ensure the involvement of future professionals. Ecology is also vital to adopt sustainable forms of development for everyone and the planet while society is about developing strategies not only from a financial aspect but also contributing to people’s quality of life.

The Sharjah Research Technology and Innovation Park  and Global CIO Forum recently hosted a hybrid – live in-person and online – event of the 7th edition of the Future IT Summit (FITS) & Catalyst Awards at the SRTI Park HQ.

Facing a new world of living, working and co-existing in a post-pandemic environment, the IT summit focused on dissecting a number of tools, technologies, trends and techniques that could drive organisations towards a more productive remote or hybrid work model.

The event, attended by around 200 IT professionals, HR officers and C-level executives, was inaugurated by Hussain Al Mahmoudi, CEO of SRTI Park, and Ronak Samantaray, CEO of GEC Media Group and Co-Founder of Global CIO Forum, along with other key dignitaries from the government and private sectors in the UAE.

Al Mahmoudi also delivered the keynote address at the event that was also beamed live on YouTube and social media. Al Mahmoudi noted: “As the world grapples with the new technological challenges to combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, FITS has focused on its theme, #StrongerTogether, to highlight how the collaboration between humans and technology would fast track the efforts are on getting the IT industry thrive in the so-called new normal.”

“Automation gained pace and we adapted by withdrawing from the physical offices and working remotely but effectively from our homes and. Rapid adaption of technology affected across all industries – from manufacturing to retail, healthcare, logistics and supply and delivery of basic services. We now look at the best practices and innovate,” Al Mahmoudi underlined.

Technology Innovation Institute: The Technology Innovation Institute (TII), the applied research pillar of Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), on Monday announced that its Quantum Research Centre (QRT) has developed the first simulation version of “Qibo”, a versatile open-source quantum computing programming framework, in collaboration with researchers from around the world.

The development follows a series of rapid announcements at the TII since the first board meeting of the ATRC in August 2020.

The TII strives to create innovation for a better world. The development of an open-source programming framework will have compelling benefits for the global research community.

Qibo is designed to support quantum algorithms across different computer systems, including hardware accelerators such as graphics processing units (GPUs) and multiple quantum devices. This versatility makes Qibo easy to use for quantum programming and accelerates research and applications. Written in programming languages such as Python and C/C++, Qibo is the entry point for a full-stack programming platform, able to run quantum algorithms across different quantum computers and simulators.

Qibo is a joint project of the QRT, Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech, the Barcelona-based quantum computing company, and researchers at other global centres. The QRT team is led by Chief Researcher, Prof José Ignacio Latorre. The first release of Qibo was published in September 2020, with the final version set for launch within the next two years.