By MUSTAPHA YAURI

Three students of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, have won the global grand prize in cloud and artificial intelligence of the Huawei ICT Competition 2019-2020.

Prof. Kabir Bala, the Vice Chancellor of the university, disclosed this during the 2019/2020 Huawei Nigeria ICT Competition Award and inauguration of the 2021/2022 Launch Ceremony in Zaria on Wednesday.

Bala said the 2019/2020 Huawei competition had a participation record of almost 150,000 students from over 2,000 colleges and universities in more than 82 countries.

“Six ABU students participated and three of them: Hamza Atabor, Emmanuel Abba and Hamza Beira, earned first prize in Network Track Globally.

“Mustapha Jimoh, Dahir Muhammad-Dahir and Abdullahi Khalifa Muhammad earned grand prize in cloud and artificial intelligence at the global final,’’ he said.

He noted that the relationship between ABU and the Huawei Technologies started in August 2018.

The vice chancellor added that Huawei approached the university for a partnership on the Huawei authorised Information Network Academy (HAINA) and other CSR initiatives.

“We are pleased with the outcomes recorded so far; under the ABU-HAINA programme over 1,000 enrollment and 450 different certification tracks have been recorded,’’ he said.

Ms Melissa Chen, the Director, Service Delivery, Huawei Technologies Nigeria, said over 22,000 Nigerian students registered in the Huawei ICT Competition for 2019/2020.

Chen, represented by Mr Star Shi, Assistant Director, Service Delivery, said 1,000 of these students competed in the national final in December 2019.

Chen added that 15 students from ABU Zaria, University of Ibadan and University of Port Harcourt represented Nigeria in the regional final.

“The team obtained good result at the regional final and they were given the privilege to represent their schools and Nigeria in the global final,’’ she said.

Mr Igwe Keneth, Huawei, ICT Ecosystem Development Manager, said the company celebrated students from Nigeria who achieved excellent results in the 2020 Huawei ICT Competition.

Keneth said two teams from Nigeria came out of the completion with grand prize; it was unprecedented in the competition history.

“We came here today to give them the award and celebrate with them and also launch the 2021-2022 Huawei ICT Competition for students.

“In the 2021-2022 competition there will be a cloud track, network track and innovation track where students will come with innovative ideas and present it during the competition,’’ Kenneth said.

The manager said the Huawei ICT competition was initiated to cultivate ICT talents.

He added that the competition provides the necessary platform for students to get knowledge and experience to build the talent for the ICT ecosystem. (NAN)

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