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Will entrepreneurs from three Arab countries bring the next big idea?

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Khaled Adas, Corporate Affairs Manager for Intel in the gulf region, shares the entrepreneur teams who are competing this week at the Intel + UC Berkeley Technology Entrepreneurship Challenge (IBTEC) in Berkeley, California. This is the last of a mini blog series that introduces many of the finalists competing this week.

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Will entrepreneurs from three Arab countries bring the next big idea?

By Khaled Adas

As part of Intel's efforts to establishing global innovation capacity through technology innovation, business leadership, and corporate responsibility, Intel in collaboration with Arab Science Technology Foundation (ASTF) organized the 6th Technology Business Plan Competition in the Arab World, a regional technology investment competition that aims to provides the Arabian entrepreneurs with tools to turn their technological innovation into business opportunities and create strong, innovative, technology-based businesses able to compete worldwide.

This year the competition reached 3,036 entrepreneurs representing 15 Arab countries. The final competition ended on Oct 27th and the top 3 winners were from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Egypt. The winners will compete at the Intel + UC Berkeley Technology Entrepreneurship Challenge (IBTEC) in Berkeley, California on November 16-18, 2010.

Arab World Tech Entreprenuer winners.jpg

The first entrepreneurs award was given to Solar Skylight from Saudi Arabia for their innovation on hybrid solar technology. The team designed their first product called "Siraj", a unique window structure designed to use the energy of the Sun to optimize the interior illumination of buildings, while generating electric power, and enhancing its aesthetic appearance. All this can be achieved while reducing production costs by 25%, increasing solar power efficiency by 40%, and with an industrial standard durability of 20 years.

The second winning project was awarded to ?-WTE from Unite Arab Emirates. ?-WTE is a business start-up which intends to provide an innovative, economical and affordable micro-scale waste-to-energy (WTE) technology to supply an environmentally- friendly solution to waste disposal and enhance the energy independency of a major segment of a starting market such as hotels and towers in Dubai.

The third place winning project is "On the Same Page Chat", from a team of entrepreneurs from Cairo University in Egypt. "On the Same Page" Chat is an innovative online chat system that enables users to connect with each other and see the same content on their computer displays.

I wish all the teams the best. Intel is committed to supporting sustained economic growth and building a more competitive workforce in the Arab region and around the world by fostering local innovation and research capacity.