Huawei launched the 2024 Tech Arena Contests in Europe at Viva Technology, one of Europe’s biggest tech summits, on Friday.
Tech Arena, formerly known as Huawei European University Challenge Program, is committed to providing global students outstanding opportunities to test themselves with the latest real-world technology challenges provided by industry. Participants immerse themselves in fields that include AI, autonomous driving, optical networks, and algorithms used in wireless networks, just to name a few. (Contest promo video here)
Liu Shaowei, President of Huawei’s European Research Institute, explained at the launch that the company plans to host over 10 Tech Arena Contests in 2024. Confirmed locations include Belgium, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. Each will be open to university students in many countries and regions. The contests will cover cutting-edge topics relevant to many industries.
Liu Shaowei noted that talent is critical to developments in the digital world. As a global ICT provider, Huawei is committed to basic research and innovation, and looks to create greater value for customers and society at large, Liu said. Huawei aims to build closer cooperation and facilitate communication between industry and academia, and provide high-quality, real-world industry challenges to students and academics to accelerate the application to the real world.
First held in 2017, Tech Arena features a series of tech contests sponsored and designed by Huawei’s labs across the globe. By the end of 2023, more than 6,700 students from over 52 universities had participated in Tech Arena.
Former and current Tech Arena participants talked at the launch. Dr. Malik TIOMOKO, Huawei Tech Arena’s Winner in 2021 and Senior Engineer in Huawei recalled that Tech Arena helped him to find his passion and eventually his career path. Fusang WANG, Huawei 2022 Tech Arena’s Winner, related that he gained deeper technical insights and developed friendships while on his way to first prize that year.
Huawei invested 23.4% of its revenue in R&D in 2023, and was ranked 5th on the 2023 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard. Huawei operates a network of R&D research centers in Europe, mainly staffed with local researchers, that jointly promote the development of local science and technology, industry, and talent.
For more information on 2024 Tech Arena Contests, please visit:
Minisite: https://www.huawei.com/minisite/techarena2024/
Event video: https://www.huawei.com/en/media-center/multimedia/videos/2024/tech-arena-launch
Image caption: Liu Shaowei during the 2024 Tech Arena launch