Dr. Winnie Tang JP is an Honorary Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Hong Kong. She is one of the locally-bred IT entrepreneurs of Hong Kong and the Honorary President of Smart City Consortium. Over the years, she has been actively advocating the use of technology and sharing her views regarding the ICT industry, eHealth, environmental conservation, entrepreneurship and smart city concepts through her services in government and non-government organizations in Hong Kong.

A leading US-based mobility firm has partnered with Easy-Mile, a global expert in driverless technology in order to provide autonomous solutions to public agencies across the United States. Demand-Trans Solutions delivers mobility-on-demand technology and formally announced the partnership agreement with Easy-Mile.

Department of Health (DoH), the regulator of the healthcare sector in Abu Dhabi, has announced that the Emirate is adopting advanced drones to distribute and transfer medical supplies within the healthcare sector.

Dubai has been rated as one of the top five cities in using smart technology to better the lives of its residents, according to the latest Smart Cities Index.

The UAE PASS initiative, the platform which aims to bring all government services together and make them accessible via smartphone, has completed phase one of its programme.

Industry leaders say Dubai is now a global pioneer for the use of autonomous vehicles as part of a futuristic transport network.  

The Dubai Electronic Security Center (DESC) has announced the launch of the Dubai Cyber Think Tank, which aims to develop solutions to prevent cyberattacks and threats.

Dubai Police has disclosed some of the ambitious and truly revolutionary and innovative measures they plan to introduce to the policing sector in the UAE. Director General of Artificial Intelligence at Dubai Police, Brig. Khalid Nasser Al Razooqi outlined some of the applications it has in the pipeline at the Intersec Artificial Intelligence and Information Security Conference which was held at the Dubai World Trade Center.

A Dutch technology firm has secured the contract for a major autonomous transportation project for a new major waterfront currently under construction in Dubai. 2getthere, a world-leading developer of sustainable mobility solutions won the contract in which it will be tasked with the responsibility of delivering a new automated vehicle system in Dubai - that will link the new waterfront lifestyle destination 'Bluewaters' with the city's existing infrastructure in the form of its metro service.

Dutch multinational technology firm Yandex has announced that it has successfully conducted a test of a self-driving car in the Russian capital of Moscow. The company is Russia's largest technology firm and is commonly known as Russia's Google as it's also the country's main search engine with around 65% of market share.

Dyson confirmed that its board has ratified a decision to construct its first advanced automotive manufacturing facility in Singapore. The bespoke two-storey manufacturing facility is scheduled for completion in 2020.

The global smart city movement continues to gather momentum and new revolutionary technologies will only serve to accelerate the process.

EITC (du), from Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), will build the first Blockchain Platform as a Service in UAE (BPaaS) in partnership with ConsenSys, the leading blockchain solutions provider and venture production studio building decentralized applications and offering an integrated set of solutions for the Ethereum blockchain ecosystem.

Following on from a successful trial, the region’s leading carshare operator ekar, has entered into a partnership with on-demand car refueling company CAFU to ensure that its fleet is always ready to roll with a full tank of petrol in each vehicle.

At MWC Shanghai, Telecom Review carried out an interview with Rana Gujral, CEO of Behavioral Signals. The Los Angeles-based tech start-up focuses on initiating emotionally intelligent conversations with artificial intelligence (AI). Their use of emotions to deduce voice data has helped them build engines that are more emotionally-savvy. Their award-winning flagship product - OliverAPI -  allows enterprises to track emotions and behaviors in natural language conversations to get a complete view of related key performance indicators. By being able to recognize emotional cues and perform and behavioral prediction analytics, their technology provides enriched conversational insights for interaction with voice assistants, chatbots, robotic virtual assistants, social healthcare robotics and mobile voice assistants.

Epicor has announced the release of a new AI-based digital agent, the Epicor Virtual Agent (EVA), which promotes business growth and aims to help users work smarter and accelerate the pace of business operations.

The UAE’s expert in wired and wireless telecom networks and security solutions, Esharah Etisalat Security Solutions, showcased some of its latest innovations at the 7^th edition of the Gulf Information Security Expo and Conference (GISEC) 2019 in Dubai World Trade Center.

Etihad Rail, the developer and operator of the UAE's national railway network, has signed an agreement with Transportr to provide a complete digital rail freight solution that will complement Etihad Rail’s range of convenient, efficient, and sophisticated technologies.

Smart and dynamic growth through collaboration between government and private entities, academia and citizens are most essential with a reliable infrastructure as the backbone for major national transformation programmes stimulating economic growth and gearing smart cities towards a sustainable future, said Hatem Dowidar, CEO, Etisalat Group.

Etisalat Digital has partnered with DMCC - the world’s flagship Free Zone and Government of Dubai Authority on commodities trade and enterprise – to transform Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) into an innovative smart and sustainable district, powered by the 5G network.