Sfax, April 30, 2023 – The Tunisian Automotive Association (TAA), in partnership with Novation City, with the support of the iCube incubator, the CosTart incubator, and the universities in the SFAX region: ENIS, ENET’COM, and ISIMS, organized a hackathon from April 28 to April 30, 2023, as part of the Open S-DRIVE program.
Open S-DRIVE is a program established by the Tunisian Automotive Association (TAA) in partnership with Novation City, under the FAST program, to promote innovation in the automotive industry in Tunisia. This sector represents nearly €2 billion in export turnover and employs nearly 100,000 people. It is a strategic sector for Tunisia and creates added value.
Tunisian Automotive Association and its partners are committed to the Open S-DRIVE program, which will span two years through hackathons and challenges across the entire national territory. The goal is to create startups, incubate them at the Novation City station and within automotive industrial companies, in order to support innovation in the automotive sector, promote job creation, and develop the industry.
Open S-DRIVE is a program financed by the French Development Agency (AFD) and implemented by the Caisse des Dépôts et des consignations (CDC), with technical assistance from Expertise France. The first edition of the hackathon held in Sfax was an opportunity for event partners to present Open S-DRIVE and promote the program to participants and the general public.
The event brought together 34 participants, including students (41.2% of whom were women), engineers, and researchers, all passionate about the automotive sector. They worked on 15 topics and innovative project ideas related to mobility and intelligent transportation.
This first edition of the hackathon provided candidates with the opportunity to attend training sessions and workshops on Design Thinking, the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Business Model Canvas (BMC), and to apply their software development and engineering skills. They were also supervised by professional coaches and university professors to tackle challenges in the automotive sector.
The jury selected three winning projects, focusing on driver safety solutions, driving assistance solutions, and cybersecurity in automobiles.
Ms. Lamia FOURATI, President of the jury and the Communication & Innovation Commission of the Tunisian Automotive Association, stated, “We are delighted with the success of this event and the commitment of all the participants. The hackathon has shown that Tunisia has promising talents in the automotive field, and we are confident that these projects will contribute to the advancement of the industry.”
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