With business transformation and creativity at the frontline, Sharjah Research Technology and Innovation Park (SRTI Park) and PLM, a multinational design and technology firm, have opened Retail R&D Experience Studio, a collaboration for retail innovation intended to bring the best of the industry together.

“The future in shopping will be associated with the major digital competition. Suppliers can strengthen direct-to-consumer alliances, while conventional retailers must adapt to industry changes to best satisfy their consumers.

Technology will continue to evolve and influence both corporate transactions and customer behavior. Many that can distinguish themselves will continue to prosper and survive.” Hussain Al Mahmoudi, CEO of SRTI Park, highlighted the R&D Experience Studio's launch. Al Mahmoudi also welcomed market leaders and retail industry experts to the Retail R&D (research and development) Experience Studio, which is situated within SRTI Park, for an immersive report on how the industry reacts to customers' ever-changing needs.

“Technology's pervasiveness will keep expanding and shape the market. We are excited to collaborate with PLM to open the Retail R&D Experience Studio, which will put together the finest in the industry,” he said. Retail R&D Experience Studio, according to Al Mahmoudi, is a significant addition to SRTI Park's flourishing ecosystem.

“The center will be a key force in our region's thought leadership in retail innovation. It will serve as a forum for retail industries, academics, and government to collaborate and harness regional retail opportunities and challenges,” he said.

“As design and technology disruptors, we concentrate on fulfilling our customers' needs with our fully developed portfolio of solutions,” said Pedro Rodrigues, CEO of PLM. Because of automation and globalization, market lines have become increasingly uncertain.”

Retail R&D Experience Studio embraces the quintuple helix of advancement: governmental, private, academic, ecological, and social. The public sector includes the government in the provision of opportunities, while the private sector includes manufacturing, businesses, and the economic structure. The academy is also active in getting colleges and universities to the forefront of the dialogue to guarantee the participation of aspiring practitioners.

Ecology is also important in implementing appropriate models of sustainability for everyone and the world, while society is concerned with developing policies that contribute to people's quality of life and their financial well-being. The Sharjah Research Technology and Innovation Park (SRTI Park) and the Global CIO Forum recently held a hybrid – live in-person and online – event of the 7th edition of the Future IT Summit (FITS) & Catalyst Awards at the SRTI Park headquarters.

Confronted with a new world of the living, working, and coexisting in a post-pandemic climate, the IT summit centered on deconstructing a variety of resources, innovations, patterns, and strategies that could propel organizations toward a more sustainable remote or hybrid work model.

Hussain Al Mahmoudi, CEO of SRTI Park, and Ronak Samantaray, CEO of GEC Media Group and Co-Founder of Global CIO Forum, along with other key dignitaries from the UAE's government and private sectors, inaugurated the gathering, which was attended by about 200 IT experts, HR officers, and C-level executives.

Al Mahmoudi also gave the keynote speech at the gathering, which was also live-streamed on YouTube and social media. “As the planet wrestles with new technical threats to tackle the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, FITS has based on its concept, #StrongerTogether, to show how cooperation between humans and technology will accelerate efforts to get the IT industry to flourish in the so-called new reality,” Al Mahmoudi said.

“As automation advanced, we evolved by retreating from physical workplaces and operating remotely but successfully from our homes.” Rapid technological transition affects all markets, from production to retail, hospitals, infrastructure, and the supply and distribution of essential services. We are now looking at best practices and reinventing,” Al Mahmoudi said.

The Technology Innovation Institute (TII), the applied research arm of the Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), announced on Monday that its Quantum Research Centre (QRT) has produced the first simulation version of “Qibo,” a robust open-source quantum computing programming model, in cooperation with researchers from throughout the world.

After the ATRC's first board meeting in August 2020, the TII has made a series of swift declarations. The TII aims to foster creativity to make the planet a safer place. The development of an open-source computing environment would provide significant benefits to the global research community.

Qibo is intended to assist quantum algorithms on a wide range of computer systems, namely hardware accelerators including graphics processing units (GPUs) and various quantum computers. This adaptability makes Qibo ideal for quantum programming and speeds up research and development. Qibo, written in Python and C/C++ programming languages, is the point of entry for a full-stack programming framework capable of running quantum algorithms through many quantum computers and prototypes.

Qibo is collaboration between the QRT, Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech, a Barcelona-based quantum computing firm, and researchers from other global institutions. Prof José Ignacio Latorre, Chief Researcher, leads the QRT squad. The first beta of Qibo was released in September 2020, with the final version expected to be released within the next two years.