Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi
How might we build a tool that predicts how flight changes affect hotel visits in Abu Dhabi?
Advanced Technology Pioneers 2026
Advanced Technology Pioneers 2026
Challenge for all university students and recent graduates across the UAE
Welcome to
Advanced Technology Pioneers 2026
The future isn't something you wait for – it's something you build. Advanced Technology Pioneers 2026 brings together three of Abu Dhabi's leading organisations: DCT Abu Dhabi, EDGE Group, and Emirates Nuclear Energy Company (ENEC), each with a real, unsolved problem – predicting tourism demand from flight data, keeping connections seamless across wireless networks, and managing jellyfish blooms near critical infrastructure. As a student, this is your chance to work on problems that matter today. Pick a challenge, team up with people who complement your skills, develop a real working prototype, built with mentorship from the experts behind these challenges, and showcase it at the NSTI Festival 2026.
Why join this challenge
Through this
challenge ...
This isn't a hypothetical case study – it's a shot at solving problems that DCT Abu Dhabi, EDGE Group, and ENEC are actually dealing with right now. Teams can take on one sponsor track – a hands-on way to test your ideas against real problems, and to present them in a professional setting built for exactly that.
- 01 Work on a problem that's genuinely unsolved, not a case built for a classroom, but something the sponsor still needs a solution for
- 02 Build something you can actually show, not just pitch – the deliverable is a working prototype, simulation, or model
- 03 Get mentored by people who work on this for a living, not just judged by them – shortlisted teams receive sponsor-specific guidance and mentorship before Demo Days
- 04 Team up with people who cover what you don't – the three sponsor tracks span data, engineering, and environmental science, so the strongest teams mix skills instead of stacking the same one
Sponsor tracks
Meet the sponsors
Each sponsor brings a distinct technology frontier and problem statement. Explore each track below.
EDGE Group
How might we keep a user's experience unbroken as they move between wi-fi, mobile, satellite and wired networks?
Emirates Nuclear Energy Company
How might we advance the sustainable management of seasonal jellyfish blooms in coastal environments?
What's in it for you
Opportunities
& incentives
Participants may benefit from a range of learning-focused and career-building opportunities across all sponsor tracks, including:
50,000In addition to the cash prize, the winning team will also be provided with:
- Additional prizes, with a maximum aggregate value of up to AED 40,000
-
For winning Emirati students, the opportunity to participate in the DCT Khebraty Program, subject to DCT Abu Dhabi policies.
50,000In addition to the cash prize, the winning team will also be provided with:
- An opportunity to participate in a 3–6 month placement program
- An opportunity to attend selected national and regional conferences, events and industry engagement opportunities
50,000In addition to the cash prize, the winning team will also be provided with:
- Up to 5 internship / placement opportunities
Who can participate
Open to all
university students in the UAE
This challenge is open to students of any background, discipline, or academic level – you don't need to be an engineer or a data scientist to have something to contribute.
A few things to know before you sign up:
- You can apply to one sponsor track only
- You'll apply in teams of 3–4 members. Each team will also require at least one UAE national among them to be eligible
(Note: This is an eligibility criteria, so sort your team composition out early rather than scrambling before the deadline) - Team members need to reside in the UAE (have either UAE Passport or Emirates ID)
- If you're under 18 as of the date of submission, you'll need to include this declaration as part of the application form
- Bachelor's and Master's students and recent graduates (graduated in 2025–2026) are eligible to apply
- Team members should be able to showcase their solution during Demo Days at the UAE's largest Science Fair — NSTI Festival, taking place in November 2026
How to form teams
Have a team
already?
All team members will need to individually register as users on the platform. Click on “Create an account” at the top of the page.
The team leader should create the team first.
- Step 1 Once the team has been created, go to the Teams tab. You will see the message: “Your team is incomplete. Hire or invite your friends for higher chances of winning the challenge.”
- Step 2 Click “Invite your friends.” You will be redirected to the Hiring tab.
- Step 3 You will see a Search button. Search for your teammate's name and click the “Invite” button.
- Step 4 They will then need to accept the invitation.
- Step 5 Once the required number of team members has been reached, you're all set!
Important notes:
- In order for someone to appear in the search results, they need to create an account first.
- Invitation links can only be clicked once.
Need extra
team members?
All team members will need to individually register as users on the platform. Click on “Create an account” at the top of the page.
To add or hire team members, please follow these steps:
- Step 1 Once you are logged in to your account, go to “My Space”.
- Step 2 Click the project name where you want to add team members.
- Step 3 Open the “Team” tab and update the team details by adding a short recruitment message and the skills you are looking for.
- Step 4 Next, go to the “Hiring” tab. Here, you will see a list of candidates. You can chat with them or invite them directly to join your team. You can also view pending applications and choose to chat with, accept or decline applicants.