Tech News
ATLAB announces winners of ‘FIRST LEGO League,’ recognising UAE’s young innovators in robotics
The FIRST LEGO League (FLL) 2024-25 season, hosted by ATLAB, a subsidiary of the Centena Group, in collaboration with FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and LEGO Education, announced the national winners from across the UAE during the grand finale of the ‘CHALLENGE’ category on February 9, 2025. The awards recognised young innovators from 42 participating teams for their exceptional creativity, problem-solving skills and teamwork in robotics and STEM.
The Champion’s Winner Award was presented to Team ‘ACE’ from Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Medical and Educational Sciences, with Team ‘PELAGIC PIONEERS’ from DPS (Delhi Private School) – Sharjah as first runner-up and Team ‘METAL MECH’ from Gems International School – Al Khail as the second runner-up.

In the Robot Performance category, Team ‘SEATROTTERS’ from Gems Millenium School – Sharjah emerged as winners, followed by Team ‘ACE’ from Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Medical and Educational Sciences first runner-up and Team ‘MARINE X’ from Gems Millenium School Sharjah as the second runner-up.
The winners for Robot Design were Team ‘AQUA RAPTORZ’ from DPS – Sharjah, with Team ‘SEATROTTERS’ from Gems Millenium School – Sharjah as first runner-up and Team ‘CODEBREAKERS 2.0’ from Emerging Stars Institute as second runner-up.
The Innovation Project award went to Team ‘MAWJ MYSTERY MASTERS (M CUBE)’ from DPS – Sharjah, with Team ‘HYDRATECH’ from Mayoor Pvt School as first runner-up and Team ‘NMS HYDROBOTS’ from Gems New Millennium School – Al Khail as second runner-up.
Finally, the Core Values award was won by Team ‘AIS_TECHTITANS’ from Abu Dhabi International Pvt School, while Team ‘ABYSSAL EXPLORERS’ from Abu Dhabi Indian School secured first runner-up position and ‘DIAEH TEAM 2’ from Dubai International Academy – Emirates Hill secured the second runner-up position.
This year, the competition included the Motivate Award, which was presented to Team ‘REEF RANGERS’ from Diyar Private Academy Early Years and Girl’s Campus Dibba, Fujairah in recognition of their exceptional team spirit, enthusiasm, and commitment to the core values of the FIRST LEGO League.
Charbel Najjar, the coach of Team ACE from Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Medical and Educational Sciences said: “The competition provided us with a dynamic platform to exhibit our innovative concepts and gain valuable experience in the realms of problem-solving, teamwork, and STEM-related skills. We aim to carry this experience forward and continue to participate in similar competitions.”
The winners in the CHALLENGE category were assessed on the basis of their robot design, performance, innovation projects and core values. Team ACE that received the Champion’s Winner Award are qualified for the international-level competition, which is held in the USA at the World Festival – Houston, Texas. Apart from this, selected teams will compete in the international competitions across the world; AIS_TECHTITANS from Abu Dhabi International Pvt School in Greece, SEATROTTERS from Gems Millenium School – Sharjah in South Africa, AQUA RAPTORZ from DPS – Sharjah and METAL MECH from Gems International School- Al Khail in Australia and PELAGIC PIONEERS from DPS – Sharjah in USA.
Nilesh Korgaonkar, CEO of ATLAB said: “The exceptional projects created by these innovators may not be directly implemented, but they might inspire real-world solutions at an international level or adopted by organisations or countries associated with FIRST. This competition is a platform for students to showcase their creativity, gain valuable experience and contribute to solving real-world problems. We are immensely proud of all the participants and winners who seized this opportunity. To ensure high-quality evaluation, we meticulously selected judges with expertise in STEM education and robotics.”
The teams were judged by esteemed professionals from different backgrounds, representing institutions, universities and schools across the UAE from both governmental and private organisations. This year’s grand finale was further enriched by the presence of special guest Rasna Hussain, a CCDI Teacher and Trainer at the UAE’s Ministry of Education, whose expertise spans Robotics, STEM Training, artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning.
In line with the UAE’s vision to foster a knowledge-based economy and empower future generations, initiatives like the FIRST LEGO League play a vital role in nurturing young innovators. By providing a platform to showcase creativity, problem-solving, and teamwork, ATLAB reaffirms its commitment to supporting the nation’s aspirations for innovation and excellence in STEM fields.
Tech News
Snowflake powers KSA’s Zahid Group’s data and AI transformation to unlock enterprise value
Zahid Group, one of Saudi Arabia’s leading diversified business groups spanning heavy equipment, energy, transport and manufacturing, and others, has selected Snowflake, the AI Data Cloud company, as the strategic foundation for its enterprise data and AI transformation, giving the Group a scalable way to strengthen governance, advance AI adoption, and elevate customer experiences enterprise-wide. The relationship was formalized during a signing ceremony at Zahid Business Park in Jeddah, launching a multi-year investment that will strengthen productivity and support technology-led growth in line with Saudi Vision 2030.
With Snowflake, Zahid Group’s Digital Solutions Division is unifying data from across its business streams and departments on a governed, secure, centralized and scalable lakehouse platform. A modern business intelligence ecosystem will give leaders faster access to information, enabling them to spend less time reconciling reports and more time acting on insights. The next phase will use Snowflake Cortex AI to enable employees to engage with data through natural language, reducing reliance on traditional reporting and shortening the path from question to decision.
Snowflake’s adoption at Zahid Group comes as Saudi Arabia accelerates its goal of becoming the Middle East’s leading AI infrastructure and technology hub. The Council of Ministers has designated 2026 as the Year of AI, and PwC estimates that AI could contribute around 12.4% of the country’s GDP by 2030.
Before adopting Snowflake, Zahid Group’s data was dispersed across multiple systems, requiring extensive manual consolidation and resulting in reporting inconsistencies that slowed decision-making. As an early proof of value, the Caterpillar Helios initiative demonstrated the power of secure, real-time data sharing through Snowflake. Building on this foundation, Zahid Group is now extending Snowflake’s capabilities across its digital ecosystem, enabling real-time data streaming and integration with core platforms such as Infor and Salesforce.
This connected architecture has standardized critical reporting processes, reducing month-end reporting cycles from days to hours, and in many cases minutes. By eliminating manual effort and improving data consistency, it provides leaders with timely, trusted insights that support faster decision-making and strengthen a culture of data-driven innovation.
Suzan Sadek, Group IT Manager, Zahid Group, said: “Data is one of the most valuable assets of the digital economy. By choosing Snowflake, we are building a trusted and scalable data foundation that enables AI-driven innovation, faster decision-making, and improved customer experience. This transformation strengthens Zahid Group’s competitiveness, while supporting Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 ambition to create a data-driven economy.”
Michel Nader, General Manager for the Middle East, Turkey & Africa, Snowflake, said: “Zahid Group is demonstrating how trusted data can become the foundation for enterprise AI at scale. Snowflake brings information closer to customers while providing leading AI capabilities to enable digital transformation across Zahid’s operating environment. We are proud to support the company’s next phase too, where employees can access trusted insights faster and strengthen the Group’s ability to create lasting and scalable value across its businesses.”
Looking ahead, Zahid Group will expand Snowflake’s platform’s role across the Group, extending governed data products, advanced analytics and AI capabilities into more business functions to deliver measurable value for customers, partners and employees.
Tech News
PNY Technologies Joins LEAP 2026 with the Latest AI Technologies – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | 31 August to 3 September | Booth H3-D10
PNY Technologies announces its participation in LEAP 2026, taking place in Riyadh from 31 August to 3 September, where it will present its latest AI infrastructure and accelerated computing solutions.
The showcase will feature the technologies behind PNY’s AI infrastructure portfolio, from the AI Enterprise Factory to the latest NVIDIA RTX PRO and GeForce graphics solutions, together with networking and infrastructure technologies.
Visitors will also be able to explore the PNY AI Factory Digital Twin Configurator, which allows users to design and configure their own AI factory using digital twins and NVIDIA Omniverse.
PNY will also host live demonstrations developed in collaboration with its technology partners, including SOMOD, DDN, INFINIARC, VERTIV, and F5.
The company’s participation in LEAP 2026 reflects its continued commitment to supporting AI innovation across the Middle East and helping shape the technologies powering the region’s digital transformation.
The PNY team, including regional representatives, will be on-site throughout LEAP 2026 to meet with visitors, partners, and members of the media at Hall H3, Booth D10. Attendees wishing to arrange a briefing or interview are welcome to submit a request below.
Contact request: https://forms.pny.eu/pny-at-leap-2026/
Press contact: sverdier@pny.com / mhamdouche@pny.com
Tech News
Globant Introduces Glob.AI, Reinventing Technology Services for the AI Era
Globant (NYSE: GLOB), a global company focused on driving enterprise reinvention through AI, today introduces Glob.AI, a new AI-native tech services model that fundamentally changes how enterprises access, purchase and deploy AI services. Available online through a self-service model, Glob.AI gives organizations access to enterprise-grade, high quality AI Pods (service units run by a set of AI agents and supervised by humans). Companies are charged for what they produce -per output or per consumption- never per seat or per hour.

“For over 20 years, Globant has stayed ahead of every major technology shift, and AI is no different. Glob.AI is our next step: the one-stop shop where our AI Pods live, each specialized by task and industry. Traditional AI adoption drives token consumption far beyond what efficient output requires, and the real cost is the wasted tokens plus the unstructured, manual supervision of AI. AI Pods introduce a smarter model, running the right AI through parallel agents, loops, workflows, and deterministic processes, representing the true state of the art of what AI can deliver today,” said Martín Migoya, CEO and co-founder of Globant.
Glob.AI brings together AI-native velocity with Globant’s 23 years of enterprise delivery baked into the governance layer. AI agents do the heavy lifting, with Globant’s experts supervising their outputs and guiding every step. Glob.AI works to standards–documented, tested, secure, built for enterprise scale. It’s the speed AI promises, with the rigor and quality that businesses need, by including:
- Well-defined, deterministic, and repeatable processes, supervised end to end by experts
- Optimized AI usage and transparent pricing: customers pay strictly for expert-validated outputs and/or real consumption — not hours, seats, AI hallucinations, retries, or wasted cycles.
- At least 30% more productive than the typical engineer-plus-AI approach
- Full AI sovereignty and governance: total flexibility over which models customers use and where they run them, with zero client data ever used to train external models.
- Token consumption secured in a client’s proprietary Token Vault, providing full traceability and compounding a client’s institutional knowledge over time.
“AI is not just making the same projects faster, it is making thousands of projects viable that never were before,” said Guibert Englebienne, co-founder of Globant. “Until today, enterprises could not buy technology services this way: instantly, transparently, paying only for results. That is the shift Glob.AI delivers, and the strong demand for AI Pods shows enterprises are ready for it.”
Organizations joining the waiting list at Glob.AI will gain early access to a comprehensive catalog of agentic workflows capable of building and deploying solutions for enterprise platforms and specialized industry use cases. The AI Pods in the offering also include partnerships with major organizations including Anthropic, AWS, Vercel, OpenAI, Adobe, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, SAP and Salesforce.
Traditional enterprise tech services require months of discovery, RFPs, and procurement cycles before the work begins. Glob.AI changes that model entirely. Users can log in and immediately start building enterprise grade software. Tech delivery becomes a live, continuous service rather than a fixed-term project — every improvement and release happening on the platform, fully visible to the client, in real time.
Globant released AI Pods in mid-2025, and they are already in use by several Fortune 500 organizations across media, entertainment, professional services, and finance, delivering early results that include:
- FIFA experiencing a 20% efficiency increase in throughput generation while maintaining or improving quality rates
- LALIGA deploying AI across key functions in three months
- YPF reducing contract timelines by up to 40%
- PharmaMar achieving 15x faster insights in oncology research
- A leading commercial bank completing a COBOL migration in 2 months versus 14 as projected with a traditional approach
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