Infotech 2017

novembre 30, 2017 | 10:00 - décembre 03, 2017 | 19:00
Port Louis, Swami Vivekananda International Convention Centre, Pailles
Organized by: NCB, Ministry of Technology, Communication and Innovation
Entrance is: FREE
Contacts: infotech.govmu.org
INFOTECH is the major annual Information and Communication Technology (ICT) event organized in Mauritius by the National Computer Board (NCB) in collaboration with the Ministry of Technology, Communication and Innovation. The aim is to create awareness on emerging technologies and provide business opportunities in the ICT sector.
Opening Hours
 
The Exhibition will be opened to the public as follows:
  • Thursday 30 November 2017, 10.00 hrs to 19.00 hrs
  • Friday 1 December 2017, 10.00 hrs to 19.00 hrs
  • Saturday 2 December 2017, 10.00 hrs to 20.00 hrs
  • Sunday 3 December 2017, 10.00 hrs to 19.00 hrs
 
Entrance is free of charge
 
Free Bus Shuttles from and to 
Victoria / Immigration Station, 
Port Louis and Place Margeot Bus Station, 
Rose Hill

Infotech 2017 components:

  • ICT Exhibition
  • InnovTech Conference
  • InnovTech Demo Areas
  • Coding 
  • 3D Printing
  • Open Technologies Showcasing ​
  • Gaming Zone
  • E-Gov Services
ICT Exhibition

The will be 62 stands in the ICT Exhibition, in the main exhibition hall. The exhibitors will showcase their technology and ICT products & services and sales will be allowed.

Infotech will also include a Delivery Zone. Visitors will be able to take delivery of their purchased products in the delivery zone, thus avoiding heavy traffic. The Delivery Zone will be located outside the main hall (VIP Corridor).

E-Gov Services

The Government has recently emphasised upon the importance of 'vulgarisation' of e-services to the general public and has expressed wish to use the Post Offices (PIAPs) across the island to impart information on e-services and to help citizens in accessing these e-services.

Infotech, being the largest ICT event in Mauritius drawing some 100,000 visitors, is an ideal event for creating awareness of e-Gov Services at national level. In this context, the Mauritius Post will be manning a dedicated E-Gov Services corner.

Gaming Zone

The Gaming Zone will be hosted by the LAN Gamers Association and will comprise of over 10 stations linked to a 100 Mb ADSL line. This year several Playstation and Xbox gaming consoles will be in the gaming zone. The Gaming Zone, as was the case for previous editions, proved very popular among the younger visitors. 

Innovtech Demo Area

In line with Government’s vision to move upscale to a Smart and Innovative Mauritius, an Innovations Demo Area will be set up in the Atrium of SVICC to showcase innovative products, services, apps and projects developed by Mauritians from the industry, institutions and academia. More info soon of list of innovative products, solutions and companies which will be at Infotech 2017.​​

Innovtech Conference

The aim of the conference is to raise awareness on the use of ICT to gear up 6 growth areas that have been identified by the Ministry of TCI. The growth areas are; ICT – skills development and boosting exports, Sustainable agriculture using ICT, Fintech and Block chain, High technology manufacturing, Ocean Economy and Tourism - innovative applications.


The conference will start as from 30 November to 2 December 2017 at the SVICC. The mini conferences will be held each day as from 10h00. The themes have been planned as follows:

Day 1 - Computer Security Day & Technical Colloquium

Day 2 and Day 3 - Mini Conferences based on the format of “Developers Conference” organised by the Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community

Mr. Jochen Kirstätter, the founder of MSCC, and the Ministry of TCI will take the lead for Day 2 and Day 3 of Innovtech Conference. The conference will be organised in collaboration with Linux Group, IoT Makers Community, GitHub as well as private firms and platforms such as Microsoft, IBM, La Turbine and others.

The following persons will be giving presentations on day 2 and day 3 of the conference, on the following topics:

  • Nayar Joolfoo - Speeding the migration to green energy using IoT platforms
  • Chervine Bhiwoo – “Developing Intelligent Bots” and “The Power of Community”
  • Vanessa Chellen - Website creation - behind the scenes
  • Jochen Kirstätter - Communities - The importance of exchange and discussion
  • Associate Professor, Dr. K. Khedo - IOT
  • Mr Sanjay Soobron – Innovative Technologies
  • Mr Amoordalingum Pather - The New Matrix in Broadcasting in a Convergence World

Coding

​​Digital Youth Engagement Programme Project - Coding in Cyber Caravans

As announced in the Budget Speech 2017-2018, the National Computer Board (NCB), a parastatal body operating under the aegis of the Ministry of Technology, Communication and Innovation, is implementing the ‘Digital Youth Engagement Programme (DYEP)’ which comprise the provision of introductory courses on Coding to youngsters. NCB is therefore reviewing the trainings in its Cyber Caravans into coding sessions which will be dispensed to students and the community.

The National Computer Board will act as a training service provider to the Ministry of Education and Human Resources, Tertiary Education and Scientific Research for the introduction of Coding in primary schools starting as early as Grade 4 and Grade 5. The learners will be provided with a 15-hour training delivered in the Cyber Caravans which will proceed to various primary schools around the island following a joint collaboration and an agreed timetable with the Ministry of Education and Human Resources, Tertiary Education and Scientific Research.

The objectives of introducing Coding at an early age are to:

  • Spark the interest of our young learners for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects.
  • Contribute to increase the number of students opting for Science and Computer Subjects at Secondary and Tertiary Levels.

A number of coding skills will be imparted to the students via course materials accessible online from an Open Source coding platform (Code.org). The skills to be taught include:-

  • Reinforcement of Pre-requisites (mouse skills)
  • Sequence 
  • Debugging codes
  • Understanding and Devising of Algorithms
  • Use of loops

It is expected that this initiative will, in the long run, contribute towards creating an adequate and diversified talent pool to fill the increasing number of technology jobs that shall be available in the future and hence drive the growth of the ICT Sector.

NCB will make use of a mix of IT equipment (in the Cyber Caravans) including PCs, Laptops, Raspberry Pi and Tablets for the delivery of the trainings in coding. It will be seamless for the learner accessing online course materials from whatever device he/she is using and at the same time this will also be an opportunity to showcase the latest IT technologies available to the students and community.

3D Printing

During the event, a 3D Design and Printing Area will be setup inside the ICT Exhibition. The objectives of this component is to demonstrate the 3D design and printing process to visitors and empowering SMEs on business opportunities in 3D printing. Some 17 3D filament printers will be in a dedicated stand for 3D printing technology. The general public, students, Micro enterprises and SMEs will be invited to book a slot between 30 Nov to 3 Dec to be able to make use of this facility.

The following companies/institutions will be present in the 3D design and Printing to show live scanning and printing of 3D objects:

  • National Computer Board
  • MITD
  • University of Mauritius
  • University des Mascareignes
  • Mini Factory
  • Go Digital Shop
  • Generation Plus
  • IPK Printing

The NCB will also sensitise visitors about the two 3D Printing Centres being set up at NCB and SMEDA for the purpose of providing support to a wide range of industries, professions and academia, including SMEs, start-ups, designers and university students.

Open Technologies Showcasing

Showcasing Open Technologies  - “creating you own connected objects using open technologies”

1. Introduction

Open technologies are becoming increasingly prevalent in many aspects of society. During innovtech, open to the general public, we will explore through talks and demos many aspects of open technologies and their implications in the context of research, education and development.

Today, from smartphone operating systems to high performance computing, open source now provides some of the most powerful tools to tackle today's challenges.

2. Objective of showcasing Open Technologies

The aim is to showcase how advancement of Open Hardware systems such as Arduino with other latest microcontroller embedded devices alongside open source software and advances in other innovative open devices coupled with consumer-grade 3D printing technologies, is nowadays boosting the development of Maker communities in most parts of the world, progressively imposing a rethink of innovation and development techniques.

We intend to initiate computer science/engineering students, software developers, tech enthusiasts/professionals, makers community and other users interested to learn about the potential of open technologies by showcasing a demo and explain how they can be used in developing latest wireless sensor network applications such as irrigation systems, farming systems, Ocean economy systems, smart metering, smart cities,smartphone detection, building automation,and so on.

3. Demos

The NCB will be setting an openLab where demos will be conducted using open technologies during Innovtech. The demos will make use of open hardware such as Raspberry Pis, Arduino, other microcontoller based devises coupled with open source. It is proposed to organise a series of “hands-on” training where batch of 10 attendees will be initiated to open technologies.

4. Information Resources

Informative materials on open technologies will be handed to all those attending the initiation session.

5. Participants

Participants will be required to register online for the initiation sessions. We shall conduct 2 batches per day.

Exhibitors List

ICT Exhibition



  
1Mauritius TelecomA1, A2
2Cash & CarryB1, B2, B3
3Yasin Mobile ShopD7, D8
4Central Business EquipmentC8, C10
5Nitech Solutions LtdD11
6Eyeswatch Surveillance ltdD12
7Prosafe and Co LtdC22
8Ti GadgetC15
9Island Communications LtdC7
10MCCI Business SchoolD13
11Spark Digital LtdC16
12NYS Indian Ocean Company LtdC17
13Linkbynet Indian OceanD14
14Unicomp Computer Training InstituteD2
15Redline Distribution LtdC2
16Appletree Mauritius LtdC21
17Mauritius Post LtdC12
18PMO/CSUC14
19Aetherion Intl LtdC11,C13
20Protel Indian Ocean LtdD17

ICT Job Fair/Career Guidance



  
1Call Services LtdJF1
2Artemus consultants ltdJF6
3Career HubJF5
4CCA InternationalJF4
5MCCIJF10
6Pro ContactJF8

Innovation Space



 
​ 1Educomp E-learning ltd
2Luz Energy
3Impress Ltd
4IPK Printing
5Nurabytes
6HTC
7Architecture & Design
8Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation
9Generation Plus
10National Computer Board
11Dr. Jhurry (Nanothechnology)
12Loganaden Velvindron
13SMART HEALTH
14Softadel Ltd
15AppEase Informatics Ltd
16Code Vigor
17Log In
18MauFaim
19University des Mascareignes
20University of Mauritius
21Mauritius Institute of Education
22Homework.mu
23Profdodo

3D & Robotics

  
A3D PrintingTechnology
BInnovate Technology& Robotics Academy, Australia
CUniversity ofMaine, USA
DKIDOBOTIKZ, SPROBOTIC WORKS, INDIA
EInstitut National de Recherche en Informatique & Automatique (INRIA), Flowers  Lab France
FAquitaine Robotics – INRIA  France
GiCAP Université Claude Bernard Lyon1  France
HModular RoboticsUSA
IMauritius ResearchCouncil (MRC)
JNational ResearchChair (NRC)