Huawei has kicked off its annual flagship European Innovation Day in Vienna’s Kursalon Hübner where sustainability was discussed at length, looking at the environment, the digital economy, and talent cultivation.

This summit-style event titled “Innovate for a Sustainable Europe” was designed to provide a platform for the technology industry, and local partners, universities, media platforms, and governments to interact and exchange ideas.

Former Austrian President Heinz Fischer opened the event saying, “I hope that Huawei will make further contributions in terms of innovation and green solutions to Austria. Let’s make joint efforts to contribute to a peaceful, successful, and beautiful Austria and Europe.”

Huawei’s Senior Vice President and Board Member Catherine Chen also spoke to her company’s intention for hosting the event: “Together with our partners, we will drive green progress and push innovation to create a more sustainable Europe.”

This year’s event was the first of its kind to use 5G live streaming to broadcast for global audiences in addition to its normal keynote speeches and on-site panel discussions. The event also saw a 5G demo truck provided by Huawei that gave audiences outside the venue a hands-on experience of 5G applications like smart mining and AR gaming.

Austria Tech4all Guardian launch: Technology for nature and the environment

At the Huawei European Innovation Day 2021, Huawei showcased many of the sustainability projects currently part of its TECH4ALL Initiative, including its ongoing partnerships with NGO Rainforest Connection (RFCx) which protects biodiversity in the Amazon, and Greek NGOs that use old smartphones and AI to protect chamois in the Aoos Gorge from poachers. It also announced the start of a new Tech4all Guardian project in Austria in which it will work with the University of Vienna and RFCx on a research project at Lake Neusiedl in Seewinkel National Park. This project will use Huawei’s intelligent software systems to research the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and develop new data-based environmental protection measures.

5G-based innovations for a digital Europe: 5G smart farming and the future of agriculture

As a key promoter of digitalization within the European market over the past 20 years, Huawei also showed off many promising advancements in different sectors during today’s event. This includes their work deploying 5G-powered robots in hospitals in Vienna and the construction of Europe’s first fully connected 5G smart port in Hungary. The COO of DRONETECH Felix Müller also spoke at the event on Austria’s Linz Smart Farming Project which is making waves in the labor-intensive agriculture sector: “Drones and 5G are the future of agriculture. You can fly over large areas quickly and immediately see where there is a need for fertilizer or water in the field. At the same time, we can massively reduce the use of pesticides. This is also the goal of the Ministry of Agriculture and the 2030 Agenda.”

In the ICT sector, AT&S, an Austrian company based out of Styria was awarded the Futurezone Award – 5G Category for its innovative integration of air inclusions and high-frequency printed circuit boards to reduce transmission losses. With these so-called “Air Cavities”, AT&S has created a much more environmentally friendly way to increase the transmission bandwidth by up to 100%.

Seeds for the Future: Huawei announces new scholarship program to promote young talent

 

In addition to advances in industry and environmental sustainability, today’s event also focused on the promotion of young talent. According to Phillip Gan, President of Huawei’s CEE & Nordic Region, “A digital Europe should have a skilled workforce. Cooperation between companies and universities is a good way to achieve this. Working together helps drive science forward, and it also supports industry development. Over the past 10 years, Huawei has trained more than 30,000 ICT professionals in Europe through our programs like Seeds for the Future. Over the next five years, we will invest about 35 million euros in cultivating local talent. This program will benefit 500,000 people.”

These statements were part of Huawei’s announcement of new ICT talent development project called the Seeds for the Future Scholarship. Through this scholarship alone, Huawei has committed to investing 2.5 million euros that will be granted to talented students in Europe for ICT upskilling. Huawei CEE & Nordic Region Vice President Radosław Kędzia explained how through this project Huawei “will be cooperating with the top universities in Europe to enhance the abilities and potential of the next generation of European innovators.”

Huawei Mobile Services updates: Huawei announces programs to support developer innovation

The Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) ecosystem has continued to solidify its position over the last few months as the third largest mobile ecosystem in the world, helping 5.1 million registered developers connect with over 730 million monthly active users around the world. At today’s event, Huawei Mobile Services Europe VP Dr. Jaime Gonzalo reaffirmed Huawei’s commitment to the cooperation spirit across all areas of technical innovation by announcing multiple support programs that Huawei will offer globally to young developers, the least of which is the company’s latest HMS Core 6 kits which are designed to help developers meet the growing need for intelligent app functions. By the end of Q3 2021, Gonzalo reported, there were over 173,000 HMS Core integrated applications on AppGallery, a remarkable 81% year-on-year increase.

The European winners of the Huawei HMS App Innovation Contest were also announced today, following intense competition between 4,000 teams from over 200 countries and regions to create seamless, smart, and innovative digital experiences, and explore the future of digital intelligence. 600 of these teams also competed for HMS’s Tech Women’s Award, a new category this year which is intended to support and encourage more exceptional women in the tech world to stand out.