Hawa’ak and Wain: Qatar’s answers to plenty of questions before the FIFA World Cup

Undertaking the organization of the FIFA World Cup is a huge challenge for any country. It is not different for Qatar, who will host such a tournament for the first time ever, with plenty of issues to check before the hosts take on Ecuador in the opening game of the tournament on 20 November.

With seven new stadiums built and another one renovated, Qatar are now ready to kick off the competition, where 32 teams will compete for the big prize – the Jules Rimet trophy. However, not only the infrastructure was put in place to rise to the challenge, but several other aspects needed to be improved quickly.

Hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup was the catalyst for expanding Qatar’s digital economy and broadening its ICT ecosystem, with several high-profile investments being made in an emerging industry and driving innovation in digitalization, in 5G, internet of things (IoT), virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality.

A big part in this revolution was the Qatar Innovations Mobility Centre (QMIC), which has been supercharging its services and products up to and during the 2022 FIFA World Cup, to streamline any possible issues and offer the over 1 million visitors an exciting and trouble-free experience.

The first-ever start-up in Qatar, QMIC is the first independent regional innovations center that was created to leverage the use of emerging mobility technologies and lifestyle in developing and deploying intelligent solutions and smart applications for use in a number of markets including Transportation, Road Safety, Environment, and Smart City Platforms.

QMIC was founded with the objective of filling the existing gap in the region for institutions focusing on applied research and solutions delivery with the aim of creating local knowledge-based ventures.

“We have a roadmap to provide our services for the World Cup in 2022 and beyond. Our expertise is in intelligent mobility and Smart Cities and we are focusing more on them to provide better services. For this, we have developed a new strategy named ECO (Enhance, Customise and Optimise). With this, we are planning to make use of our services to support the World Cup and thereby benefit the country,” said Dr Adnan Abu-Dayya, executive director and CEO of QMIC, according to the “Gulf Times”.

One of the biggest innovations for the Qatar 2022 tournament was the adoption of Hawa’ak – an air quality monitoring system that uses an Internet of Things (IoT) platform to support real-time monitoring of air quality, weather & climate, and other environmental conditions, allowing users to access this information via multiple channels including mobile delivery, and web portals.

Hawa’ak takes advantage of a new generation of mobile sensor stations that can be distributed to wider areas, allowing the delivery of localized and personalized air quality information. This information contributes to building a rich bank of data and is driving the creation of new services and applications optimized for enterprises, government agencies, and consumers.
The collected, processed, and refined weather and air quality information will be accessible to SC and its subsidiaries/contractors through multiple channels such as web portals, mobile applications, hard copy reports, and alerts among others.

With time on hand to enhance the services and customizes them even further, QMIC has worked tirelessly to offer the best user experience and to ensure that everything works as planned before the start of the tournament.

“Hawa’ak is a new breed of intelligent systems developed by QMIC for delivering localized air quality and detailed weather information utilizing a new generation of mobile stations. All along, QMIC has focused on developing and deploying intelligent systems and services to support the needs of important market segments in Qatar including environment, transportation, and road safety. Our strategic partnership with SC will help us scale up our plans and achieve our goals faster in the field of environment,” added Abu-Dayya.

QMIC has also worked around the clock to put in place a new generation of “Wain”, is an intelligent map and location-based services application, which delivers useful map-related services which include real-time traffic information, smart navigation, dynamic maps, updated parking information, speed camera alerts, a rich collection of POIs, access to roadside assistance, in addition to providing a comprehensive look of the most current and exciting events in Qatar.

The new Wain platform, delivered in 2022, offers a completely new and richer user experience including a new user interface, enhanced map services, and customization capabilities, and introduces the concept of a Super-Wain framework with embedded micro-apps to deliver value added services and content which can benefit from Wain’s core capabilities.

“This is just the beginning of a roadmap to significantly enhance the capabilities of Wain and to offer micro-apps and transactional services to serve the needs of residents and visitors,” concluded Abu-Dayya.