The Intelligent Traffic, Transportation, and Logistics solution and portfolio of services (Masarak™) , developed by QU Wireless Innovations Centre (Quwic), has won a ‘Highly Commended’ certificate at the annual Gulf Traffic Exhibition in Dubai.The event saw more than 200 global players showing their solutions and products. Dr Adnan Abu-Dayya, executive director of Quwic, based at Qatar Science & Technology Park, said yesterday that receiving a highly commended certificate from a global judging panel is a great testament to the value of Masarak and its unique positioning in the market. “Since its inception, Quwic identified the gap that exists in the local and regional markets and the critical need for services and applications that can utilise real-time and historical traffic information,” he recalled. Hence, Quwic developed the Masarak solution that provides rich and intelligent portfolio of services and applications in the areas of traffic monitoring, fleet management, intelligent dispatching and trip planning.“Quwic differentiates itself in this field in more ways than one, like in building Masarak locally taking into consideration the needs of local and regional markets, and in building a significant business-eco system of national and regional partners in support of our innovative solutions development” said Omar Bondogji, head of business development. Quwic had recently become the only institution from the region to participate in the Co-operative Mobility Services Plugtests in Helmond, the Netherlands.The event was organised by Etsi (a European standards organisation) and Ertico (the European network of ITS stakeholders).“Quwic’s co-operative Intelligent Transport Systems (Cop-ITS) platform, which is fully made in Qatar, has performed well in tests against other global implementations,” Dr Abu-Dayya said.As part of a global trend to adopt Cop-ITS, researchers are working on new technologies that enable vehicles to communicate and co-operate with other vehicles and road units to support the creation of new safety and infotainment applications. These new communication technologies need to be standardised so that all vehicles can communicate effectively regardless of their brand or type. As part of its intense focus on Intelligent Transport Innovations, Quwic has started working on a project on Cop-ITS (
www.copits.org) with the support of the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF).In this project, Quwic is building its own industry compliant vehicular communication platform which will be used to build safety and navigation applications which are useful to Qatar and the region.As the first release of the Etsi ITS standards on co-operative systems has been completed, Etsi and Ertico co-organised the first Plugtests meeting to allow companies and institutions to test their own implementations of the standard in terms of conformance to the standard and interoperability with other implementations. Quwic was one of the 14 global companies and institutions who participated in the Plugtests event in the Netherlands.“We look forward to further participations as more features and capabilities are added to our platform,” Dr Abu Dayya added.As part of its strategy to lead in the development and deployment of Cop-ITS systems and applications in Qatar and the region, Quwic is hosting the 4th Etsi workshop on Cop-ITS system in Qatar from February 7 to 9, 2012 at Qatar National Convention Centre, supported by QNRF. This workshop will represent a great chance for global leaders to discuss their experience and plans for developing and deploying Cop-ITS systems in their markets.Etsi is a not-for-profit organisation officially recognised by the European Union as a European Standards Organisation, with more than 700 international member organisations drawn from 62 countries across five continents.