In an event held yesterday at ITA’s premises, the Information Technology Authority (ITA) celebrated the successful graduation of 37 trainees of the 15 batch of Sas for Virtual Reality program carried out during the period of 29th July to 25th October 2018 and honoring the winning projects of the 6th edition of Summer of Code 2018 carried out during 1st July to 1st October 2018. The event was attended by Omar Bin Salim Alshanfari, deputy CEO of ITA for Operations, ITA management and graduates.

The ceremony began with  a motivational speech by an Omani successful entrepreneur who is one of the former students of Sas for Virtual Reality Center, talking about his journey in establishing a startup in VR field.

3 projects developed by 5 Omani youth reached to the final stage at Oman Summer of Code 2018 were showcased and honored. Blockchain Evoting system developed by Rihab Said Aljahwari and Suliman Bin Said Almazroai elearning Open Education Resources Portal developed by Ahlam Almusalhi and eCommerce Portal for Housewives Products developed by Aisha Abdullah Alsaidi and Hanadi Bint Abdulaziz Alharrasi. The winners of Oman Summer of Code are granted an opportunity to attend an overseas conference in open and free source software along with the opportunity to establish their own startups in Sas Center for Entrepreneurship if met the criteria.

Over 3 months period, the participants of Oman Summer of Code which includes Omani youth application developers (IT enthusiasts, professionals, jobseekers) students, worked on various projects using Free and Open Source software to develop applications functional in different work environments. In addition to gaining exposure to real-world software development scenarios, participants walked through intensive training and orientation program in FOSS and entrepreneurship while implemented the assigned projects to them.

Whereas the 3 months training program of Sas for Virtual and augmented Reality in the 15 batch graduated 37 trainees who were trained on 3d design and development of virtual reality applications. 4 projects in 3d and virtual reality were honored as best projects which are (Scary Jail), (Tiny Beast), (Grand Father’s House) which are games developed using VR and AR technologies and (Easy Explore). Which is an interactive educational application

The ceremony also was accompanied with an exhibition where all projects showcase by graduates and participants of both programs.