Ankabut Blockchain to Provide Applications to Manage, Issue, Attest, Share, and Verify Any Academic Record

Khalifa University of Science and Technology’s managed Ankabut, the Emirates Advanced National Research and Education Network, has launched ‘Ankabut Blockchain’, a digital certificate platform for the issuance, attestation, and exchange of digital certificates for all levels of education.

The integration of Educhain, a leader in UAE in education blockchain applications, by Ankabut, the UAE leader in education services and infrastructure, is significant.

Ankabut has 26 institutional members with connections to over 67 sites throughout the UAE, and offers UAE academic and research institutions connectivity to other education networks worldwide. Managed by Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Ankabut is jointly funded by the Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRA) through the ICT Fund.

The Educhain blockchain ecosystem includes several leading institutions in the UAE such as Khalifa University, UAE University, and Zayed University. The integration with Ankabut provides a secure, robust, scalable platform, accessible to all academic institutions across all Emirates in the UAE.

Ankabut Blockchain serves schools, institutions, universities, and regulators to digitize academic records and attestations. It provides applications to manage, issue, attest, share, and verify any academic record. Learners receive a digital wallet to manage their academic records from all schools, institutions, and universities in the network.

The ecosystem moves all certificates and records fully online, from the issuance, to attestation, sharing, and verifying. It integrates blockchain applications into their processes and workflow – moving from physical processes to digital – saving time and costs for all parties, collecting data and insights, and allowing recipients to verify all documents online.

Ankabut Blockchain is also developing new applications for digital badging, equivalencies, and credit transfers, among others, to serve both academia and government.

Fahem Al Nuaimi, Ankabut CEO, commented; “Academia must seriously consider the next step after e-learning. As restrictions on travel continue both locally and abroad, learners are no longer able to receive and share their degrees and other accomplishments. The UAE needs to be ready for the next stage, a “2.0” moment, to securely digitize academic records, attestations, equivalencies, and credit transfers, moving fully online.”

Mark Balovnev, CEO at Educhain, added; “We are very excited to work with Ankabut to be the partner of choice for every online certification. As the world shifts to digital, we are here to support institutions in these challenging times, to serve their learners and partners safely and effectively through digital channels.”

Ankabut Blockchain is also in line with the UAE’s Emirates Blockchain Strategy 2021, enabling all academic institutions to digitize their certificates and enabling government and regulators to play a role in the network. As the UAE looks to conduct 50% of government transactions on the federal level using blockchain technology by 2021, securely digitizing education records and attestations is a natural next step.

Through providing a unique digital wallet for each learner, the “Academic Passport”, Ankabut Blockchain aligns with the UAE 50-Year charter, a central education file for every citizen – “documenting all the academic degrees obtained, classes and training taken, and conferences attended”.

Clarence Michael
English Editor Specialist
8 December 2020

The post Ankabut Integrates Educhain to Launch Digital Certificates Platform for the UAE appeared first on Khalifa University.

��16th Annual Online Event to Include International ‘Special Internet Group Meeting’; Around 500 Delegates from Higher Education Community and Over 50 Post-Secondary Institutions Expected to Attend
Khalifa University of Science and Technology today announced that Ankabut – the Emirates Advanced National Research and Education Network – will organize the first-ever virtual meeting of users’ to emphasize the expanding role of cloud-based services in educational technology.��
The one-day annual ‘’ will be streamed live on 18 May. The conference will virtually gather around 500 delegates, primarily from the UAE higher education community and over 100 organizations, including over 50 different post-secondary institutions. This year’s conference will include an international ‘Special Internet Group Meeting’. Moreover, recorded sessions of the entire proceedings will be available to access for a month on the event web page. Click to virtually attend the live stream.
The event introduces many specialized sessions aiming at showcasing Ankabut’s various services and its partnerships with several vendors along with Ankabut’s role using the Cloud-based technologies to support online and digital learning in both schools and higher education institutions.
Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, will welcome the gathering, while the keynote, titled ‘Unlock the Full Potential of Digital Learning’, will be delivered by Berj Akian, CEO, ClassLink. Top officials from Huawei, Ankabut’s strategic partner, HPE, the platinum sponsor, and Microsoft are also expected to address the virtual gathering.
Tony Austwick, Director, Software2, Ankabut’s Virtual Users Meeting’s supporter sponsor, will speak on ‘Academic Software Virtualization and Khalifa University Use – Case Study’, while Asif Rashid, Azure Specialist (Education Industry), Microsoft UAE, will highlight ‘Remote Learning during COVID-19’.
Moreover, Huawei will be participating in the event with two sessions. Ashraf Esmat Mahmoud Khalil, Senior Solution Architect, Technical Manager, Huawei, will speak about ‘Cloud and Big Data in Education’, and a session titled ‘ Discovering Wi-Fi 6 powered by Huawei Technologies’ will be delivered by Mohamed Mamdouh Elsabagh, IP Solution Manager for Education Sector, Huawei.��
Fahem Al-Nuaimi, Chief Executive Officer, Ankabut, said: “The Annual Ankabut Users’ Virtual Meeting 2020 will highlight innovation in educational technology based on experience, to reflect on and share lessons from stakeholders. We will be streaming this annual event online in order to showcase the integral role of cloud technology in education. We are also gathering the most knowledgeable researchers from all over the world, as well as leaders in innovative educational technologies to explore the challenges and future opportunities. I firmly hope the technical sessions will offer everyone adequate opportunity to virtually network with our partners.”
In addition to government entities and senior officials as well as corporations who are involved in higher education, the meeting will additionally be a gathering of multiple groups, who share a common interest in educational technology.��
Stakeholders from higher education are also expected to participate in the technical sessions on cutting edge issues related to the industry.��
Other notable speakers who will interact with Ankabut users include Ezzeldin Hussein, Team Lead, System Engineer, North Africa, Levant and Egypt (NALE) Region, VMware, who will speak about ‘Higher Education IT Solutions to Accelerate Your Digital Transformation’, and Morad Hussam, Chief Technology Officer, HPE, who will cover ‘Digital transformation in the education sector’. Schneider Electric is a gold sponsor for the event which is also supported by Software2.
Clarence Michael
News Writer
17 May 2020

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More than 300 Stakeholders from Industry and Government Focus on New Advancements during Event at Khalifa University Main Campus

The role of technology that is sweeping through classrooms as educators and developers create new products and services designed to enrich the academic sector was emphasized during a panel discussion by experts that was hosted as part of the 15^thannual Emirates Advanced National Research and Education Network (Ankabut) meeting that was held at the Khalifa University of Science and Technology Main Campus.

The annual meeting themed ‘Inspire the Next’, was attended by nearly 300 stakeholders from the UAE higher education sector and representatives from over 100 organizations including 50 from different post-secondary institutions. In addition, officials from government entities and senior management from major corporate sector who are involved in higher education were also present at the event.

Dr Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice President, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, said: “We are delighted to host the Ankabut users meeting at our campus. As a higher education institution, Khalifa University remains vigilant about adopting and incorporating technology advancements. This is one of the main reasons why we have research centers that cover an entire gamut of technology sectors. We believe this could be one way to keep ourselves updated and be prepared in advance to tackle challenges in the academic arena.”

In his annual update, Fahem Al-Nuaimi, Chief Executive Officer, Ankabut, said: “The fruitful knowledge exchange by stakeholders during the Ankabut users meeting will surely help us in consistently elevating our services to match the industry expectations. The rapid technology changes call for swifter approach to creating new solutions, and we believe our expertise and resources will help us excel in our service offerings.”

The panel discussion on ‘What’s Next for Educational Technology?’ had participants from technology leaders such as VMWare, Schneider Electric, Huawei and Trend Micro. Panelists agreed that new technologies including AI, machine learning, and educational software are shaking up not only the students but also the role of educators, creating dynamic shifts in approaches to teaching, and remodeling the classroom. They also analyzed some of the technologies that could become trend setters in the coming years.

Other sessions at the event included a keynote by Harb Bou-Harb, Senior Director-Education, Microsoft Middle East, as well as a talk by Iqbal Ali Kham, Program Director, Blockchains and Innovation, IBM Middle East and Africa, and a speech by Don Ouyang, Managing Director, Huawei.

Other sessions covered cyber security, cloud computing, and digital transformation in public education. The day’s activities wound up with a tour of the Ankabut facilities.

Managed by Khalifa University, the Ankabut project is jointly funded by the TRA through the ICT Fund. It offers academic institutions connectivity to other education networks around the world. It also connects schools and public institutions together across the UAE. Ankabut cooperates on a national, GCC, regional and international arena, representing the UAE in conferences, exhibitions and forums.

Clarence Michael
News Writer
20 February 2019

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AnaApp Serves as Repository for an Entire University Software Catalog Benefiting Researchers and Academic Sector Stakeholders

Ankabut, the Emirates Advanced National Research and Education Network, an initiative of Khalifa University of Science and Technology, announced the official launch of AnaApp (Applications Anywhere, Anytime, Any Device), a first-of-a-kind application virtualization platform that serves as a repository for a university’s entire software catalog, benefiting researchers and academic sector stakeholders in particular and others in general.

Ankabut, in cooperation with Software2, incorporated a large array of added applications in AnaApp which is already fully operational, currently serving Khalifa University in the UAE and more are expected to sign up in the coming weeks. Stakeholders in the research and academic communities can access or work on the software on-demand while in the cloud or download their applications to their devices regardless of the operating system for easy access and for completing core and non-core tasks.

AnaApp also offers access to scores of academic-related and professional programs including MATLAB, SolidWorks, ANSYS, and Adobe.

Fahem Al-Nuaimi, Chief Executive Officer, Ankabut, said: “We are delighted to announce the official launch of AnaApp, the first-of-a-kind cloud-based application virtualization platform that has already become fully operational, offering academic institutions and universities multiple benefits. It can be remotely accessed, thus providing researchers and academics the easy mobility and the ease of working from any location. As a pioneer in offering reliable and secure connectivity in the Arab world, Ankabut is proud to add AnaApp to its existing range of services, while looking forward to increasing our dedicated offerings in the near future.”

In the cloud domain, Ankabut currently operates and connects more than 30 different universities in the UAE while more are expected to become part of the network in the coming months. In the managed services area, Ankabut provides support to all IT aspects such as network monitoring, security, backup, and disaster recovery service. It also facilitates seamless connectivity so that classes held anywhere in the world can be aired in real time in the UAE.

Ankabut also provides dedicated, unconstrained network connectivity for eligible research and educational institutions throughout the country. At the same time, Ankabut’s Disaster Recovery guarantees quality performance and protection without interruption that provides privileges including customized solutions, security, and core business focus, reduced downtime and 24/7 operations.

Additionally, Ankabut provides a unified Learning Management System across the UAE to enable educators to drive student development through innovative advanced digital classroom abilities, while introducing a conducive and structured information exchange environment for integrating students, parents, teachers and the administration of schools, colleges or universities.

The first network to be IPv6-enabled in the Middle East region, Ankabut delivers four major technology services categories to provide over 20 education technology services for developing a collaborative approach to research and education in the UAE and the region. Managed by Khalifa University, the Ankabut is jointly funded by the Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRA) through the ICT Fund and Khalifa University.

Clarence Michael
News Writers
14 November 2019

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