The Bahrain National Museum inaugurated recently the presentations of the technological projects of the University of Bahrain (UoB) students, related to the protection of artifacts in the Kingdom.
President of the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities (BACA), Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, Chief Executive Officer of the Labour Fund (Tamkeen), Maha Abdulhameed Mufeez, and Dean of the College of Information Technology, Dr. Hessa Al-Junaid.
On the occasion, BACA President stressed that the cultural sector must keep pace with technological developments in order to continue providing a distinctive experience to its audience, affirming that BACA and the museums of the Kingdom are always striving to develop their facilities and update their programmes with modern technologies in order to create a unique and distinctive museum experience for the citizens, residents and visitors of Bahrain.
He also praised the ongoing cooperation between BACA, Tamkeen and the UoB, which resulted in the UoB’s technological projects aimed at providing more protection for the kingdom’s civilisational heritage.
Tamkeen chief commended the students’ presentations, including the application of innovative concepts and the latest technologies such as Augmented Reality and artificial intelligence, through the Cloud Innovation Center (CIC) of Amazon Web Services(AWS).
She praised the students’ success in benefiting from CIC and the technologies it provides in developing innovative solutions that simulate reality through practical training that encourages them to adopt promising skills.
She added that Tamkeen’s partnership with the UoB and AWS contributes to preparing generations of graduates specialised in promising technical fields required by the labour market, which will provide the private sector with highly skilled competencies, and ensure the provision of rewarding job opportunities for Bahrainis.
BACA’s specialised team, overseen by Fatima Saleh, Head of Information Systems at BACA, worked in cooperation with AWS Cloud Innovation Centres and the University of Bahrain to create technical solutions based on artificial intelligence and augmented reality, which will pave the way for the Bahrain National Museum to be the first in the Arabian Gulf region to adopt Amazon’s virtual assistant “Alexa” in its museum displays.
These technologies aim to shed light on many artifacts in a way that preserves them and enhances the experience of visitors to the museum, as they will be able to interact with the artifacts through a three-dimensional experience, whether those pieces are displayed inside the protective glass in the museum or are in stores due to their sensitivity and protection measures.
These projects are part of the agreement signed by Tamkeen between Amazon Web Services and the University of Bahrain to provide innovative solutions that address critical problems and opportunities facing public sector institutions.
Source: Bahrain News Agency