QMIC Launches the Next Generation of Wain Mobile Platform
20 Jan 2021: Qatar Mobility Innovations Center (QMIC) at the Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP) has released the next generation of its Wain Mobile Platform, which features major platform updates together with an enhanced positioning to better serve residents and visitors of Qatar. The new Wain platform offers a completely new and richer user experience including a new user interface, enhanced map services, 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. These significant changes will enable “Super” Wain to keep evolving to meet the emerging needs of road users in Qatar.
This new major release represents a key milestone in in Wain’s continuous evolution and journey that started about 7 years ago, where Wain is being transformed from a vertical app focused on traffic and navigation into a Super-App for delivering relevant location-based services and road info and optimized for users in Qatar.
Furthermore, as Wain utilizes 100% home-grown technologies, map, data and intelligence, QMIC has the full ability to customize Wain capabilities and services to meet the changing needs of national stakeholders. The Wain platform is powered by a data infrastructure that utilizes multi-source data gathered by QMIC, combined with years of technical and field experience in data intelligence and analytics to deliver an end product that is both informative and value rich.
The new Wain framework is centered around 3 major themes which are easily identifiable and inter-linked to provide a seamless user experience and to give more control and choice to users. The first major theme is centered on enhancing the in-map services and content. These include significantly enhanced navigation & trip planning services, traffic info services, general & category search capabilities, in-map road info, map filtering & customization, quick shortcuts to display relevant info such as next prayer time, national address search, ability for users to contribute content, and much more. This will be later enhanced by adding multimedia capabilities related to points of interest and relevant events, in addition to enhancing personalization capabilities.
The second major theme is focused on providing specific core services which include a dedicated National Address search and navigation section, an Events section which enables users to publish and browse different kinds of events, a Places section for providing a comprehensive list of different categories of Points of Interest, and a Parking section where real time info about availability of Parking is provided from key connected parking locations such as Msheireb, Al-Bidda Park, Souq Waqif, and other major locations in Doha.
The third major theme is focused on delivering micro-apps in different domains and in a way to complement the core Wain services. This important and evolving section will enable QMIC, strategic parties and approved third parties to deliver ad-on services that can benefit from the Core Wain capabilities. At this stage, two micro-apps are included in this Wain release. The first one enables users to access info from Ashghal about road announcements. The second micro app is the recently launched “Drive Safe” application that will enable users to seamlessly monitor their driving behavior and eventually benefit from what will be offered in the future to reward good driving behavior. QMIC plans to introduce many more micro-apps within Super-Wain in the coming few months with a focus on mobility, sports, and road services. In addition, QMIC will reach out to relevant entities and companies to identify micro-apps that can be offered within Wain.
Dr Adnan Abu-Dayya, Executive Director and CEO of QMIC said, “This version of Wain has been the most challenging to develop and is the most promising in terms of value and impact. Transforming Wain to a Super-App is a key step towards positioning it as an Enabling Platform for delivering local location-based and rich road info. 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 of Qatar as we are less than 2 years away from hosting the Football World cup and other key events. I wish to thank our development and delivery teams for their effort, and all our stakeholders whose contributions and support are critical to this success of Wain”.
Finally, this Wain Release has rich location-intelligence capabilities that enable the delivery of location-based alerts and notifications to users within a certain geographical area or to users entering or leaving a zone, in addition to emerging rich media alerts. All of which can be used to inform users about important and relevant messages whether about road incidents or impending traffic diversions.
About QMIC:
The Qatar Mobility Innovations Center (QMIC) is the first independent innovations center in the region with a focus on using R&D to develop and deploy Intelligent Mobility and Smart Cities platforms and technologies. QMIC’s main goal is to use locally engineered innovations & knowledge to enable creating home-grown technology industries that address national strategies and tackle regional emerging challenges. It was founded by Qatar University in 2009 and is registered and licensed to operate as a technology innovations center from the Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP).
Since 2009, QMIC has been utilizing emerging technologies including Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence, and Location-Awareness to deliver data-centric platforms and services. In particular, QMIC has been leading in delivering platforms & solutions focusing on key domains including Intelligent Transport, Logistics & Telematics, Road Safety, and Connected & Autonomous Mobility (CAM).
Through its integrated innovations development & delivery model, QMIC represents a unique and important category within the national Research & Development & Innovations (RDI) enterprise in Qatar that is strategically-driven, R&D-based, solution-focused, and business-oriented.
For further information please contact Mr. Abdulrahman Ajjawi
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +974 55645390, +974 4459 3694