US Tech Firm Invests $100,000 in Morocco’s First AI Humanoid Robot Project

The President of the UCA of Marrakech, Prof. Moulay Hassan Hbid and Mr. Abdelghani El-Kacimi, CEO of FotaHub Inc., of Moroccan origin, signed on January 13 a framework agreement, under which the American company generously supports the "SHAMA" project, with an initial contribution of one million DH, or more than $100,000 US, reports L’Opinion, specifying that it is to support the essential development work towards a SHAMA 2.0 that will be connected, thus making the robot the first collaborative research platform within the Moroccan university ecosystem and which will have a major impact on the accessibility - still difficult to this day - to the complex techniques of updating connected objects.

This partnership will make it possible to set up several other ambitious projects aimed at activating the convergence between the world of connected objects (IoT) and the world of AI, said Mr. El-Kacimi. "We built Shama, the Moroccan robot, from almost nothing and now SHAMA will gracefully move on to SHAMA 2.0 thanks to FotaHub Inc., an exceptional young company in the United States," rejoices Prof. Hajar Mousannif, who had won the 1st prize in the "Global AI Inclusion Award" category last December, as part of the prestigious "Women Tech" prize, which rewards women shining internationally in the field of high technology.

Hajar Mousannif is one of the rare academic and industrial stakeholders to have had the opportunity to test in preview the powerful remote update services known by the technical term Firmware update Over the Air-FOTA.