ShenzhenJune 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Today, the closing ceremony and awards presentation of the 10th Huawei ICT Competition Global Finals were held in Shenzhen. This year’s competition reached a historic scale, attracting over 220,000 university students and faculty from more than 100 countries and regions and over 2,000 institutions worldwide. After rigorous rounds at national and regional levels, 177 teams from 49 countries and regions successfully advanced to the global finals and received various awards. This figure once again underscores the global consensus and momentum behind ICT talent cultivation.
Closing Ceremony and Awards Presentation Venue
Peng Honghua, President of Huawei’s ICT Strategy and Business Development Department, stated in his address: “Huawei has always upheld the principle of technology for good, committed to driving sustainable social and environmental development through technological innovation. The Huawei ICT Competition is a vivid embodiment of this philosophy. The projects from the Innovation Track demonstrate the value of the ‘learning through competition’ model in solving real-world engineering problems, while participants in the Practice and Programming Tracks showcase the ‘geek spirit’ rooted in passion and dedicated research.” He also announced that the next Huawei ICT Competition will introduce a new Ascend AI Operator Development Track in the China region, encouraging more young developers to engage deeply with industry frontiers by completing competition-specific operator tasks.
Dr. Shafika Isaacs, Acting Director of the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education and Head of the Education Technology and AI Section within the Division for Future Learning and Innovation, affirmed the value of the collaboration between UNESCO and Huawei and highly praised the participants’ performance. She noted: “The future of global artificial intelligence requires the convergence of efforts from governments, international organizations, academia, and industry. Through partnerships such as the Arab States AI Capacity Building Cooperation Project and the Central Asia ICT Education Promotion Cooperation Project, UNESCO and Huawei are jointly strengthening higher education and vocational training capacities, focusing on cultivating versatile talent for the future labor market.” Regarding the Huawei ICT Competition, she added: “In this competition, students confronted real-world challenges, crossed cultural boundaries, and applied emerging technologies to solve authentic problems, demonstrating both creativity and ethical judgment. This is the profound significance that technology education should pursue.”
This year marks the 10th edition of the Huawei ICT Competition. After intense competition across three tracks—Practice, Innovation, and Programming—18 outstanding teams were awarded the Grand Prize.
- Practice Track – Network Grand Prize: Algeria Network Team, Brazil Network Team, Nigeria Network Team, Shenzhen Polytechnic University Network Team
- Practice Track – Cloud Grand Prize: Egypt Cloud Team, Algeria Cloud Team, China Central South University of Forestry and Technology International College Cloud Team, Kenya Cloud Team
- Practice Track – Basic Software Grand Prize: Egypt Basic Software Team, Henan Vocational College of Economics and Trade Basic Software Team, Dominican Republic Basic Software Team, Algeria Basic Software Team
- Practice Track – Ascend AI Grand Prize: Shenzhen Polytechnic University Ascend AI Team
- Innovation Track Grand Prize: Wuhan University of Technology Team, Nigeria Ahmadu Bello University Team, National University of Singapore Team, Fujian Normal University Team
- Programming Track Grand Prize: Wuhan Vocational College of Software and Engineering Cangjie Programming Team
In terms of special awards, seven all-female teams from Azerbaijan, Nigeria, Kenya, China, and Bahrain received the Women in Tech Honor; two teams from Ghana and China received the Green Development Honor; ten students from China were awarded the “ICT Business Elite Outstanding Graduate Benefits Card”; 16 teacher representatives from countries including Pakistan, China, Nigeria, Egypt, the UAE, Brazil, Thailand, and Turkey received the “Huawei Most Valuable Teacher Honor”; and six teams from Egypt, Brazil, Malaysia, Poland, and Pakistan won the “Best Online Popularity Award.”
During the competition, Huawei also hosted the “AI Accelerating Education Transformation Summit,” exploring the role of AI technology in driving global educational reform and innovation, and sharing cutting-edge practices in industry-education integration. At the summit, Huawei released the Huawei ICT Academy AI Course Solution, providing a comprehensive AI learning pathway for university students and faculty to support global AI talent cultivation. Additionally, the “ICT Skills Development Insight Report and Recommendations for Nine Central Asian and Caucasus Countries” was released, offering data references and decision-making support for local governments in formulating talent and industry policies.
Against the backdrop of accelerating global digital and intelligent transformation, the demand for skilled talent in fields such as artificial intelligence, computing, big data, and cybersecurity continues to rise, yet talent shortages in these areas are becoming increasingly prominent. To address this challenge, the Huawei ICT Competition establishes multiple tracks—including Practice, Innovation, Programming, Challenge, Elite, and Teaching—to build technical platforms and practical stages. Combined with school-enterprise collaboration and shared curriculum resources, it strives to cultivate high-quality technical talent suited for future skill demands, actively promoting the principles of technology accessibility and technology for good.