06/05/2022

National Astronomical Research Team wins second place in the 2021 AETA competition for prediction of earthquakes

 Dr.  Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, received a report submitted by Dr.  Gad El-Kady, head of the National Institute for Astronomical and Geophysical Research, on the institute's participation in one of the most important earthquake prediction competitions around the world, AETA 2021, which was organized by China. Dr.  Omar Mohamed Al-Saeed, a researcher at the institute, and his team represented Egypt and the institute in that competition.

 The report stated that the Egyptian team won second place out of 616 teams participating in the competition which is considered one of the most important competitions in the field of earthquake prediction. More than 1,000 researchers and programmers from 26 different countries around the world participated to win this award https://competition.aeta.io/

 The report indicated that this competition aims to predict earthquakes with a strength of more than 3.5 within a week from the start date. Artificial intelligence algorithms were used to predict whether the earthquake occurred as well as to predict the location and strength of the earthquake.  The competition lasted nearly a year to determine the quality and accuracy of the different algorithms for each team.

 It is noteworthy that the National Institute for Astronomical and Geophysical Research, which manages the national earthquake network in cooperation with the concerned authorities in the country especially the ministerial Cabinet Information Center, is updating the national strategy to reduce those disasters with a view to achieving the terms of the Sendai agreement on reduction of natural disasters.