Talented student hackers from around the world are set to descend on NYU Abu Dhabi’s campus (NYUAD) this April for the annual International Hackathon for Social Good in the Arab World. Taking place between April 15 – 17, students will be split into teams and mentored by renowned international computer science professors, founders of successful start-ups, technology professionals, and venture capitalists, as they come together to develop innovative applications for the benefit of social good.
Organised by Sana Odeh, NYUAD clinical professor of computer science; faculty liaison for global programmes of computer science, NYU, New York, the teams are brought together to programme day and night, developing innovative applications relevant to diverse fields such as health, education, film, music, business, and science. Presenting their applications to a panel of judges on April 17, students will compete for top honours. Winning apps in previous years have included a wearable device to monitor construction workers’ health.
Commenting on the Hackathon, Odeh said: “NYUAD Hackathon is a global event that brings talented and passionate students and mentors from around the world to create new and innovative technologies from apps to hardware applications for social good in the Arab world. We are pushing for new ways of creative learning and also creating strong collaborations across borders to build technologies that have the potential to change the world. Our Hackathon alumni go on to win awards, get funding, start their own start-ups and even find jobs through our network. We are always impressed by the quality of Hackathon participants joining us from universities such as MIT, Stanford, AUB, Al Akhawayn, MASDAR, among others. We are looking forward to what these new groups of talented students can innovate this year at NYUAD.”
Students will present their applications to a panel of judges on Sunday, April 17 at 5:30pm.
Judges will include:
Egypt
Mohammed Mansour, Entrepreneurship Programme Coordinator
Mercy Corps and Riseup, Egypt
Jordan
Kamel Al Asmar, Founder & CEO, Forbes 30 Social Entrepreneurs 2014
Nakhweh, Wamda
Lebanon
Abdallah Absi, CEO
Zoomaal
Munir David Nabti, General Manager (GM) & CEO at Bootcamp LB
Chief Entrepreneur & Organiser at AltCity.me
Turkey
Jeffrey Avina, Assistant Professor
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
United Arab Emirates
Hunter Lee Soik, Founder & Chief Executive Officer
SHADOW | Community of Dreamers
Marc Michael, Assistant Professor
New York University Abu Dhabi
Muhammed Mekki, Founding Partner
AstroLabs
Nina Curley, Director,
Flat 6 Labs
Rima Al-Sheikh, a Serial Entrepreneur
Nambbesh, GLT.io, and now Mokus.io
United States
Arnaud Sahuguet, Product Manager
Cornel Tech
Jeremy Johnstone, Head of Data Infrastructure and Chief Architect
Nomi
Michael Goldweber, Professor of Computer Science
Xavier University, and Chair of ACM SIGCAS
For further information on the Fifth International Hackathon for Social Good in the Arab World, visit http://nyuad.nyu.edu/en/news-events/conferences/nyuad-hackathon.html.
