Saudi Arabia (Jeddah) to host the biggest ‘Hackathon’ in Middle East

[Saif al-Arab]

Saudi Arabia to host biggest ‘Hackathon’ in Middle East

Top three participants at Hajj Hackathon will be given prizes valued at 2 million Saudi Riyal to transform their ideas into businesses. (Shutterstock)

Staff writer, Al Arabiya English
Friday, 13 July 2018

The Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones announced the opening of registration for the ‘Hajj Hackathon’, an event that promises to attract leading programmers from around the world to innovatively leverage technology to enrich and enhance the Hajj experience for pilgrims.

According to the Saudi Press Agency, this initiative is just one of the Kingdom’s many efforts under Saudi Vision 2030 to provide the nation’s youth opportunities to become global leaders in technological development.

The ‘Hajj Hackathon’ will be held in August in Jeddah and is expected to attract more than 3,000 developers. Google will offer mentorship and training for participants at the Hackathon.

The Hackathon offers prize awards to the top three participants valued at 2 million Saudi Riyal to transform their ideas into businesses. First place will receive 1,000,000 Saudi Riyal, second place will receive 500,000 Riyal and third place will receive 350,000 Riyal. Additionally, 150,000 Riyal will be awarded as a prize for excellence.

Last Update: Friday, 13 July 2018 KSA 01:11 - GMT 22:11

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/Ne...to-host-biggest-Hackathon-in-Middle-East.html

Jeddah set to host the biggest ‘Hackathon’ in the Middle East

July 25, 2018

• Google will support the Hajj Hackathon providing mentorship and training
• The Hajj Hackathon is being organized by The Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones

JEDDAH: From August 1-3, Jeddah will play host to more than 3,000 developers and 18,000 computer, information and technology enthusiasts from more than 100 countries, as part of the Hajj Hackathon, which promises to be the Middle East’s largest hackathon ever.
Google will support the Hajj Hackathon providing mentorship and training.
The Hajj Hackathon is being organized by The Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones, an initiative fulfilling the goals and objectives of the Kingdom’s sweeping and groundbreaking Vision 2030, which seeks to provide new and valuable opportunities to the nation’s young people.
The Hajj Hackathon will attract leading programmers from around the world and challenge them to innovatively leverage technology to enrich the Hajj experience for the more than 2 million pilgrims that travel to Saudi Arabia every year.
The event illustrates the Kingdom’s commitment to becoming a regional and global leader in technical innovation, developing both an environment and infrastructure that benefits the nation’s young people.
The SAFCSP is offering prize awards to the top three participants valued at SR2,000,000 ($533,000) to transform their ideas into real businesses.
First place will receive SR1,000,000, second place will receive SR500,000 and third place will receive SR350,000.
Additionally, SR150,000 will be awarded as a prize for excellence.
The competition includes several fields related to the Hajj and its services such as beverage and meals, health, financial solutions, transportation, crowd management, traffic control, travel and accommodation, waste management, housing and communication solutions.

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1345306/saudi-arabia

Good news. Computer engineering has become really popular in KSA of late. Even among women. Personally I am interested in it as well (little side hobby) despite having little to do with it in my field (chemical engineering) of work. Definitely a subject whose importance will increase in the future.

More of such meetings in all fields would be a good thing.

A report about a cool Saudi Arabian woman called Arwa Al-Hamad who graduated from the School of Computer Science and IT at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.

At least 0,5% of all women who sit in front of computers should almost be forced to do computer engineering I believe. Would be a good thing.

Actually quite a few Saudi Arabian universities (the highest ranked in the Muslim and Arab world overall) have quite good computer science programs.

For instance King Abdulaziz University was ranked as number 27 worldwide in computer science back in 2015. King Abdullah University of Science and Technology was number 55. King Saud University was ranked as number 165 etc.

http://www.shanghairanking.com/SubjectCS2015.html

 

[HAIDER]

Learn Kali linux , excellent software for hacking ....

 

[Saif al-Arab]

Learn Kali linux , excellent software for hacking ....

Most hackers write their own scripts instead of relying on generalized tools.

https://www.concise-courses.com/hacking-tools/top-ten/

https://www.youtube.com/user/kalinuxx

 

[gangsta_rap]

epic

 

[Saif al-Arab]

epic

Sounds cool for sure.

JEDDAH: From August 1-3, Jeddah will play host to more than 3,000 developers and 18,000 computer, information and technology enthusiasts from more than 100 countries, as part of the Hajj Hackathon, which promises to be the Middle East’s largest hackathon ever.
​

That's a large number.

 

[HAIDER]

Most hackers write their own scripts instead of relying on generalized tools.

https://www.concise-courses.com/hacking-tools/top-ten/

https://www.youtube.com/user/kalinuxx

for beginners, mostly prefer Centos or mint ..open source

 

[wulff]

Fantastic.

More of this hackathon and startup culture is needed in Saudi Arabia. The kids there, especially the cream that gets into the universities, are incredibly bright and IMO can do wonders if good mentorship is provided and then sustained, and if a proper competitive environment is created for them in their educational institutions. Also, the standard of education in the schooling system is lagging significantly behind the level of their universities, and the schooling standards also happen to be far behind that of other Asian countries, and are nowhere close to that of East Asia. This I believe is probably the biggest weakness they have. In addition to this, they also suffer from lack of widespread adoption of English language at the school level. Which in their case is a bigger problem because the universities have a very high proportion of foreign faculty with no Arabic language skills. This creates a significant language barrier for their kids and adds a very significant and unnecessary level of difficulty in their higher studies. They need more focus on English, better standard of science and math education at the lower level.

 

[Saif al-Arab]

Fantastic.

More of this hackathon and startup culture is needed in Saudi Arabia. The kids there, especially the cream that gets into the universities, are incredibly bright and IMO can do wonders if good mentorship is provided and then sustained, and if a proper competitive environment is created for them in their educational institutions. Also, the standard of education in the schooling system is lagging significantly behind the level of their universities, and the schooling standards also happen to be far behind that of other Asian countries, and are nowhere close to that of East Asia. This I believe is probably the biggest weakness they have. In addition to this, they also suffer from lack of widespread adoption of English language at the school level. Which in their case is a bigger problem because the universities have a very high proportion of foreign faculty with no Arabic language skills. This creates a significant language barrier for their kids and adds a very significant and unnecessary level of difficulty in their higher studies. They need more focus on English, better standard of science and math education at the lower level.

First of all thank you for this well-written post that enables a healthy debate about the topic of this thread and related topics.

Indeed. The public educational sector (pre-university) should be improved (which is an ongoing progress and significant improvements occurred during the reign of King Abdullah and even more so under King Salman's reign) so the level can match the otherwise impressively run and well-ranked (by large) Saudi Arabian universities.

Actually those Saudi Arabians (and Arabs in general) that are exposed to English from a young age and have been lucky enough to have had capable English teachers or family members with the knowledge of English, have a great grasp of English. Even accent wise.

This is due to the many difficult sounds in Arabic language so English for most children is not a hard language.

The reason why English language is not as strong as elsewhere in the world is due to KSA never having been a Western colony or much exposure to English-speaking countries until the oil boom where most of the interaction with English-speaking Westerners and people occurred.

In general this is the story in the Middle East. I believe that just around half of the Saudi Arabian population has some kind of English proficiency.

Actually between 2014 and 2017 there was a 4.5% growth when it comes to Saudi Arabians who are able to speak English which was the 6th highest growth in the world.



https://qz.com/1213443/the-world-is...me-countries-are-learning-faster-than-others/

So things are moving in the right direction.

 

[Saif al-Arab]

 

[Saif al-Arab]

Hajj Hackathon Enters Guinness World Records with Largest Number of Developers

Thursday, 2 August, 2018 - 10:30

The Hajj Hackathon enters the Guinness World Records with the largest number of developers.

Asharq Al-Awsat

The Jeddah-hosted Hajj Hackathon entered the Guinness World Records for attracting the largest number of developers in the world, reported the Saudi Press Agency on Thursday.

The event, organized by the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones, attracted 2,950 participants, breaking the previous record of 2,577 held by India since 2012.

Advisor at the Royal Court and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Federation Saud bin Abdullah Al-Qahtani extended his thanks and appreciation to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, for supporting Saudi youth in all fields.

He said: ''The Kingdom's entry into the world records confirms the youth’s aspirations to transform their country into the gateway of technology in the region.”

This transformation is in line with Vision 2030, which aims to achieve a qualitative leap in all aspects of life in the Kingdom, he added.

Qahtani received the Guinness Records Certificate from the Guinness World Records' Arbitrator Ahmed Jabr at 7:00 am on Thursday.

The entry in the Guinness World Records is a great success for the Hajj Hackathon, which was holding its inaugural session in Jeddah. The event has attracted male and female developers from all over the world, including Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf region.

Google also supported the event and held several training workshops.

The Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones has allocated prizes and funding, worth SR2 million, for participating projects in order to transform their ideas into reality. The first place winner will receive SR1 million, second place receives SR500,000 and third SR350,000, while SR150,000 will recognize excellence.

Competitions in the event include the sectors surrounding the Hajj season, its services and challenges, including food and beverage, public health, financial solutions, transportation, crowd management, traffic control, travel and accommodation arrangements, waste management, housing and communication solutions.

https://aawsat.com/english/home/art...nness-world-records-largest-number-developers

Saudi women’s team sweeps first prize of $266,000 in Hajj Hackathon

Staff writer, Al Arabiya English
Friday, 3 August 2018

The Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones, announced on Friday evening the winner of the first prize of the final competition in the Hajj Hackathon which went to the Saudi women’s team of “Turjaman” which means Translator, taking the prize of $266,000.

The team developed an application which translates road direction signs in different languages for the pilgrims from around the world, without the need to connect to the Internet through QR code scanning.

The second prize of $133,000 went to the team which developed an application dedicated for “Hajj Wallet.”

The three-day Hajj Hackathon event was held at the Jeddah Exhibition and Event Center f from August 1 to 3, recording significant presence of Saudi women as well as software developers and information-technology enthusiasts from more than 100 countries.

The Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones allocated $533,000 in prizes divided into mainly three categories, where the first prize is worth $266,000, second prize $133,000, the third prize $93,000 while a prize of $39,000 goes for distinction.

The competition in the event included sectors surrounding the Hajj season, its services and challenges, including food and beverages, public health, financial solutions, transportation, crowd management, traffic control, travel and accommodation arrangements, waste and waste management, housing and communication solutions. READ MORE

One of the participating groups in the “Technical challenge”, is a Japanese team of youths who attracted a lot of attention, not only for their known enthusiasm for tech, but also for their inclusive spirit by adapting to the Saudi culture and dressing in the Saudi national outfit.

Last Update: Friday, 3 August 2018 KSA 22:36 - GMT 19:36

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/fea...first-prize-of-Hajj-Hackathon-of-233-000.html

Apple, Wikipedia founders among speakers at Saudi Hajj Hackathon

Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, spoke during the Hackathon in Jeddah. (Supplied)

Staff writer, Al Arabiya English
Wednesday, 1 August 2018

Saudi Arabia is currently hosting the largest Hackathon in the Middle East with the participation of thousands of developers and innovators from more than 100 countries during a three-day event.

Among the prominent entrepreneurs who participated in the several discussion panels is Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, and Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple.

During his talk, Wales said that he was honored to be part of such an event and happy to see the large crowd of innovators in attendance. The main theme of his talk was about the key to being successful, which he said that it is knowing that “it is okay to fail”.

Saudi Arabia is currently hosting the largest Hackathon in the Middle East with the participation of thousands of developers and innovators from more than 100 countries during a three-day event.

Among the prominent entrepreneurs who participated in the several discussion panels is Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, and Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple.

During his talk, Wales said that he was honored to be part of such an event and happy to see the large crowd of innovators in attendance. The main theme of his talk was about the key to being successful, which he said that it is knowing that “it is okay to fail”.

https://twitter.com/SAFCSP?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1024434818178797569&ref_url=http://english.alarabiya.net/en/business/economy/2018/08/01/Apple-Wikipedia-founders-among-speakers-at-Saudi-Hajj-Hackathon.html

“This event is one of the most important things for a country that has great ambition to become the gateway to technology in the Middle East,” he said.

Wales added that one of the smart things about the effectiveness of this event is that it centers around improving the experience of millions of pilgrims through ideas and innovation.

The Hajj Hackathon, organized by the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones, held an opening ceremony on Tuesday to continue the efforts of Saudi Arabia to serve the guests of Mecca and take advantage of the young talents, while highlighting women’s participation in the exploration and development of Hajj technology.




The cyber federation said it aims to attract leading minds in the field of programming to innovate technology solutions that contribute to enriching and improving pilgrims’ experience.

Wozniak, Apple’s co-founder, said that success is not about imitating others but about innovation and the creation and development of ideas, and that for private enterprise to succeed, you have to work hard and “you must love what you do.”

“You must have motivation, inspiration that you are going to have a product that’s going to help change people’s lives, give them a better life, give them easier lives,” Wozniak said.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1024434383690850304

The opening ceremony included a dialogue session entitled “Saudi Arabia, the emerging technology portal.”

The first edition of “Hackathon of Hajj” attracts developers from countries, including the Kingdom, the Gulf States and the world. More than 20,000 people have been registered, 3,000 of whom have been selected to participate. Google has supported the event and has held several workshops for participants.

The Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones has allocated prizes for this event and funding for participants projects amounting to SR2 million, in order to transform participants’ ideas into projects. The prize was divided into three: the first place is SR 1 million, while the second winner receives SR 500,000 and the third is SR 350,000, while SR 150,000 goes for excellence.

Competition in the event includes the sectors surrounding the Hajj season, its services and challenges, including food and beverages, public health, financial solutions, transportation, crowd management, traffic control, travel and accommodation arrangements, waste and waste management, housing and communication solutions.

- With SPA

Last Update: Wednesday, 1 August 2018 KSA 16:42 - GMT 13:42

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/bus...s-among-speakers-at-Saudi-Hajj-Hackathon.html

Fantastic stuff.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1026458867352383489