Wakkalni Food Savour, an application that connects grocery stores with shoppers to minimize food waste, won first place at NYU Abu Dhabi’s (NYUAD) 2019 Annual International Hackathon for Social Good in the Arab World, a three-day programming marathon, which was held at NYUAD from Friday, April 26, until Sunday, April 28.
Developed by students Zijie Lu (NYU Shanghai, from China), Ray Hsu (NYUAD, from Taiwan), Barkin Simsek (NYUAD, from Turkey), and Sion Hau (NYUAD, from Australia), Wakkalni Food Savour works by incentivizing grocery stores to minimize food waste through discounting items that would otherwise be thrown away. It allows stores to share information about their produce and educates consumers about food products. The winning team was mentored by Software Engineer from Improbable Keeley Erhardt, founder and CEO of Kandw technologies International Khalid Machchate, and Managing Partner of #Outliers Poseidon Ho.
Aspiring programmers from around the world met at NYUAD’s International Hackathon to develop the best innovative applications for social good across a wide range of sectors, such as health, education, journalism, film, music, business, and science.
Participants were divided into teams and mentored by renowned international computer science professors, founders of successful startups, technology professionals, and venture capitalists, as they developed their ideas into tangible products. Teams presented their final products to a panel of distinguished judges, including Director of the Center for Cyber Security and NYUAD Research Assistant Professor Hoda Alkhzaimi, NYUAD Associate Professor of Computer Science Nizar Habash, and Engineering Manager in the Bloomberg Mobile Team Mark Wood, among others.
“We are delighted to have hosted our eighth annual NYUAD Hackathon, one of the most celebrated Hackathons worldwide for its talent and outcomes. This year’s focus was on Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, data science, and Natural Language Processing (NLP), aiming to help produce software, hardware, and Augmented Reality (AR) applications for social good,” said organizer, Founder and Chair of NYUAD Hackathon, Clinical Professor of Computer Science at NYU New York, and Affiliated Faculty at NYUAD Sana Odeh.
“With over 1,000 applications from top universities from around the world, we have seen an array of impressive talent this year from more than 30 countries, and we have enjoyed seeing their innovative proposals and results,” she added.
Second place of this year’s Hackathon went to both HuKamaa, a platform to engage the elderly to realize their full capacity in today’s society, and Haneen, a mobile solution that helps native Arabs living in multicultural cities type in Arabic. The third place went to Helping Hands, a web application that helps coordinate donations to people in need in times of crisis.
Member of the Wakkalni Food Savour team and NYUAD Class of 2021 student Sion Hau said, “Our project aims to reduce food waste, which is important as the annual cost of the UAE’s food waste reaches around 13 billion dirhams a year. We thought that this is a big issue that we need to solve as food waste is also a major driver for climate change. Through our project, we hope to curb food waste.
“I am glad we won this year’s Hackathon, but at the same time, I felt there are so many great ideas that the other teams addressed that are worthy of winning. Participants tried to tackle all sorts of social issues, including domestic violence, language processing, and a wide array of different things, and I really am glad we stood out among such competition,” she added.
The annual NYUAD Hackathon seeks to promote innovation in computer science, tech startups, and the development of innovative technology for the social good. The event provides an opportunity for students to experience the full cycle of creating a tech startup: sharing, generating, and pitching ideas; learning new platforms and programming languages; designing and developing mobile and web applications; and working within a team.
Further information on the 2019 Annual NYUAD International Hackathon for Social Good in the Arab World including profiles on the hackers, mentors, and judges can be found on the website.
