By Our Correspondent
There is nothing like speed programming, racing against the clock to add that one more feature into your product. Students from Carnegie Mellon University Qatar (CMU-Q) and Qatar University got a chance to experience this hands-on at the third CMU-Q national hackathon over the weekend.
They competed in a 24-hour race to use their programming skills to build mobile applications, web applications or games using any form of technology, for presentation to a panel of industry judges.
The hackathon was organised CMU-Q student club ‘CarnegieApps’ and sponsored by iHorizons.
“The quality of work being developed within 24-hours is very impressive, with some of the ideas innovative and groundbreaking enough to be incubated in Silicon Valley,” said Francisco J Guzman, a scientist at the Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), and judge at the hackathon.
“When I see a résumé that includes participation in hackathons, I immediately know that this is a student who can get things done and produce innovative ideas, which is why I hope Carnegie Mellon Qatar keeps nurturing this tradition by reaching out to more universities,” Guzman added.
Alongside Guzman, Maher Hakim, associate professor of entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon Qatar and Hackathon faculty adviser; Julien A Abi Nahed, R&D executive at Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP); Faraj Abdulla, innovative leader at Girnaas; and Mohammed Benmessaoud, service delivery manager, telecom, at iHorizons, made up the judging panel.
“We are glad to contribute in enhancing the skills and capabilities of Carnegie Mellon Qatar students and to boost their confidence on translating their ideas into tangible products, as those young innovators will be the next generation of Arab world’s business and technology leaders,” said Mohamad Takriti, chief executive officer of iHorizons.
Applications presented to the panel were judged in four winning categories that included ‘Best Design’, ‘Best Commercial Application’, ‘Best Rookie’ and ‘Best Technical Award’.
Team ‘Leesin’ of Carnegie Mellon Qatar, were awarded ‘Best Commercial Application’ for a mobile application aimed at helping corporations improve staff traffic issues through carpooling. The application also addressed regional cultural sensitivities by ensuring users are able to choose who they travel to work with.
“Events like Hackathon encourage us to go that extra mile, helping us to get creative and come up with innovative ideas by applying what we learn in the classroom into real life scenarios,” said Aliaa Essameldin, a computer science sophomore at Carnegie Mellon Qatar and ‘Leesin’ team member.
Additionally, this year’s participants, also known as hackers, were given the opportunity to learn about different aspects of programming, problem solving, information systems and computer science through individual sessions with mentors comprising Carnegie Mellon alumni and past Hackathon participants from QCRI, General Electric, Aviate Studios, Sidra Medical and Research Center and Texas A&M University at Qatar.
Carnegie Mellon University has been home to some of the world’s most important thinkers, among them 19 Nobel Laureates and 12 Turing Award winners.
In 2004, Qatar Foundation invited Carnegie Mellon to join Education City, a groundbreaking centre for scholarship and research. The campus continues to grow, now providing a prestigious education to more than 400 students from 40 countries. The university offers five undergraduate degree programs in Biological Sciences, Business Administration, Computational Biology, Computer Science and Information Systems.
HACKING AWAY: Team Musleh during the hackathon. Their application won in the Best Technical Application category.
