This year’s CarnegieApps Hackathon saw record participation, with 20 teams competing in the 24-hour regional programming competition at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMUQ).
Organised by CarnegieApps, a student-led club, and sponsored by Ooredoo, the Hackathon required participants to work around the clock to develop software for an innovative game, mobile application or web application.
The best overall app prize went to CMUQ team The Walking Coders, which included Rachel Marella, Sungho Park, Eishaank Gakhar and Shaden Shaar. The team created an application that searches through video content using keywords, directing users to the exact mention in the video.
Fatima Sultan al-Kuwari, director of Community and Public Relations, Ooredoo said: “The students all showed impressive dedication and problem-solving capabilities, and I think the winning team had a great idea. Competitions such as the Hackathon, prepare students for real-life scenarios in the working world where they will be expected to solve a problem in a short amount of time, and create something new from scratch.”
Ooredoo’s assistant director in the Programme Management Office Munera Fahad al-Dosari, who represented the company on the judges’ panel, announced the awards and delivered the closing remarks.
CMUQ Team Hack4 of Deeksha Singh, Dhrishika Megchiani, Sabrina Akhter and Shobiitaa Krishna  won the best rookie team award. Team Whatever  of Azharul Islam, Naheel Kamal, Ahammed and Waseem Palliyali from Qatar University received the award for best design. The best technical challenge award was won by Team Three and a Half Men from CMUQ, comprising Mohamed Fituri, Yasser El-Sayed, Musab Popatia and Ahmed Shah.
The competition was also judged by Khalifa Saleh al-Haroon, founder of I Love Qatar and chief executive officer of Haroon United Group, Ahmed Elmagarmid, executive director of Qatar Computing Research Institute( QCRI), Indica Amarasinghe, head of the Digital Incubation Centre and Francisco Guzman, a QCRI computer scientist.
CarnegieApps Hackathon is part of Carnegie Mellon Qatar’s contribution to the computer science industry in Qatar and the region, an effort that promotes an interdisciplinary approach to developing innovative technological applications.