Dubai Future Foundation Launches ‘One Million Arab Coders’ COVID-19 Hackathon

Dubai Future Foundation, DFF, has launched the “One Million Arab Coders” COVID-19 Hackathon to engage Arab coders from around the world to develop innovative solutions to challenges that have emerged due to the COVID-19 outbreak, such as access to healthcare services, education, social solidarity and supporting startups.

These innovative solutions seek to create effective services and software, while implementing a mechanism to deploy and benefit society.

“The Hackathon provides participants with an opportunity to highlight their future skills, ideas and knowledge in employing the techniques of programming languages,” DFF said, adding that it is also a chance to allow them to show case their skills in coding by developing new solutions to the challenges presented throughout the initiative.

Abdulaziz AlJaziri, Deputy CEO and COO of Dubai Future Foundation said, “The launch of the One Million Arab Coders COVID-19 Hackathon comes as part of DFF’s efforts to achieve the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and his belief that a strong knowledge-based economy is one that promotes continues learning, creativity and innovation, as well as empowers youth to develop their talents in all fields, including coding, this to contribute to the development of the nation.”

Arab coders from all around the world can participate and present their innovative solutions through the One Million Arab Coders website. Teams made up of 2 to 5 members will have the opportunity to present their solutions, whether that being providing access to healthcare services, education, social solidarity or supporting startups by 25th April.

The initial evaluation stage will begin after the application process is closed by a specialised committee comprised of experts from various government agencies, technology companies, research centres and academic institutions. They will review the submitted ideas and select the best 30 teams to move to the next stage.

The qualified teams will work with a group of supervisors through virtual meetings to prepare prototypes for the project ideas. The teams will then send the final details on the technologies used, a two-minute long demonstration video and a detailed explanation of the support they will need after once they complete the Hackathon.

Once the project preparation phase concludes, the jury will select the best 15 teams and evaluate their projects based on the pitch quality in terms of prototype work, economic feasibility, user experience and cost of implementation. It will be presented to a committee from Dubai Future Foundation who will select 5 award winning projects with a total value of $ 50,000.