Hackathon 2011 – Teams and Ideas

Open Mena

We’re building an API for public data in the MENA region. Citizens will be able to access and create value through the reuse of data that is exposed by our API.

Team Members: Max Stoller, Tengchao Zhou, Monir Abu Hilal. Team Leader: Jay Bhalla


Makindu Children’s Center Database Project

Goal: Streamline and automate the data entry and report generation components of the workflow for an orphanage in rural Kenya. The current paper-based system is error-prone and time-consuming, resulting in both poor quality data and potential loss of grant funding due to the difficulty of timely generation of reports for donors. Automation of this system will allow the orphanage to focus on delivery of care rather than administrative paperwork, and allow greater transparency from the donors.

Team Members: Katy Blumer, Alice Tessen, Ali Taqi, Nishant Mohanchandra, Halim Lagrid. Team Leader: Michael Paik.


Circle of Talents

Circle of Talents is a web application that connects and matches talented people to exchange their knowledge and skills. Each individual will act as a teacher that is expert at one thing and a student to learn more about something they’re interested in.

Team Members: Meerna Alaisami, Tahar Zanouda, Esraa Ahmed, Gaida Wannous. Team Leader: Mohammad Khatib.


2over5

This app will connect people with each other in a controlled environment (Project, conference, company etc..). The application rates the attendees/Participants based on their influence in a predefined domain. This allows communication to be more efficient and will go a long way to developing all solutions to problems faced by Companies, countries, or societies in general.

Team Members: Rafael Harutyunyan, Dmytro Krasnoshtan, Bijay Neupane, Abdulfatai Popoola, Hicham Houmane. Team Leader: Mutaz Qasem.


Project Qare

Qare is a means to digitize books, newspapers and other text information using an OCR & TTS combination and then making the audio versions available for playback on the web and phones. Users can access the content using the web portal or an IVR system that allows them to hear short summaries online and then download the full version as an MP3 onto their phones.

Team Members: Hassam Mousa, Saleem Adeeleh, Abdul Hafeth Salah. Team Leader: Arjun Venkatraman

SMS Micronovel

Send out targeted and engaging serial novels over SMS to fix the gap in literacy materials in an extremely low-cost, high-impact way. Twice a week, subscribers will receive a ‘micro-chapter’ of their novel, written specifically for the SMS format and for an Arab and female audience.

Team Members: Nada Al Assal, Saad Taame, Juan Felipe Beltran. Team Leaders: Prof. Amir Zeid, Mohannad Zalloum.


Waynak

Mobile application that allows users to connect the past with the present. Arabs are losing touch with Arab-related historical events, this leverages modern technology to allow stronger connections with history.

Team Members: Karl Gemayel, Ara Mangoyan, Mahmoud Darawsheh, Amro Al Fares. Team Leaders: Shawn Van Every, Maha El Choubassi


Kinetherapy

Goal: making physical therapy a fun experience with minimum expense and effort for child and parent for the children with handicaps isssue by using kinect (xbox360 game controller sensor) and unity game engine.

Team Members: Ahmad Malkawi, Hamza Al Khofahi. Team Leader: Nagi Salloum


Kashkool

Kashkool means “patchwork” in Arabic. Kashkool is a portal where people can express their opinions and their creativity by posting pictures and videos that will appear on a collective patchwork. Each media is associated with tags and users can visualize a patchwork for specific tags. Kashkool aims at raising awareness about causes and events around the Arab World.

Team Members: Samantha Hantman, Afnan Fahim, Edward Zhang, Youssef Francis. Team Leader: Thierry Sans


Cafe Roulette

A significant segment of the population in Arab states are immigrant workers. The ability to properly integrate into the community is essential to their overall happiness. Unfortunately, the relative shyness that exists in Arab culture and the lack of knowledge of other cultures limits immigrants to people from their own countries and the immediate community in which they are employed. This limits interaction between two different people groups thus reducing opportunities for cross cultural understanding. We want to start bridging these relationship gaps by providing an opportunity to start a conversation based on similar interests. Our solution makes this intersection of interests known to two individuals located in the vicinity, thus lowering the barrier for starting a conversation.

Team Members: Kun Lao, Francis Hilda Frathoso, Will Seonmin Heo, Seung Man Oh. Team Leader: David Hutchful

Event Details

Date: 
October 28-30, 2011 
Arriving on Thursday October 27th and Leaving on Monday October 31st.
Location:
New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) Downtown Campus 

Contact Us

For questions or comments, please email us at nyuad.hackathon@nyu.edu.

If you are a member of the media and have a query about the Hackathon, please contact Public Affairs at nyuad.public.affairs@nyu.edu 

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