Hackathon 2014 – Teams and Ideas

MedCare/Tabibi (Healthcare)

1st Place Winner

Liwa Ventures Social Impact Award;
Audience Choice Award

Description: Digital nurse app reminding the elderly to take their medicine and alerting their emergency contacts with life saving information when health problems occur.

Students: Saeed Al Mannaee (Khalifa University, UAE), Rashed Al Matar (Khalifa University, UAE), Yousef AlAhmedi (Khalifa University, UAE), Islam Alhusban (University of Science and Technology, Jordan), Mustafa Hammad (Khalifa University, UAE), Abdallah Zoubir Ourad (Khalifa University, UAE)

Mentors: Kenneth Leland (Senior VP of Engineering, Monmouth Telecom, USA), Akram Dweikat (Co-Founder & Co-Leader, PALinnO, Palestine)

Jedis (Economic Development)

2nd Place Winner

Description: an SMS-based platform to let local arab businesses instantly create a web presence (incl. location, hours etc.).

Students: Kmar Ben Abdallah ( ENSI , Tunisia), Leila Chan Currie (University of Toronto, Canada), Omar Gafsi (Esprit, Tunisia), Colin Mayer (Stanford University, USA), Zach Reneau-Wedeen (Yale University, USA), Harrison Tan (NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE), Adrian Vatchinsky (NYU New York, USA)

Mentors: Geoffrey Litt (Student, Yale University, USA); Taher Mestiri, General Manager
I.T.GRAPES & Hadrum

WellSense (Vulnerable populations)

3rd Place Winner

Description: Cost-effective web- & hardware solution for well monitoring, to benefit NGOs and local populations

Students: Lingliang Zhang (NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE), Rodrigo Ceballos (NYUAD, UAE), Koh Terai (NYUAD, UAE), Andres Rodriguez Caceres (NYUAD, UAE), Sameer Ansari (Carnegie Mellon University, USA).

Mentors: Thierry Sans (Assistant Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, Qatar), Michael Paik (Computer Science, NYU Abu Dhabi).

LinkDoctors (Healthcare)

Description: Website leveraging Linkedin to allow knowledge sharing among doctors to better treat patients.

Students: Mohamed Said Karim Benmerar (National High School Of Computer Science, Algeria), Ahmad Diab (University of Science and Technology, Jordan), Mohamed Kamal Kamaly (Cairo University, Egypt), Seddik Bouaissa (University of science and tech Houari Boumedien, Algeria), Salma Saidi (ENSIT, Tunisia).

Mentors: Samer Atiani (Co-Founder & CTO, liwwa, Jordan), Guillaume Leseur (Software Architect, Work4, France)

Shoftak (Civic Innovation)

Description: an Android app allowing citizens to report public service inefficiencies and corruption (location, description, picture), and shared to centralized website & Twitter.

Students: Izzedeen B.Khadra (Petra University, Jordan), Hesham Hossam (Helwan University, Egypt), Mina Khali (Ain Shams University, Egypt), Amgad Mohamed (Cairo University, Egypt), Razan Qraini (An-Najah National University, Palestine), Zbynek Stara (NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE)

Mentors: Serge Humpich (Development Engineer – Security Specialist, France), David Hu (Developer Advocate, FourSquare, USA)

Taalemni (Education)

Description: an app democratizing access to SAT tests, via a multiple-choice question game based on historical SAT questions.

Students: Batu Aytemiz (NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE), Beatrice Ionascu (NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE), Talha Javed (NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE), Dorra Mlouhi (ENSI National School for Computer Studies, Tunisia), Kenny Song (NYU Shanghai, China), Asyrique Thevendran (NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE)

Mentor: Raymond Cheng (PhD Student, University of Washington, USA)

Buraq (Civic Innovation)

Description: a Website visualizing the danger levels of travel destinations based on aggregated news sources.

Students: Mahmoud Al Ismail (Carnegie Mellon University, Qatar), Kevin Aziz (Syracuse University, USA), Bonnie Eisenman (Princeton University, USA), Nishant Mohanchandra (NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE), Morgante Pell (NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE), Seung Man Oh (NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE), Hassan Bello (University of Wollongong, UAE)

Mentors: Maraim Masoud (Technical Entrepreneur & Research Assistant, University of Southampton, USA), Yamil Asusta (Developer Evangelist, SendGrid, USA)

Murshed (Civic Innovation)

Description: a crowdsourced itinerary-planning app where users ask direction questions for places where online maps are inaccurate.

Students: Saeeda Ahmed (Zayed University, UAE), Hamad Al Hassani (United Arab Emirates University, UAE), Mohammed Al Bahri (United Arab Emirates University, UAE), Aamer AlMutawa (University of Sharjah, UAE), Fatima Saleh (Zayed University, UAE), Shaimaa Saleh (Zayed University, UAE), Buthaina Zaid (Zayed University, UAE)

Mentors: Alexandra Qin (Front-End Developer, Bloglovin, USA), Sashko Stubailo (Student, MIT, USA)

MoskMindr (Civic Innovation)

Description: App prompting users to silence their phone in the vicinity of mosques and anywhere at prayer time. Ultimately, the app will be customized to other places (worship places, cinemas, libraries, etc.)

Students: Nabil Lahssine (École Supérieure d’Informatique, Morocco), Karla Danitza Durán Memijes (Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Coacalco, Mexico), Hassan Mousa (Abu Dhabi University, UAE), Mohammed, Oulaidi (International University of Rabat, Morocco), Mehdi Agouzal (Université Hassan I, Morocco)

Mentor: Fareeha Amjad (Sofware Engineer, CTED NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE)

Localli (Tourism)

Description: App helping tourists plan trips in the Arab world by generating itineraries promoting touristic & community attractions/activities (incl. volunteering opportunities)

Students: Dihia Boulegane (High National School for Computer Science, Algeria), Jiwon Shin (NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE), Jin U Bak (NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE), Francis Sowani (NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE), Angela Zhang (MIT, USA), Piotr Galar (Kings College London, UK)

Mentors: Alexandre Spaeth (PhD Student & Co-Founder & CTO, E-180, Polytechnique Montréal, Canada), Stephen Lang (Digital Director, Silkstone, USA)

We Share Your Pain (Healthcare)

Description: Web app allowing patients, caregivers, and professionals to discover real-time content, videos, images, and links aggregated from Twitter, and filtered by country and disease.

Students: Abdullah Mahomed (NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE), Yilkal Abe (NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE), Chukwuyem Onyibe (NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE), Muhammed AbuOdeh (University of Sharjah, UAE), Yulia Rovnova (NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE)

Mentor: Ahmed Ali (Senior Software Engineer, Qatar Computing Research Institute, Qatar)

Dafah – Impulse (Community)

Description: Impulse donating platform

Students: Nicole López Del Carril (NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE), Juan Felipe Beltran (NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE), Chani Gatto (NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE), James Hosken (NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE), Walid Ould Babaali (Mhamed Bougara University, Algeria)

Mentors: Mackram Raydan (Co-Founder & CTO, Seeqnce Alice, Lebanon), Baris Yuksel (Senior Software Engineer, Google, USA)

Orphan Locator (Vulnerable populations)

Description: Reuniting lost children with their parents

Students: Omar Abdujaleel (Khlalifa University, UAE), Abdelaziz Boussekine (Boumerdes University, Algeria), Siddha Ganju (NIT Hamirpur, India), Amna Mangoosh Al Ali (Higher Colleges of Technoloy, UAE), Ammar Mokhtar (American University in Cairo, Egypt), Ahmed Nasser (Cairo University, Egypt)

Mentors: Anirudh Koul (Data Scientist, Microsoft, USA), Zahra Ashktorab (PhD Student in Information Science, University of Maryland, USA)

Lahjatna (Communication)

Description: Crowdsourced dictionary of Arabic words with conflicting meanings across dialects, to ease communication between people from different regions in the Arab world

Students: Mahool Al Hammadi (United Arab Emirates University, UAE), Dima Hijazi (Yarmouk University, Jordan), Hachem Saddiki (Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco), Rabah Sobaihi (M’hamed Bougara University, Algeria), Mahmoud Darawsheh (Princess Sumaya University for Technology, Jordan)

Mentors: Michael Schidlowsky (Senior Software Engineer, Google, USA), Max Stoller (Analyst, Lerer Ventures, USA)

Waynak (Safety)

Description: a mobile app reporting current (or last saved) location to trusted contacts for cases when user might be in danger

Students: John Abou Jaoudeh (American University of Beirut, Lebanon), Obada Aljanadi (Compass International Company University Of Sharjah, UAE), Saad Khatib (The University of Jordan, Jordan), Muhammad Obaidullah (Abu Dhabi University, UAE), Fabricio Pontes Harsich (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina), Faisal Zaghloul (American University of Beirut, Jordan)

Mentor: Ghady Rayess (Co-Founder & Managing Director, FOO, Lebanon)