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Students and Mentors Head to Abu Dhabi to Develop Innovative Technology Applications

Press Release

The annual New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) International Hackathon, a three-day computer programming marathon, will for the third year host some of the world’s foremost technology innovators in Abu Dhabi.

Computer Science students, alongside leading professors, technology experts, and founders of successful startups and venture capitalists from across the globe, will work together to create prototypes of mobile and web applications for social good in the Arab world.

Scheduled to run from February 14-16 in NYUAD’s downtown campus, students will aim to develop innovative applications designed to address social issues in the region across a range of fields, including health, education, film, music, business, and science.

More than 80 top Computer Science students from reputable institutes such as MIT, Stanford, Columbia, Carnegie Mellon, Princeton, Yale, University of Washington, and NYU will participate at the event this year. These students come from the UAE, Algeria, Argentina, Canada, Egypt, England, India, Jordan, Lebanon, Mexico, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, France, and the US.

Mentors participating at the event represent prominent technology organizations such as Tech Wadi, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Tumblr, among others. Sana Odeh, affiliated professor of Computer Science at NYUAD, said: “The NYUAD International Hackathon unites participants from across the globe to come to Abu Dhabi and acquire a profound insight of innovation in technology. It’s often the case that students from the Arab world would have to travel to the US and Europe to participate in these kinds of international competitions.”

The International Hackathon will feature application programming interface talks, followed by pitches for project ideas, and team selections. Students will then work to create their applications, which they will present to a panel of judges on Sunday, as the event draws to a close. Odeh says “that a number of applications from previous years have come to fruition, and are now available on the web for visitors to download.”

The goal of the NYUAD Hackathon is to promote innovation in computer science and tech startups for the social good. This event will provide an opportunity for students in the Arab world to experience the full cycle of creating a tech startup, while also working closely with international mentors from both industry and academia.

About NYU Abu Dhabi

NYU Abu Dhabi is the first comprehensive liberal arts and research campus in the Middle East to be operated abroad by a major American research university. NYU Abu Dhabi has integrated a highly selective undergraduate curriculum across the disciplines with a world center for advanced research and scholarship. The university enables its students in the sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities, and arts to succeed in an increasingly interdependent world and advance cooperation and progress on humanity’s shared challenges. NYU Abu Dhabi’s high-achieving students have come from over 115 countries and speak over 115 languages. Together, NYU's campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai form the backbone of a unique global university, giving faculty and students opportunities to experience varied learning environments and immersion in other cultures at one or more of the numerous study-abroad sites NYU maintains on six continents.