Computer Science Graduate Student Participates in Hajj Hackathon

The Hajj is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia which takes place on the last month of the year. All Muslims are required to perform this pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime. The Hajj is seen as a chance to wipe clean past sins and start afresh. Logistically, the Hajj brings in millions of people to Saudi Arabia each year. In 2018, an estimated 1.5 million people took part in the annual Islamic pilgrimage to holy sites in and around Mecca, Saudi Arabia. About 1.3 million of them came from abroad, according to Arab News and for many of them it was once in a lifetime experience.

Accommodating this massive influx of pilgrims requires a vast transportation network, medical infrastructure, and pop-up air-conditioned tents in the city of Mecca which holds about 160,000 people. Due to the large crowds, the sacred Haji site becomes a dangerous place because of stampedes and theft. Over 2,400 people were killed in a stampede in 2015.

 To address some of the Hajj’s problems, the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming, and Drones took on a distinctly modern approach: it put on a hackathon. The Hajj Hackathon took place over a period of three days in early August, 2018 in Jeddah. The Haji Hackathon's purpose was to allow participants to come up with technological solutions tailored to the Hajj’s challenges such as crowd management, public health, and financial transactions. Two million Saudi riyals (worth about $530,000) in equity investment was awarded to hackathon winners.

With nearly 3,000 participants from across the world, the event broke the Guinness World Record for most participants in a hackathon. The event was graced by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak acting as a judge. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales was also in attendance.

Nuwayer Algoliqah, a current Hood College Computer Science graduate student, took part in the Haji Hackathon event. She is the proud holder of the Guinness Book of World Record for being a hackathon participant. Nuwayer will be going to New York in May 2019 to participate in NASA’s Hackathon challenge. Hood College is proud of you, Nuwayer!

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