GEC NEWS WIREThe first Hajj Hackathon award was won by an all-female team of Saudi computer developers and programmers. The event with thousands of techies participated to compete for the best solution to make the life of Hajj pilgrims easier.
The Hajj Hackathon, three day event, held in Jeddah is an initiative that brought together thousands of programmers from 51 countries to innovate on making the annual Hajj services smoother in all areas. Some of the major areas covered were food, sanitation, transportation, accommodation, communication, crowd management and navigation.
The team of all-women named ‘Turjuman’ was named the winner after they came out with the solution to accommodate the arrival of 2 million pilgrims for Hajj and millions of others in Umrah throughout the year. These young women developed an instant translation app named ‘Turjuman’ which will facilitate communication by pilgrims from all around the world. The first prize was SAR 1,000,000 (approx. Dh 1 million). There was an eight member jury which included Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Inc.
The second place was grabbed by an Egyptian team of three developers for their fintech solution called ‘Hajj Wallet’. The third place was won by an Algerian team for their social network product called ‘Roaa’.
Even though there exists a lot of technology solutions to enhance the experience of hajj pilgrims, including Augmented Reality based aids, the government is further promoting for better ideas for better experience.
This three day event also placed Saudi Arabia in the Guinness World records by breaking the record with the largest number of participants of 2,950.
