Monthly Archives: August 2021

The second edition of the IEEE Region 8 SIGHT Hackathon tagged Jordan and Emirate Hackathon 2021 (JEH21) was organized by SIGHT group of American University of Sharjah (AUS) United Arab Emirate student branch, Al-Balqa Applied University Student branch (BAU) Jordan, and supported by the IEEE Region 8 Humanitarian Activities committee. The first edition of the hackathon was organized by the IEEE Egypt Section SIGHT group in April 2020.

The hackathon that lasted 5 weeks from 7^th of April to 16^th of May 2021 witnessed participants from various countries around Region 8 that includes UAE, Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Jordan, Sudan, Yemen, Ukraine, Nigeria, Sudan, Kenya, Lebanon, and Kyrgyzstan. Participants were required to come up with a technological idea (software or hardware) to solve the humanitarian problems caused by COVID-19 in the aspect of education, health care, poverty, social issues, and other pandemic-related problems. Seven (7) teams qualified for the final after successfully passing through the conception stage and mentoring stages of the competition that uses virtual platforms such as Zoom, Discord, and WhatsApp to interact with the various teams in the competition.

The top 3 teams were COVID Band – UAE, Bloom – Egypt, and Anovators – UAE that emerged as first and second respectively. Other teams that participated in the final pitch are shown in table 1 below:

Table 1: JEH2021 groups and title

Covid-Band team that emerges winner developed a prototype wearable device to combat Covid-19. It has a temperature sensor to keep track of the body temperature of students throughout the day with the capabilities of alerting school authorities in case of an abnormal rise in temperature. In addition to temperature reading features, pulse measurements features were incorporated in the device to support such cases. Another key feature developed in the device is social distancing monitoring as the device vibrates if the social distancing protocols rule is violated. Less than 200 USD built 2 prototype devices.

Judges that participated in the final includes:

• Engr. Abdullateef Aliyu: Chair of the IEEE Region 8 Humanitarian Activities Committee-2021 who has over 16 years of experience working in the information and communication technology (ICT) industry
• Mohamed Hatem: IEEE Egypt Section Student Representative (SSR) and Member at IEEE Region 8 SAC and Co-founder & CMO at Spero LLC
• Dr. Reema Diab: An entrepreneur, AI expert, youth influencer, popular keynote speaker and Founder of Galaxy Organization to empower women in Technology.
• Fairouz Fattoum: SIGHT Student Branch Groups Coordinator at IEEE R8 SAC and IEEE R8 Humanitarian Activities subcommittee member
• Walid Bin Habib: Corresponding Member of IEEE R8 Humanitarian Activities Committee
• Rawan ElJamal: IEEE Region 8 Young Professionals Sub-Committee

Special appreciation goes to the IEEE Region 8 Opcom for supporting the R8 HuaC and to all partners that ensured the JEH21 was a success as listed

• IEEE R8 Humanitarian Activities Committee 
• IEEE R8 SAC
• IEEE R8 Entrepreneurship initiative 
• Action for Industry (AFI)
• AIESEC – UAE (offer the Winning teams from UAE a 100% off on the global talent program)
• Shamal Start – Jordan (offer free space for winning teams in Jordan to develop their idea)
• IEEE SIGHT BAU Student Branch
• IEEE PES – Jordan (for advertising)
• IEEE Robotics and Automation Society – Jordan (for advertising)
• TKH Roboclub – Egypt (for advertising)
• IEEE CUSB – Egypt (for advertising)

Article Contributed by:

Abdullateef Aliyu

Chair R8 Humanitarian Activities Committee 2021