What happens when you bring together people of all races, ages, genders and geographies to tackle today’s social issues through technology? Every April, students, mentors and judges from all over the world gather at NYU Abu Dhabi with their laptops and ideas to do just that and to contribute to social good in the Arab world.
With all the good technology can do, it is surprising that the field is currently quite homogeneous. Without ethnic, racial, geographic and gender diversity, so many crucial perspectives are neglected. This is the problem that the “NYU Abu Dhabi International Hackathon for Social Good”, which finishes tomorrow evening, is working to overcome. Studies have shown again and again that as diversity within a team increases, so does its productivity, innovation and financial returns.
Last year, the NYU Abu Dhabi hackathon had 50 per cent female participation. Participants flew in from all corners of the globe to the UAE. The diversity of this year’s hackathon is better still.
Much of the work that is done around social issues comes from a western-centric perspective. The NYU Abu Dhabi hackathon provides a new lens through which to approach social issues in the dynamic and ever-changing Middle East and North Africa region. And NYU Abu Dhabi specifically incubates the value of knowledge that diversity can produce, making it the perfect meeting point for these ideas.
In 2016, the winning team at the NYU Abu Dhabi hackathon produced an application called “Qusasat” or Arabic snippets. Qusasat is a crowdsourcing solution for Arabic text digitisation by allowing users who can read and type Arabic on their phones to translate text images, and collect points that can be donated or cashed.
The social advantages behind this idea are increasing Arabic digital content and acting as an additional source of income for Arabic speakers to ultimately improve optical character recognition technology in Arabic.
Other projects include Sadiki, a personal assistant for refugees, and Fahmt, an in-line translator for informal Arabic and English. Mentors and students continued research and work towards this project even after the hackathon was over.
The formation of ideas is truly one of the unique and most valuable aspects of this hackathon. A person who has never lived in the Middle East, where Arabic literature accessibility might be a problem, may not be aware of the existing issue.
However, they may have an idea of how to solve this problem that is totally revolutionary to someone who does know the ins and outs of the problem.
The range of ideas that come about by bringing together so much ambition, intelligence and creativity from such varied backgrounds is truly astounding.
Previous projects have included a wearable device to monitor construction worker health, which ultimately influenced continued research into such a device by Farah Shamout, NYU Abu Dhabi alumna and Rhodes Scholar, in her senior year capstone thesis.
In hackathons around the world, there is a fascination with the latest trends in technology: artificial intelligence, virtual reality, chatbots, natural language processing. Similarly, we look up to the revolutionary figures in the industry: Zuckerberg, Jobs, Gates and Musk.
While these trends and leaders have brought us the technology industry as we know it, there is something inherently flawed about only following these trends and leaders.
The NYU Abu Dhabi hackathon puts hackers to work on problems that might not be considered trendy or glamorous – but the problems are real and the outcomes valuable for people all around the world.
You can see the investment in the projects far beyond the 72 hours of the hackathon. Many teams start thinking about their ideas well in advance, and continue working on them even after the hackathon is over.
Lama Ahmed is a student at NYU Abu Dhabi and a participant at the hackathon
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What is the definition of an SME?
SMEs in the UAE are defined by the number of employees, annual turnover and sector. For example, a “small company” in the services industry has six to 50 employees with a turnover of more than Dh2 million up to Dh20m, while in the manufacturing industry the requirements are 10 to 100 employees with a turnover of more than Dh3m up to Dh50m, according to Dubai SME, an agency of the Department of Economic Development.
A “medium-sized company” can either have staff of 51 to 200 employees or 101 to 250 employees, and a turnover less than or equal to Dh200m or Dh250m, again depending on whether the business is in the trading, manufacturing or services sectors.
Simran
Director Hansal Mehta
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Soham Shah, Esha Tiwari Pandey
Three stars
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Revibe%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hamza%20Iraqui%20and%20Abdessamad%20Ben%20Zakour%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20UAE%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Refurbished%20electronics%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunds%20raised%20so%20far%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%2410m%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFlat6Labs%2C%20Resonance%20and%20various%20others%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
TOUCH RULES
Touch is derived from rugby league. Teams consist of up to 14 players with a maximum of six on the field at any time.
Teams can make as many substitutions as they want during the 40 minute matches.
Similar to rugby league, the attacking team has six attempts - or touches - before possession changes over.
A touch is any contact between the player with the ball and a defender, and must be with minimum force.
After a touch the player performs a “roll-ball” - similar to the play-the-ball in league - stepping over or rolling the ball between the feet.
At the roll-ball, the defenders have to retreat a minimum of five metres.
A touchdown is scored when an attacking player places the ball on or over the score-line.
Bournemouth 0
Manchester United 2
Smalling (28'), Lukaku (70')
FA Cup fifth round draw
Sheffield Wednesday v Manchester City
Reading/Cardiff City v Sheffield United
Chelsea v Shrewsbury Town/Liverpool
West Bromwich Albion v Newcastle United/Oxford United
Leicester City v Coventry City/Birmingham City
Northampton Town/Derby County v Manchester United
Southampton/Tottenham Hotspur v Norwich City
Portsmouth v Arsenal
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
SERIE A FIXTURES
Saturday (All UAE kick-off times)
Cagliari v AC Milan (6pm)
Lazio v Napoli (9pm)
Inter Milan v Atalanta (11.45pm)
Sunday
Udinese v Sassuolo (3.30pm)
Sampdoria v Brescia (6pm)
Fiorentina v SPAL (6pm)
Torino v Bologna (6pm)
Verona v Genoa (9pm)
Roma V Juventus (11.45pm)
Parma v Lecce (11.45pm)
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INVESTMENT PLEDGES
Cartlow: $13.4m
Rabbitmart: $14m
Smileneo: $5.8m
Soum: $4m
imVentures: $100m
Plug and Play: $25m
Scoreline
Australia 2-1 Thailand
Australia: Juric 69', Leckie 86'
Thailand: Pokklaw 82'
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Info
What: 11th edition of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship
When: December 27-29, 2018
Confirmed: men: Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Kevin Anderson, Dominic Thiem, Hyeon Chung, Karen Khachanov; women: Venus Williams
Tickets: www.ticketmaster.ae, Virgin megastores or call 800 86 823
