Amazon on Tuesday announced the top three winners of Amazon Teckathon, a three-day virtual hackathon event for university students in Jordan, which recently took place from July 26th-28th 2022.
In a statement, the company said that the second edition of the hackathon saw students across 20 universities participate with the aim of developing creative software solutions with real-life impact to improve people’s everyday lives.
The Amazon Teckathon’s 2022 edition saw 114 projects submitted, where university students were encouraged to develop, design, code, and build innovative software solutions, which each team proceeded to present to a judging panel of Amazon experts, through five-minute video presentations. The judging panel consisted of senior Amazon technical leaders who evaluated each submission based on software implementation, project idea, and project presentation.
The Minister of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship Ahmed Hanandeh has actively supported initiatives aimed at encouraging and inspiring Jordan’s youth to upskill themselves in the ever-growing field of technology and programming. Hanandeh said he is pleased to see Amazon continue to nurture talent across Jordan, by bringing back the virtual hackathon event for its second year, reinforcing the importance of sharing knowledge and experience required to create the tech leaders of tomorrow.
Ammar Shanir, the first-place winner from Jordan University of Science and Technology, received a scholarship amount prize of USD 10,000 from Amazon for “BiLy”, an innovative application that converts speech to text in real time while distinguishing between various languages including Arabic and English to provide the most appropriate word.
“As a university student, I was extremely privileged to be given the opportunity to take part in the Amazon Teckathon this year. The hackathon was all-encompassing as it put my team’s creative thinking, programming skills, and time management to the test. I am so grateful for the entire experience as it has honed my technical and programming skills. This was an unforgettable experience and I’m honored that the expert panel of judges consisting recognized my work,” Shanir said.
Mahmoud Obeidat, Country Manager, Amazon in Jordan, commented: “This year, we were once again very impressed with the level of innovation, skill, and dedication brought to the Amazon Teckathon event by participating students. Our second edition of the event truly encouraged customer-centric thinking, working with our customer obsession guiding principle in mind, and it has been inspiring to see students embrace the Amazon culture while delivering an exceptional level of competition during the hackathon.”
“Congratulations to the Amazon Teckathon 2022 winners and all participants for their effort and ingenious software solutions. Several of our technology teams for the region are based out of Amman, a commitment to our recognition of the very strong programming landscape and brilliant talents present in Jordan, which we look forward to continue nurturing,” he added.
Abdullrahman Wasfi and Layan AlHimsi, the participants that came in second place with their “Nedz” software solution, as well as Shahed Nabeel and Mohammad Alkhateeb who were awarded third place in this year’s Amazon Teckathon for their incredible work on the “Detector” project, respectively took home scholarships of USD 7,000 and USD 5,000 from Amazon which will contribute to their education, the statement added.
Aiming to help improve communication skills between austistic individuals and their respective caregivers, Abdullrahman Wasfi and Layan AlHimsi from the University of Princess Sumaya University for Technology created “Nedz”, an application that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to better understand the needs of autistic individuals.
Third place receipients Shahed Nabeel and Mohammad Alkhateeb, from the University of Yarmouk University created “Detector”, an application that uses AI to detect skin cancer, providing a detailed evaluation in terms of type and accuracy by simply taking a picture.
Amazon also recognized winners across one special category ‘Best Customer Centric Solution for MENA Customers’, which was awarded to Abdel Rahman Al Sabbagh and Faris AlHumsi, in this category, winning their own Kindle devices for the creation of “Saiph”.
This AI searching system thoroughly examines files and documents for quality to provide the best possible content. It takes multiple factors into consideration, such as identifying relevant synonyms, repetition, misspellings and dialect, sharing results efficiently that meet the desired criteria.
Source: Jordan News Agency