March 4, 2019,

Two teams from the American University of Ras Al Khaimah (AURAK) won first and second place in the UAE Hackathon 2.0 – RAK that took place at AURAK in February.

The UAE Hackathon is part of the initiatives for innovation launched by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) with the aim of using data to provide happiness. The UAE Hackathon, open to anyone from the public or private sectors, was held across the seven Emirates in February 2019 with AURAK host to the UAE Hackathon held in RAK.  Participants included entrepreneurs, engineers, thinkers, innovators, problem solvers, and anyone with an imagination to make things better.

The top three teams for the Ras Al Khaimah Hackathon were announced on March third in Dubai. AURAK won two prizes. Dr. Mohammed Awad, the Chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and Ms. Aisha El Allam, a research engineer at AURAK, won first place for their idea, Salamtak. Salamtak is an innovative application using Machine Learning to address under-reported food poisoning incidents and subsequently hold food providers accountable. Second place went to another AURAK team consisting of four members, three of whom are current AURAK students from the school of Engineering: Ms. Shaza Hammoud, Ms. Maryam Al Zaabi, and Ms. Somaya AlBlooshi. Their winning idea, Street Smart, aims to solve Ras Al Khaimah street drainage issues resulting in the treatment and utilization of access rainwater from flooding.

AURAK President Professor Hassan Hamdan Al Alkim was pleased with the results of UAE Hackathon 2.0 in that it is a demonstration of the high quality research occurring every day at AURAK. “This outstanding achievement illustrates the level of research taking place at AURAK and is an indicator of the level of rigor present in our curriculum.”