Latest news with #hackathon
Arab News
a day ago
- Arab News
Contest boosts Qur'an apps with tech innovation
RIYADH: Ayathon, a Qur'an-focused app development hackathon organized by the Programmers Association, recently concluded in Riyadh. Abdulaziz Al-Oraij, chairman of the association, described Ayathon as an initiative to use modern technology to serve the Holy Qur'an and improve the digital experience for users worldwide. He added that Ayathon brings together programmers, designers, researchers and Islamic scholars to develop digital tools supporting memorization, recitation and reflection on the Qur'an. 'It aims to empower Qur'anic communities with interactive tools,' Al-Oraij said. Mohammed Al-Wadee, chairman of the hackathon's committee, said the event seeks to improve Qur'anic apps and develop technology that aligns with Islamic values. He added that the event promotes integrating technologies like artificial intelligence, augmented reality and user experience design into sustainable projects. Maha Al-Atwi, chair of the technical committee, said Ayathon combines technical creativity and intellectual depth to motivate participants, and enhance results through interdisciplinary collaboration. She added that using technologies like AI and data analytics helps create digital solutions meeting diverse user needs and offering a quality Qur'anic experience for the digital generation. The judging panel includes international experts in technology and Islamic studies, ensuring projects are evaluated on innovation, quality and meaningful content, Al-Atwi said.
Globe and Mail
6 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Hack United Empowers Youth with Soft Skills at United Hacks V5
This free three-day event invites students worldwide to build, pitch, and grow, offering $50,000+ in prizes and mentorship from industry professionals. Completely free to join and open to all skill levels, United Hacks V5 will run from July 11 through July 13, 2025. Participants will collaborate online in teams or individually, building innovative projects and presenting them to a panel of expert judges representing leading companies like Amazon, Meta, Apple, Salesforce, Microsoft, TikTok, Blizzard, Tesla, and VISA. Registration and Event Details: Unlike most hackathons that focus exclusively on coding, United Hacks V5 places equal emphasis on soft skills, such as communication, pitching, and collaboration. This dual-focus model addresses a critical gap in youth STEM education: the ability to present ideas persuasively and work effectively in teams. 'We realized many brilliant students built amazing projects but struggled to express their value,' said Tejas Chakrapani, Founder of Hack United. 'Our events not only help students build innovative solutions, they also help them build confidence, public speaking skills, and career readiness.' Hack United was founded in May 2023 by Chakrapani, then a high school student, with a simple goal: to make hands-on coding more accessible to young learners around the world. What began as a small initiative has since evolved into a global organization that has reached over 25,000 students across 50+ countries. Run primarily by a team of student volunteers, Hack United embodies the very spirit it seeks to inspire. The leadership team behind United Hacks V5 includes Pranav A (Head of Operations), Kavin A (Head of Events), Rehan R (Head of Marketing), Sahana P (Head of Outreach), and Fiona F (Head of Product). Together, they've designed an event that removes barriers to entry, whether financial, educational, or geographic, and provides every participant with access to top-tier resources, mentorship, and networking. Participants in United Hacks V5 will walk away not only with projects for their portfolios, but also with skills and connections that can jumpstart their professional journeys. Past attendees have gone on to earn paid internships, join venture-backed startups, and gain admissions to top universities. 'United Hacks helped me build a project that I could put on my resume, and gave me the confidence to pitch my ideas to real-world companies, all while still in high school,' said Ryan Bates, a former participant. The event welcomes both seasoned programmers and complete beginners. Individuals can register solo and be matched with teammates from around the world, fostering a collaborative, supportive environment. With its emphasis on innovation, inclusivity, and personal growth, United Hacks V5 is more than a competition; it's a launchpad for the next generation of builders, thinkers, and leaders. About Hack United Hack United is a student-founded nonprofit organization providing accessible, high-impact hackathons and technical education experiences to students around the world. Since 2023, Hack United has empowered over 25,000 students in more than 50 countries to explore technology, build real-world projects, and develop the communication and collaboration skills needed to succeed in the 21st-century workforce. To learn more, visit: For any inquiry, contact the team at humans@ For more details, follow Hack United on social media: Discord Instagram @hack_united LinkedIn @hack-united Watch 'United Hacks V5 Official Trailer' on YouTube: Media Contact Company Name: Hack United Contact Person: Tejas Chakrapani Email: Send Email City: New York City State: New York Country: United States Website:
Al Arabiya
6 days ago
- Al Arabiya
Hackathon Teams Race to Solve Defense Tech Challenges as Europe Boosts Military Capabilities
Hunched over laptops, the team of four raced to solve a challenge: how to get a set of drones to fly themselves from one place to another when GPS and other signals are jammed by an enemy. Elsewhere around the hall, groups of people – engineering students, tech workers, and hobbyists – gathered around long tables to brainstorm, write computer code, or tinker with more drones and other hardware. Most of them were strangers when they first gathered last month at Britain's Sandhurst Military Academy to compete in a 24-hour hackathon focused on defense technology. Many were drawn to the event because they wanted to use their technical skills to work on one of the biggest challenges confronting Europe: the continent's race to beef up its military capabilities as Russia's war in Ukraine threatens to widen global instability. 'Given the geopolitical climate, defense tech is relevant now more than ever,' said Aniketh Ramesh, a startup founder with a Ph.D. in robotics in extreme environments and one of the drone team members. 'The hackathon,' he said, 'is a good place to sort of go and contribute your ideas.' Robotics and drones are having their iPhone moment because costs have come down and the hardware is widely available, Ramesh said. That means building drones to do new things is more a thinking challenge than a technical one, he said. Ramesh already knew one teammate, a former British army paratrooper, from a previous event. They recruited two others – one engineer and one with a Ph.D. in computer vision – through the event's group chat on Signal. The drone problem was just one of the many challenges the teams could choose to solve. The tasks were proposed by defense tech companies like German drone maker Helsing, robotics company Arx, the British military, and Kyiv-based venture capital firm D3. Some worked on software, such as an algorithm to predict which way a target would move. Others came with their own ideas. One team made a plastic cup packed with sensors that could be produced in large amounts to be scattered across a battlefield. Another team built a scale model of an autonomous medical evacuation aircraft. Similar competitions have been held regularly across Europe since last year, inspired by the Ukrainian military's on-the-fly wartime innovations to fend off the larger Russian army. The grassroots meetups are part of a wider network of defense innovation that organizers hope to foster in Europe, underscoring the continent's scramble to churn out weapons. 'The idea is to go build a prototype, take your prototype to become a product, and go build a company so that you can deliver stuff to the frontline and hopefully save someone's life,' said Benjamin Wolba, who organizes a separate but similar series, the European Defense Tech Hackathon. Wolba's group has held tournaments in about 10 cities in the past twelve months, including one in Lviv, Ukraine, in May and has scheduled more this year in Sheffield, England; Gothenburg, Sweden; Marseilles, France; London; and Berlin. The European Union–backed EUDIS Defence Hackathon holds simultaneous competitions at eight universities twice a year. Meanwhile, NATO has launched DIANA, an accelerator program to speed up defense innovations. The competitions are producing real-world results. The winners of one European Defense Tech Hackathon were a team of Bulgarian high school students who came up with a de-mining solution that they used to found a startup. At last year's London event, the winning team devised an idea for an anti-drone system. They went to Ukraine for more testing and then were bought by a startup that went on to raise millions in venture capital funding, said Pass. This year, instead of a trophy, some London teams signed term sheets with investors. Hackathons have their origins in the software industry. Small teams of programmers and developers are pitted against each other in marathon brainstorming sessions to write programs that could become new products. 'The beauty of the hackathon is you get a mixture of people who never normally meet,' said Wolba. 'Engineers are paired with actual investors who understand something on the commercial side but also critically military end users.' Organizers want to foster a culture of nimble startups to join Europe's defense ecosystem, traditionally dominated by a handful of big prime military contractors, such as Britain's BAE, Germany's Rheinmetall, and France's Thales, that are focused on building pricey hardware. 'There's definitely been a shift in the industry from the purchase of more exquisite, high-cost capabilities, such as fighter jets or submarines or expensive tanks, toward more low-cost systems that can give you scale advantages,' said Richard Pass, one of the co-founders of the London event. A recent aerial confrontation between Pakistan and India further highlights how Europe is at risk of losing its edge against adversaries, he said. Pass said reports that Pakistan used Chinese-made fighter jets armed with Chinese air-to-air missiles to down Indian air force planes, including three French-made Rafale jets, came as a big surprise. Not only does it show technological parity between the Chinese and leading Western industrial nations like France, but it also hints at China's advantages in mass-producing fighter jets that could overwhelm Western forces, he said. Fostering a broader European defense tech startup ecosystem is a way to regain that technological advantage, he said. Defense tech startup founders can ride a wave of investment as Europe moves to beef up its military capabilities. Leaders of NATO, which includes 30 European nations, are meeting this week to endorse a goal to spend five percent of gross domestic product on defense. The European Union has sought to mobilize 800 billion euros (927 billion) to boost the 27-nation bloc's defense, with priorities including drones, AI, autonomous systems, and quantum computing. Britain, which left the EU, has meanwhile pledged to spend ten percent of its defense budget on new technologies. Europe still has a long way to go. The continent's defense tech startup ecosystem is young and about five years behind the US, consulting firm McKinsey said in a recent report. But it's growing rapidly as investors flock there. Venture capital investment in Europe's defense tech sector for 2021–2024 more than quadrupled from the previous three-year period, according to Pitchbook. At the London hackathon, teams worked into the evening fueled by chocolate bars, energy drinks, fruit, and a late-night pizza delivery. Army cots were available for those who wanted to catch a few hours of sleep. Soldiers in camouflage and defense company reps hovered on the sidelines to provide advice and answer questions. CEO Andrii Solonskyi said defense hackathons are a bit of a novelty. 'The industry has traditionally been more structured and formal because it's a serious business and there's a lot of things that can go wrong,' he said. 'But what we definitely feel is that you can be very agile in defense right now.'
The Independent
6 days ago
- The Independent
Hackathon teams race to solve defense tech challenges as Europe boosts military capabilities
Hunched over laptops, the team of four raced to solve a challenge: how to get a set of drones to fly themselves from one place to another when GPS and other signals are jammed by an enemy. Elsewhere around the hall, groups of people — engineering students, tech workers and hobbyists — gathered around long tables to brainstorm, write computer code or tinker with more drones and other hardware. Most of them were strangers when they first gathered last month at Britain 's Sandhurst Military Academy to compete in a 24-hour 'hackathon" focused on defense technology. Many were drawn to the event because they wanted to use their technical skills to work on one of the biggest challenges confronting Europe: the continent's race to beef up its military capabilities as Russia's war in Ukraine threatens to widen global instability. 'Given the geopolitical climate, defense tech is relevant now more than ever,' said Aniketh Ramesh, a startup founder with a Ph.D. in robotics in extreme environments and one of the drone team members. The hackathon, he said, 'is a good place to sort of go and contribute your ideas.' 'Robotics and drones are having their iPhone moment" because costs have come down and the hardware is widely available, Ramesh said. That means building drones to do new things is more a 'thinking challenge" than a technical one, he said. Ramesh already knew one teammate, a former British army paratrooper, from a previous event. They recruited two others — one engineer and one with a Ph.D. in computer vision — through the event's group chat on Signal. The drone problem was just one of the many challenges the teams could choose to solve. The tasks were proposed by defense tech companies like German drone maker Helsing, robotics company Arx, the British military and Kyiv-based venture capital firm D3. Some worked on software, such as an algorithm to predict which way a target would move. Others came with their own ideas. One team made a plastic cup packed with sensors that could be produced in large amounts to be scattered across a battlefield. Another team built a scale model of an autonomous medical evacuation aircraft. Similar competitions have been held regularly across Europe since last year, inspired by the Ukrainian military's on-the-fly wartime innovations to fend off the larger Russian army. The grassroots meetups are part of a wider network of defense innovation that organizers hope to foster in Europe, underscoring the continent's scramble to churn out weapons that have been turbocharged by U.S. President Donald Trump's persistent threats to withdraw from the NATO trans-Atlantic security alliance. The idea is to 'go build a prototype, take your prototype to become a product, and go build a company' so that you can 'deliver stuff to the frontline and hopefully save someone's life,' said Benjamin Wolba, who organizes a separate but similar series, the European Defense Tech Hackathon. Wolba's group has held tournaments in about 10 cities in the past twelve months, including one in Lviv, Ukraine, in May, and has scheduled more this year in Sheffield, England; Gothenburg, Sweden; Marseilles, France; London; and Berlin. The European Union-backed EUDIS Defence Hackathon holds simultaneous competitions at eight universities twice a year. Meanwhile, NATO has launched DIANA, an 'accelerator' program to speed up defense innovations. The competitions are producing real-world results. The winners of one European Defense Tech Hackathon were a team of Bulgarian high school students who came up with a de-mining solution that they used to found a startup. At last year's London event, the winning team devised an idea for an anti-drone system. They went to Ukraine for more testing, and then were bought by a startup that went on to raise millions in venture capital funding, said Pass. This year, instead of a trophy, some London teams signed term sheets with investors. Hackathons have their origins in the software industry. Small teams of programmers and developers are pitted against each other in marathon brainstorming sessions to write programs that could become new products. 'The beauty of the hackathon is you get a mixture of people who never normally meet,' said Wolba. 'Engineers are 'paired with actual investors who understand something on the commercial side, but also, critically, military end users.' Organizers want to foster a culture of nimble startups to join Europe's defense ecosystem, traditionally dominated by a handful of big 'prime' military contractors such as Britain's BAE, Germany's Rheinmetall and France's Thales that are focused on building pricey hardware. 'There's definitely been a shift in the industry from the purchase of more exquisite, high-cost capabilities, such as fighter jets, or submarines, or expensive tanks, towards more low-cost systems that can give you scale advantages,' said Richard Pass, one of the co-founders of the London event. A recent aerial confrontation between Pakistan and India further highlights how Europe is at risk of losing its edge against adversaries, he said. Pass said reports that Pakistan used Chinese-made fighter jets armed with Chinese air-to-air missiles to down Indian air force planes, including three French-made Rafale jets, came as a big surprise. Not only does it show 'technological parity between the Chinese and leading Western industrial nations like France,' but it also hints at China's advantages in mass-producing fighter jets that could overwhelm Western forces, he said. Fostering a broader European defense tech start-up ecosystem is a way 'to regain that technological advantage,' he said. Defense tech startup founders can ride a wave of investment as Europe moves to beef up its military capabilities. Leaders of NATO, which includes 30 European nations, are meeting this week to endorse a goal to spend 5% of gross domestic product on defense. The European Union has sought to mobilize 800 billion euros ($927 billion) to boost the 27-nation bloc's defense, with priorities including drones, AI, autonomous systems and quantum computing. Britain, which left the EU, has meanwhile pledged to spend 10% of its defense budget on new technologies. Europe still has a long way to go. The continent's defense tech startup ecosystem is young and about five years behind the United States, consulting firm McKinsey said in a recent report. But it's growing rapidly as investors flock there. Venture capital investment in Europe's defense tech sector for 2021-2024 more than quadrupled from the previous three-year period, according to Pitchbook. At the London hackathon, teams worked into the evening, fueled by chocolate bars, energy drinks, fruit and a late-night pizza delivery. Army cots were available for those who wanted to catch a few hours of sleep. Soldiers in camouflage and defense company reps hovered on the sidelines to provide advice and answer questions. CEO Andrii Solonskyi said defense hackathons are 'a bit of a novelty.' The industry has traditionally been more structured and formal, because 'it's a serious business and there's a lot of things that can go wrong,' he said. But, "what we definitely feel is that you can be very agile in defense right now."
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Hackathon teams race to solve defense tech challenges as Europe boosts military capabilities
SANDHURST, England (AP) — Hunched over laptops, the team of four raced to solve a challenge: how to get a set of drones to fly themselves from one place to another when GPS and other signals are jammed by an enemy. Elsewhere around the hall, groups of people — engineering students, tech workers and hobbyists — gathered around long tables to brainstorm, write computer code or tinker with more drones and other hardware. Most of them were strangers when they first gathered last month at Britain's Sandhurst Military Academy to compete in a 24-hour 'hackathon" focused on defense technology. Many were drawn to the event because they wanted to use their technical skills to work on one of the biggest challenges confronting Europe: the continent's race to beef up its military capabilities as Russia's war in Ukraine threatens to widen global instability. 'Given the geopolitical climate, defense tech is relevant now more than ever,' said Aniketh Ramesh, a startup founder with a Ph.D. in robotics in extreme environments and one of the drone team members. The hackathon, he said, 'is a good place to sort of go and contribute your ideas.' 'Robotics and drones are having their iPhone moment" because costs have come down and the hardware is widely available, Ramesh said. That means building drones to do new things is more a 'thinking challenge" than a technical one, he said. Ramesh already knew one teammate, a former British army paratrooper, from a previous event. They recruited two others — one engineer and one with a Ph.D. in computer vision — through the event's group chat on Signal. The drone problem was just one of the many challenges the teams could choose to solve. The tasks were proposed by defense tech companies like German drone maker Helsing, robotics company Arx, the British military and Kyiv-based venture capital firm D3. Some worked on software, such as an algorithm to predict which way a target would move. Others came with their own ideas. One team made a plastic cup packed with sensors that could be produced in large amounts to be scattered across a battlefield. Another team built a scale model of an autonomous medical evacuation aircraft. Similar competitions have been held regularly across Europe since last year, inspired by the Ukrainian military's on-the-fly wartime innovations to fend off the larger Russian army. The grassroots meetups are part of a wider network of defense innovation that organizers hope to foster in Europe, underscoring the continent's scramble to churn out weapons that have been turbocharged by U.S. President Donald Trump's persistent threats to withdraw from the NATO trans-Atlantic security alliance. The idea is to 'go build a prototype, take your prototype to become a product, and go build a company' so that you can 'deliver stuff to the frontline and hopefully save someone's life,' said Benjamin Wolba, who organizes a separate but similar series, the European Defense Tech Hackathon. Wolba's group has held tournaments in about 10 cities in the past twelve months, including one in Lviv, Ukraine, in May, and has scheduled more this year in Sheffield, England; Gothenburg, Sweden; Marseilles, France; London; and Berlin. The European Union-backed EUDIS Defence Hackathon holds simultaneous competitions at eight universities twice a year. Meanwhile, NATO has launched DIANA, an 'accelerator' program to speed up defense innovations. The competitions are producing real-world results. The winners of one European Defense Tech Hackathon were a team of Bulgarian high school students who came up with a de-mining solution that they used to found a startup. At last year's London event, the winning team devised an idea for an anti-drone system. They went to Ukraine for more testing, and then were bought by a startup that went on to raise millions in venture capital funding, said Pass. This year, instead of a trophy, some London teams signed term sheets with investors. Hackathons have their origins in the software industry. Small teams of programmers and developers are pitted against each other in marathon brainstorming sessions to write programs that could become new products. 'The beauty of the hackathon is you get a mixture of people who never normally meet,' said Wolba. 'Engineers are 'paired with actual investors who understand something on the commercial side, but also, critically, military end users.' Organizers want to foster a culture of nimble startups to join Europe's defense ecosystem, traditionally dominated by a handful of big 'prime' military contractors such as Britain's BAE, Germany's Rheinmetall and France's Thales that are focused on building pricey hardware. 'There's definitely been a shift in the industry from the purchase of more exquisite, high-cost capabilities, such as fighter jets, or submarines, or expensive tanks, towards more low-cost systems that can give you scale advantages,' said Richard Pass, one of the co-founders of the London event. A recent aerial confrontation between Pakistan and India further highlights how Europe is at risk of losing its edge against adversaries, he said. Pass said reports that Pakistan used Chinese-made fighter jets armed with Chinese air-to-air missiles to down Indian air force planes, including three French-made Rafale jets, came as a big surprise. Not only does it show 'technological parity between the Chinese and leading Western industrial nations like France,' but it also hints at China's advantages in mass-producing fighter jets that could overwhelm Western forces, he said. Fostering a broader European defense tech start-up ecosystem is a way 'to regain that technological advantage,' he said. Defense tech startup founders can ride a wave of investment as Europe moves to beef up its military capabilities. Leaders of NATO, which includes 30 European nations, are meeting this week to endorse a goal to spend 5% of gross domestic product on defense. The European Union has sought to mobilize 800 billion euros ($927 billion) to boost the 27-nation bloc's defense, with priorities including drones, AI, autonomous systems and quantum computing. Britain, which left the EU, has meanwhile pledged to spend 10% of its defense budget on new technologies. Europe still has a long way to go. The continent's defense tech startup ecosystem is young and about five years behind the United States, consulting firm McKinsey said in a recent report. But it's growing rapidly as investors flock there. Venture capital investment in Europe's defense tech sector for 2021-2024 more than quadrupled from the previous three-year period, according to Pitchbook. At the London hackathon, teams worked into the evening, fueled by chocolate bars, energy drinks, fruit and a late-night pizza delivery. Army cots were available for those who wanted to catch a few hours of sleep. Soldiers in camouflage and defense company reps hovered on the sidelines to provide advice and answer questions. CEO Andrii Solonskyi said defense hackathons are 'a bit of a novelty.' The industry has traditionally been more structured and formal, because 'it's a serious business and there's a lot of things that can go wrong,' he said. But, "what we definitely feel is that you can be very agile in defense right now." Kelvin Chan, The Associated Press Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
