SAUDI HACKATHON TO PREVENT HAJ WOES
Programmers seek high-tech ways to avert deadly disasters
FUELLED by caffeine, pizza and adrenaline, sleepdeprived programmers in a marathon Saudi contest explored high-tech solutions to prevent a repeat of past haj calamities.
Thousands of software professionals and students competed in the kingdom’s first hackathon here, a coding festival ahead of the world’s largest pilgrimage later this month.
The haj, expected to draw more than two million pilgrims to Makkah this year, is a massive logistical challenge for Saudi authorities, with colossal crowds cramming into relatively small holy sites.
Launching headlong into 36 hours of software development, the participants from across the globe battled sleep deprivation to crowdsource answers to a key question that has long vexed haj organisers — how to avert future deadly disasters.
A group of five Saudi, Yemeni and Eritrean women, all in their 20s and covered head-to-toe in niqab, hunched over their laptops to design an app for paramedics to reach people in need of medical attention using geo-tracking technology.
If multiple emergencies arise at once, the women hoped their app would help prioritise the most pressing cases.
Two Pakistani professionals paired up with two East Asian students to develop a “virtual leash” application to locate relatives lost in the sea of humanity by using bluetooth wristbands.
Four Saudi men sought to design sensors for garbage bins that would alert cleaners when they are full to avert any hygiene scare.
Another group of Saudi women scrawled algorithms and programming codes on a whiteboard to design an app to help nonArabic speakers translate instructions into multiple languages without Internet connection.
With nearly 3,000 programmers, organisers said Saudi Arabia had broken the Guinness World Record for the largest number of participants at a hackathon.
While their solutions are untested, the event, which ended on Friday and offered cash prizes of around two million riyals (RM2.2 million), was billed as an invention marathon by organisers.
“We aim to upgrade the experience of haj for all pilgrims,” said Nouf al-Rakan, chief executive of the Saudi Federation for Cyber Security and Programming, which organised the event.
“This (hackathon) will enrich that experience, and give us plenty of solutions and ideas that we can adapt and invest in,” she said.
In September 2015, a stampede killed up to 2,300 worshippers, including hundreds of Iranians, in the worst disaster ever to strike the pilgrimage.
Earlier that month, 100 people were killed when a construction crane toppled into a courtyard of Makkah’s Grand Mosque.
Last October, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund announced plans to set up two investment companies to develop infrastructure in Makkah and Madinah, to accommodate the increasing numbers of pilgrims.
Last year’s haj passed without major health or safety upsets, but a politicisation of the haj remains a concern amid regional rivalries.
Saudi Arabia and its allies are embroiled in a political boycott of neighbouring Qatar, which denies accusations of fostering close ties with Iran and backing extremism.