Hajj Hackathon: Breaking records to improve the biggest annual pilgrimage
Saudi Arabia holds many Guinness World Records, including the largest tea bag, the most school supplies donated in 24 hours and the biggest hydatid cyst removed from a patient.
And to add to that odd mix of achievements, the kingdom claimed another entry in the Guinness World Record books for holding the largest hackathon on Wednesday.
But unlike the other Saudi world records, such as the largest bottle of shampoo, which is also held by the kingdom, the Hajj Hackathon is gathering 2,950 participants to help streamline the process for the largest annual pilgrimage in the world.
The event offers cash prizes to the top three participants, amounting to two million Saudi riyals (Dh1.96m) to transform their ideas into application-based solutions.
Co-ordinating two million people to visit two sites and perform religious rituals at specific times in a week is no easy task. To help, they have asked the brightest minds in programming for technological solutions to some of Hajj’s most pressing problems.
On every table in the hall in Jeddah, the Red Sea city hosting the hackathon, there are a tangle of wires and computers belonging to the programmers, business developers, software engineers and marketers from more than 40 different nations.
Participants are all trying to solve one of the seven problem areas for those performing Hajj.
The goal is simple: pitch a technological solution to modernise Hajj. That can include anything from developing code to streamlining the Hajj registration systems, to designing a wristwatch that pilgrims can wear to monitor indicators, including heart health and their location.
“Crowd management, I think that is what most people are focusing on, to lower the friction between people, or to accelerate it,” said Abdelrahman Mahdy, a Google developer, “but all are important and we as judges are looking for the simplest and most innovative solution.”
Opportunities for the Hackathon exist in every step of the Hajj experience, from the moment when a person anywhere in the world decides to perform Hajj to the farewell tawaf – the final step of Hajj where pilgrims walk around the Kaaba seven times.
Most of almost 3,000 participants have not slept, because they only have 72 hours to design, code and pitch the idea.
As a mentor and judge, Mr Mahdy has been working with the 705 teams, who hope to get their project funded and implemented in upcoming Hajj seasons.
Judges will begin assessing the submissions on Friday during a series of two-minute pitches. The top 10 pitches will be given another chance to further explain the idea.
From those, four will be selected for funding to implement their idea. But Mr Mahdy said that anyone who makes it to the top 10 will get worldwide attention.
“Yes, breaking the world record is nice, with the media glitz, but the goal is to help people perform Hajj,” said Mr Mahdy.