Five winners announced in Dubai’s One Million Arab Coders Initiative

Dubai: One Million Arab Coders Initiative (OMAC), led by Dubai Future Foundation (DFF), named the five winning student coders whose projects tackle some of the crucial issues facing today’s societies while bringing value to communities in countries across the Arab world.

The five student coders were selected for their project proposals outlining how they would execute their fully developed mobile applications using the Android operating system to ignite change within their communities. Their solutions were based on three key pillars: boosting economic growth, providing humanitarian value and enabling creativity and innovation. The top five projects are: Sanad by Farah Mahdi Khudhair, 3al Faraza by Iman Wagdy Selim, Help the Poor by Mohamed Sobhy Abdelmageed, Tammeni by Saeed Awad Abou Si’ah, and Landmine Alert by Marwan al Hakimi.

OMAC also recognised the distinguished mentors who had provided exemplary guidance to the students, based on a qualitative assessment of their efforts in supporting the students through the project development. The top four tutors were Abdulwahid AlJamaly from Yemen, Eyad Raschad from Syria, Basila AlMahli from Syria, and Sara Zehraoui from Morocco.

Commending the outstanding student projects, Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, encouraged the young Arab winners to use the knowledge they had gained during their participation in the One Million Arab Coders initiative and employ their creativity and spirit of innovation to serve their communities and build a brighter tomorrow. He noted that coding is the language of the future and is a key skill to acquire, reminding the student coders that they play an integral role in building the foundation of a comprehensive economic renaissance in the Arab region, as envisioned by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Ol Olama added: “The One Million Arab Coders initiative is keen to present to the world qualitative and innovative projects such as smart applications that improve human life and contribute to creating new and diverse job opportunities in various parts of the world. Through this effort, we will continue to encourage young talent and provide them with the opportunity to showcase their ideas and work with experts and specialists to bring these ideas to fruition for the greater good of their communities.”

Launched by Sheikh Mohammed, the One Million Arab Coders initiative seeks to train one million young Arabs in computer programming, in order to empower and equip them with the technological tools and expertise to face the challenges of the future.