Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Dubai Future Foundation, on Wednesday honoured the winners of the ‘One Million Arab Coders’ challenge, which featured a total prize money of $1,350,000.
The winners were honoured at the closing ceremony of the challenge held at the Museum of the Future.
Sheikh Hamdan said on his Twitter account “we congratulate the winner of ‘One Million Arab Coders’, Mahmoud Shahoud, the Syrian engineer, for his remarkable achievement. Truly deserving of the one-million-dollar prize for his project, the ‘Habit 360 application,’ Shahoud is a true representation of an Arab innovator.”
“We also congratulate all the winners and participants in the ‘One Million Arab Coders’ initiative, who have successfully employed the language of the future in developing pioneering projects that will contribute to achieving a qualitative leap in their societies.”
Sheikh Hamdan added: “The ‘One Million Arab Coders’ initiative provided the opportunity for one million Arabs to enter the digital world. It fulfilled the dreams of tens of thousands of Arab programmers from all over the world. Its outcomes and successes will be the basis for many upcoming Arab achievements in the world of technology and coding.”
Sheikh Hamdan further said: “One Million Arab Coders’ has paved the way for Arab youth to broaden their horizons and sparked their innovation and creativity in the field of advanced technology.”
Sheikh Hamdan added that the ‘One Million Arab Coders’ initiative, which was launched in 2017 by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has succeeded in becoming a gateway for many Arab youth to use their programming skills to realise their dreams and aspirations.
He said: “We look forward to our Arab coders continuing their pioneering innovations and expanding their achievements. We expect their names and future accomplishments to light up the sky worldwide.”
“His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s vision for the region’s future is based on investing in the development of the Arab people. The language of programming is one of the pillars of the knowledge economy and a major bridge to a future in which those who possess scientific excellence will have the upper hand,” Sheikh Hamdan concluded.
The winner, Mahmoud Shahoud, is a software engineer from Syria who developed the ‘Habit 360 application’ that helps people build new habits, track their progress and stay motivated.
The application has served more than 200,000 users from around the world.
The top five entrepreneurs in the ‘One Million Arab Coders’ challenge also received prizes of $50,000 each.
The winners included Egyptian programmer Muhammad Al Iskandarani for developing of the ‘Muaahal programme’, a simplified educational application to qualify individuals in all fields and make it easier for companies to hire talented people; and Egyptian Programmer Iman Wagdy for developing the ‘3lfraza app,’ which delivers fresh food prepared by women at home.
Ammar Salem, an Iraqi university professor from the University of Baghdad’s College of Architecture, joined the list of distinguished coders by developing the ‘Qeraaty Alnateqa’ programme, a project that aims to design a new sign language using a programme to convert those signs into letters and spoken words.
Meanwhile, Egyptian Andrew Makram developed the ‘Najeb’ programme to facilitate and unify the process of submitting and marking exams.
As for Engineer Hassan Mohamed, from Egypt, he developed a chat translation programme that allows users to talk to each other in their respective native languages and translates the conversation instantly. It is available in more than 36 languages.
During the ceremony, the four best trainers in ‘One Million Arab Coders’ were honoured with a prize of $25,000 each, for their exceptional efforts in empowering the participants with knowledge and expertise and helping them bring their projects to life.
The winning coaches were Abdelmoumen Boumalia from Algeria, Rasha Bahbouh from Syria, and Mustafa Abdel Fattah and Abu Bakr Farouk, both from Egypt.
