The first Arabian Gulf University Academic Hackathon kicked off with the participation of 25 students, faculty members, and administrative staff, who were divided into five multidisciplinary teams. The goal was to devise innovative solutions and ideas to address challenges facing the university community and transform them into practical, implementable projects.
The hackathon, which took place over two consecutive days, was organized under the supervision of the University Vice President for Academic Affairs and Scientific Research, Dr. Ghazi bin Abdulrahman Al-Otaibi, as part of the university’s efforts to foster a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, promote active participation in enhancing the university experience, and create an environment that stimulates creativity and applies knowledge to develop solutions that address real-world needs.
The hackathon events included a workshop led by Dr. Shaher Dhafar Al-Shahri, which focused on training participating teams to apply the Design Thinking methodology as one of the methodologies that helps understand the needs of beneficiaries, identify priority challenges, analyze problems systematically, and ultimately develop innovative and practical solutions.
The workshop began by identifying user needs and formulating challenges, moved on to generating and evaluating creative ideas, and culminated in the practical design, development, and formulation of solutions; this helped enhance the participants’ skills in creative thinking and interdisciplinary collaboration.
The hackathon activities also focused on leveraging the participants’ diverse knowledge and expertise to develop ideas and projects that address real-world challenges in the university environment, while enhancing their ability to utilize modern technologies and transform initial ideas into value-added solutions that can be further developed into practical initiatives and projects.
The event concluded with presentations in which the participating teams showcased their projects and ideas to a specialized judging panel. The panel evaluated the entries based on criteria including the level of innovation, the expected impact of the proposed solutions, their feasibility, and the quality of the presentation, ultimately selecting three winning teams.
Dr. Ghazi Al-Otaibi emphasized the importance of the hackathon in combining creative competition with collaborative work, and in providing a practical space that enables university members to transform their ideas into innovations and projects capable of development and growth. He explained that such initiatives help discover talent, link academic disciplines to community needs, and develop skills in entrepreneurship, problem-solving, and teamwork, thereby strengthening the university’s role in building an academic environment that supports innovation.
This initiative demonstrates the Arabian Gulf University’s commitment to fostering integration among academic disciplines and expanding the participation of its members in developing innovative solutions, thereby supporting the creation of an institutional culture based on creativity, initiative, and collaboration, and enhancing the university community’s ability to contribute to the development of a more innovative and sustainable educational environment.
