A USTF Victory: Our Experience Winning The UAE Hackathon 2021
Monday, Mar 15, 2021
A USTF Victory: Our Experience Winning The UAE Hackathon 2021
By: Sarah Al Yammahi – Shahed Maysara – Alya Abulrahim
College Of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
Amidst the COVID situation, as we began a new spring semester, we constantly felt the need to support the community we live in and decided to work on a change which can mark us in the world of healthcare. With COVID fatalities soaring and the need for an increase in community awareness, we decided to make a change and be the change!
As Nelson Mandela once said “We can change the world and make it a better place. It is in your hands to make a difference”. These words motivated us to think and work towards a goal to bring that change to our community.
With the guidance of our supervisor Dr Srinivasan Ramamurthy, we were able to propose our new app: The CommunoHealth App. The CommunoHealth App brings together humanity and progression by encouraging users to serve their community and enriching the healthcare system. CommunoHealth users are encouraged to serve their community by volunteering, donating blood and donating medications and way more in return for CommunoPoints. Once the user's account is credited with enough CommunoPoints, rewards and gifts are gained! Investors, citizens, hospitals and the community as a whole benefits from this full circle relationship in which everyone is satisfied. In addition to this, more services such as healthcare updates and safety hotlines enrich the experience of the CommunoHealth users.
We found that the UAE Hackathon was the perfect platform to share our innovation and the perfect catalyst which turns hope into reality and dreams into progression and success. What made this year’s participation special is that it landed on the celebration of the golden jubilee of the UAE Union, and as the country celebrates its 50 years of prosperity and success, it awaits the next 50 years of innovation and progression. In addition, since, the Hackathon’s motto is “Data for Happiness”, we were inspired to contribute to the happiness index of the many communities in the UAE and help create a happy and healthy future for this country. We participated under the theme of world class healthcare and aimed to find a solution for the challenge of “Developing digital healthcare platforms"
As we registered for our first hackathon, we were overwhelmed with excitement and ready to share our app with the world! We started off as a shortlisted team and were genuinely pleased and honored to be termed “The Winners of the UAE Hackathon 2021”.
We were honored to represent our university and college nationally. None of this would have been possible, if it wasn’t for the support and encouragement of our university and colleagues. We would like to thank the Dean of the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Prof. Sumia Sir Elkhatim for her endless encouragement and support, our supervisor Dr Srinivasan Ramamurthy for continuously advising us and we would like to thank Prof. Zein Elabidin Rizk for his guidance and coordination of the university’s participation in the event. In addition to this, we would also like to thank the chancellor of our university, Prof. Ali Abouelnour for his motivation and for always reminding us to move forward together.