RIYADH: A 48-hour MiSK “Hackathon” kicked off here Friday. The event aims to mine the talent of the youth of Saudi Arabia and Britain in developing new ways to improve medical services and enhancing the level of health care.
During the event, 200 young men and women from Saudi Arabia and an equal number from the United Kingdom are linked together via live satellite broadcast. The two groups from the two kingdoms are competing to develop technical innovations to improve medical services.
At the opening on Friday, the director of business development for the MiSK Foundation, Shaimaa Hamiddadin, said the foundation seeks through these bilateral international exchanges to achieve technical progress in the development of IT solutions in the health field and the tackle the challenges facing medical services, improving public health care, and also to contribute to the creation of a new a generation of innovative projects in the areas that will serve millions of people around the world.
She added that this initiative comes as part of the institution’s efforts in its various initiatives to nurture knowledge and create an appropriate atmosphere for the youth in the Arab world to contribute with their innovations in order to improve the development of services.
British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Simon Collis, who attended the launch of the challenge, said: “We are proud that our country’s relationship with Saudi Arabia began its second century, and today we are supporting young people, including our accumulated experiences.”
The British ambassador praised Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and the role of the Saudi youth in realizing this vision. He stressed the importance of what is being done and the efforts to maintain and find initiatives toward the achieving this vision.
Ambassador Collis added that this challenge brings together the youth of the two kingdoms in an effort to find innovative contributions to improve the health service sector in particular and humanitarian efforts in general.
He said the hackathon provides an opportunity for 400 young men and women of the two kingdoms to find and develop great ideas working day and night in direct connectivity.
During the event all competing teams have access to experts in various fields. Three teams will be declared winners of the competition with each team awarded $35,000 to change their innovative ideas into marketable commodities.
