KFAS COVID-19 Virtual Hackathon

Date and time: Tuesday, June 30, 2020, 5 pm to July 4, 8 pm Arabia Standard Time (UTC+3)

Register here.

A virtual hackathon to develop beta digital solutions that address challenges faced by entities in Kuwait during the pandemic.

A virtual hackathon organized by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), under the umbrella of the Emergency Response Program, to develop beta digital solutions (functional prototypes) that address challenges faced by entities (governmental/private) in Kuwait during the coronavirus pandemic. The targeted beneficiaries of the solutions are entities that have been impacted by COVID-19 and have immediate need for solutions. The Hackathon is organized in collaboration with CODED, Agility, MIT Media Lab, and the US Embassy in Kuwait.

Orientation Day: June 30th, 5 pm

Workshops: June 30th, July 1st, & July 2nd

Hackathon: July 3rd – July 4th, 6 pm to 6 pm

Location: Virtual (Zoom & Discord)

(Note: the word “Hack” and “Hackathon” pertain to “hacking” at a problem, which means finding a creative solution with limited resources. It is widely used by the coding and tech community to express creative problem solving through programming and design.)

You will have the needed virtual environment and mentorship support to be creative and find innovative solutions to the Hackathon challenges, within the context of a competitive environment, so are you ready to accept the challenge?

Prizes: 5,000 KWD for each of the top 3 teams with the most points!*

*Terms & conditions apply

Participation criteria

• Participants who speak either Arabic, English or both
• Designers and/or programmers
• Kuwaitis and/or non-Kuwaitis residing in Kuwait
• Participants who have a team or are willing to work with a team

Note: The event will be conducted in English, so at least 50% of each team must be proficient in English.

Points System (first round of points collection)

The question that must be on your mind now is, “how do I win?” Well, we’ll tell you how! To earn a point, you must follow the basic project outline on Trelloboard and fill in the rest with your creativity! The more features you build; the more points you get. There will be a live online Leaderboard that everyone can view (even nonparticipants) to keep track of each team’s points.

Top 10 Teams (second and final round of points collection)

The top 10 teams with the highest points are invited to virtually present one of the solutions they built to a panel of judges on Zoom. The panel of judges will be composed of high level representatives from KFAS, CODED, Agility, and the entity which this solution is built for. Each judge can award a certain number of points (so try your best to impress them and show off your awesome project!)

Final Winners

The top 3 teams from the second round will be counted as the winners. Each team will receive a cash prize of 5,000 KWD

Prizes are given to recognize and celebrate major success which is above and beyond normal expectations. Success is defined here as generating good solutions and having them adopted and implemented. A solution is not a good solution if no one is willing to adopt or implement it.

The 3 teams with the highest scores among all tracks will receive The Grand Prize of KD 5,000 each to be paid in cash upon submitting formal commitment letter from a legally established entity (government or private) to adopt the prototype and develop it further on their own or with support from others.

The Grand Prize will not be given if no entity is willing to adopt the prototype.

To recognize effort made, the team with the highest score from each track will be started on KFAS application track for KFAS Emergency Resilience Program financial support. This means the possibility of initial funding to be used toward the implementation of a pilot for the solution.

Team Formation

Teams must consist of 2 to 5 members.

If you don’t have a partner or a team, don’t worry! We are allocating a time during Orientation Day where participants can form teams with our help and based on their skillset (we’ve got your back).

Each team should have at least one programmer and one designer.

Each team should have at least one member who is 21 years old or older.

Challenges & Themes*

The themes of the projects will be based on the following:

• Health
• Education
• Logistics
• Municipality
• Commerce

*The details of the challenges will be unveiled during Orientation Day.