Carnegie Mellon Qatar hosts ‘Reboot the Earth’ hackathon

Doha, Qatar witnessed a four-day hackathon named "Reboot the Earth" at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q). Organized by the Hamad Bin Jassim Centre for Computer Science Education, the event brought together over 100 participants from various backgrounds across Qatar. The hackathon, part of a global initiative, aimed to foster technology-driven solutions to combat the climate crisis.

The theme of this year's hackathon was "Sustainability and Environmental Innovation," with two core challenges: creating an AI solution to evaluate and recommend site and crop suitability, or developing an AI solution for cold-chain monitoring and food-loss reduction. Dean of CMU-Q, Michael Trick, emphasized the importance of hackathons in sparking ideas that could lead to significant advancements in technology.

The event attracted 22 teams comprising high school students, university students, and industry professionals. These teams were mentored and judged by experts from various organizations, including Carnegie Mellon Libraries, Earthna, Hassad Food, Qatar Computing Research Institute, Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute, and many others.

After four days of intensive work, two teams emerged as co-champions, each producing a functional prototype. The winning teams were from the American School of Doha, Philippine School Doha, Qatar University, and University of Doha for Science and Technology. Mithusa Kajendran, an open source adoption consultant from the United Nations Office of Information and Communications Technology, expressed hope for a sustainable future driven by technological advancements, highlighting the creativity and dedication shown by the participants.