Amman-October 22, 2016
This was a creative weekend for GJU! The GJU Green Hackathon took place from 20.-22.10.2016 in the frame of GJU’s activities to promote entrepreneurial thinking and innovative ideas among its students. It was organized by GJU’s Program Innovation and Entrepreneurship (PIE) under the umbrella of the Office for Industrial Links.
The Green Hackathon – a one of its kind activity in Jordan - provided a platform for students to find solutions for green challenges our country is facing, develop their ideas and build prototypes in 2 and a half days.
On Thursday afternoon the registration started and the participants were introduced to the program followed by the speakers/ideators session in which various green related challenges in Jordan were presented. The students then selected among 24 challenges, and built teams around the top ideas which were determined by popular vote. And from here the adventure began…..The frenzy of coding, designing, building and validation started!
Over the next two days 57 students in 17 teams worked hard to proof that the concept of their idea will be feasible and sustainable, taking it from a technical as well as business perspective. The Teams were supported through business presentations and by our great mentors from various backgrounds who gave them valuable feedback.
On Saturday evening the teams had to be ready to give the final pitches of their weekend projects. The jury consisted of 5 respected judges representing different sectors: Mr. Fadi Marji (Dept. Managing Director, Izzat Marji Group), Mr. Sami Jarrar (HR Director, Umniah), Mr. Faisal Hakki (CEO, Oasis500), Ms. Ruba Al-Zu'bi (CEO, EDAMA) and Prof. Natheer Abu Obeid (President, GJU).
17 Team pitched their ideas to the Jury, who had then the difficult task to choose the winners. In addition to the final 3 prizes, the jury decided to give 5 teams a special gratitude, 2 teams an honor award and then the finalist were announced by Mr. Sami Jarrar on behalf of the Judges: The 3rd prize (worth of 300 JD) went to Team “Odorata” (students Rahaf Yousef, Mohamed Ghanem, Mohammad Faqeer, Ro’ya Abu-Summaqh) who built a prototype for a self-cleaning solar panel system for lightening rural areas, the 2nd prize (worth of 500 JD) was given to Team “LECO” (students Al-Harith Farha, Shahd Shammout, Dina Jaber, “Mohammed Nour” Al-Jbour) who developed a Sustainable Shelter concept for tourism sites and the 1st prize (worth of 1000 JD) to the Team “Energetic Logs” (students Sarah Kashmar, Ahmad AlQudah, Majd Al-Sadi, Abdulrahman Rabayah) who presented a functional model for Solar Heater-Fan from recycled material for shelters. Congratulations to the Winners and may these ideas be realized in the future! (All pitches are available on GJU PIE Facbeook page)
We would like to thank all our students who were so dedicated to finalizing their projects, our mentors who spent so many (extra) hours in the Green Hackathon, and our Judges for their great dedication.
This event would not have been possible without the generous support of our sponsors, the Abdulhameed Shoman Foundation (Platinium Sponsor), Izzat Marji Group (Gold Sponsor), Petra Engineering (Silver Sponsor) and our Innovation partners Umniah, who also provided the space (Tank) and Ibtecar as well as the GJU Student Clubs (AEE, Robotics and IT Club) who supported the organization of the event.
GJU and the PIE Team is looking forward to many more Hackathons to come ….. stay tuned!
