An all Saudi women’s tech development and programming team has won Saudi Arabia’s first Hajj Hackathon held in the city of Jeddah, Khaleej Times reported yesterday.
“Turjuman”, the Saudi women’s team, were crowned winner of the competition to propose state of the art technological solutions over challenges accommodating the arrival of over two million pilgrims for the annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage to Makkah.
Congratulations to the team of #Saudi women who won the #Hajj_Hackathon thanks to their Turjuman app, which translates written Arabic to the user's desired language, making it easier to navigate around Makkah during #Hajj! #SaudiArabia pic.twitter.com/5R443U97v1
— Saudi Arabia (@saudiarabia) August 6, 2018
Turjuman team wins the first prize with 1,000,000 SR #Hajj_Hackathon
— الاتحاد السعودي للأمن السيبراني والبرمجة والدرونز (@SAFCSP) August 3, 2018
The three-day event attracted a total of 2,950 developers from Saudi Arabia, the Gulf and around the world obtaining a Guinness World Record for most participants in a software development conference. The tech experts were tasked with coming up with the best technological solutions to improve the pilgrimage experience.
‘Turjuman app’
The winning team came up with the “Turjuman” instant translation app, beating eight other teams to a prize of one million Saudi Riyals ($266,667).
“Praise be to God. We are really tired and we thank God that we made it to first position,” Ragda Al Qadi, one of the “Turjuma” team members said.
Fellow team member, Samaher Al Houthal, said: “The team’s feeling is indescribable. We are very happy. It’s all thanks to God and then to the team’s cooperation.”
The “Turjuman” app quickly translates codes and instruction signs for pilgrims in a language of choice without the need for an internet connection.