Who is this challenge for?

 

The intended beneficiaries of the Hackathons are young cybersecurity computer engineers or software developers who meet the following eligibility criteria:

• Citizens from the following countries (Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Indonesia, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Malaysia, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Turkey, Yemen, or United Arab Emirates)

• Minimum age is 18 years old.

• The passport must be valid until at least Dec 2024

• To be able to commit to following the entire program, the online bootcamp throughout April & May and in person on site during the main event (please refer to the timeline page for the latest schedule updates)

• To be fluent in Arabic and English in writing and speaking. 

• Have communication & presentation skills

• Knowledge in any Cybersecurity domain

• To be interested or have a passion for using technology to develop digitally innovative cybersecurity solutions.

• To have basic coding skills and some experience in at least one of the development technologies.

• To have an active laptop that can be brought to Cairo, Egypt at the time of the hackathon.

• Be familiar with one or more of the hackathon’s listed themes.

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Registration Notes: 
 

• Participants are encouraged to form teams not exceeding 4 members and apply.

• Individual applicants are also welcomed to apply, WE Innovate will place the nominated individual applicants in teams during team formation phase listed in the timeline.

• In all cases each contestant will apply individually and in case you have a team formed, all team members need to enter their team’s name in their individual application, otherwise applicant will be considered as an individual application. It is important to mention your team name because team applicants are usually rank higher in the screening stage.

• To apply, you don’t have to have an idea of a developed prototype, but it’s best to have an idea of the challenge you’re going to address among the themes & challenges listed here.

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Team Formation:

 

Ideally, teams should have skills diversity, such as:

• Solution building and coding skills (must): programming and development of systems and technological solutions, either by implementing new codes or by structuring and installing existing solutions.

• The topic (recommended): Understanding of one or more of the hackathon’s themes and challenges.

• Business (recommended): Business modeling and proposed value development. Creativity and innovation can strategize to develop products or services using an effective business model, analyze potential risks and project validity, and mobilize the necessary resources.

• Design (optional): The use of design tools for visual communication, including attention to user experience Dynamics and creativity are especially encouraged to represent team ideas with the most adapted tools.

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Evaluation criteria

 

Screening stage
 

This stage’s objective is to confirm your eligibility to the competition and decide whether your team, your solution and your technical approach are on track to a potential PoC successful delivery or not. 

In the screening presentation you are not required to demo any working solution at this stage, you only need to present the following:

1. Your topic of choice and your target problem statement you’re planning to solve and why did you choose it.

2. Your literature review or research results on the available solutions to your chosen problem statement 

3. Your proposed solution to your chosen problem statement and what will you be doing differently.

4. Your team and why did you choose each other.

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Final Pitch
 

Each team will be responsible for presenting their final work in an interesting and concise manner where the submission does not exceed 5 min, and specific evaluation criteria must be followed in the submission. 

The team can adopt any presentation tool they see fit such as presentation, visual aids, short videos and live demos.

Presentation must include a working proof of concept (PoC). A PoC is the minimum technical implementation that shoes that your idea is possible and that your team have the capability of building it.

Based on the presentation, a jury composed of experts in different fields will select from among the prototypes presented, the top 3 solutions and are selected according to the following criteria:

1. A Working Proof of Concept (PoC): Ideas shall be submitted with a proof of concept (PoC) to show the feasibility and potential of implementing this new idea.

2. Creativity: The solution should be unique, innovative and appropriate to the challenge theme in question.

3. Originality: The solution must demonstrate a level of originality not just a copy of the market solutions that exist. It should be either a totally new solution or a significant enhancement on an existing one and in the enhancement case the team should clearly mention the original solution they are basing their enhancement on. Solution plagiarism will force the judgment committee to disqualify the team.

4. Quality and effectiveness: A technical assessment of the quality of the functions of the solution based on the product provided.

5. Applicability: The project's ability to solve problems related to the chosen challenge.

6. Technology: The potential technological and disruptive impact of the solution.

7. Scalability and market potential: Solution usability and scalability in the region and/or globally.