Questions/Answers

UAE Hackathon is the largest data event at the national level and it comprises a number of events/hackathons take place at specific locations throughout the seven emirates. The UAE Hackathon reflects the efforts of Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) to disseminate the culture of digital transformation in the country. This project provides an opportunity to different sections of the community including university and high school students, entrepreneurs, employed people and IT experts to use open data as a tool for coming up with solutions based on specific themes and challenges listed for the hackathon. The UAE is pursuing an active role in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, primarily, artificial intelligence and smart cities. It is widely known that data has become one of the most important features of the digital era, and the focus on data in terms of understanding, analysis and employment has become one of the most important highlights in the transformation towards a digital/knowledge economy. In view of this, the wise leadership of the UAE launched the Fourth Industrial Revolution Strategy, the National Innovation Strategy, and other national plans that form part of the mechanisms of making the future. The UAE Hackathon is an integral part of these national trends, and it aims to draw attention to the high value of data and the solutions inherent within it when dealing with daily challenges with regard to the economic, social, environmental and scientific aspects of life.

Category3: The UAE Hackathon Data for Happiness & Well-being is not only looking for great solutions but also to grow the capacity and data literacy for the future. As the goal of the hackathons series is to find creative ways to further happiness, using data. Government entities are encouraged to be transparent in key areas, provide data sets, empower participants to use data, get feedback on the data, build their capabilities and evaluate the innovate solutions from participants. It is an opportunity for service providers to meet and know end users (participants) needs and wishes in order to increase happiness.

The UAE Hackathon initiative supports the goal 16 of the SDG; the hackathon series have expanded a foundation that exists in the UAE for ongoing engagements among technologists, civil servants, and civil society to build workable solutions to shared problems and priorities. The ability of the government to be transparent in key areas and provide open data is key to making such engagements work, and to attract the best innovators to these social and technical problems. The UAE official open data portal (bayanat.ae), is the primary reference and source of all official government data and statistics. It provides enhanced open data systems for public use and reflects the government’s intention to strengthen sustainable communities based on participation and transparency. The capacity training at these hackathons has built fundamental skills so that anyone who participated had a viable role to play; no one should feel intimidated by data and believe that they cannot contribute. By increasing the capacity of youth and adults, the ability to use open data from the government will also increase. Similar work in other countries has shown this to unleash huge creativity in a variety of sectors and spawned important innovation.

-Socially it helps in engaging and growing an open data ecosystem, participants from various profiles can work collaboratively on finding solutions. Moreover, enhance competencies and disseminate knowledge and innovation in the field of data analysis to develop solutions and make decisions -Economically it encourage government entities to disclose their open data sets and publish on bayant.ae portal which in increase transparency in local government. Also, find number of innovate solutions for free in once. -Environmentally it encourage participants to use new technologies to innovate and propose solutions such as blockchain & AI, which can protect the environment.

TRA provided the thought leadership, financial support, and substantive staff support to ensure the success of the Hackathons. A Governance framework including roles and responsibilities was developed involved all parties (TRA, National Program for Happiness and Wellbeing, FCSA, Governmental Entities, Universities, Incubation Centers, Private Sector). -TRA managed the seven Hackathons and provided all the logistics required for each location. -National Program for Happiness and Wellbeing provided full support and awarding ceremony at last by the minister for winners. -FCSA provided open data platform (bayanat.ae), guided participants through open data portal and how to make best use of data. -Government Entities provided mentors and subject matter experts at the location to help participants understand the real problem they face and guide them through solution creation. -Universities provided the full support from setting up hackathon location, providing mentors to guide participators and encourage students to participate. - Incubation Centers supported through giving entrepreneurship talk, judge proposed project and incubate innovated projects. -private sectors (training experts) provided training in areas such as blockchain technology, AI, data mapping, creating apps, etc, helping and mentoring participants. -The Hackathon website has been updated so participants could register and obtain all information on the Hackathons as needed.

Hackathon participation was open for all different parties of the community including university and high school students, entrepreneurs, employed professionals, IT experts, innovators, journalist, thinkers, individuals, housewife's, etc. There were no restriction on individuals gender, age and nationalities for participation. The UAE Hackathon 2018, in total had 1279 participants joined six events and interestingly most participants were women with 794 women and 485 men participating. It also could be considered as a global hackathon as 52 nations were represented in the participants.

The UAE Hackathon target groups includes youth and adults adequate for capacity building training given at the hackathon platform to increase the usage of open data to develop new innovative solutions. Likely audiences are: - Civil servants to develop core literacy to engage with technologists and to turn information into useful open data sets - Journalists to build out primary data analysis and data visualization skills to improve reporting and share stories of what the government and others are doing and share with project managers what products and issues organizations and individuals would like to have addressed. - Researchers and students to share their expertise and build up the capacity for the next generation of workers. - Subject matter experts looking to increase their technical skills. The overwhelming feedback from UAE Hackathon 2018 participants was positive, the emergence of the open data ecosystem was highly successful and well received. There were abundant outcomes from training as more than 1200 participants to creating 229 open data projects.

In preparing for the UAE hackathon, the TRA took six months of work to strengthen the existing datasets and add additional datasets to the open data portal. The TRA coordinated with local meetups and other IT-related communities to reach out to their respective members to obtain support for the hackathons and liaised with the universities on logistics issues. The organization team developed a marketing strategy for the hackathons, and applied that strategy before, during and after each of the hackathons. The themes for the hackathon were identified as those for which data would be available, and that would help to improve happiness. They represent a range of important aspects of life in the UAE. Some themes were quantitative and actionable and tangible, like reducing traffic congestion and improving health outcomes. Others represent qualitative issues such as lifestyle and social relations like mentorship to raise confidence. The breadth of themes allowed for a wide variety of topics for the hackathon, but also provided some challenges for areas where data was hard to find or was insufficient. Although all hackathons applied similar rules and occurred at a leading university, each event had some aspect that was unique to the hosting emirate. Each hackathon was a 3 day event with the first day dedicated to building capacities and providing professional expertise. The second day focused on hacking and developing solutions, and the third day focused on finalizing the teams’ solutions and presenting their solutions to the judges. All the 66 selected teams, finalists, and winners were invited to celebrate their achievements and awarded on March 4 in Zayed University, under the patronage of HE Ohoud bint Khalfan Al Roumi Minister of State for Happiness and Wellbeing. The celebration came one day after the global marking of the Open Data Day; 3rd of March.

-Hackathon concept as for all participants it was the first time for them to experience such exercise but with the help of mentors it was managed and the final feedback from participants was more hackathons. -Less number of open data sets on open data portal but the cooperation between TRA & FCSA teams more data sets were gathered from Gov. entities and made available online for participants. -Manage participants crowd over the 3 days through assigned mentors and volunteers from Hackathon organizers to guide, manage, help, etc. -Specialized training programs which were provided in cooperation with expert companies (IBM, oracle, etc)

The UAE Hackathon is consider as one of the innovate projects of the TRA which organized in the UAE innovation month (February); it will contribute to the achievement of the national agenda of the UAE 2021 and UAE 2071 by developing a cadre of digital savvy young men and women. It will enhance the competencies and distribute knowledge and innovation in open government data to a greater section of society. One of the objectives of Hackathons is to spread the culture of collaboration and fostering partnerships. Government entities have a vital role to play in the nurturing of young men's and women's thirst for knowledge and innovation by providing a data-oriented environment to support all sectors of the economy. This will allow for more opportunities for young men and women to become entrepreneurs and create employment opportunities through the creation of start-ups.

The success stories that have been seen throughout the world give proof that the more data that are open to the public, the greater the level of innovation and creative thinking that takes place. Hackathons can create the right environment where the use of AI and open data can lead to global innovation. Universities can also play a leading role in implementing the AI strategy and its deliverables by providing conducive environments for students to step outside their comfort zones and think creatively. By providing the tools necessary to succeed, students in universities will be exposed to cutting-edge technology that can create opportunities for the next big thing that will disrupt the economic environment we have today.

To our knowledge other emirates in the UAE are running their hackathon but it isn't adapted from the TRA experience in running UAE hackathon until now.

The UAE Hackathon was designed in first place to promote the hackathon activities in the country at the largest regional activity of its kind. TRA has instructed the UAE Hackathon organizer team to provide full support to all entities and share the experience, knowledge of (how, what, when) with all. Full report on hackathon activities was prepared and shared with government entities and hackathon partners. Finalist innovation projects were shared also as a successful achievement of the 1st running hackathon. A dedication website for the hackathon is launched and updated accordingly for the next version of hackathon.

The UAE Hackathon project is considered one of the innovative initiatives, so the TRA provided the thought leadership, financial support, and substantive staff support to ensure the success of the Hackathons. TRA also engaged with open data collaboratives who helped to manage the Hackathons in each emirate, provide training and mentoring, and provide the logistics support to ensure a successful outcome.

The UAE Hackathon reflected the efforts of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) to disseminate the culture of digital transformation in the country. This project provides an opportunity to different sections of the community including university and high school students, entrepreneurs, employed people, and IT experts to use open data as a tool for developing solutions based on specific themes and challenges listed for the Hackathon. The overall benefits of organizing such initiative is considered much more qualitative then quantitative with spread of knowledge and number of innovative projects gathered from those hackathons.

No

On the Federal level the UAE Hackathon is: -supported by the Minister of State for Happiness and Wellbeing, -federal governmental entities participate in the hackathon with their challenges -FCSA to support the Hackathon with Open data portal On the local level TRA partnered with each emirate: -e-Government entity to support the hackathon activities -Universities and colleges to organize the actual hackathon High level letters were sent to the mentioned entities leadership in order to have their full support for the hackathon.

Under the support of Minister of State for Happiness and Wellbeing, the UAE Hackathon run under its motto 'Data for Happiness'. It aims to use data to develop innovative solutions and ideas that contribute to the happiness and well-being of the community. It also aims to engage a significant number of students with participants form other sectors of the society to develop modern solutions based on the analysis of available data. To stage these hackathons, TRA partnered with the seven local e-governments: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, and Umm Al Quwain as well as the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority. The TRA also coordinated with universities: Khalifa University, American University of Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah University, Ajman University (Ajman Campus and Fujairah Campus), and Zayed University.

-create a way to measure and scope the opportunity for open data as a tool for innovation and economic growth by the UAE government. -expand the open data portal several actions would help to add more data and provide a mechanism for the secure publishing of data to the portal -Creating a Culture of Government Innovation and Transparency -Growing the Open Data Ecosystem -emphasize on the role and responsibilities of government entities towards open data -Involve more Governmental entities and subject matters in the hackathon activities -widen the scale of the UAE hackathon to reach international audience