UAE students win big in hackathon for ports, logistics

UAE students win big in hackathon for ports, logistics

Sharjah: The Sharjah Entrepreneurship Centre (Sheraa) has announced the top three winning teams in the Khorfakkan chapter of the Startup Sharjah hackathon that concluded at the University of Khorfakkan. The hackathon was organised in partnership with Crescent Enterprises and in collaboration with the University of Khorfakkan, Emirates Schools Establishment and Sharjah Youth Council. Held on September 16 to 18, this year’s edition of the hackathon saw the participation of over 150 youth, divided into 14 teams. The hackathon equipped school and university students with 21st century skill sets that helped them build solutions to real-world problems posed by the competition’s corporate partners. This year’s edition of the hackathon targeted the development of sustainable solutions in the ports and logistics services sectors. The first place was won by the Octainer project, an advanced scanning technology that facilitates the digitalisation of the documentation process of port activities through the use of Near-Field Communication (NFC), a short-range wireless connectivity technology. Each container would have a smart tag attached to it containing all its data that will be read by the scanner attached to the crane at the port. With the automatic verification of the contents of the container, the customs clearance process is