The Acting President of King Khalid University, Prof. Saad bin Mohammad bin Dajam, honored advanced students in the Libraries’ Hackathon, which was organized by the Libraries Authority from 7 to 9 March, under the supervision of the Deanship of Electronic Services.

The hackathon aimed to provide technical solutions to challenges specific to the library, and to encourage creativity and innovation.

King Khalid University was represented in the hackathon by 12 male and female students from the colleges of Computer Science, Engineering, and the Applied College in Mahayil Asir. They were nominated to participate in the hackathon among more than 1,400 applicants from various universities in the Kingdom.

The (Hakaya) team placed second in the hackathon, members are: Bandar Mohammad Al Saif, Abdullah Abu Mua’lla, and Abdulaziz Thabet from the College of Engineering. The students worked on developing an application called (Hakaya), which aims to redefine the reading experience in a unique interactive style, as it encourages readers to think and analyze through exciting questions and quotes to enhance the reader’s interaction and curiosity. The app also uses artificial intelligence to convert traditional books into audiobooks.

The “Nine” team earned second place as well, the team included student Abdulrahman Al-Azwari from the College of Business, and student Yara Saeed Al-Raqi’ from the College of Computer Science. The team worked on developing a platform for company employees, which provides them with summaries of the most prominent books in their fields or on general life skills such as innovation and effective communication for a simple monthly subscription fee.

The Vice Dean of Electronic Services for Females and Knowledge Resources, Dr. Sahar bint Mohammad Al-Shawaf, explained that the “Library Hackathon” is the first of its kind in the region, as it comes not only to enhance the visitor’s experience, but also to enhance the role of digital transformation in libraries, and enrich the visitor’s experience in the library by employing emerging technologies.

Al-Shawaf pointed out that 50 teams were accepted to participate in the hackathon, highlighting that 4 of them were King Khalid University teams. She noted the positive impact such representation of the university will have over the development of the university’s libraries.