Winners of the 8th Annual International Hackathon for Social Good in the Arab World have been announced.

Held at NYUAD, the three-day event saw students and renowned industry professionals from around the world come together to take part in the competition to create applications that solve contemporary issues faced in the region.

Sharing top honours, Dawa, an app that tackles the sale of counterfeit drugs, and Boosala, a refugee locating app, saw off competition from eight other teams to take first place.

Second place was awarded to Huwayeti, an app used to manage trusted agents’ claims made about refugees, third place went to MedLughati, an app used to help refugees and asylum seekers communicate with healthcare professionals, while the audience award was given to Wadhafni, a mobile app that links skilled unemployed people with the labour market.

Dawa team member and computer science student at NYUAD, Seung Heon, said: “Our app, which means ‘medicine’ in Arabic, is a platform to verify whether medication are counterfeited or not. Around 35 percent of medicines sold in the Middle East are counterfeit.”

For more information, visit: nyuad.nyu.edu