Al-Quds University qualified to participate in the International Hackathon for Quantum Computing and Artificial Intelligence, scheduled to be held in the United Arab Emirates, where it came in first and fourth place among five Palestinian teams after competing in the third Palestinian National Hackathon held by the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, represented by the Technology Innovation Center in partnership with the Palestinian Computing Hackathon Committee.

Bilal Asaad, a student at Al-Quds University, came in first place on the winning team, while Sadeel Yassin came in fourth place, representing the university among the teams that qualified for the competition, in which 285 male and female students with bachelor’s and master’s degrees participated.

Dr. Safaa Nasser El-Din participated as a coordinator for Al-Quds University, and Dr. Rushdi Hamamra participated as a member of the supervisory committee and a member of the arbitration committees.

The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, Huda Al-Wahidi, concluded the hackathon activities in the presence of the head and members of the Computing Hackathon Committee and the wide participation of students from various Palestinian universities, stressing the importance of supporting innovation and digital entrepreneurship as an urgent necessity to build a strong and sustainable knowledge economy, and the necessity of empowering Palestinian youth in the fields of quantum computing and artificial intelligence as a key to creating technological solutions capable of competing globally.

The Director General of the Technology Innovation Center, Ms. Rania Jaber, also stressed the importance of providing an environment that supports innovation in Palestine, noting that this event reflects the ability of Palestinian youth to provide advanced technological solutions.

The founder of the National Computing Hackathon, Dr. Musa Farajallah, thanked the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and Universe Telecom for sponsoring the hackathon, appreciating the efforts of the preparatory and scientific committees. He also provided an explanation of the stages of the competition and the judging criteria that were adopted to select the winning teams.