The second edition of the MENA Hackathon will take place later this month, with multiple prizes up for grabs from the three organisations coordinating the event. Partnering with cloud computing platform Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Tamkeen Bahrain, the country’s public authority initiative for local economic growth, Etijah Coaching and Consulting Services will host the 48-hour virtual event on 16-18 September.

Inviting high school students aged 14-18 and university students and fresh grads aged 18-30 to compete across two categories in teams of two to five, the Hackathon will ask its participants to leverage AWS’s advanced cloud technologies by coming up with solutions to some of the most pressing technological challenges faced by the MENA region’s Healthcare, Energy, Environment and Sustainability sectors. After presenting their prototypes to a panel of judges from both public and private entities, the winning teams will be announced the following day on 19 September.

Prizes include AWS-sponsored mentoring sessions, business incubation opportunities, AWS promotional credits and more for winning teams. To prepare the contestants, two online training days will be held in the run up to the event, giving the participants the opportunity to better understand the requirements of the hackathon through workshops, moderated speaker panels and informal meetings.

“We are so honored to be organizing the MENA Hackathon for the second time in a row with our esteemed partners,” Founder and Managing Director of Etijah, Dina Shabib, said. At Etijah, we strongly believe that the youth are the leaders of this era and therefore look forward to executing an initiative such as the MENA Hackathon, which aims to support the youth in identifying and enhancing their potential skills.”

Etijah Coaching and Consulting Services counsel and coach businesses, students and individuals in the MENA region and have helped over 1,800 young professionals through their programmes focused on human capital development.