Lebanon finishes 1st in UN Big Data Hackathon

The American University of Beirut's MSBA team has won first place in the United Nations Big Data Hackathon, a prestigious annual event bringing together the most talented professionals in data science and analytics to develop sustainable solutions helping in fighting global challenges.  

Out of 123 teams worldwide, Ghina Koteich, Dima Daouk, Sarah Fleihan, and Mohamad Hossary shined after participating in the 72-hour-youth track hackathon under the name "Data Eye" to launch "Spoonful," a food assistance optimizer, creating a solution to achieve zero hunger, and which ensures the distribution of food parcels to impoverished areas by using machine learning to determine the number of vulnerable households. 

"Lebanese youth have unlimited potential. They just need us to believe in them, to motivate them and push them forward and up in a country that pulls them down continuously," the head of MSBA at AUB, Wissam Sammouri, expressed.