Crowdsourcing Competition Delivers Digital Tools for Hajj and Umrah

Digital solutions to improve access and logistics for pilgrims

DR. NAJAH ASHRY Vice President for Strategic National Advancement

THE OUT-OF-THE-BOX, HIGH-TECH SOLUTIONS THAT THE CANDIDATES PRESENTED HAVE INTRODUCED VIABLE IDEAS TO ENHANCE THE EXPERIENCE OF PILGRIMS. THE IMMENSE SUCCESS OF THE FIRST EDITION OF THE KAUST CHALLENGE SERVES AS A BENCHMARK FOR FUTURE EFFORTS.

Saudi Arabia’s unique role as host of the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages gives the Kingdom a special responsibility, both to its citizens and to the roughly 2 billion Muslims on Earth. With Vision 2030 targeting 30 million pilgrims annually – about 10 times the number of visitors the city of Makkah can accommodate at any one time based on current capacity – tackling logistical constraints to holding such large-scale events is a top priority for the Kingdom.

To help identify workable solutions to these challenges, the first KAUST Challenge for Hajj and Umrah, a crowdsourcing competition, was held in March 2021, drawing 1,300 proposals from 34 countries. The first-of-its-kind event deployed an expert panel of more than 40 judges to determine one grand winner and three runners-up. In addition to highlighting cutting-edge research and technology, the competition underscored the potential benefits of crowdsourcing competitions for meeting the Kingdom’s other development goals.

The grand winner of the KAUST Challenge, Dr. Emad Felemban, a professor at Makkah’s Umm Al-Qura University, was presented with the SAR1 million prize for a creating a digitized and centralized online platform for crowd control and public safety, which would allow the authorities to better deploy their resources to monitor crowds. Among the runners-up, Dr. Anis Koubaaa of Prince Sultan University was awarded SAR100,000 for a solution leveraging artificial intelligence to help shorten the long lines pilgrims experience.

MAKKAH PROVINCE

“We have accustomed the citizens of the Makkah region to creativity and uniqueness, and in turn have gotten accustomed to KAUST’s support to grow and enrich talents. What is the challenge that the university launched in cooperation with the Makkah Cultural Forum under the slogan of “How to be a role model in the digital world”? It was with the goal of finding digital ideas and solutions for Hajj and Umrah that has been a testament to this pioneering approach. We would like to thank the people of the region and its governorates, and thank KAUST for going above and beyond to serve the region personally.”