Information Technology organizes a software engineering competition for Jordanian university students.
In a new and innovative initiative, the Faculty of Information Technology and Computer Science at Yarmouk University, in collaboration with the Deanship of Student Affairs and the Nova AI student team affiliated with the faculty, organized the NovaX Engineering Competition. This competition targeted software engineering students from various Jordanian universities, aiming to develop their skills in problem analysis, teamwork, and designing innovative software solutions.

The competition, which was inaugurated by the Vise Dean Dr. Imad Al-Shawafqa, took place within a scenario that simulates a real-world challenge. The participating teams were asked to provide a technical solution to a problem faced by the university administration, which involves repeated complaints from students and activity organizers due to the chaos in managing university events, starting from registration and attendance to communication. Participants were required to analyze the problem, identify the optimal solution, and then design and build a prototype that reflects their engineering vision for the solution.

Before the competition began, an intensive training program was conducted over the course of a week, presented by student Mohamed Al-Hanawi. During this program, he covered the most important concepts, requirements, and tools that participants would need during the competition, which contributed to their preparation and enabled them to face the challenge based on sound software engineering principles.

The competition witnessed outstanding participation from student teams from various Jordanian universities, and the results were as follows:

First place: Nova Code Team – University of Jordan

• Marah Al-Kilani

• Tasneem Abu Ayash

• Ghadir Qablan

• Lujain Bseiso

• Montaha Al-Hadidi

Second place: Nas-Tech Team – Yarmouk University

• Salma Awawda

• Ayat Nawafila

• Sarah Hamadna

Third place: Team while(true) – Jordan University of Science and Technology

• Lana Al-Samardali

• Mena El-Khatib

• Sadeel Al-Quran

• Tala Jaradat

A group of experts from Yarmouk University and the private sector, who are specialists in the field, participated in judging the competition, which lasted for six hours. The judging panel consisted of:
Dr. Ahmad Saifan
Dr. Iyad Al-Azzam
Engineer Wafa Abu Rakba
Engineer Talal Al-Majali.

A group of students worked within the technical team that supervised the students during the hackathon and assisted the judging panel:
Amr Bani Arshid
Sobhi Abu Hamour
Abdulrahman Nawasrah

At the end of the competition, the Dean of the College honored the winning teams and congratulated them on behalf of Yarmouk University. He appreciated the significant efforts made by all participants and organizers, which reflected a distinguished level of creativity, innovation, and the ability to apply software engineering concepts in solving real-world problems.

The team supervisor, Dr. Enas Khashashneh, and the student Shahla Al-Zawahra, leader of the Nova AI team, indicated that the goal of organizing such activities is for the sake of learning, gaining experiences, developing skills, and building an inspiring technical community that makes an impact and serves the nation.