PSU Computer Science Students Participates in STC Datathon

​(A Success Story by two CCIS Co-op Students)​ STC Traffic Management Datathon is a challenge hosted by STC Business that seeks to find innovative solutions to manage traffic in Saudi streets. As part of the Saudi Vision 2030, the STC Datathon 2019 focuses on involving the Saudi youth by letting them contribute to the nation’s digital transformation. The objective is to raise awareness on the necessity of data in improving work efficiency and performance. In this Datathon, participants were required to build a framework and a way of displaying data in an innovative way to help manage traffic issues in Saudi Arabia. The participants had one month to submit their effective solutions for different types of traffic issues like congestion, speeding, traffic violations and more, in order to help decision makers to make changes that would benefit the society in a positive way. As trainees, we were encouraged by our supervisors, Dr. Ammar Alanazi and Dr. Alia Bahanshal to participate in this Datathon. The team was formed and we began with a spirit full of excitement. Participating in these kinds of events puts our skills to test, especially when we don’t have much experience under our belt to begin with. United we stand, divided we fall, with this saying in mind, we started doing meet-ups, attending workshops and taking feedback and recommendations from our supervisors. During these days, we went through challenging tasks where we brainstormed and went through a lot of trial and error, and took extensive amount of time to teach ourselves to come up with a reasonable innovative solution. At the day of the submission, we had to submit the source code, a white paper and a presentation. We were rushing to complete everything on time and once we did, we felt very relieved. After the end of the submission period, we got a call from the organizers informing us of our nomination, and that we were selected from the top ten candidates who are going to present their solution. We also found out that three among those ten candidates would win the prize. We were astonished and super excited to have been able to reach this level in this challenge. We had only one day to prepare and get ready for the final presentation. We had to fix, reorganize and meet to decide on the role of each member. At the day of the final presentation, we were encouraged by our supervisors, teachers, friends and family who attended and saw us behind the camera lenses cheering and hoping the best for us. Participating in this challenge was such a wonderful experience that gave us the opportunity to present our work to a diverse audience of researchers, academia and well-educated people in the field of data science. Without a doubt, it was an unforgettable experience from all points of view. It is true that we did not win in the traditional scene but what we gained from this experience was much more rewarding to us; such as working together towards a common goal, proving a point by getting stuff done and pushing ourselves to the limit on what we thought was impossible. As Dr. Ammar said, “For first-timers going against people with extensive experience, your results were excellent.” We would like to thank our supervisors who spent their time and effort to guide, assist and help us in many areas that we lacked experience in. Our appreciation is extended to our CO-OP supervisor Ms. Malak Al-Shedokhi for her presence in the day of the final presentation and her continuous support. Thank you to our friends and family whose support was unforgettable and one that we will never take for granted. All in all, this was an amazing experience, and the amount of knowledge we gained is far greater than what books and classes could have given us. By: Arwa Alabbad & Sara Alhabshi​