Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar’s all-female Team YOLO has won the inaugural hackathon hosted by Qai and Hugging Face in Doha. The team developed AquaGuard, an artificial intelligence system that warns desalination plants about oil spills and red tides before they disrupt water production.
The hackathon ran from November 5 to 7 at M7, the Msheireb Cultural Forum. The event brought together more than 140 engineers, students and researchers. Forty-five teams built working AI prototypes during the event.
Qai, a technology company headquartered in Qatar, partnered with Hugging Face, a leading AI platform and community, to host the event. The organisers asked participants to identify a challenge facing Qatar and build a solution using open-source models and tools available on Hugging Face.
The competition encouraged teams to move beyond concepts and deliver working prototypes. Participants explored problems across healthcare, nutrition, Arabic language technology, the environment, cybersecurity, and drone technology.
AquaGuard gives plant operators an early warning system. It monitors risks to water purity and helps teams act before contamination reaches desalination infrastructure. The project positions AI as a practical tool for protecting essential national infrastructure.
Judges selected AquaGuard for its clear relevance to Qatar’s water security. The project also demonstrated how AI can support operational resilience in a sector that underpins daily life and economic activity.
Team YOLO received compute credits from Hugging Face and Qai. The prize gives the students access to resources that can help them develop and scale AquaGuard beyond the hackathon.
The win highlights the growing role of Qatar’s universities in applied AI innovation. It also shows how student teams can address local infrastructure challenges with accessible open-source technology.
Qai described the hackathon as part of its effort to nurture Qatar’s AI talent. The event gave participants hands-on experience in building AI solutions for real-world problems.
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