عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Technology

Saudi Electronic University Launches GameOn Hackathon

Saudi Electronic University Launches GameOn Hackathon
TT
TT

Saudi Electronic University Launches GameOn Hackathon

Saudi Electronic University Launches GameOn Hackathon

The Saudi Electronic University (SEU), in collaboration with HP and AMD, has launched the “GameOn” hackathon, held under the theme “From Diriyah, the ancient capital, to Neom, the city of the future".
This event challenges participants to bridge the gap between Saudi Arabia's rich history and futuristic vision.
Hackathon supervisor Dr. Asmaa Al-Hammadi said that the goal of the event is to equip students with essential knowledge and skills in programming, game development, and e-sports management in order to foster healthy competition among university students, and drive them to excel in innovative outcomes that demonstrate Saudi culture and heritage while making a global impact, SPA reported.
She said that the registration for the hackathon is set to close on May 10, 2024. Eligible to participate are students enrolled in a bachelor's program who may register using their university email account.
Teams may be formed by students from different universities and the proposed project should be consistent with Saudi culture and heritage. A team may consist of a minimum of two and a maximum of three students; team members must have passed at least 70% of one of the self-paced learning courses.
Al-Hammadi added that the hackathon consists of three rounds. In the first round, participants submit the outline of an electronic game Storyboard with an explanation of the graphics, backgrounds, and visual elements. They must also highlight the game's connection to Saudi culture and heritage.
Moving on to the second round, the teams will start creating and programming the electronic game, making it operable on computers. During this phase, a winner will be selected for each category in the elimination stage.
The qualifying teams will then proceed to the third stage, during which SEU will incubate the winning projects, provide technical support, and establish connections with potential investors.
The hackathon offers valuable prizes in three challenge categories.
Real-World Games depict real-world Saudi cultural heritage, including historical events, traditional art, shared values, and storytelling elements. Examples include National Day and Founding Day.
Location-Based Games enhance players' experience at Saudi heritage sites, and combine gaming elements with real-world heritage exploration, offering interactive and educational opportunities to learn about cultural heritage in specific locations like Diriyah and AlUla.
Discovery Games involve physical artifacts, history, archaeology, and art, providing insights into Saudi cultural heritage through virtual museum experiences, historical sites, and archaeological landmarks like UNESCO sites in Saudi Arabia.
These games offer interactive and educational opportunities to learn about cultural heritage in specific locations, such as Diriyah, AlUla, and Asir, and aim to reveal monuments, historical evidence, arts, and costumes related to Saudi cultural heritage through virtual museums.

Most Viewed

 
 
Technology

Intel Says Competition from Nvidia PC Chip a ‘Good Thing’

A sign is posted in front of Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, California, US, Aug. 1, 2024. (AFP)
A sign is posted in front of Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, California, US, Aug. 1, 2024. (AFP)
TT
TT

Intel Says Competition from Nvidia PC Chip a ‘Good Thing’

A sign is posted in front of Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, California, US, Aug. 1, 2024. (AFP)
A sign is posted in front of Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, California, US, Aug. 1, 2024. (AFP)

Intel said Tuesday that competition in personal computer chips from hardware giant Nvidia as a "good thing" as artificial intelligence presents new business opportunities.

The comments come a day after Nvidia, the world's most valuable company, unveiled a powerful chip for Windows machines designed to run AI agents, tools that can carry out tasks for users.

The announcement from Nvidia is a challenge to legacy PC chipmakers including Intel and AMD, as well as Apple's laptop business.

"If you take a look at what they brought to market (Monday), I think it's a good thing," Alex Katouzian, general manager of Intel's client computing and physical AI group, told a news conference in Taipei.

"It shows the importance of how critical the PC is," he added.

"We welcome the competition, but I think we're going to do really well," he said, touting Intel's scale -- with "every segment covered" -- and the trust of its customer base.

"They want us to grow with them, there's new opportunities on the AI side," Katouzian said, calling the company's roadmap "super strong".

Shares in Intel took off late last year after Nvidia announced it would invest $5 billion in the firm.

And in April, the company smashed quarterly earnings expectations, in what could be a sign it is on a path to recovery.

Intel largely missed the smartphone boom and failed to develop competitive hardware for the AI era, allowing Asian manufacturers TSMC and Samsung to dominate the custom semiconductor market.

Most notably, Intel was blindsided by Nvidia's rise as the world's leading AI chip provider.

Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs), originally designed for gaming consoles, have become the essential building blocks of AI systems, with tech giants scrambling to secure them for their data servers and AI projects.

The heads of both companies are in Taipei this week for the major industry show Computex.

On Tuesday, Intel announced upgrades to its AI data center hardware offerings as well as new collaborations with supply chain partners such as Taiwan's Foxconn.

While several experts told AFP that Nvidia's competitors should be worried about its new PC chip for the AI era, the RTX Spark, others were more cautious.

"This move may create incremental pressure for Intel and Qualcomm; however, given the complexity and likely premium pricing, we don't expect significant competition with mainstream AI PCs," Bloomberg Intelligence analysts wrote.

Technology

Global Smartphone Market Faces Record Annual Decline as Chip Crunch Worsens

The iPhone 17 series on display at the Apple Store in New York City, US, September 19, 2025. (Reuters)
The iPhone 17 series on display at the Apple Store in New York City, US, September 19, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
TT

Global Smartphone Market Faces Record Annual Decline as Chip Crunch Worsens

The iPhone 17 series on display at the Apple Store in New York City, US, September 19, 2025. (Reuters)
The iPhone 17 series on display at the Apple Store in New York City, US, September 19, 2025. (Reuters)

The global smartphone market is heading for its steepest annual contraction on record, with shipments projected to slump by 13.9% this year to 1.08 billion units, Counterpoint Research said on Monday, citing a worsening shortage of memory chips.

The forecast is a downgrade from the 12.4% decline projected in February, with the squeeze in global chip supply exacerbated by the Iran war.

IMPACT MOST ACUTE AT BUDGET END OF MARKET

The impact is being felt most acutely in lower-end smartphones as ‌chipmakers shift ‌production capacity to AI-related chips, making entry-level devices less ‌economical ⁠to produce.

Global smartphone wholesale ⁠prices rose 14% in the first quarter while shipments fell 3.1% year on year. That trend is expected to continue as inventory built before the supply shock becomes depleted, with some models priced below $150 likely to disappear from the market.

"Smartphone makers in the low and mid-tier are caught between cost increases they cannot absorb and consumers with limited spending power," said Wang ⁠Yang, a principal analyst at Counterpoint, an independent research ‌company that publishes quarterly smartphone shipment data.

"The ‌question is no longer how to grow shipments or market share, but whether ‌to remain in the market at all."

The memory chip shortage ‌is the most severe supply-side disruption the smartphone industry has faced, Wang said, adding that manufacturers are unable to offset the impact through pricing or product changes.

PREMIUM END OF THE MARKET MORE RESILIENT

The premium segment has proven more resilient. Apple posted ‌record revenue for the first three months of the year, helped by customers upgrading to its iPhone ⁠17 series. ⁠Apple's 2026 shipments are expected to remain flat before rising 5% next year, Counterpoint projections show.

With more stable chip supply and stronger margins than many rivals, Apple is well placed to gain market share and could face less pressure to raise prices.

Samsung Electronics kept volumes steady in the first quarter and is expected by Counterpoint to register only a 4% decline in shipments over the full year, outperforming the wider market thanks to stable supply and a consistent product line-up.

Transsion, which is heavily exposed to the market for smartphones priced below $150, is forecast to suffer a 32% drop in shipments this year. Rivals Xiaomi and Honor, meanwhile, are projected to post full-year declines of 28% and 20% respectively, Counterpoint said.

Technology

Nvidia to Work with US, European Humanoid Robot Makers in Addition to China’s Unitree

A man shakes the hand of a Chinese G1 humanoid robot made by Unitree Robotics at a conference in Mumbai, India, May 22, 2026. (Reuters)
A man shakes the hand of a Chinese G1 humanoid robot made by Unitree Robotics at a conference in Mumbai, India, May 22, 2026. (Reuters)
TT
TT

Nvidia to Work with US, European Humanoid Robot Makers in Addition to China’s Unitree

A man shakes the hand of a Chinese G1 humanoid robot made by Unitree Robotics at a conference in Mumbai, India, May 22, 2026. (Reuters)
A man shakes the hand of a Chinese G1 humanoid robot made by Unitree Robotics at a conference in Mumbai, India, May 22, 2026. (Reuters)

Nvidia ‌plans to work with humanoid robot makers in the US, Europe and South Korea in addition to China's Unitree to build robots for researchers, according to the AI chip company's executives.

After CEO Jensen Huang's keynote address in Taiwan on Monday ahead of the Computex trade show, Nvidia announced that the company is working with China's Unitree, a leading maker of humanoid robots, to provide a standardized version of Unitree's H2 robot that can be used by academic researchers.

The robot's body will come from ‌Unitree, its ‌hands will come from Singapore-headquartered Sharpa, and the ‌computing ⁠brains of the device ⁠will come from Nvidia. Nvidia said that researchers at Stanford University and the University of California San Diego, among others, plan to use the machines.

Unitree, whose dancing robots were the centerpiece of China's Spring Festival gala earlier this year, is pursuing a public listing in China.

But US lawmakers have alleged that ⁠Unitree has extensive ties to the Chinese government ‌and military and have introduced a ‌bill that would ban use of the firm's robots by ‌researchers who receive US government funding.

Nvidia executives told Reuters that ‌the company plans to pursue more efforts like the Unitree one with robotics firms outside China. They did not name the partners in the US, South Korea and Europe and spoke on condition of ‌anonymity as the plans are not public.

The Nvidia executives said the work with Unitree is ⁠aimed at improving ⁠the cybersecurity of the Unitree robots for researchers. For example, any software updates meant for the robot's subsystems will have to flow through Nvidia's chip, where the code can be checked for authenticity.

By directly integrating Nvidia's "Blackwell" chips with Unitree's robot bodies, Nvidia, which plans to use the machines in its own research, will bring the same security features that it uses to protect data center servers, the executives said.

Those security technologies, known as secure boot and confidential computing, are aimed at ensuring the robots cannot run malicious code and that sensitive data cannot be moved off the robots without permission.