For 24 hours during November 20 and 21, Alfaisal University students worked on ideas and solutions addressing visual pollution in public urban spaces.
The challenge, called Hillaha!, was jointly organized by Dimensions – the University’s accelerator unit – Ryadah – an entrepreneurship students club at Alfaisal University- and the Quality of Life Program. It is the first of many initiatives that emphasize the Program’s ambitions of bettering the quality of life in the Kingdom and finding and supporting means working toward this objective. Specifically, this vision-realization program works to improve individuals’ lifestyles by developing an ecosystem to support and create new options that boost citizens’ and residents’ participation in cultural, environmental, and sports activities.
For the challenge, and with three Saudi cities within the top 100 most liveable cities in the world by 2030, the visual pollution (field of the urbanism) is considered one of the most challenges facing the quality of life in the Kingdom, and visual pollution has been defined as the negative impact object can have on the appearance of an area such as the cleanliness of public facilities, graffiti or wall markings unorganized street dealers and other influencing elements.
At the core of the challenge was the question: “How can we make our cities visually attractive for tourists, residents and citizens, and limit visual pollution disturbances such as the cleanliness of public facilities, graffiti or wall markings? How to raise people s awareness about urban scene aesthetics?”.
The challenge received telling participation, and with a wide array of innovative responses touching on many aspects of the challenge, especially with regards to sustainable and commercially viable ideas.
The Three winners are:
- 1st place Sara Aldossari
- 2nd place Faisal Alghosen
- 3rd place Maryam Aharkey
The challenge was judged by the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Quality of Life Program Mr. Almohanad Alzooaabe, Chief Delivery Officer at Quality of Life Program Mr. Khalid Albaker, the Director of Creativity and Innovation Alaa Al Suliman and form Alfaisal University program by Dr. Abd-Elhamid M. Taha Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering, Ms. Nouf Alammar the Students Business Accelerator Supervisor, and Mr. Mohammed Alohli, Dimensions experienced consultant who conducted several mentoring programs and is the founder of well-known brands.
Alfaisal University Accelerator “Dimensions” Transfer the idea into investment opportunity product, service, company Empower Entrepreneurs with experience, tools, and community to succeed in their businesses, by transforming early innovations into highly valued organizations and creating a vibrant innovation and technology ecosystem to deliver social and economic benefits.
