Students from NYU Abu Dhabi and 42 Abu Dhabi tested their coding, AI, problem-solving and software development skills this month through two campus hackathons supported by JetBrains. The events, held on 20 September at NYU Abu Dhabi and on 22–23 September at 42 Abu Dhabi, challenged students to turn problem statements into working prototypes within tight deadlines. Teams were required to demonstrate their solutions, explain their technical decisions and show how they had tested their work.
At NYU Abu Dhabi, first place went to $ocial, a personalised activity discovery and budgeting app that connects with a user’s calendar and monthly budget to recommend activities based on available time and spending limits. Waste Track placed second, followed by Elderly Assist in third place. The Best Use of JetBrains AI award went to a tool designed to help companies understand considerations involved in expanding into the MENA region. The Judges’ Choice Award was shared by two teams that developed disaster-management platforms focused on Nepal.
At 42 Abu Dhabi, Team Kartoshka won the “Build What Developers Need” challenge with Lattice, an AI agent integrated into the IDE that coordinates and monitors other coding agents while providing developers with visibility into agent activity and potential conflicts. Team Placebo came second with a healthcare development and legacy-code assistant, while Hybrid Falcons took third place with a developer wellness plugin designed to encourage scheduled activity breaks.
The hackathons come as Abu Dhabi continues to invest in digital transformation. Under the Abu Dhabi Government Digital Strategy 2025–2027, AED13 billion is earmarked for digital transformation and technology adoption. The strategy is projected to contribute more than AED24 billion to Abu Dhabi’s GDP and create more than 5,000 employment opportunities by 2027.
At the same time, AI coding tools are changing software development. According to the JetBrains Developer Ecosystem Survey 2026, 90% of professional developers surveyed between May and July 2026 used AI coding agents at work at least weekly, while 68% used them daily. While AI coding agents can accelerate code generation and prototyping, developers remain responsible for evaluating outputs, testing software, troubleshooting problems and making technical decisions.
“AI can generate code in seconds. Responsibility for what that code does still sits with the developer,” said Nadia Rinsky, Head of Business Development for the MENA region at JetBrains, who served as one of the hackathon judges. “The students had to go beyond producing code. They needed to understand what they were building, test their ideas, explain their decisions and demonstrate that their solutions worked.”
From problem statement to working product
The NYU Abu Dhabi hackathon was organised by the NYUAD Career Development Center in collaboration with student-led clubs HackED and Violet Ventures and powered by JetBrains Academy. The Kotlin Multiplatform Challenge asked teams to develop applications supporting communities, raising awareness or addressing real-world problems. Teams had one day to create a working prototype running on at least two platforms.
Judging placed a 35% weighting on product functionality, with the remaining criteria covering the problem and insight, technical execution and the final pitch. JetBrains Academy provided an AED10,000 prize pool, distributed as Amazon gift cards. Winning team members also received the JetBrains Professional All Products Pack.
Dana Downey, Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Director of the Career Development Center at NYU Abu Dhabi, said the hackathon allowed students to apply classroom knowledge under conditions similar to those they may encounter in the workplace.
Connecting students with the software industry
On 21 September, JetBrains also participated in an Employee Spotlight session at NYU Abu Dhabi, engaging primarily with students studying computer science, engineering, mathematics and electrical engineering. Students were able to explore career opportunities, take part in a technical quiz and speak with JetBrains representatives about careers and skills relevant to software development. A subsequent presentation by a JetBrains Developer Advocate examined the use of AI in industry and how AI agents work.
Building tools for developers at 42 Abu Dhabi
At 42 Abu Dhabi, students spent 22 and 23 September working on the “Build What Developers Need” challenge. Teams were tasked with creating a plugin for an IntelliJ-based development environment that addressed a practical developer need.
The challenge required students to consider existing codebases, development practices and how naturally their solutions would fit into established workflows. The format also reflected 42 Abu Dhabi’s peer-to-peer, project-based learning model, which focuses on practical challenges, collaboration and problem-solving.
Fatima Al Foulathi, Acting CEO of 42 Abu Dhabi, said the hackathon gave students an opportunity to apply critical thinking, problem-solving and responsible use of AI in a practical setting. Across both events, the emphasis was on more than simply generating code. Students had to identify a problem, build a functioning solution, test it and explain the decisions behind it — skills that remain relevant as AI takes on a growing role in software development.
