In an atmosphere of excitement and competition, Beltone AI Hackathon 2nd edition, Powered by Robin took place at The American University in Cairo (AUC), bringing together more than 1,000 teams from 34 universities across Egypt in one of the country’s largest AI innovation challenges. The initiative was held in partnership with six leading universities: AUC, the German University in Cairo (GUC), Ain Shams University, Cairo University, Zewail City University, and New Giza University.
This year’s edition marked over 10x growth from the first hackathon, reflecting Robin, the Data Science & AI subsidiary of Beltone Holding, and Beltone’s commitment to advancing national AI capabilities and empowering the next generation of tech talent. Participants tackled the Multi-Warehouse Vehicle Routing Problem, a complex logistics optimization challenge with real-world applications across Egypt’s fast-growing digital and commerce sectors.
To enable experimentation and scale, Robin developed an AWS-based automated submission and scoring platform, powering thousands of real-time algorithm evaluations. Over the course of the hackathon, students submitted 4,205 solutions, tracked through a live leaderboard.
The event was inaugurated by Dalia Khorshid, Group CEO and Managing Director of Beltone Holding, in the presence of Dr. Ehab Abdel-Rahman, AUC Provost; Dr. Lotfi Gaafar, Dean of the School of Sciences and Engineering at AUC; Dr. Roba Bairakdar, Assistant Professor at the Department of Mathematics and Actuarial Science, AUC; and Dr. Wael Abdallah, Assistant Professor of Finance at AUC and Board Member of Beltone Holding, alongside Beltone’s executive management and the Robin team.
The top 10 finalist teams presented their projects to a distinguished jury of academic and industry leaders, including Dr. Ali Hadi, Distinguished University Professor, Former Chair of the Mathematics and Actuarial Science Department and Founder of the Data Science Program at AUC; Dr. Mervat Abu-Elkheir, Vice Dean for Student Affairs, Faculty of Media Engineering and Technology at GUC; Belal El-Megharbel, CEO of MaxAB; Omar Elfiky, CEO of Beltone Consumer Finance – seven; and Basma Rady, Chief Data Scientist at Beltone Holding and Managing Director of Robin.
Demonstrating her confidence in the potential of Egypt’s young AI talent, H.E. Dalia Khorshid announced at the outset of the competition the doubling of all monetary prizes to motivate participants to push the boundaries of creativity and innovation. The total prize pool reached EGP 720,000, distributed as EGP 400,000 for 1st place, EGP 200,000 for 2nd, and EGP 120,000 for 3rd.
More than just a competition, the event served as a national platform for discovering young talent and fostering collaboration between academia and the private sector reinforcing Egypt’s position as a regional hub for innovation and technology.
