Graduating seniors Shahan Ali Memon and Ibrahim Soltan won the audience choice award at the New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) Hackathon for Social Good.

Memon and Soltan’s team tackled the issue of real time public health data in the Middle East, focusing on non-communicable diseases like obesity. The team used one of the biggest datasets in the world, Google Trends, to model information data on obesity in the region. By using information on what people are searching for on Google, the team devised a way to identify public health trends to better inform public health campaigns.

The NYUAD Hackathon for Social Good selects students from around the world to compete at the annual event. This year, more than 20 nations were represented, with 50 students, including candidates from Stanford, Harvard and MIT, taking part.