RIYADH: The Northern Borders Region Digital Innovation Hackathon got underway in Arar on Sunday, with dozens of competitors taking part. The event, held at the Ministry of Interior Employees Club, seeks to develop digital solutions to challenges in the region and turn ideas into testable prototypes. Held under the patronage of Gov. Prince Faisal bin Khalid bin Sultan, it brings together developers, programmers, AI specialists, researchers and university students working across three tracks: service integration and automation, streamlined user journeys, and data and artificial intelligence. The opening day drew more than 90 competitors and 35 submissions, including seven media-related projects, according to a press release. Three additional tracks were organized with the Ministry of Media on misinformation, accessible official content and a unified platform for journalists’ inquiries and media statement requests. The next stages will include final presentations, evaluation and judging and the announcement of the winners. To support the teams through the development process the hackathon features mentoring sessions, workshops and orientation meetings. Before the event all of the submitted projects went through an initial screening to assess their compliance, relevance to the challenges, originality and respect for intellectual property and privacy rights.