Religious women develop technology to find lost travelers at JCT women’s hackathon

An app designed to locate lost travelers without cellular service won first place at The Jerusalem College of Technology’s (JCT) 7th annual women’s hackathon earlier this month.

The technology was developed by a group of religious female students who participated in the “Hack.Her.It” competition, organized by JCT’s Schreiber LevTech Entrepreneurship Center. The event aims to highlight the importance of empowering religious women to become innovators in the workforce.

The winning project, called TrekTag, uses specialized bracelets equipped with sensors that communicate via radio waves instead of relying on cellular service. The wearable device is designed to help rescue services locate lost travelers in remote areas with limited cellular service, should they become lost or injured.

“According to the World Health Organization, one of the main causes of death of travelers is when they get lost when exploring unmarked routes or encounter inclement weather,” said team member Michal Miller, a software engineering student at JCT’s Tvuna Campus for Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) women, in a press release Sunday.

The competition was split into two parts, with the first stretching over the semester. Teams of 4-8 members selected an issue to address and spent the semester developing their solutions, participating in preparatory workshops on various topics, and collaborating with mentors to refine their technology.

The second part of the competition, which was the hackathon itself, took place at the Jerusalem Tal campus from July 4-5, with teams working a total of 26 hours until the judging ceremony at noon on July 5.

Open for students from any department

“It’s been so inspiring to witness these young women, some of them juggling young babies in their hands, come up with cutting-edge solutions to very real problems,” said Orlee Guttman, co-founder of the Schreiber Levtech Entrepreneurship Center, in a press release Sunday. “We’re proud of the accomplishments of everyone who participated in this event.”

The competition was open to students from any department and year and drew the participation of 120 students from JCT’s three women’s campuses (Tal, Tvuna, and Lustig). Among the participants were students pursuing degrees in software engineering, computer science, business administration, and industrial engineering and management.

They tackled challenges presented by leading tech companies such as Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Elbit Systems, Beit Halochem, BonData, and more.

Other finalists in the competition included ModernNet, which created an off-grid communication app for rescue personnel; Safe Zone, which developed a secure network for local emergency teams; SelfShower, which provided a solution for war amputees to regain independence in daily tasks such as showering; and WatchOut, which designed fall-detection technology for the elderly using image processing and motion detection.