Eyad Oumar Wins 2nd Place at AUB’s Breaking Barriers Hackathon
Eyad Oumar and his team won second place at the AUB Innovation Park Breaking Barriers Hackathon for creating Calm-Pulse, a smart tool that helps children with autism and sensory disorders communicate better with their parents.
The hackathon asked students to come up with ideas that make life easier for people with disabilities. Eyad and his teammates, Mustafa Ergaibi (a MEPI student at AUB), Samira Jawish, and Nour Falha from the Lebanese University, focused on one major challenge: many children with autism cannot express when they feel overwhelmed by noise or crowded places.
Their solution, Calm-Pulse, uses wearable devices and a mobile app to track the child’s heart rate and voice patterns. With the help of artificial intelligence, the system can tell when a child is stressed or upset and sends an instant alert to the parent’s phone.
“The idea came from empathy,” Eyad says. “We wanted to make something that helps families understand what their children are feeling, even when the child cannot say it.”
The hackathon took place in July 2025 at Beirut Digital District, bringing together students from across Lebanon. Among many strong teams, Calm-Pulse stood out for its creativity, practicality, and social impact, earning a $2,000 award and recognition from mentors, accessibility experts, and startup founders.
Through this experience, Eyad and his team learned a lot, from AI and app development to teamwork and project management. Their project even caught the attention of schools and therapy centers that want to test the idea with real families.
“Winning was great,” Eyad shares, “but what really matters is seeing technology make life easier for kids and parents.”
Eyad’s story reflects the values of the MEPI Tomorrow’s Leaders Program: leadership, service, and the drive to create impact. By turning an idea into a practical tool that helps families communicate better, he demonstrates how TL students continue to shape a more inclusive and understanding world.