National Hackathon 2016

The ICT division of Bangladesh organized a National Hackathon Contest to discover digital solution of ten social-public problems using mobile or web application. The largest tech event held at Police Staff College Convention Hall on 6th to 7th April, 2016. In the 36 hours marathon coding competition, the contestants followed Google Design Sprint to develop the problem solution. Design sprint is a process of six stages, i.e. understand, define, diverge, decide, prototype, and validate.

Mentor

The government officers selected ten problems from the country most recent and pressing issues. The problems are Agricultural productivity, Newborns and children, Road traffic accident, Violence against women, Environment in city, Sustainable tourism, Qualified teachers in education, Empowerment of women and Energy efficiency.

As a contestant of the previous hackathon and lecturer of BRAC University (BRACU), I got an opportunity to be a mentor in the Sustainable Tourism problem. I enjoyed the volunteer job with young energetic developers, designers and coders. It was a nice experience to guide the contestants and polish their draft idea to be a real solution.

Mentors of Sustainable Tourism Problem Domain

From hundred teams of different universities, two teams of BRACU stood as champion in the sustainable tourism and women violence problems. The team names are “Droid Digger” and “Code Breaker” respectively.  Mihodi Hasan Lushan, Fazle Rabbe Rushu, Monwar Jahan Mufad, Msi Sakib and Hosne Mobarak were the young members of Droid Digger and Md Niaz Sharif Shourove was the leader of “Code Breaker” team.

Another team (“Sudo Green”) from BRACU students and alumni achieved the second runner up position in the Environment in City problem. The members were Masnur Rahman and Sabbir Bin Azad.

All the winners received glorious award from Zunaid Ahmed Palak, the State Minister of ICT Division – Bangladesh.