The third season of CTO Forum Innovation Hackathon 2022 was launched officially at the American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB) campus in Dhaka with the Deputy Minister for Education Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Noufel inaugurating the event.
Noufel in his speech as the chief guest said soft skills are being included in the curriculum for the students as per the growing demand of the industry. He termed hackathon ‘one of the best’ in this regard.
He also called upon the University Grants Commission (UGC) to be a partner in events like Hackathon as it will open a way to the students to acquire practical skills beyond their curriculum.
Advising the university authorities to develop skills of the students instead of chasing CGPA, the Deputy Minister added, “We should look at post graduate, ICT, coders and real science ground application-based courses to develop problem-solving skills among the students.”
About the purpose of hackathon, CTO Forum President Tapan Kanti Sarkar said this event is a part of developing the necessary skills of university graduates and industry. The participation time has been extended till September 27 on the request of the universities. Idea round will start from the first day. The demo round will take place on October 27. The final round will be on November 15. By this time they will find innovative solutions for national needs in 21 categories.
AIUB Vice-Chancellor Dr Carmen Z Lamagna expressed her interest in becoming a partner of the Innovation Hackathon in the future and called for continuation of such events every year. She said, “AIUB has had a significant achievement of the last hackathon in 2016 with the ICT division. We regularly compete notable resource in national and international competition and events. You all will be provided with the platform through this innovation hackathon to foster ideas and encourage invectives.”
UGC Member Prof Md Sajjad Hossain, Canadian University of Bangladesh Vice-Chancellor Dr Jahirul Haque, Fair Group Director and CEO Mutassim Daiaan and Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Managing Director Bikarna Kumar Ghosh also spoke on the occasion.
Bikarna Kumar Ghosh said global companies like Sony, Marubeni are going to set up their factories in Hi-Tech Park and are looking for skilled manpower. “Soon, I hope, there will be CEOs in companies like Microsoft and Google from Bangladesh.”
According to him, “We currently have 11 hi-tech parks already in place and a total of 92 hi-tech parks will be built by 2025. In addition, one development and increment centre will be established in every district.”
Mutassim Daiaan said this hackathon is aimed at nurturing the young app developers who will contribute towards a Smart Bangladesh Vision. They will add value to the much-needed transformation and exactly align with the Fair Group goal.”
The title sponsor of Innovation Hackathon 2022 is Fair Technology and Hyundai Bangladesh with Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority, Aspire to Innovate (A2i) and BASIS joining the hackathon as partners.
The best initiatives from this hackathon have been planned to be highlighted on international platform to help face more open challenges including “hunger free world, good health, quality education, e-commerce, emerging technology, virtual assistance, and online certificate verification”.
