The second edition of Islamabad Civic Hackathon was concluded on 17th June, 2016. The winner of the event was Dastawezaat, an app which was built to simplify and improve the university application process.
Islamabad Civic Hackathon was organized by Code for Pakistan (CFP) and Islamabad Civic Innovation Lab (ICIL). This innovation lab was a joint program with OPEN Islamabad. The primary objectives for this year’s competition were development, education, health, poverty, social change and sustainable city. Experts in the fields of aforementioned categories mentored the participants for the event.
About Civic Hackathon
A hackathon is a gathering where programmers collaboratively code in software development in an extreme manner over a short period of time.
A civic hackathon is a two day competition which takes place annually. It is a program in which civic minded individuals like data analysts, designers, innovators, software developers and students come together to improve public services through the creation of digital tools and solutions.
The notion of these open-source solutions is to provide results to civic and social glitches that are faced by the people of Pakistan. Telenor and Arbisoft were the lead sponsors of the event. Some eminent partners for the civic hackathon were Google Developers Group (GDG), Teradata, Invest2Innovate (i2i), Microsoft, and The Nest I/O.
Winners and the prizes
A total of 5 teams were selected as the winning one by the panel of judges that comprised of Ather Imran (CEO, Sybrid (Pvt.) Ltd. and President, OPEN Islamabad), Yusuf Hussain (Founder and CEO of DM Ventures), Shabana Atif Khan (CEO, LMKT and COO, LMKR), and Mansoor Malik (Chairman, Kamyab Pakistan and Founding VP, TiE Islamabad).
1- Dastawezaat, an app which was designed and built to improve and make the university application process simpler, received the first prize along with Rs. 75,000/-.
2- Second prize along with a bounty of Rs. 50,000/- went to Chote Ustad, an app to connect students with tutors online for better education.
3- Third prize was distributed among three teams with Rs. 25,000/- cash reward:
i- Bijli Pe Nazar, an app for data collection of household energy consumption
ii- Shafaaf Voting, an application built to digitalize the voting process in Pakistan
iii- Bagh Bagh, a mobile application for individuals who adores gardening
4- There was another award which was ‘audience favorite’ and it went to No Food Wasted, an online platform to tackle food waste and feed those in need.
The winning teams will also receive assistance from Invest2Innovate (i2i), The Nest I/O and Global Shapers Islamabad besides the recognition and the cash reward. Moreover, they will also be getting access to the services and tools of Microsoft and Google.
Statements from the experts on Civic Hackathon
One of the judges at the event, CEO of Sybrid and President of OPEN Islamabad, Ather Imran, lauded the efforts of the competition while stating:
“Cities and communities develop when its residents participate in its civic development. There could not be a better platform than Code for Pakistan’s Civic Hackathons, which give planners, academics, programmers, developers, designers and public sector representatives the opportunity to collaborate and use technology to develop innovative solutions to civic problems”
One of the mentors at the program, Innovation and Community Lead at Invest2Innovate (i2i), Saad Hamid appreciated the ideas while commenting:
“I think it’s brilliant to see what’s happening here at the civic hackathon – people coming together, connecting and talking to each other to change Pakistan for good. It’s a great effort”
Content Director at C- Design Thinking, Javeria Masood was also present on the occasion. She also mentored the participants and acknowledged their innovative ideas. She said:
“I am always encouraged by platforms that aim to improve existing services by facilitating interaction between different stakeholders. Code for Pakistan has organized this hackathon to resolve civic problems, encourage citizen engagement and use technological tools to envision efficient, supportive and innovative systems. Some of the teams I spoke to have really interesting ideas with lots of potential. It’s also great to see so many people driven to solve city based problems.”
image credit: CodeforPK/Facebook
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