BUET's Oscillating Pandas Bags First Place in First-Ever Cyber Hackathon
In celebration of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, the inaugural Cyber Hackathon concluded with BUET’s team Oscillating Pandas claiming the championship title. The team secured the top spot by scoring 3,350 points, solving the highest number of challenges in the shortest time.
The first runner-up position went to Red Rebels, comprising students from Chattogram Medical College, Daffodil International University, and Hazi Mohammad Mohsin Government College. The second runner-up, TingTing, included students from Brahmanbaria Polytechnic Institute, United International University, Dinajpur Polytechnic Institute, and Haji Asmat Government College.
Repro Rebels from Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University ranked fourth, while MIST Shaheed Yamin Forever from the Military Institute of Science and Technology secured fifth place with 2,950 points.
The grand finale of the hackathon took place on Friday at MIST Auditorium, running from 10 AM to 4 PM. Participants were given 60 problem sets in an intense onsite competition.
On Saturday, at the BTRC Conference Center, winners were awarded trophies and dummy cheques by Youth Affairs Adviser Asif Ahmed Sajib Bhuiyan. The champion team received BDT 150,000, the first runner-up BDT 125,000, the second runner-up BDT 100,000, the fourth place BDT 75,000, and the fifth team received BDT 50,000.
The event was attended by Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser; Mahbuba Farzana, Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting; Md. Zahurul Islam, Acting Secretary of the Posts and Telecommunications Division; Shish Hayder Chowdhury, Secretary of the ICT Division; and BTRC Chairman Emdadul Bari.
The BUET champion team members were Md. Nazmus Sakib, Soumya Saukarya, Jaber Ahmed, and AHM Fuad—all students of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Despite timing out while solving two out of six challenges in the OSINT mode, they made a remarkable comeback in reverse engineering. They also excelled in pwn, steganography, and cryptography, skillfully identifying and quarantining simulated cyber threats.
The Red Rebels team featured Muttakim Chowdhury Sifat (Chattogram Medical College), Efadul Islam Sarkar and Musabbir Hasan Ratul (Daffodil International University), and Md. Hridoy (Haji Mohammad Mohsin College).
TingTing was represented by Rabiul Awal Gagan (Brahmanbaria Polytechnic Institute), Karimul Islam Shezan (United International University), Md. Tarek Ahmed Jony (Dinajpur Polytechnic Institute), and Golam Rabbani (Haji Asmat Government College).
Repro Rebels included Md. Khairul Islam, Firoz Tasnim Sneha, Spondon Rema, and Ahmmad Tousif Main from Nazrul University.
The fifth-ranked MIST team Shaheed Yamin Forever consisted of Shafe Shadman Tanoy, Iftekhar Ul Islam Ifti, MM Tamim Sharif, and Saif Ahmed.
Lt. Col. Bashar, an instructor at MIST and one of the organizers, shared that the idea for the cyber drill was finalized on May 5. Online registration began on May 7 and concluded on May 11, during which 192 teams registered. Of them, 35 teams were shortlisted through an online screening to participate in the final onsite hackathon.
