CTO Forum Innovation Hackathon kicked off at AIUB

The third season of CTO Forum Innovation Hackathon 2022 has just been launched officially on Monday at the American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB) campus. Deputy Minister of Education Mr. Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Noufel inaugurated the hackathon this noon. While speaking as the Chief Guest, Mr Noufel said that soft skills are being included in the curriculum for the students to meet the demand of the industry. Hackathon is one of the best in this regard. That is why I call upon the University Grants Commission- UGC to be a partner in this Hackathon. So that, they may organize hackathon in the universities. This will open up the way to acquire practical skills beyond the curriculum. Urging the university authorities to develop skills instead of CGPA, the Deputy Minister further added, “We should look into the post-graduation, ICT, coders and real science ground application-based courses to develop problem solving skills.” AIUB Vice-Chancellor Dr. Carmen Z. Lamagna expressed her interest in becoming a partner of the Innovation Hackathon in the future and called for continued conducting of such events every year. She said, AIUB has had a significant achievement at the last hackathon in 2016 with ICT division. We regularly compete in notable resources in national and international competition and events. She expressed her optimism that with this innovation hackathon will surely provide a platform to foster ideas and encourage young innovators. On the purpose of the hackathon, Tapan Kanti Sarkar, president of CTO Forum informed that 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 that day. The demo round will take place on 27th October. The final round will be held on November 15. This time they will find innovative solutions for national needs in 21 categories. The Bangladesh University Grants Commission (UGC) member Prof. Md. Sajjad Hossain, Canadian University of Bangladesh Vice-Chancellor Dr. Jahirul Haque, Fair group director and CEO Mutassim Daiaan and Dr. Bikarna Kumar Ghosh, Managing Director of Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority also spoke on the occasion. Bikarna Kumar Ghosh said that global companies like Sony, Marubeni Corporation are going to set up their factories in Hi-Tech Park and are looking for skilled manpower. He said, I hope, soon there will be CEOs like Microsoft and Google from the soil of Bangladesh. He also said, “We are moving towards the goal of digital Bangladesh. 4 thousand ‘Sheikh Russell Digital Lab’ has already been set up and within 2025 this number will increase to 25 thousand. Now we have 11 Hi-tech Parks, by 2025, 92 more Hi-tech Parks will be built. One Training and increment center will be established in each district.” Fair Group Director and CEO Mutassim Daiaan vowed that, this hackathon aims to nurture the young app developers who may achieve the smart Bangladesh Vision. They will value the transformation, empowerment and employment what exactly align with goals of Fair Group. It is to be noted that Fair Technology and Hyundai Bangladesh Brand are the title sponsors of Innovation Hackathon 2022. Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority and Aspire to Innovate (a2i) and BASIS have partnered in the hackathon too. In this event, it is said that the best initiatives from this hackathon will be highlighted at the international level to face more open challenges including “hunger free world, good health, quality education, e-commerce, emerging technology, virtual assistance, and online certificate verification”.