Bangladesh Open Source Network (BdOSN) organized Shamsuddoha ICT Day celebration through “All Girls Programming Contest” to celebrate the contribution of Bangladeshi women in the ICT sector as well as increase participation. In addition to this programming competition organized on the occasion of International Girls in ICT Day 2023, Bangladeshi girl students in the field of technology are given the opportunity to display their programming skills and ideas in the Dev Mania project competition.
Along with students from different universities of Bangladesh, female students studying in technical universities participated in this competition with their projects. The project competition was held on the use of technology in four sectors – general, financial services, education and healthcare. At the time of registration students submit a detailed concept paper describing their own project/idea. Preference is given to participants with a live demo of the project during the competition. Winners are awarded attractive prizes and certificates after each project is evaluated based on the level of innovation, potential impact and practicality of the idea.
BdOSN Joint General Secretary Kazi Hasan Robin said in relation to this event, this project competition was organized to demonstrate the coding skills of girls as well as to demonstrate their ideas. In honor of the contribution of late Luna Shamsuddoha, the leading software entrepreneur of Bangladesh who worked for the development of the ICT sector throughout her life, the celebration is named after her.
A total of 24 teams pitched their projects at Luna Shamsuddoha Dev Mania. Out of these 7 teams were selected for the finals. Taking part in the final round, Team ‘Connectia’ became the champion. The first runner-up was ‘Team Loana’ from Islamic University of Technology and the second runner-up was ‘Dream Developers’ from World University of Bangladesh. Khulna University of Engineering and Technology’s ‘Team Eido’ received the special mention award.
The judges for the final round were Siddharth Goswami, Head of Operation and Coordinator, ICT Division, Bangladesh ICT Journalist Forum (BIJF) President Nazneen Nahar, Junior Chamber International (JCI) Bangladesh Branch Vice President Muhammad Altamish Nabil and Army Institute of Business Administration, Savar Afzal Hossain Assistant Professor.
Basically, Girls in ICT Day is an international initiative of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to increase the participation of girls in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Girls in ICT Day was celebrated this year with the theme “Digital Skills for Life” to empower girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers and to gain skills in the digital world. As part of this project competition was held. Note that Bangladesh Open Source Network organized the Luna Shamsuddoha Dev Mania project competition under the inspiration of Dohatech New Media, a Bangladeshi IT company, and in collaboration with Advive.