In the modern age, development and living without technology is almost impossible. Machine learning, artificial intelligence- AI, deep learning, blockchain are among the technological issues that are prevailing at the beginning of the fourth industrial revolution. Among these extraordinary tools of technology is Natural Language Processing or NLP. NLP is the motto of the facilities with artificial intelligence. Natural Language Processing (NLP) is the key to instructing a robot, auto-replying a chatbot or a virtual assistant on a mobile phone.
Bengali Language Enrichment in Information Technology through Research and Development Project and Bangladesh Open Source Network (BDOSN) jointly organized and in collaboration with Department of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) and Amazon Web Services, Bangladesh’s first 36-hour long Natural Language Processing (NLP) Hackathon was held in the capital.
Prize money worth a total of one lakh taka was handed over to the winning teams of the final round in a casual ceremony at Lalmatia in the capital. Besides, all the participants are also asked to recommend for full time job and internship in various established companies of Bangladesh based on the certificate and performance.
In this two-day hackathon, the team BUET Semantic Shenanigans of Bangladesh University of Engineering Md Jarif Ul Alam, Ramisha Alam and Sameen Sahgir became the champion; The first runner-up was BRAC University’s team Linguistic Mavericks of Md. Azmain Mahtab, Sheikh Ayatur Rahman and Anika Tahsin; The second runner-up was the team Return Zero of Bangladesh University of Engineering Ridwanul Hasan Tanveer, Sihat Afnan and Sayek Bin Islam. Ramisha Alam, a member of the champion team, believes that winning the National Girls Programming Competition organized by BDOSN has played a huge role in her achievement today.
At this time, the Managing Director of Computer Services Limited, Mamluk Sabir Ahmed, Associate Professor of North South University Dr. Nabil Mohammed, Bangladesh University of Engineering Professor Dr. Rifat Shahriar, Easy Services Managing Director HM Arifur Rahman, Link 3 Deputy Manager (Brand, Sales & Marketing) Sabbir Hasan, Wikimedia Foundation Research Developer Nazia Tasnim, Development Engineer Md. Ishtiaq Hossain Shihab, BDOSN Chief Executive Officer Kaniz Fatema and many others were present and handed over the prizes to the winners. Mamluk Sabir Ahmed expressed the hope of holding such an event regularly in addition to handing over prizes to the winners. Congratulating everyone, he also said that such arrangements would be made in various institutions of the capital and the country.
On the first day of the hackathon, an online session was conducted by Mohammad Mahdi-uz-Zaman Apu, Solution Architect of Amazon Web Services, the world’s most comprehensive and widely adopted cloud platform. BDOSN General Secretary Munir Hasan, Dhaka University IIT Professor BM Mainul Hossain and many others were present at tha time.
The two-day hackathon was conducted by Amazon Alexa Applied Scientist Sudipta Kar and Brac University Assistant Professor (CSE) Dr. Farig Sadek. Munir Hasan expressed his excitement about organizing such an event for the first time in Bangladesh and said that this year’s hackathon is the result of many days of planning about NLP. Earlier on December 27, 2019, a workshop titled Story of NLP was organized in the capital by BDOSN and conducted by Sudeep Kar.
After the workshop such a hackathon was organized by realizing the interest of the students and the need for people skilled in NLP to solve various local problems in Bangladesh. This hackathon was held with more than fifty participants including students from various universities and representatives of various tech institutions. He also thanked all the sponsors of this year’s hackathon.
It should be noted that Brain Station 23 was the gold sponsor of this hackathon, Easy Services was the silver sponsor and Link 3 Technologies was the internet partner.