Hackathon Archives

November 20, 2023

Virtusa, a global provider of digital strategy, digital engineering, and IT services and solutions, held a five-day virtual Managed Services AIOps Hackathon to explore the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the realm of IT operations. Remote participation of teams from Virtusa offices across Sri Lanka and India – including teams with members from multiple locations – was facilitated through a hybrid hackathon model.

“In this age of digital transformation, businesses around the world are increasingly adopting AIOps as a disruptive force and view it as a practical and necessary element in the process of engineering next-generation IT solutions,” Venkatesan Vijayaraghavan – Executive Vice President, Head of Service Lines commented. “AIOps also leads to improved collaboration within IT teams, and improves productivity, increases output, and enhances overall service delivery to our clients, which is one of our key objectives,” added Inderjeet Singh Aidhi – Vice President, Managed Services Head.

“The Managed Services AIOps Hackathon 2023 enabled us to strengthen Virtusa’s capabilities, identify the right AIOps tools, develop our skill capacity, and cultivate Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in the AIOps domain,” Misnad Haque, Senior Principal Architect, SRE & Observability Competency Lead at Virtusa stated. “We were thrilled with the results achieved during this hackathon, and how strongly Virtusa’s ‘Engineering First’ approach was reflected through our engineers.”

The Hackathon provided participants with an observability platform, enabling teams to explore the implementation of real-world AIOps use cases via industry-leading tools and products such as Dynatrace, Splunk, NewRelic, Datadog, AWS, and Gremlin. This comprehensive approach encompassed aspects such as Real User Monitoring (RUM), Application Performance Monitoring (APM), and Distributed Tracing for a microservices-based application virtually running off AWS compute.

“Company-wide events such as these not only encourage further exploration of AI capabilities to effectively solve real-world mission critical problems in IT operations. They also promote innovation, passion, respect and leadership – Virtusa’s very own core values.” Indika Wimalasuriya – Senior Systems Manager, Managed Services Sri Lanka commented following the event. Wimalasuriya was part of the Hackathon Organizing Committee, which also comprised members Milinda Nandasena, Vajira Gamage, Neethan Ganapathy, Isha Dewal, Susith Damitha Bandara, Mohamed Insaf, Kailanathan Maiyuran, Sameer Khan, and Sushanth Dev Janardhan.

Aside from the above-mentioned leadership and committee, the participants were mentored and assessed by a few of Virtusa’s AI enthusiasts during the hackathon, including Chaminda Wijayasundara – Vice President and Distinguished Architect, Digital Engineering – Generative AI Guild, Nisar Ahamed – Architect, Digital Engineering, and Srinivas Tatikonda – Architect, Data & Analytics.

Prizes were awarded across a number of categories, including Best End-to-End Implementation, Best Observability Implementation, and Best Presentation, with cash prizes, certificates and medals awarded to the winners in the presence of Senior Virtusa Leadership. All hackathon participants were presented with Certificates of Participation, along with the opportunity to participate in future AIOps-related learning and development programs.

Through strengthened AIOps capabilities, large volumes of data can be ingested, multiple sources of data integrated, and events correlated, in order to detect and resolve anomalies to support more efficient IT systems. These capabilities play a pivotal role in improving key performance metrics in IT Incident Management such as Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time to Resolve (MTTR). Virtusa’s overarching objective eventually is to develop assets and an AIOps framework that will pave the way for predictable, resilient systems, a key component in promoting the concept of reliability engineering. This will empower SRE’s to spring forward with these reusable assets while also demonstrating the significant benefits of AI-enabled operations to our prospective clients.

“Events such as this Managed Services AIOps Hackathon encourage us to focus on innovating future-ready solutions for real-world use cases, and we are grateful to Virtusa for giving us this chance to showcase our talent, and recognize our efforts during this thrilling 5-day event. It was truly a memorable experience, and we look forward to more such opportunities,” overall winners Team Datadog led by Kumaraguru Sugunan comprising Fayaz Thahir and Pasindu Rathnayake commented.

October 20, 2023

The SLT-MOBITEL mSpace Code Blast Hackathon 2023 concluded on a thrilling note recently bringing together aspiring innovators and coding enthusiasts who showcased innovative technology contributing to the nation’s digital advancement.
SLT-MOBITEL, the National ICT Solutions Provider, together with hSenid Mobile, organised the Hackathon, providing a dynamic platform for both coders and non-coders to collaborate, innovate, and create tech-driven solutions.
The mSpace Code Blast Hackathon 2023 witnessed fierce competition among the participants, however three teams emerged as the frontrunners. The overall winner was Team Denkers whose triumphant solution was to address a common challenge faced by many commuters today.
Recognizing the importance of linguistic diversity, Team SinhalaGPT was adjudged the First Runner up. The innovative solution is set to bridge language gaps and enhance accessibility for citizens.
Team Fine Pay was selected as the Second Runner up for their revolutionary app. The solution, a long-felt need of simplifying the process of paying fines in Sri Lanka.
The Hackathon also provided a source for innovation and technopreneurship by fostering a culture of creativity, problem-solving, and collaboration while offering practical experience and valuable connections in the tech industry.
SLT-MOBITEL mSpace is a versatile platform catering to individuals from various backgrounds. It empowers both developers and non-developers to build and monetize solutions through the mSpace platform. Developers can leverage their coding skills and seamlessly integrate them with mSpace’s extensive APIs to craft cutting-edge solutions whilst non coders can harness mSpace’s intuitive interface to design applications effortlessly, all at their fingertips.

September 27, 2023

A team representing Central Accounts at the Commercial Bank of Ceylon won the inaugural hackathon organised by the Bank in collaboration with Dialog Enterprise for employees of the Bank to develop and demonstrate their ingenuity and problem-solving prowess. Team Central Accounts presented a Tableau Dashboard on ‘Impairment Analysis’ while Team Planning and Team Central System Support Department were adjudged second and third for their proposals on ‘Advances & Deposits Analysis’ and ‘Cross-sell Ratio Analysis’ respectively.

Representatives of Commercial Bank’s corporate and senior management participated in the event and each of the 10 competing teams received guidance from a corporate management member. These mentors provided valuable insights, shared their experience and offered constructive feedback. Round 2 of the hackathon will run from September to December 2023 and will be presented with other pressing business problems that demand innovative data driven solutions, the Bank said.

Pictured here are the members of the winning teams receiving cash prizes from the Bank’s Managing Director/CEO Mr Sanath Manatunge and Chief Operating Officer Mr S. Prabagar.

June 30, 2023

Colombo, Sri Lanka – June 30, 2023 – The Microsoft APAC AI for Accessibility Hackathon 2023 successfully concluded at Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) University recently. Recognized as a platform for young developers to create solutions harnessing AI to solve real-world challenges faced by people with disabilities (PwD), Microsoft APAC AI for Accessibility Hackathon enables students to generate ideas that would transform lives and build an inclusive world.

Furthering the Microsoft mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, the Microsoft APAC AI for Accessibility Hackathon was designed to cover areas around daily life, employment, communication, and accessible education. Problem statements that highlighted issues faced by PwD were compiled under the theme ‘Nothing for us without us’ in collaboration with global non-profit organizations working on disability inclusion. Based on these statements, students were expected to design solutions that provided PwD with equal access to day-to-day activities.

The top ten teams from SLIIT presented their ideas, and Team HearMe emerged winners with their proposed Self-exploration based Interactive Learning Tool for children who are deaf or hard of hearing and use cochlear implants or hearing aids that help provide a sense of sound. From a young age, children who are deaf or hard of hearing are often guided to learn sign language even if they use hearing aids, though they can be encouraged to communicate verbally. This leads to language deprivation, where the child receives limited exposure to language during the critical period of language development. Now with the AI-powered solution presented by Team HearMe, children who are deaf or hard of hearing have a companion in their language learning journey. Team HearMe understands that every child is unique and deserves to have learning methods tailored to their needs. With the HearMe Mobile Application, children have access to personalized learning material that has both auditory and visual stimulation with the support of an in-app Speech Therapist, ensuring speech perception and language development. Team HearMe, as well as all the other teams who presented their ideas, reflected the deep commitment the students had to forging an accessible future with assistive technology.

June 29, 2023

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 28 June 2023 – The Microsoft AI for Accessibility (AI4A) Hackathon 2023 is an annual event for teams in Asia Pacific to tackle problem statements and build solutions for a more inclusive and accessible society. In 2023, 119 teams of undergraduates from universities in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam created applications that addressed real-life challenges for people with disabilities.

Indonesian team Prambanan from Telkom University developed Katakan AI (which translates to ‘Say AI’ in Bahasa Indonesia), a one-of-its-kind solution to empower persons who are hard of hearing to communicate more effectively virtually. Combining the features of Azure Cognitive Services, Microsoft Translator, and an AI chat box, the team designed a stand-alone desktop and mobile platform application, as well as a browser plug-in for other virtual meeting tools. With hybrid working here to stay, the all-in-one solution aims to help them to enjoy a more efficient work environment.

In the Philippines, Team Cognitics from Lyceum of the Philippines University – Batangas invented a smart band [placed on the wrist] to proactively administer medication via psychometrics technology. Fusing AI with psychometrics technology, this emergency response product provides a rapid means to detect emergencies and administer necessary medication.

Team A-EYE from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia developed an application prototype to help visually impaired pedestrians traverse roads and navigate traffic safely. Using Azure Custom Vision, this working prototype alerts people with visual impairment to prevent colliding with an object.

National University of Singapore, School of Computing Team WRAP developed NAVI, a navigation app designed to empower individuals with visual impairments to travel confidently. NAVI offers audible route directions and utilizes AI technology to detect obstructions and street markings in real-time through the smartphone camera. Moreover, the app accepts speech input for convenient control and provides a user-friendly interface with a large display and audible feedback, ensuring ease of use for the visually impaired.

From Sri Lanka, Team Hear Me, Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology introduced Hear Me, an AR-based self-learning application for children with hard of hearing. This interactive platform provides a rich learning environment that enhances communication skills and cognitive development, proving an invaluable resource for children communicating through sign language.

In Thailand, Team DEVA from King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi presented Neon, an AI-enabled presentation generator to assist people with visual impairments, highlighting the profound influence of technology on enhancing the independence and life quality of visually impaired individuals.

Team ATP from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Vietnam introduced AI SpeechCompanion, an application that supports people who stutter. The solution creates a personalized experience tailored to each person’s capabilities by allowing them to take notes, practice speaking, and receive encouragement. This will allow individuals who stutter to become more confident, empowering them in their daily lives.

‘With more than 1.3 billion PWDs in the world and 690 million here in Asia Pacific, ensuring accessibility to technology has never been more urgent. Inclusive AI empowers individuals with disabilities, enabling them to fully participate in various aspects of life, including education, employment, and social interactions. It fosters equal opportunities, reduces biases, and breaks down systemic inequalities. I’m so proud to see the next generation of entrepreneurs and developers embrace inclusivity through programs like the Microsoft AI for Accessibility Hackathon. Together, we’re ensuring everyone can thrive, contribute, and benefit from the transformative potential of AI,’ said Pratima Amonkar, Chair for D&I and Accessibility for Microsoft Asia Pacific.

Problem statements and winning hackathon

Six non-profit organizations from the seven countries contributed problem statements for the university students to hack. The teams built innovative solutions and AI-enabled applications on Microsoft Azure and presented them to a panel of judges from both technical and non-technical fields. The winning teams in each country were able to demonstrate a deep understanding of accessibility, design innovative solutions that were original, and showcase a willingness to take risks in the pursuit of creating value for people with disabilities. The teams needed to show real-world impact, business models, and go-to-market plans to launch their solutions.

Categorized into Daily Life, Employability, Communication and Education, they provided students with authentic scenarios and situations faced by people with disabilities. Daily Life challenges include obstacles that can’t be detected by white canes, using automated cash machines, digital applications, cooking appliances and personal grooming. Under Employability, the statements include job matching, training, assessment, interview support and workplace navigation. In Communication, students explored how to explain facial expressions in a video conference, automating speech therapy, and in Education, making learning accessible to rural communities

May 16, 2023

IT students from 21 universities competed at a Capture the Flag (CTF) competition and hackathon at the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) recently with the sponsorship support of Aion Cyber Security (Pvt) Ltd., as part of the Company’s continuing efforts to nurture cybersecurity talent in Sri Lanka.

The competition was organised in collaboration with KDU’s IEEE WIE Student Branch Affinity Group which focuses on the promotion and betterment of women engineers. The students formed 24 teams to compete at this event which was also a platform to showcase their prowess in cyber security and get recognised for it while challenging themselves to learn new skills and work together.

While the CTF contest challenges focused specifically on cybersecurity, requiring participants to use their skills and knowledge to solve complex puzzles and challenges related to information security, the hackathon enabled participants with different backgrounds and skills to collaborate on creative technology projects within a limited time to create functional software products.

The winners of the competition were presented with cyber security training opportunities in the corporate sector, which could significantly broaden their careers, the Company said. Aion Cyber Security not only sponsored the event but also mentored the organisers on how to host a hackathon, and created the challenges for the competition. Notably, this was the first-ever CTF-Hackathon competition to be held at the KDU.

The event was designed to promote innovation, creativity, and learning in the technology and cybersecurity communities, as well as to provide participants with an opportunity to test and improve their skills in areas such as cryptography, web exploitation, forensics, and more. Additionally, the event aimed to encourage participants to work collaboratively and create a functional software product within a limited time frame, while forging networking opportunities with peers in the tech industry.

Commenting on the event, Mr Abbi Pilapitiya, CEO of Aion Cyber Security said: “Silicon Valley is the hot bed for IT entrepreneurship globally. The ecosystem is built around universities which gather innovative talent, venture capitalists who fund, and start-ups that commercialise the ideas and make money which in turn motivates the next batch of talent. This cycle uplifts the whole system spirally. This is the model we should replicate in Sri Lanka, and Aion is happy to partner with KDU to groom local cyber talent.”

Mr Priyantha Perera, Chairman of Aion Cyber Security and the Sierra Group added: “Cultivating local talent has always been a top priority for us. Whether it’s in engineering, construction, or cybersecurity, we aim to nurture Sri Lankan talent and provide the latest technology to take to the region. With established offices in Singapore, Australia, and the Middle East, we are well-positioned to generate opportunities from those markets and create avenues for Sri Lankan youth and professionals in the cybersecurity industry to serve in regional markets.”

Dr. Asela Gunasekara, the Dean of the Faculty of Computing and the Chief Counsellor of the IEEE Student Branch of KDU said: “Cyber security is regarded as the next frontier when it comes to modern warfare. KDU is an institution where we mould young talent to take responsibilities in the armed forces and the private sector alike. Hence it is imperative that we have such competitions to give them exposure. We are thankful to Aion Cyber Security for coming forward and assisting us in this endeavour.”

Earlier this year, Aion Cyber Security also hosted an awareness programme titled ‘Inside a Hacker’s Mind’ for over 100 cyber security professionals, with the participation of Ty Miller, the Director of the Sydney-based Threat Intelligence Pty Ltd., who has provided specialist cyber security training to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), United States Department of Defense, military and intelligence agencies, and large technology and security companies around the world.

A subsidiary of Sierra Group, Aion Cyber Security was established in Sri Lanka just before the Covid-19 pandemic with the mission to nurture Sri Lankan talent for the growing needs of the industry. The Company offers Artificial Intelligence (AI) based bespoke cyber security management services supported by an expert Sri Lankan team consisting of industry-leading Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and consultants with more than 15 years of international expertise in cyber security, telecommunications, and information technology. Aion’s partners in the cyber security space include the Sierra Group, THREAT Intelligence Australia, and DELL Technologies. The Company has also embarked on talent pool development exercises where IT graduates are moulded into Cyber security professionals through training development with industry-level examinations.

August 8, 2022

STEMUP Educational Foundation, the non-profit organization with a focus on furthering Scientific, Technological, Engineering, and Mathematical (STEM) knowledge among Sri Lankan students, has successfully concluded the Hack:AI 2021 hackathon, held in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Sri Lanka and in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Association of Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM). Hackathon was powered by SLT-Mobitel, Trainocate Lanka, Altria Consulting, and Impact IT Solutions as the main sponsors.

The objective of Hack:AI 2021 was to provide a platform for school and university students to join the national movement that drives social impact in tackling some of the challenges related to selected Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).This unique event helped young innovators in the country to come up with innovative solutions using Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Science and Machine Learning for present day challenges such as Good Health and Wellbeing, Quality Education, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, and Life on Land.

Hack:AI was able to reach a wider audience and provide a level playing field by separating into two categories – ‘School’ category for students aged 13 to 18 and ‘University’ category for students aged 19 to 25 years. Having launched in October 2021, the competition ran for a period of 6 months providing the opportunity for its 100+ participants to interact with top local and international industry experts through mentoring sessions while designing, testing, and improving on their project solutions in their efforts to achieve their objective of boosting sustainable living. An Ideathon was held for participants from the School category where the youngsters were challenged to develop fresh solutions to solve existing challenges in their communities. Competitors from the University category took part in a Datathon where they were given a dataset and a limited amount of time to use their creativity and data science skills to build, test, and explore solutions. The Panel of Judges, which comprised of industry experts and academics in the respective fields, focused on Problem Identification, Critical thinking/Problem-Solving Skills, Innovativeness of the solution and applications of AI in choosing the best solutions from each category.

The Finalists in the University Category witnessed five teams – Binary Brains (SLIIT), PROSTASIA (University of Colombo), AlgoPirates (University of Peradeniya), Go Viral (University of Kelaniya) and Eureka (University of Peradeniya) – compete for top honours with PROSTASIA (University of Colombo) being picked as the Winner. In the School category, BitbyBit (Lyceum International School), SkillVisor (Gateway College, Colombo), Gogreen Technologies (Boys’ School, Malabe), Calori (Gateway College, Colombo) and Code Annites (St.Anne’s College, Kurunegala) were chosen as the Finalists with Calori (Gateway College, Colombo)coming out on top.

Sharing his thoughts on the successful event, Prabhath Mannapperuma – Director of STEMUP Educational Foundation stated, “Hack:AI 2021-2022 is yet another initiative of STEMUP to get students interested in STEM education as early as possible in their lives. This event has helped to nurture all participants in multiple ways primarily by enhancing their critical thinking abilities, as well as their leadership, creativity, entrepreneurial and collaboration skills. It is important that Sri Lanka’s youth keeps up with the rest of the world by focusing on becoming more innovative and entrepreneurial while leveraging the power of state-of-the-art technology to address the most critical challenges facing the world today in a sustainable manner. We are proud to see that Hack:AI was able to provide these talented youth with a platform to showcase their abilities as they engaged with top experts in the field to learn and develop their solutions further. It was exciting to witness the wide variety of innovative solutions that were seen across both categories and it certainly augers well for the future of STEM education in Sri Lanka.”

The STEMUP Educational Foundation is a non-profit organization whose mission is to inspire and engage students to become interested in pursuing Scientific, Technological, Engineering, and Mathematical (STEM) degrees and careers. The organization’s mission is fulfilled through the programs and resources they offer to the South Asian community. The Foundation has educational opportunities and resources for all. Most of its resources are also offered free-of-charge as a part of the vision of becoming a national model for passionate support for STEM education.

May 13, 2022

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 13 May 2022 – Teams from Thailand, Singapore and Philippines are winners of the Microsoft AI for Accessibility (AI4A) Hackathon in APAC. In its third year, the AI4A Hackathon features teams who are deeply committed to solving real-world challenges faced by people with disabilities (PwD). The hackathon acts as a springboard for creators and developers to launch their applications, with cash prizes, access to Microsoft Technical experts to co-build their solutions on Microsoft Azure and continued mentoring support to build out their solution.

ABOVE: Team Asclepius from Thailand developed a sign-to-text app to help people who are deaf or hard of hearing. L-R: Krissada Singhakachain, Peerapat Sangpattrachai, Kittipon Amornprasertkij, Papop Lekhapanyaporn, Nunticha Praphanturakit

Drawing on real-life challenges faced by PwDs, 14 non-profit organizations (NPOs) shared problem statements that the 75 teams in the AI4A Hackathon used to build innovative solutions around the themes of transport, wearable devices and language tools.

Team Asclepius from Thailand, Team SWIFT Responders from Singapore and Team EIA from Philippines created solutions to bridge the disability divide, which include building an AI-enabled communication aid for people who are deaf, a smart system that allows people with physical disabilities to live independently, as well as inclusive banking for people who are blind.

In addition to these winners, two additional teams from Indonesia (Arabic Braille Converter) and Singapore (MeetMeHear) will receive coaching by Microsoft and its partners, including access to cloud architects, business consultation guidance to develop their solution, from a proof-of-concept to an application hosted on Microsoft Azure.

“We are inspired to see the continued enthusiasm of submissions this year for the hackathon to improve the lives of PwDs and congratulate the winners who so passionately brought their solutions to fruition,” said Pratima Amonkar, Chair for D&I and Accessibility for Microsoft Asia Pacific. “The month of May will be an important time for us to see the tremendous possibility of the contribution of PwDs as we roll out exciting awareness, training and mentorship programs with our customers, partners and wider community across the region.”

With more than 1 billion people with disabilities in the world, and 650 million in Asia, Microsoft believes that accessibility is essential to delivering on our mission to “empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.” Accessibility is the vehicle to enable inclusion of people with disabilities. To highlight how technology can unlock solutions that empower people with disabilities and enable transformative change within communities in APAC, Microsoft has dedicated the month of May in 2022 to Accessibility Awareness Month, with a series of workshops, trainings and events as well as awarding and celebrating winners of the AI for Accessibility Hackathon winners.

Thailand: Team Asclepius

To help people who are deaf or hard of hearing, Team Asclepius from Thailand, developed a sign-to-text application that uses AI deep learning models to capture movement sequences and body postures that predicts alphabets, words and numbers based on American Sign Language. This group of passionate high school students from Thailand have ambitious plans to include other commonly used sign languages such as British and French Sign Language and enhance it for wider tech applications such as live web events.

ABOVE: Team SWIFT Responders from Singapore developed a smart system for people with physical disabilities to live independently. L – R: Madeline Lim, Abhimanyu Bhatia; foreground: Nurulasyiqah Mohammad Taha.

Singapore: Team SWIFT Responders

From Singapore, Team SWIFT Responders designed an AI-enabled solution that supports the independent living of adult persons with muscular dystrophy who use motorized wheelchairs for mobility. The Support Wheelchair-user Independence Fall Tracker (SWIFT) smart system that they have developed renders immediate assistance to a wheelchair user who falls off-balance from their functional position. This inspires confidence for wheelchair users, and assures their caretakers, that they can live independently and engage in meaningful activity as their safety is assured.

ABOVE: Team EIA from the Philippines hard at work. They developed an inclusive banking platform for people who are blind. L – R: Christian Calonge, Ivan Christopher Carrillo

Philippines: Team EIA

To build a more inclusive banking experience for the blind and the elderly, Team EIA from the Philippines developed an Accessibility and Vision Assistant (AVA), powered by AI and machine learning, that works as a smart financial assistant and mobile wallet for the blind and elderly that makes digital banking accessible and clear. This drives financial inclusion for these groups of people and enables them to access payments and banking services quickly and securely.

Two additional outstanding teams have won coaching by Microsoft and its partners to bring their projects into fully running applications hosted on Microsoft Azure:

1. Arabic Braille Converter (Indonesia): an app that could scan and convert Arabic text or graphics into Indonesian Braille format which can be read by screen readers or braille displays. It also has the function to back-translate from Arabic Braille into Arabic text.

2. MeetMeHear (Singapore): an app to assist the deaf and hard-of-hearing to better communicate with others during physical meetings, through the use of AI for speech recognition to provide more accurate live captions.

Problem Statements from Non-Profit Organizations

NPOs across the region contributed to the hackathon through problem statements, based on real experiences faced by PwD. Some of the problem statements shared include:

How can AI provide wearable devices that will help persons with visual impairment traverse the streets independently and safely?
How can AI provide accessibility for online applicant assessment tools such as language assessments, verbal reasoning tests, and abstract reasoning tests?
How might we automatically create closed captions for offline use to help the deaf and hard of hearing community?

The NPOs represent a variety of organizations committed to improving the lives of people with disabilities in Asia Pacific.

Korea – Korea Differently Abled Federation	Malaysia – Malaysia Pan-Disability Football Club	Philippines – AHA! Learning Center
Philippines – Atriev	Philippines – Project Inclusion	Philippines – Virtualahan
Singapore – SG Enable	Sri Lanka – MJF Charitable Foundation	Thailand – Tab Foundation
Thailand – The Redemptorist Foundation for People with Disabilities	United Nations Development Program	Vietnam – Disability Research and Capacity Development

February 2, 2022

99x’s innovative use of technology saw over 600 undergraduates from across the island virtually participate in the inter-university hackathon Hacktitude last week. After nine hours of non-stop coding, Dalana Dharmathilake, Ashan Rathnaweera and Visal Jayathilaka of University of Colombo’s School of Computing (UCSC) walked away with top honours.

Just 12 teams from the 230 registered were able to score the full points and it was these outstanding 12 teams that were recognised at the awards ceremony hosted at Kingsbury, Colombo earlier this week. The winning team from UCSC received developer-grade, high-end Apple MacBooks for the entire team. The first and second runners-up were from the University of Moratuwa’s Computer Science and Engineering Faculty (UOM-CSE), and this faculty was also awarded the Hackitude Championship Trophy as the highest scoring university.

“Most undergraduates possess knowledge but lack the skills and capabilities required when entering the job market,” observed 99x Chief People Officer Damitha Jayasinghe. “However, by participating in Hacktitude, these 600+ students challenged themselves and improved their technical skills. The tests were created to give participants exposure to problems faced in real client projects, allowing them to develop their industry readiness before entering the job market.”

He added that it was an inspiring and exciting time for the 99x team as well, especially with the numerous positive comments received by the participants, who shared that they had learned a lot from the event.

Commenting on their Hacktitude experience, Dalana Dharmathilake of the winning team ‘NamakNa’, stated: “The format of the hackathon was a new experience for us all. It was challenging but very enjoyable. I think Hacktitude is a great competition for undergraduates to test and improve their skills in developing production-grade code. We are looking forward to participating in the next year as well. Thank you 99x for organizing such an amazing hackathon.”

Hacktitude saw undergraduates from 18 state and private universities participate and a noteworthy contribution from a group of enterprising boys from Ananda College. UCSC and UOM-CSE dominated the top 10 with their technical prowess, with the 11^th and 12^th teams hailing from the National School of Business Management (NSBM) and University of Moratuwa’s Information Technology faculty respectively.

A compulsory requirement of each participating team was the inclusion of an academic coach, a member of the university faculty who will mentor the teams throughout the competition. Pasindu Marasinghe, as academic coach of the winning UCSC team, also walked away with a MacBook and many prizes as he coached three other teams in the top 10.

The entire event was made possible by DevGrade, a first-of-its-kind platform developed by 99x to train product engineers, which too was put to the test in supporting the work of over 600 young developers over a period of nine hours. Given this success, 99x plans to continue Hacktitude as an annual event and is now exploring the possibility of extending it to schoolchildren, to educate them about ICT from a young age.

99x is a technology company co-creating well-engineered, innovative digital products for the Scandinavian market. Its expertise has been proven through a portfolio of over 150 impactful global digital products, developed together with leading Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). 99x employs over 350 technology and product specialists, who are high achievers, creative thinkers and team players. The company is one of Asia’s Best Workplaces for 2021 and has been named a Best Workplace in Sri Lanka for nine consecutive years.

October 7, 2017

Hack’ed – Mitra Innovation Hackathon 2017

An esteemed panel of experts will make up the judging panel.

Mitra Innovation, based in Sri Lanka and the UK will be hosting its first ever hackathon event, which will take place this weekend, on 7th October 2017 in Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. The 10-hour Hackathon event titled Hack’ed, will bring eight teams of Mitra Innovation’s expert software engineers together to compete against time and each other to deliver the best and most relevant office productivity application.

The team names are as follow:

*A Team

*pʌɪrət

*Oxygen

*HackSlash

*404 Not Found

*LastMinute

*AcceSSDeNIeD

*Alfred

Software engineers from the company have previously taken part in many externally run Hackathon’s but as a company that thrives on innovation and using technologies such as WSO2 and Amazon Web Service (AWS)s to bring new products and platforms to market, Mitra felt it was time to run their own Hackathon.

As an internal hackathon, Hack’ed 2017 focuses on the theme of using new apps to improve the office environment. Mitra Innovation’s CTO and Chief Architect, Sudaraka Jayashanka invited the teams participating in the Hackathon in order to brief them. “‘In our office environment, while carrying out day to day work, you must have felt If I had an app to do this, it would be more productive. Competing teams are expected to identify a scenario within Mitra Innovation’s office environment that is problematic and provide a brilliant solution in the form of an app.”

Solutions must be built entirely from scratch and within a time frame of no more than 10 hours, after which competing teams will present their solution to the judges’ panel and the winning teams will be awarded exciting prizes. All participating teams will be provided with an AWS account to provision the services needed to run and deploy their app solution.”

As part of the Hackathon, the eight teams can choose their technology of choice, as long as the solution is deployable on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Participating teams of Hack’ed 2017 will consist of five members and it is up to the teams to acquire the necessary skills required to build their solution.

Jayashanka went on to say “ the Hack’ed solutions will be evaluated by the judges, using the following criteria:
The selected idea with regard to the app and its relevance

User experience and usability
Completion of the proposed features
Technology stack and technical approach
Quality of code
Quality of the demonstration.”

Mitra Innovation’s first ever internal Hackathon will be judged by an expert panel of esteemed IT and software development gurus. The judges are Hasith Yaggahavita, CTO of 99x, an award winning international software engineering company, Venura Mendis, CTO of WSO2.Telco, and Ashok Suppiah, CEO and Co-founder of Mitra Innovation.

Virtusa Concludes Successful 5-Day Managed Services AIOps Hackathon

SLT-MOBITEL mSpace Code Blast Hackathon 2023 concludes successfully empowering Sri Lankan technopreneurship

ComBank conducts hackathon for staff to display problem-solving ingenuity

Microsoft APAC AI for Accessibility Hackathon 2023, held in collaboration with SLIIT, encourages the implementation of AI to create an inclusive world

Winners of the Microsoft AI for Accessibility Hackathon 2023 showcase how inclusion is innovation in Asia Pacific

Aion sponsors KDU’s ‘Capture the Flag’ and hackathon for students of 21 universities

Hack:AI 2021-2022 concludes by recognizing school and university student winners

Announcing Microsoft AI for Accessibility Hackathon APAC winners: Thailand, Singapore, and Philippines accelerate inclusive innovation

University of Colombo walks away with top honours at 99x’s Hacktitude 2022

Sri Lanka and UK based Mitra Innovation to host its first ever internal software development Hackathon event!