staff Reporter, Dhaka : Skitto, Grameenphone’s popular youth-centric product, recently arranged the finale of its “Skitto Hackathon” program. Winners and runners-ups were announced at the grand event held at the GP House, with Circuit Brokers hacking it at the finale.

With the slogan – Hack it to Make it, the objective of the Skitto Hackathon was to encourage young and talented students from various universities to engage in activities that testify to their understanding of business models and prove their capability of digging out solutions through a strategic approach. Participants from reputed universities like North South University, East West University, United International University, American International University Bangladesh, BRAC University and Independent University Bangladesh assessed a problem statement. Then, they were required to develop a business model and a prototype to solve that problem. Thousands of students responded to Skitto’s call for the exciting Hackathon around June this year, and ultimately ten teams consisting of 3 – 5 members were shortlisted for the finals.

“Always taking a youth-first approach, Grameenphone believes our demographic dividend will grab the imminent 4IR opportunities if equipped with future-fit digital skills and be the future drivers of economic growth. The initial target for us with Skitto Hackathon was to involve the genius brains in the universities in problem-solving activities, cater to their evolving needs which could potentially give them a better concept of the competitive market before they actually enter that and transform the society as a whole,” said Sajjad Hasib, CMO, Grameenphone. “We were inspired by the future way of thinking and not surprised when we found some brilliant and innovative ideas in the avenues like e-learning, youth wellbeing, gaming etc.; because we knew how much possibility sustains among our youth, after all, they will make ‘Smart Bangladesh’ happen”.

Anika Rahnuma from the champion team said, “We had an open-ended case to solve, which gave us the scope to brainstorm and explore creative ideas with full freedom. We thoroughly enjoyed Skitto Hackathon, and we hope that such contests will also be organized in the coming years. Thanks to Skitto and Grameenphone for the amazing experience”.

It showcased an array of transformational ideas and was the first ever hackathon competition organized by Skitto and Grameenphone. Team “Circuit Brokers” from the Islamic University of Technology (IUT) secured the Champion’s trophy at the Skitto Hackathon. In contrast, team “End Game” from Islamic University of Technology (IUT) and “Inmates” from Dhaka University won the first and second runners-up positions, respectively. Grameenphone CHRO Syed Tanvir Husain and CMO Mohammad Sajjad Hasib handed over the cheques to the winners in the presence of S M Monirul Haque, Director, IT; Vaibhav Madhukar Nikte, Head of Commercial Planning & Development; Shaila Rahman, Head of Business Partner & Circle HR; Kazi Emran Mahboob, Head of Skitto and other Grameenphone high officials were present. The Champion team won prize money of BDT 1 lakh, and the first and second runner-up teams received cheques worth BDT 50 thousand and BDT 25 thousand, respectively.