MYHackathon 2020 to unlock creativity among Sabahans in finding digital solutions
KOTA KINABALU: MYHackathon 2020 is calling all Sabahans to step up their innovation game and participate in co-creating digital solutions that will help improve the delivery of key public services.
Participants with the best pitch of digital solutions will stand a chance to win attractive prizes, including a conditional grant of RM250,000.
MyHackathon is a nationwide series of hackathon organised by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, with Cradle Fund as the main sponsor and Sabah Creative Economy and Innovation Centre (SCEIC) as the strategic partner.
Registration is currently open for Sabahans at https:// myhackathon.com.my. Participants aged 18 and above are eligible to join the Rakyat Produktif hackathon theme for Kota Kinabalu, which will begin on Nov 30.
Cradle Group chief executive officer Rafiza Ghazali said the focus of Kota Kinabalu hackathon is to enhance national productivity – simplify and streamline government services that can increase productivity.
“Participants will pitch digital solutions to problem statements that are related to job seekers, halal certification, training programmes that match the needs of the industry, and Big Data for the agriculture sector,” she said.
The hackathon is divided into two categories - Sprint and Marathon. In each category, participants can come in teams of two to five persons.
Information on Rakyat Produktif hackathon is available at https://www. myhackathon.com.my/kk
Rafiza noted that participants registering for the Marathon category, which offers RM250,000 conditional grant, should join with the intention of solving the government problem statements.
While winning prizes is an added bonus for contestants, she said their main goal was to help upgrade the people's lives across the country through digital solutions and enrich the technopreneurs' development as well as ecosystem.
“After a nationwide study conducted by MAMPU, we identified over 100 problems statements based on the rakyat's real-life situations and issues that are closely impacting them.
“Through MYHackathon 2020, we not only hope to improve the quality of life of the people, but we also hope to raise the spirit of altruism and cultivate innovation among the people, whether in the urban or rural areas.”
Being a strategic partner, SCEIC is assisting Cradle Fund to drive more participation from Sabah and be the bridge between tech startups, entrepreneurs in Sabah, and MyHackathon 2020.
Since launching its operation in April this year, general manager Viviantie Sarjuni said SCEIC has impacted over 1,000 individuals from various backgrounds in their entrepreneurial journey.
“Sabah is huge, and we are confident there are so many talented minds out there. We just need to encourage them to refine the solutions through participating in competitions like this.
“We hope to uncover more innovative and creative tech solutions from the grassroot. The pandemic in a way forces us to think out of the box and find solutions to pressing issues in our community,” she said.
ViviantienotedMyHackathon presented an opportunity for students to stand for better employment in the future as employers nowadays are seeking for candidates that are able to understand, observe challenges in the industry and provide solutions to it.
Through such competition, she said SCEIC hoped to nurture the working relationship between private sector, government, higher learning institutions and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) in driving the agenda of innovation, technology and creativity.
“In this event, we have formed an organising committee consisting of NGOs and higher learning institutions as we realised the importance of collaboration efforts.
“We would like to thank Borneo Startups Community, Kinabalu Coders, Rambutan Code Academy, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), University Technology Mara (UiTM) and Politeknik Kota Kinabalu for stepping up and assisting SCEIC in promoting the event.”