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Youth Festival: Hackathon opens to enthusiastic participants(Express Tribune (Pakistan) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The Punjab Youth Festival Hackathon opened at the Gymnasium Hall of the Punjab Sports Board on Saturday with 430 participants. v The participants have been given two days to submit their projects using Microsoft Windows 8.1 applications. They are competing in four categories innovation (50 teams), gaming (100 teams), code for better Pakistan (200 teams) and highest number of applications. Each team comprises three to five members. Event coordinator Muneeza Gillani told newsmen that eight Microsoft officials (four from Lahore, two from Islamabad and two from Karachi) were supervising the programme. “Microsoft is the technology partner for this programme,” she said. Gillani said teams had been trained at 15 universities in six cities earlier in January. She said Microsoft will award 26 smart phones, a laptop and two tablets to winners. “Microsoft is also giving free accounts to participants to publish their applications,” she added. Lahore School of Economics won the Crack the Case contest on Saturday. Minister for Sports and Education Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan was the chief guest. As many as 11 teams led by Anoosh Khalid, Rubab Asmat Zuhra, Usman Saeed, Abuzar Ameen, Muhammad Suleman, Ali Naveed, Mudassar Ahmed, Sayed Nasir, Ziaullah Khan, Sidra Tabassum and Syed Huzefa Bokhari gave presentations of their solutions for over four hours. The teams deliberated on the problems faced by PIA and presented several suggestions. Rubab Asmat Zuhra from Lahore School of Economics was adjudged winner. Hamza Shafiq from Hailey College stood second and Punjab University’s Anoosh Khalid was third. Rana Mashhood said that the government wanted to provide opportunities to the youth to showcase their skills. “The youth festival is one of the biggest campaigns launched for this purpose,” he said.The Extreme Coding contest was won by FAST University. University of Engineering and Technology stood second. Over 900 university students from across the province had participated in the competition. As many as 120 students had participated in the final round and were divided into 40 teams. Sports Board Director General Usman Unwar was the chief guest. Published in The Express Tribune, March 16th, 2014. |