Pakistan Hosts its Very First 30-Hour Data Science HackathonAtif M.
BlockedUnblockFollowFollowingApr 27On April 20th, Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Karachi opened its doors to more than a hundred students from all over Pakistan to participate in a 30-hour Data Science Hackathon, sponsored and co-organized by Inqline — an NYC based Data Analytics startup.
The aim of organizing this grand tech event was to bring the best and the brightest hackers from all over the country to solve a social problem through Data Science, Machine Learning, and to bring about digital social innovation in the country through the utilization of new technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
Team Flash from Habib University & DHA Suffa UniversityThe Problem At HandIn a country like Pakistan, there is no shortage of unsolved problems.
Such is the dilemma of finding traces of transfusion-transmitted diseases in the donated blood without having to spend hundreds of dollars on screening tests.
The process of blood transfusion is not as simple as it may seem.
The blood that is taken from a donor has to go through several numbers of screening tests before it can be deemed ‘useful’ and healthy.
This is not only a time-consuming process but also a pretty expensive one.
To help solve this problem, Inqline and IBA partnered with Husaini Blood Bank (HBB) to help come up with an optimum solution that could judge if the donated blood is good or bad by using the donors’ medical data provided by HBB.
Overwhelming Response of Pakistani YouthThe news about Inqline’s collaboration with IBA to host the very first 30-hour Data Science Hackathon in Karachi was well-received by Pakistani youth on social media.
More than 28 teams comprising of over 100 students from 12 different universities across Pakistan registered to participate in the event.
12 notable universities including NED, FAST, Karachi University, IBA, Habib University, Mehran University Jamshoro, Muhammad Ali Jinnah University, SZABIST and Bahria University all participated in the hackathonThe Inqline IBA Data Science HackathonFor the very first time in Pakistan, students were provided with a real-world problem which they had to solve within 30 hours using a real-life dataset that was acquired from HBB.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that hackathons like these, often accelerate outcomes that usually take months of work to achieve or replicate.
Students were required to analyze a dataset that was based on blood donors’ medical data.
By the end of the hackathon, they offered a solution that could predict the prevalence of any transfusion-transmitted disease in a blood sample.
The event began with keynote speaker sessions by Associate Dean, Faculty of Computer Science, IBA, Dr.
Sayeed Ghani, followed by CEO & Founder of Inqline, Atif Muhammad.
The Data Science Hackathon consisted of 2 rounds; the 1st Round stretched over 7 hours, where the students were given a descriptive real-world problem, along with a dataset which had to be cleansed and classified with Data Science and Machine Learning algorithms.
Throughout the event, a leaderboard was maintained where all the teams were ranked based on their submissions.
The structure, grading, and the design flow were kept competitive to ensure that the students put their best foot forward.
The 2nd Round revolved around a 23-hour long nail-biting challenge, where all the participants were required to stay on campus, overnight — hacking and building code.
All of the teams that made it to the 2nd Round kept analyzing, evaluating and coding throughout the night.
Right after the completion of 2nd Round, the teams were also required to present their business cases in a two-minute pitch for implementation of their ML model in blood banks to the panel of judges.
Dr.
Sayeed Ghani, Associate Dean, Faculty of Computer Science, IBA in the opening ceremonyThe Winning TeamsThe esteemed panel of judges consisted of senior university professors and notable Data Science experts from the industry, including Jehanzaib Chaudhry, CEO & Founder of Mandi Xpress, and Ali Raza Bhayani, CTO of Bitwits, who after thorough evaluation, declared Data Squad from NED University of Engineering & Technology as the winning team and FAST from Habib University as the runners-up.
The winning team was awarded a cash prize of Rs.
100,000, along with a paid internship for one of the team members at Inqline’s headquarters in New York City; the 2nd place team was awarded a cash prize of Rs.
60,000.
The winning team — Data Squad from NED UniversityThe VisionInqline is proud to have pioneered the first overnight student Data Science-focused hackathon in Pakistan.
The purpose of this hackathon was to create a pool of Data Science talent in Pakistan to collectively focus on a social problem and come up with a tech-based optimum solution, connecting the sorcery of Data Science algorithms with the world of medical sciences.
Inqline believes that every engineer in Pakistan is full of ideas and passion.
There is much talent to be explored in this part of the world, and we firmly believe that events like these allow students to take more interest in the new and upcoming technologies.
Our vision for Pakistan is clear: we see Pakistan as the next leader in Data Science.
With Team Data Developers from University of Karachi.. More details