In a virtual event hosted in Islamabad, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Microsoft Pakistan selected teams from NUST and FAST as winners of the Microsoft Student hackathon.
The competition’s winners were Team “QueryCity” from FAST NUCES Peshawar Campus and Team “AI-Based Ophthalmology Grading” from NUST CEME Rawalpindi, and they will represent Pakistan at the world finals.
Both teams got a cash prize of Rs. 100,000 and USD 1,000 in Azure credits for being national winners, while the runner-up teams earned cash prizes and gift hampers.
Shafqat Mahmood, Federal Minister of Education, Microsoft Country Manager Shahzad Khan, Microsoft Country Education Lead Jibran Jamshed, Education Lead MCC Angela Nganga, and other top officials attended the virtual event.
HEC and Microsoft Pakistan have been praised by the federal minister for their efforts in creating such forums for students to display their talent and come up with unique solutions to complicated problems in today’s world.
“The government is dedicated to the well-being of Pakistani young since they are seen as a national asset. Competitions like this are critical in bringing out the best in our young brilliant brains and presenting them on a global stage,” he added.
Dr. Shaista Sohail, HEC’s Executive Director, stated
We’ve seen some incredibly unique concepts come in, and several of the students who have competed in these challenges have gone on to found their own start-ups that have grown into multi-million-dollar businesses.
Microsoft’s efforts to transform skill development, nurture aspiring innovators, and inspire collaboration include this student hackathon competition. It’s all about transition, innovation, and what’s next. Pakistan has incredible potential, and tournaments like these only serve to expose it and provide a platform for it to reach out to the rest of the world. He said,
“I hope we will encourage these students to compete in the 2022 Imagine Cup, which aims to promote a spirit of social and technological entrepreneurship by allowing students to use their creativity to resolve actual societal challenges through technology.”
Source: Popakistani
