Smart City Hackathon at GP House

The youths are the future of the country as technology is getting new interpretations in the hands of them. The youths of Bangladesh are making the biggest contribution to the government's dream of implementing a Digital Bangladesh. Empowered by the energy and innovation of the youths, the government is forging ahead on its way to achieve SDG as it has achieved the MDG. The interest of the youths in technology and their innovative thinking can change the face of the technological sector of the country. And for this the youths need assistance, training, intensive care and the scopes to work. 

In line with this, the first ever hackathon on smart city solution is going to take place at GP House for a continuous 36 hours from November 11 to 12. The 30 selected teams, out of 430 applications submitted on www.white-board.co, have been notified through SMS and email about their participation. The aim of the hackathon is to find talented young minds, strengthen their skills, give them direction and resources to help them turn their ideas into reality. The outcome of this projects will be applied to other fields of the country. 
Thirty teams will be able to participate in the hackathon with each team comprising of maximum four participants and minimum two participants. Each team will present their innovative thinking through IT software or hardware throughout the 36 hours. The prizes of the competition include three months of access to ecosystem along with co-working space support, related knowledge and asset support, and a special demo day by White Board, in order to create commercial opportunities for the selected projects. 
Dhaka North City Corporation and ICT Division are strategic partners of this initiative, EEE-Bangladesh Section and OT Council-Europe are knowledge partners, Google Developer Group, User Hub, Women Tech Maker are sales community partners, and Spider Digital (Dubai) is investment partner. Daily Ittefaq and Radio Foorti are media partners of this event.  
The participating youths will have the opportunity to flourish their talent through this initiative, as the entire world will see their innovative thinking in the technological sector. The selected teams will be given an opportunity work in a better environment at GP house for three months. In addition, they will get startup mentorship assistance for six months from Preneurlab. Furthermore, Dnet will provide them incubation assistance. The youths also have opportunities to get a donation of BDT 2.5 million from the ICT Division of the Bangladesh Government, and another BDT 2.5 million from Spider Digital (Dubai) in order to make their innovative technology commercially successful.  
The participating teams will primarily focus on innovative solutions to implement better sanitation, clean city, efficient living, effective urban management, better slums facilities, traffic and transport management, safe city for women, lifestyle, convenient communication, town hall, and planned city for the future citizens of the country.
About this initiative, Grameenphone Chief Marketing Officer Yasir Azman said, "We are very happy to arrange smart city hackathon through White Board. This first ever program in Bangladesh will inspire the young innovators and entrepreneurs.  The young minds will come up with different digital solutions to make Dhaka a citizen friendly  city through this hackathon. Dhaka City Corporation, the ICT Division and other patrons of this event have promised to provide financial and other assistance so that the top projects of this hackathon see light. The employees and trainers of Grameenphone will involve themselves directly with this initiative to make Dhaka a smart city with digital solutions. White board will associate with more such initiative to create an enabling ecosystem for the innovators" 
White Board will keep on its effort to provide maximum support and facilities to the 120 youths so that they can turn innovative thinking into reality and work diligently to make the city livable. This is the first initiative of Grameenphone to bring smart city solution. The employees of Grameenphone are also involved in this initiative.