Cradle, MYHackathon 2020 winners to work on realising digital solutions

Around 36 solutions were shortlisted and will be developed to accompany the existing public

by NUR HAZIQAH A MALEK / pic by MUHD AMIN NAHARUL

MYHACKATHON 2020 winners will be working on realising their pitched digital solutions for the next eight to 12 months.

Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd group CEO Rafiza Ghazali said the funding group is keen on organising MYHackathon 2021, but there is a need to focus on the development of solutions.

“For the next eight to 12 months, our focus will not be on MYHackathon 2021, but on last year’s winners to allow them to fully realise their solutions which will eventually be adopted.

“One of the Finance Ministry’s conditions is that they want to see some percentage of the solutions to be deployed first, and then, we will see about the next competition,” she said after the MYHackathon 2020 Finale & Showcase yesterday.

Rafiza said during the course of the programme, those who participated were given the chance to learn a variety of skills including how to pitch ideas.

“By far, through this experience, even those who did not win walked away with some advantage to initiate their own start-up.

“In fact, even if they did not win, they could develop some of these solutions on their own,” she said.

Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (Mosti) deputy secretary general Datuk Parang Abai @ Thomas said the programme has given the country’s technological benchmark more space to further advance.

“This is in line with the ministry’s objectives to transform the country into a high-technology user and developer.

“This is what we want to keep working on this year,” he said.

Also present at the event was Mosti Minister Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar (picture), who said the programme was introduced to use the public’s perspective to identify and improve the weaknesses in the government’s services.

Around 36 solutions were shortlisted and will be developed to accompany the existing public services digitally.

Khairy said the pandemic has heavily affected all sectors and industries, which prompted the government to adopt a more inclusive and holistic method to understand the public’s situation.

“The government has seen that the most relevant and effective approach is by using technology and adoption of digitalisation in the government services.

“However, the question is on how to get the best implementation and ideas. Talent and brain bank from among the public are vital as they are the best at understanding the public’s problems,” he said.

On the MYHackathon website, 17 winnners were listed. They are Vircle, FortNynja and SC Avienna Sdn Bhd from Kuala Lumpur; Deux Alpha Tech Sdn Bhd and Blockcord from Kuala Terengganu; and Pantai Education, Anak2U and Ozel Sdn Bhd from Johor Baru.

From Kuching were Zer0Hunger Sdn Bhd, Borang My Digital Plt, Neuon AI Sdn Bhd and HAVVA Agrotech Sdn Bhd; Boss Boleh Sdn Bhd, Niutecs and ThinkersLab Sdn Bhd from Penang; and Exponential Digital Technologies Sdn Bhd and Synxsoft Sdn Bhd from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

Among the solutions that were shortlisted included a smartphone education to help the specially abled persons with the registration of their cards, as well as digitised public health records for antenatal, paediatric and vaccination information.