BDApps, a leading mobile application (app) store of the country, recently hosted its signature event, Innovation Hackathon, in the city. In total, 41 students in 14 teams took part in the 24-hour final hackathon event on July 26, says a press release.

DigitalMCQ team from Ahsanullah University of Science & Technology were crowned as the champion, while Brotherhood team from International Islamic University Chittagong was the first runner-up and fSociety team from BRAC University became second runner-up.

M Abdullah Al Nasim, Asif Imtiaz Shaafi and Fabliha Fairooz were on the winning AUST-DigitalMCQ team, while Kazi Mohammad Nokib, Mohammad Robiul Alam, Mir Reaz Uddin and Suparna Swapan Nath were on IIUC-Brotherhood that came in second, and Tawhid Shahrior, Moshiur Rahman, Mirza Farhan Hasin and Chowdhury Rabith Amin were on the third team, BRACU-fSociety.

The participants had to solve problems around four major areas: agriculture, health, education and lifestyle in the 24-hour-long hackathon. The contestants had integrated telecom subscriber’s features, re-organised their initial scope for making the app more user-friendly, uploaded their apps to AppStore and presented their final results in front of the jury.

All the winners were given cash prizes to support their application’s promotion. BDApps will train and support the winners and all the participants to popularise and commercialise their applications. The local app store will also provide the winners a platform to present their product to different stakeholders with a view to help them grow as digital entrepreneurs.

Initially, 659 app developers in 228 teams applied to for taking part in the hackathon. Later, on the basis of innovative concept, app readiness, customer friendliness, business potential, and infrastructure availability, 14 teams were selected for the final Hackathon event.

BDApps is a big platform for Bangladeshi application developers to host their innovative apps and sell them to local mobile subscribers.