Team Bot Chat and Team Association were declared the winners in the students and professional’s category respectively, at the NBO Hackathon which took place from April 30 to May 1.

NBO Hackathon was segregated into two parts, the students challenge and professionals challenge. 

Students under-25 who were pursuing academic degrees in Oman could take part as students while IT professionals and start-up companies could take part in the professional challenge.

Ideas for the Students & Professionals Challenge categories were evaluated based on the Business Value, Innovation, User-friendly experience, Prototype readiness.

Lambda and Icare teams secured the second spot in their respective categories. The event took place at NBOs new head office in Azaiba.

The Hackathon aimed to support innovation and the brilliant innovators in the Sultanate, where participants from different universities, institutions and start up organisations came together to develop new ideas and technologies that will advance the banking sector through technology.

The participants competed with each other by showcasing prototypes of their ideas to a panel of experts, who selected five participants to compete in the final stage of the competition. The first winners earned a cash prize as well as professional training courses and potential employment opportunities within NBO.

In the competition, groups of teams had to design innovative products related to banking. It involves five themes: Banking for Today’s Youth; Banking 2030; Banking for Entrepreneurs; Banking on the Go and Cross Industry Synergy.

As many as 200 participants comprising school and college students to entrepreneurs and other professionals from Oman, UAE and India took part in the event.

The hackathon invited passionate application developers to create innovative banking software, apps, or other innovative technology using any platform, framework, language, or hardware device you desire and configure it to make something better, over a 24-hour period.

Participants could start from scratch or modify a technology that was previously created in order to change/improve its functionality or purpose.

Teams could build prototypes from scratch (e.g. Mobile Applications / Consumer Web Applications / Business Web Applications. All participants will have an opportunity to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges, however, only five short-listed ideas will be presented at the Grand Finale.

Prototypes had to be developed within the specified time-frame, no additional time was provided. The finalists won exciting prizes including internships and potential employment opportunities with NBO and its technological partners.

Source: Timesofoman