SLASSCOM with IFC holds Hack like a Girl hackathon

Sri Lanka’s national chamber for the IT/BPM industry, SLASSCOM - through its Women Technopreneurs Forum - in partnership with IFC and the Government of Japan, recently organised a unique hackathon focused on women technopreneurs, with the aim of breaking stereotypes and empowering women in the tech industry. 

Hack like a Girl was designed to accelerate growth among women technopreneurs, preparing them to develop the next groundbreaking solution. Participants got the opportunity to interact with industry experts and mentors through networking sessions and boot camps where they were able to gain knowledge on ideation, validation, branding, financial management and skill development, among others.     

This unique event was an ideal starting point for women programmers to stimulate and harness innovative ideas. The hackathon attracted over 30 entries, with 15 qualifying for the final round. Women programmers from IT/BPM companies as well as budding technopreneurs from local universities across multiple regions participated. Through the hackathon, the participants were able to demonstrate their technical expertise and create disruptive solutions while breaking gender barriers. The event enabled the environment for improved networking and robust fellowship among women in tech. 

The final 15 teams received one-on-one mentoring for the hackathon by industry experts such as Jina Rajapathirana, Amira Ghaffor, Imesh Liyanage, Krithika Thushyantha, Fiona Nanayakkara, Shaheeqa Siraj, Anojan Kaneshathas, Tharindu Dassanayake, Prabath Perera, Dimuthu Ponnamperuma, Kaveen Muhandiramge, Sanjeewa Pathirana, Kaushalya Batawala and Ismail Sahurdin.

The keynote address on the final day of the hackathon was delivered by Bank of America Senior Vice President Cloud and Advanced Technology Anuja Shukla, who shared her experience and encouraged the budding women technopreneurs to keep motivated in their future journey.                                                                                                                       
Team Fourplusone - represented by IronOne Technologies - emerged as winners, followed by Team Engima - represented by the University of Colombo and Team Colon - represented by IIT.  

The three winning tech solutions included an integrated volunteer management system, a platform to connect volunteers with the available volunteer programmes, UNI Cash, a financial solution to help university students manage their expenses and an emergency alert safety app for the personal safety of the general public.     

The judges for the final event comprised of Anuja Shukla, Sachindra Samararatne - Director of Startup Ecosystem Development at ICTA Sri Lanka, Shahani Markus, Ph.D. - Founder, CTO and Chairperson of Emojot Inc. and Uditha Bandara (MVP) - CEO of Blue Chip Technologies ASIA, Charindra Wijemanne - Co-Founder/CTO of Maturify, Lalinda Ariyaratna - Director International Sales and Partnerships of Nimbus Venture, Uthpali Thilakarathna - Co-Founder of Tracified, Dr. Nadeera Nilupamali - Co-Founder and Executive Director of ImmunifyMe Healthcare Technologies and Thanuja Masakorala - Co-Founder of  MintHRM were judges for the soft hack event.

The facilitators for the Pre Hack sessions included  Anuja Shukla - Senior Vice President, Bank of America, Kushlani De Silva - Marketing Strategist and Consultant, Uditha Bandara (MVP) - CEO of Blue Chip Technologies ASIA, Muditha Hettigama - Consultant with PwC training women entrepreneurs in financial literacy, Nevindaree Premaratne - Senior Manager - Startup Ecosystem Development at ICTA and  Aloka Gunasekara - Director - Startup and Business Ecosystem Innovation – YouLead.