PickMe Engineering spearheads local innovation at Google DevFest 2019

Technology-driven mobility solutions provider PickMe’s engineering arm ‘PickMe Engineering’ was the Platinum sponsor for the GDG DevFest Sri Lanka 2019 organised by Google Developers Group (GDG) and GDG Cloud Sri Lanka’s, held at the SLIIT and Stein Studio on November 23 and 24, 2019.

‘DevFest’ is a platform renowned for bringing experts in Android, Web, Cloud and other Google technologies under one roof including full day of sessions, workshops, showcases, introducing and revealing groundbreaking developer innovations. The event also facilitates networking with IT professionals from across the world. This year’s DevFest saw over 850 visitors, with over 35 series of informative technical sessions. Described by many as ‘the most sought after tech community event’, DevFest is the best place for experience sharing in a phenomenal atmosphere. Google Developers Group (GDG) is an open and volunteer tech savvy community that creates exciting projects and shares experiences about Google technologies with a passion.

Parallel to the activities of GDG DevFest Sri Lanka 2019, PickMe Engineering hosted an online gaming competition in association with Yaala Labs, with a grandeur stall to complement the theme of the event which was put to good use with engaging stall activities and technical sessions. Participants were being able to witness PickMe Engineering’s knowledge and state of the art technologies in practice such as micro service based system written using Golang with a kafka messaging backbone running along with a state of the art data science platform. 

“It is a great honour to have partnered with the highly anticipated GDG DevFest Sri Lanka 2019 as a Platinum sponsor. We are more than happy to be able to impart everlasting cutting-edge technological knowledge among the youth of Sri Lanka, as we at PickMe always strive to seek and expose budding talent in the tech space of our island nation. With the presence of the PickMe Engineering at this internationally recognized event, we’re sure to prove that PickMe is more than just a ride-hailing app,” said PickMe CEO Jiffry Zulfer.

PickMe Engineering’s expert team successfully conducted a full day lab sessions on Go Zero to Hero (Golang), which saw the presence of IT professionals from the industry and university students. PickMe’s Chief Technology Officer Mithila Somasiri delivered an insightful session on ‘Emerging Tech Trends and Opportunities’, another highlight of the event that saw over 700 IT professionals and IT students in the audience.

Following these sessions, PickMe Engineering also hosted the ‘DevFest Gaming Challenge’, an online gaming competition that saw over 1,300 contestants competing to get into the top 10 of the leaderboard to win special prizes. The competition was evidently challenging towards the end, with an enthusiastic audience of local and foreign IT industry professionals and university students.

Following the final rounds, the winners of the adrenaline-pumping competition were announced and prizes were handed over by Mithila Somasiri and Yalaa Lab Chief Architect, Manoj Bandara.  Lahiru Madushanka acquired first place, winning Rs.10,000 in PickMe Points, while Jagodage Hasitha Chandana came in second, winning Rs.7,000 in PickMe Points and Ikshura Keerthiratne coming in third, winning Rs.5,000 in PickMe Points.