‘Hack Fest 2022’ concludes at IBA

Teams of Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology and FAST have clinched excellence awards for designing best Apps to give technical solutions to the challenges pertaining to United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which Pakistan and other countries of the world has to accomplish by 2030.

A three-day event titled Hack Fest 2022 in this regard was organized at IBA City Campus Karachi by Google Developers Students Club (GDSC) in collaboration with bytecorp, Sastaticket.p and TPS and wherein teams of 10 universities, including University of Karachi and Sindh Madressatul Islam University (SMIU) and IBA, belonging to Google Developer Student Club received training from experts and designed Apps for finding solution to the issues like climate change, poverty, inequality, farming.

Speaking on the occasion, participants stated that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.

At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership.

They said that these goals recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.

Rafia Manzoor, GDSC Team Lead at University of Karachi, said that Karachi was facing worst problems of sanitation, water shortage and environment, which had made the life of citizens miserable. She said that there was urgent need to resolve those issues on priority basis.

Filza Manzoor, Usman Institute of Technology University’s GDSC Lead, said that students and professors of Usman Institute of Technology University had created Pakistan’s first open source microprocessor chip which had been approved by Google. She said that is the most important element of the IT industry, and Pakistan could get a great help.

Danella Patrick, SMIU GDSC Lead, informed that SSUET team had achieved first award of Rs50,000 for showing best performance pertaining to UN goals challenges while FAST got two awards – one each worth Rs30,000 and Rs20,000 that is innovative performance of the university. She applauded the teams of SSUET and FAST.

Ammar Shahid of SSUET GDSC Lead, said that their team had develop an App on urban farming. He said that the App would help plant saplings and tree, particularly fruit and vegetables plants in houses, schools, colleges and universities. This will not only benefit economically but also environmentally, he added.

The universities which took part in the program were University of Karachi, SMIU, SSUET, Salim Habib University, Usman Institute of Technology, IBA, DHA Suffa University, NED University and FAST.

Shields and appreciation certificates were presented to the best performing students of the universities and representatives of the companies and judges.

The judges include GDSC Global’s Manager Hufsa Munawar, Adeel Rizwi, Fariha Farooq, Dr Umari Riaz and Saif. The three day proceedings of the program were conducted by Danella Patrick (SMIU), Azhar Ali Naqvi (SMIU), Nabeel Ahmed (IBA), Rohail (Suffa) and Eman Ahmed (Salim Habib University.