15 teams to contest “Hackathon” 2023 for $1.5M in prizes

The Office of the Prime Minister’s Innovation Challenge “Hackathon” has returned this year with greater momentum, whereby 15 teams of tech-savvy youths will be contesting for the top prizes worth $1.5 million.
This year’s edition of the Innovation Challenge was organised through collaboration with SBM Offshore Guyana. The coding event will span three consecutive days, commencing on Friday.
Director of the Industry and Innovation Unit at OPM, Shahrukh Hussain noted during the launch on Tuesday that Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has the potential to enable transformation in society and economy. The driving factor behind this initiative is to promote innovation.
Recognising that there are many youths with brilliant ideas, he stated that it is difficult to transform such into a viable income stream. Hussain indicated that it also provides an opportunity to identify talented individuals in this field.
“There are a lot of young people out there with great ideas but it has been challenging for them to convert those ideas into income generating operations. At the Innovation Challenge or Hackathon, it is the perfect avenue for them to tap into their creativity and creating new and sustainable solutions in the form of a workable software,” Hussain outlined.

Last year, five successful ideas were put into development – for each of which software was respectively created. These included applications for virtual tourism, environmental conservation, tracking deforestation using artificial intelligence, drainage and irrigation management and natural resources asset management.
He added, “We’re are hoping to have 15 workable software that can be used in some aspect in Guyana for its new digital transformation age that is approaching us…This event will help us to identify talented individuals especially youths who have the potential to be a success story in Guyana and this is why were continuously pushing for private sector involvement. We want the young, talented Guyanese to be identified not only by the public sector but by the private sector.”
Meanwhile, Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister, Kwame McCoy underscored that connectivity and ICT development has been a major focus of his Administration. This included strides for improved infrastructure to improve connectivity, e-ID cards and the new ticketing system via cameras on new roadways among others.

“We did commit to Guyanese, to pay attention to ICT and to put several measures in place to make sure that ICT becomes an integral part of our development in all levels…This approach is really about how do we bridge the digital divide and bring our citizenry on par with what is taking place in other parts of the world.”
In some ways, we are not exactly where we need to be as a country. But the will and the determination to move up and be at the levels that become the most admirable are being made by Government and the investments are being made by Government,” the Minister expressed.

Local content
According to Local Content Officer at SBM Offshore Garri Fraser, innovation and local content is integral in the company’s operations – a goal that is being heavily propelled.
“Added to this is the opportunity to hone and nurture Guyanese skills in the technical areas, an aspect that SBM Offshore Guyana is committed to. Local Content for SBM is very important and this is one of several initiatives that our company is utilising to provide Guyanese with the skills and knowledge that is needed in the oil and gas industry today,” Fraser highlighted.
The top three prizes are pegged at a combined value of $1.5 million.