Gibran Rizvi gets second hackathon win |18 May 2023

Grand winner Gibran Rizvi after receiving his prize

Gibran Rizvi made his second appearance and again won first place in the 24-hour ‘smart finance’ challenge of the fifth hackathon followed in second position by Team Dev1, while Team FDJ came in last. 

The prize-giving ceremony was held at the University of Seychelles (UniSey) auditorium yesterday afternoon to commemorate World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) on May 17.

Hosted by UniSey, the fifth hackathon was done in collaboration with the department of information communications technology (DICT) and the judging process for the winners took place last Friday, immediately after the competitors presented their products. The two teams, and the solo competitor presented their apps to the audience and gave insight into the intricacies behind the apps that they managed.

Gibran Rizvi stated that he believes his background in web developing definitely helped him obtain first place. “Last time I did a hackathon was back in 2016 and I had to practise before I participated in this one,” he stated. He realised that it would be a challenge but decided to take part anyway.

“I thought that there would be more professionals for the event and I did not know what to expect really,” he stated.

However, he stated that he really enjoyed the experience of taking part once again and congratulated the other teams.

A two-time winner of the competition Mr Rizvi explained the core technological aspects behind his app. He spoke about the fact that to improve upon it, one could even introduce an e-wallet feature that would allow somebody to be able to use digital currency and the likes.

He stated that the key to making the app viable is to introduce things that would better be localised in Seychelles.  The dashboard included the main module of the expense tracker. 

He explained that the bulk of the app was the expense tracker because of all the allocation systems. He allocated around 16 hours of the 24, while the actual designing of the app took around two hours. The traditional bonus points that were up for grabs encouraged Mr Rizvi to be able to design and obtain the points.

All competitors completed the core challenge successfully, which was the financial educational model that needed to include interactive modules covering financial topics with short lessons and quizzes.

Team FJD consisting of Danio Marcelin, Jahneal Leon and Fabiana Belise presented their app named ‘Funkstrap’ and explained that the login page could be done by creating a new profile or by continuing with google. They went on to explain how the application worked, citing the fact that someone could input a budget which will be closely monitored. Should the person be within the allocated budget they gave themselves, they would be given credit points.

In addition, the app had the core features of quick lessons in order to better understand how to manage one’s budget.

Team Dev1 whose app was called ‘Budget Buddy’, consisted of Neil Nicholas, Sandrine Madeleine and Shayane Ouimel Hoareau. Mr Nicholas was mostly responsible for the design and the back end of the application while Ms Hoareau and Ms Madeleine worked on the front end of the app. They also accomplished the core functionalities of the app where someone could add their income within their budget.

Vice-chancellor of UniSey Joëlle Perreau, Martin Laurence from Cable & Wireless which sponsored the hackathon, principal secretary of DICT, Benjamin Choppy, presented the first prize to Mr Rizvi, second place to Team Dev1 and third place to Team FDJ. Each competitor received a shield.

Head of the department of computing and information at UniSey, Bernard Songwar spoke about the history of the hackathon competition, dating as far back as 2016. He explained that the competition was held back for three years because of the Covid-19 pandemic but will now continue to pick back up starting from this year.

Sunny Esparon

Photos by Louis Toussaint