Berbice youth bring their skills to Hackathon 2019

―Competition officially kicks off

DPI, Guyana, Friday, November 29, 2019

Berbice youths hope to bring a new perspective to the software game as this year’s Hackathon officially kicks off.  A team of 16 to 19-year-olds representing Skillshare-Tech are ready to surprise Guyana with their software development.

Suraj Jaudoo, representative of Skillshare-Tech said: “I don’t think they’ve ever seen anything from Berbice yet so they’ll be surprised.”

[Centre] Team leader Mohammed Khan with other members of the Innosys Team

Davendra Naraine, Team leader – Intellectstorm

19-year-old Suraj Jaundoo, Representative – Skillshare-Tech

Julius Simon, Team leader – Logiq

Meanwhile, Davendra Naraine, team leader of IntellectStorm is grateful for such a heavy youth presence.  “We come from various backgrounds so we all have unique perspectives on how to solve the problem so we’re going to put that together to give a solution that can be used and can grow,” Naraine explained.

Having competed in all the Hackathon competitions to date Narine and his team are of the view that the event presents a unique opportunity for development.

“This is an inspiration for young people across the country. It shows people that it is the people that are young and smart and capable are [going to] be the ones that can make the difference,” he added.

The software development battle is aimed at providing digital solutions to real problems.

Julius Simon, Team leader of Logiq said his team’s participation is in part “to produce something that is useful and will benefit Guyanese people because that’s the whole aim of the competition to create an app that people can use.”

Creating an app for reporting crime is the focus of this year’s 48-hour event.

In 2017 Farmer’s App, a project of the Ministry of Public Telecommunications was developed by Team Innosys, also participating in this year’s competition.

“This year’s competition looks to be very tight, there are very good teams in this year’s competition, some very great people that I would like to see bring forward their solutions and also us and you know for us to win this year’s competition,” Mohammed Khan, Team leader of Innosys said.

Hackathon 2019 is being hosted with great focus on safety and security with a special emphasis on Domestic Violence.

Kenneth Parris, Team Leader of Nexus Hub/Version75 Incorporated remarked that youth involvement is paramount to the success of the field. “They’re going to be an integral part, they’re not just here to observe…they’re going to be an integral part of building something that could affect Guyana positively.”