Bangladesh wins 2 Int’l Blockchain Olympiad awards

Two Bangladeshi teams which participated for the first time in the ‘International Blockchain Olympiad Award (IBCOL) 2020’ competition have won two out of six main awards, reports BSS.

President of Hong Kong Blockchain Society Lawrence Ma and other dignitaries declared the names of the winning teams – Team Digital Innovation for IBCOL 2020 Silver Medal Award and Team DU Nimbus for IBCOL 2020 Best Prototype Award, said a press release on Monday.

Sixty teams from 15 different countries of the world, including 12 Bangladesh teams, participated in one of the largest global blockchain Olympiad competitions- IBCOL 2020- jointly organized by City University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Blockchain Society.

The other award recipients are: PChain of Hong Kong for IBCOL 2020 Gold Medal Award and IBCOL 2020 Privacy-centric Award, NeuroTrace of Netherland for IBCOL 2020 Bronze Medal Award and Microcent of Hong Kong for IBCOL 2020 Best Fintech Award.

Congratulating the winning teams, state minister for information and communication technology (ICT) Zunaid Ahmed Palak at a zoom online press conference said this is a very good news for us at a time when Bangladesh is encouraging young talents to be skilled with technologies like Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data Analytics, Machine Learning and others.

Urging the youngsters to come up with best innovative blockchain solutions, he said, Bangladesh wanted to be the early adopter of frontier technologies to reap the benefits from the fourth industrial revolution.

“We want to adapt ourselves with the frontier technology as frontier technologies are making a change speedily,” Palak said adding the 12 participant teams have proved that Bangladesh could adapt with the frontier technologies to carry forward the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s vision 2021 and 2041.

Senior secretary of ICT division N M Zeaul Alam, convener of Blockchain Olympiad Bangladesh (BCOLBD) Md Kaykobad and BCOLBD coordinator Habibullah N Karim, LICT project director Md Rezaul Karim and policy adviser Sami Ahmed spoke at the function, among others.

Silver Medal award winning team leader Kamrul Hasan and Best Prototype Award winning DU Nimbus team leader Tahlil presented video clippings of their projects respectively Identity decentralization and Aid distribution for the Rohingya Refugees and land management.

Professor Kaykobad said Bangladesh is proud of achieving the awards participating in the international competition on Blockchain.

This achievement will inspire the university students to come forward with more blockchain initiatives for using those in different domains including health, education and agriculture in the days to come, he said.

Coordinator of BCOLBD and CEO of Technohaven Co Ltd Habibullah N Karim recalled contribution of late professor Jamilur Reza Choudhury who was an adviser of BCOLBD for carrying forward the blockchain competition.

He also expressed his deep gratitude to all including state minister for ICT, ICT division, LICT project for their wholehearted support in making the BCOLBD a reality.

ICT Division, LICT project, Institute of Business Administration (IBA), BASIS, FBCCI, Technohaven Ltd provided support to BCOLBD to select 12 teams by organizing an online Blockchain Olympiad competition with participation of 450 students from 15 universities in Bangladesh.