Pakistanis are working hard to make a name for themselves in the world, a few have succeeded but there is a need for us to come forward and help the country progress. There are few opportunities where the skilled individuals get a chance to come together and work on something that can be useful for the county. Recently, Code for Pakistan organized Civic Hackathon in Lahore which served as an excellent opportunity for Pakistani youth, especially students who were looking to join hands in building something useful. The theme was simple: innovate and come up with ideas that can help make a difference.

For the past two days, Civic Hackathon has been underway at LUMS and today was the concluding day. The 16 teams that we covered yesterday gave their presentations, answered the questions posed to them by the judges and the winners were selected. Before we go on to the final names, a note of appreciation for all the participating teams which tried their very best to achieve the best for the country.

Audience Favorite

Savaree

Need to go somewhere and can’t find a ride? This startup will deal with exactly the same type of problems. Suppose a person is going to a certain destination and can give you a ride. Wouldn’t that be brilliant? There are obviously security loopholes concerning the issue but the team has already thought about them. They will verify identity using NIC database from NADRA to make it secure.

First Prize

PakSaf

Cleanliness is an integral part of our religion and keeping our country clean is an important civic duty. However, most people in Pakistan are just happy to keep the cleanliness limited to their homes. PakSaf gives you a chance to help keep your country clean. All you have to do is to point towards garbage and use your Android application to alert the society. Your alert can then be used to point to the place and help clean the area. In this way, people can contribute quickly and easily and can help keep the country clean.Saad Hamid, the city manager of Elance also presented a $500 Elance Credit to the team as a token of appreciation for their hard work.

Second Prize

Blood for Life

Blood for Life allows users to search for blood donors near you. Through community participation, it can help people meet the right blood donor by quickly sending out relevant information. It can thus help save many lives. Blood for Life was a great idea and we are not surprised that it won the second prize.

Third Prize

Which Bus

Bus is one of the primary modes of public transport and many people use it. As of recent years, there are many who also carry a smartphone in their pockets. WhichBus will provide inter bus city as well as intra city routes and information for those who travel by buses frequently. From suggesting routes to algorithmically working out the bus route, this application can act as a person’s travel buddy making it convenient to travel by bus.

Another idea that won the prize for Best OpenSource ReDeployment was CiviSpot, an application that echoes the main motive behind the Hackathon. CiviSpot will help citizens report any civic problems that they are facing in their area. The connected authority can then respond to the problem and the application allows the users to check the status of their complaint.

All in all, Civic Hackathon was a great experience, one where teams learnt a lot and contributed ideas that we hope they will further develop and launch for the general public so that we can set the ball running. We strived our best to bring you timely updates. Do let us know your thoughts about the event.