Telenor IoT hackathon concludes successfully. But it is just the beginning!

Telenor’s platform for startups, Telenor Velocity has just concluded Pakistan’s first ‘IoT Hackathon’ in Lahore.

Earlier we reported that Telenor, which is one of the leading telcos in Pakistan, was organizing country’s first ever Internet of Things (IoT) based Hackathon for the startup landscape. The hackathon has now finally been conducted attracting a whole lot of participants, competent industry professionals and potential investors from all across Pakistan. Spread over the span of two days, the activity was conducted at Arfa Software Technology Park in Lahore. Through the course of the event, the participants were invited from all across Pakistan to showcase their IoT innovations in a very growth-enabling environment. Here is a sneak-peak into how the event fared. The event was organized in collaboration with Plan9 and DIY Geeks.

Owing to the organization of the event at Lahore’s technology hub, the event attracted together innovators from the IoT domain to participate in the competition, a huge proportion of key industry players also made it to the venue to provide their valuable guidance to the thriving startups.

As the event progressed the Head of IoT division at Telenor Pakistan, Waqar Nayyar introduced the new IoT Platform which the company had developed in accordance with its mission to assist in the development of Pakistan’s technological landscape.

The event was attended by the notable industry veterans including but not limited to the COO Netsol Ayub Ghauri, a Member Science & Technology and ICT at Planning Commission Ather Osama, the CEO Zigron Kashif Moin, the Chairman P@SHA Barkan Saeed, the Chairman PITB Dr. Umar Saif, the General Manager PITB Burhan Rasool and the Director PITB Atif Mumtaz.

The event acted as a networking goldmine for the IoT startups.

On the first day, the participating startups and individuals worked on their IoT related products and how these could be brought to life. Credible guidance came from notable industry professionals, potential investors and talented technical developers who perfected the participants’ ideas. The event also acted as a networking goldmine for the IoT startups and developers who were able to link with the industry veterans and the potential investors from the same domain.

Towards the second day of the event, the startups had to pitch whatever they had learnt over the past two days to a desk of competent judges which included accomplished industry professionals including the likes of CEO Linked Things Sophia Hasnain, the co-founder duo of Wattie.io Faizan, the CEO DIYGeeks Usama, Head of IoT at Telenor Pakistan Waqar Nayyar, Head of IoT partner solutions Muhammad Azm Saeed Dar and the notable consultant IoT Dr. Adnan Jabbar. A panel discussion encompassing the IoT technologies was also conducted towards the second day.

Waqqar Nayyar, Head of IoT at Telenor in Pakistan told TechJuice,

“It was a very positive experience. We saw customized drones that can be used in agriculture. We saw sensors that can be deployed on industrial scale to do maintenance.“

IoT Hackathon Winners

Towards the end, winners of the hackathon were announced.

1. Smart Mirror that converts ordinary mirror to display screen of smartphone won the first place at the hackathon. The startup was handed out a prize money PKR 125,000 and was given a position in the incubation program run by Telenor Velocity so that they can further scale the products.
2. JF Labs received second position and a cash prize of PKR 50,000. They came up with drones that can fetch data from fields to help farmers.
3. Design IT presented the data acquisition device that can provide information and identify any industrial problem. The team was able to get the runner-up slots with a prize money of PKR 25,000.

Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the cutting-edge fields that is changing the living ecosystem around us, the humans. When it comes to developing the IoT’s technological landscape, Telenor has been playing a vital role. The company is already popular for its Telenor IoT Platform, Managed IoT Cloud solution, that can power any type of connectivity technologies, enabling the startups to quickly develop and scale their IoT products in an affordable manner.

Telenor Pakistan is also providing Free Access to their IoT Platform to selected Startups in Pakistan. To apply for the program, just write an email to iotpakistan@telenor.com.pk