US-Nigeria to launch blue economy hackathon - ITREALMS

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The United States Consulate in Nigeria is partnering with the Federal Government (FG) to launch the Nigerian Marine and Blue Economy initiative, reports ITREALMS.

The project, is a hackathon, according to the US Secretary of State, Mr. Antony J. Blinken at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the American Corner in Lekki-Lagos on Wednesday.

Abuja set for 3rd CYSEC NG hackathon, conference - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The Cyber Security Challenge Nigeria (CYSEC NG), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) in its bid to consolidate on efforts to forestall the high rate of incidences of cyber-attacks affecting the globe and Nigeria inclusive, is organizing its Annual National Hacking and Cyber security conference in Abuja, reports ITREALMS.

Director-General CYSEC NG, Mr Victor Idonor, told ITREALMS, the conference has been slated for Tuesday, October 30 through Wednesday 31, would centre on the theme `Forensics and Defense Against Next-Gen Frauds’ and will also serve as a platform for a `National Hacking Challenge’ to identify Nigeria’s next generation of cyber professionals.

He noted that with last year's outbreak of NotPetya, Ransomware—malicious programmes that encrypt your files and demand a ransom payment in bitcoin to restore them, it became one of the most talked about forms of malware of 2017. Yet at the same time, the actual rates of malware infection began to crash down around the middle of the year, until by December 2017 it represented only about 10 percent of infections.

“One of the most common methods of email malware infection is through phishing attacks, which are becoming increasingly targeted,” he said.

According to him, out of the 1,300 IT security decision makers surveyed for CyberArk Global Advanced Threat Landscape Report 2018, 56 per cent said that targeted phishing attacks were the top security threat they faced while 77 per cent of organisations in the world were victimised by one (or more) successful cyber-attack in 2017. 17 per cent of breaches were social attacks, 76 per cent of the breaches were financially motivated while 12 per cent involved privilege misuse.

CYSEC NG has over the years been playing a vital role in assisting Nigerians scale –up skills in cyber security as well as provides direction towards building a viable Information Technology, cybersecurity professional base for Nigeria and Africa.

CYSEC NG ’18 will gather IT professionals in the industry, government agencies, public and private sector who will be thinking, working and paying greater attention to national and global cyber security trends and challenges. It will also disclose the state of security from a unique perspective, `The Hacker’s Viewpoint’, which say `In order to beat a hacker, you have to think like one and if you don’t understand the enemy, how can you protect against him”.

The hacking competition will consist of challenges that include password cracking and code breaking, web security, reverse engineering, cryptography, penetration testing, binary exploitation, forensics and many more; practical hacking demonstration, Information Security Research work presentations, stakeholders panel session and software exhibitions. . There would be a hacking challenge where participants will compete, a winner will emerge and awarded.

CYSEC NG ’18, he said, is gender sensitive, and holds a special session for women to get involved in Cyber Security issues. It will also capture secondary schools in its `Catch Them Young’ insightful time into `InfoSec towards Cyber security inclusion in Nigeria’.

The occasion affords participants the opportunity to connect, network and have high-level talks on cyber security in Nigeria and is slated to hold at the Cyprian Ekwensi Arts and Culture, Abuja.

The event is being organized by Upgraded Era Solutions in collaboration and partnership with government and non-government agencies. The event will attract a variety of top level participants from across various sectors; including Students, financial services institutions, energy, telecommunications, manufacturing, IT professionals, developers, decisions and policy makers, governmental officials, experts, consultants, industry leaders, law enforcement officials, academics, networks security and other stakeholders with an interest in the cyber security space.

Nenye Dom/GEE

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ETSI takes on 1st MEC Hackathon @Edge Computing Congress - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The first-ever Multi-Access Computing (MEC) hackathon has been slated for the Edge Computing Congress in Berlin during the last quarter of this year, reports ITRealms.

The event being organized by the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI) will hold on 18 and 19 of September 2018, in Berlin, and co-located with Knect365’s event at the annual Edge Computing Congress on 18-20 September.

The ETSI MEC (Multi-Access Computing) Hackathon, ITRealms reports, will challenge developers to create in-vehicle infotainment applications featuring Virtual or Augmented Reality and to demonstrate how they can leverage Multi-Access Edge Computing and networking to improve performance and user experience.

Hosted by KNect365, the event is supported by key players in the ISG MEC community:  the technical infrastructure is supported by Intel, Huawei, Saguna and Viavi, and prizes are courtesy of KNect365 and Vodafone. Ip3 and Ismb also form part of the organization committee.

Registration, ITRealms gathered, is open and free of charge with deadline fixed on 10 July 2018. Team size is 5 members (maximum), while registration notification to the selected teams will be done by 30 July 2018.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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Voice IT wins 48-hour African Fintech hackathon

ITRealms:

An information technology start-up, Voice IT, has emerged winner of Africa Fintech Foundry (AFF) 48-hour ReCode Nigeria hackathon sponsored by Access Bank, reports ITRealms.

The software developers got cracking with access to Access Bank’s Application Programming Interface (API) to build their solutions during the event.

This, ITRealms gathered, was the first time the bank would open its API to external software developers via its PayWithCapture.

The prize for the winning team include N1.5 million cash from Access Bank, 1 year access to IBM Bluemix artificial intelligence platform worth over N10 million, 1 year access to Microsoft BizSpark developer toolkit worth over N6 million plus mentoring from the AFF team.

To win these prizes, Voice IT designed an Android application that helps temporarily or permanently disabled bank customers to carry out transaction with the aid of a natural voice interface with artificial intelligence.

Packaged to address challenges of customer experience and value creation opportunities beyond payment in Africa, the competition received 18 teams and 70 participants who are developers, start-ups and fintechs. The objective was to develop innovation that could help shape the future of banking.

Speaking at the event, Group MD and CEO of Access Bank, Herbert Wigwe, commended the contestants for their resilience, saying that, “Access Bank is the first Nigerian bank to fully support the hosting of a fintech hackathon. We are committed to giving our customers the best value and to supporting the fintech community in Nigeria”.

AFF spokesperson, Victor Okigbo said the participants were subjected to 48-hour intense burst of ideation and execution with teams of bankers and programmers co-creating working prototypes and experimenting with innovative customer-centric approaches to old challenges.

“The message to investors, analysts and the public is that Nigerian banks can lead financial technology ecosystem to secure future growth while creating real value for stakeholders”, he added.

Okigbo informed that hands-on solutions and APIs from IBM’s Bluemix artificial intelligence platform, Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing infrastructure and Access Bank’s digital financial services platform were available to the teams of ethical hackers.

Entrepreneur-in-Residence for AFF, Olugbenga Agboola, stated that the gesture demonstrated how the bank has shifted its focus to innovation for the benefit of their customers, adding that the “Nigerian financial services can be reshaped by leading the way with technology and creating the next generation solutions”.

Other winners are Paysense and Creative Jar. Paysense studies bank customers’ behaviour based on withdrawal, savings, spending, investments habits and frequency for effective credit scoring, financial solutions streamlining, insights and decision making with segmented data received through artificial intelligence. Creative Jar is a financial assistance that manages money, track expenses and make payments.

Held at Lagos office of Access Bank and new AFF hub on Victoria Island, the hackathon witnessed 18 prototypes with three winners. All 70 participants got affiliate membership of the AFF.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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24hours to grab $50,000 prize in ReCode Nigeria hackathon

ITRealms:

Hackers aiming to grab the $50,000 prize in the Recode Nigeria initiative by the Africa Fintech Foundry (AFF) should be warming up to achieve that in the next 24 hours, reports ITRealms.

This, ITRealms reports, would herald a three-day hackathon slated for March 24-26, the programme attracts multiple teams of talented developers, designers, problem-solvers, and out-of-the-box thinkers to build brilliant solutions to the most vexing problems in financial services. 

AFF spokesperson, Victor Okigbo, confirmed to ITRealms that the banking industry needs to enhance its existing customer experience. 

“The mission of these participants is to transform the mode of customer engagement, enhance the customer experience and create solutions that bring value to banking customers” he said.

Okigbo also said that during the hackathon, participating teams would have the privilege of creating excellent solutions that combine API’s from one of Nigeria’s leading financial institutions, IBM’s Bluemix platform, Microsoft Azure amongst others.

Executive Director, Commercial Banking, Access Bank, Roosevelt Ogbonna, said the bank is collaborating with the AFF to “ensure that shareholders value and growth in tomorrow’s complex financial technology ecosystem can be delivered. By supporting initiatives like Recode Nigeria hackathon, we have teamed up with technology titans like Microsoft, IBM and other numerous technology startups to create the future together.” 

Enumerating what the participants derive from using its latest platforms, Microsoft spokesperson, Dona Sarkar in an interview with Accelerate tv, said as a cloud-computing infrastructure for building and managing applications through a global network, “Microsoft Azure offers startups the opportunity to host their applications in the cloud. As such, they will not purchase or manage their own servers. That is why the winner gets access to the Azure platform.”

However, upon completion of the contest, Okigbo gave an assurance that a team at the hackathon would be accepted into the 17-week AFF accelerator programme with up to $50,000 seed investment. He added that the winning teams will get up to N3million-prize money, one-year's access to IBM’s Bluemix and Microsoft Azure platforms.

While explaining the IBM Bluemix cloud service, IBM’s spokesperson, Akintomide Akingbade, said the service supports several programming languages and services to build, run, and manage applications on the cloud. “We are backing the startups at Recode Nigeria hackathon with the latest cloud offering from IBM. With this partnership, we are enabling the software geniuses create and manage their mobile and web applications on the cloud”.

Individuals and teams can register at www.recodenigeria.com. The number allowed in a team, Okigbo said, is a minimum of two and a maximum of five persons. Participants care free to register as individuals or with a team.

Industry leaders and representatives are among the judges that will select the winners of the Recode Nigeria hackathon. Each submission will be scored based on certain criteria with the final score being the average of all scores. The judges include Victor Etuokwu, Ernest Ndukwe, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji and Joseph Sam.

Other supporting organizations are Emaginations, Re:write, Trium, Systemic Logics, Accelerate TV, ntel, Dev Center and Design Institute.

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Ndukwe to chair DS-Open Hackathon 2016

ITRealms:

The chairman of the Open Media, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, has been name the chairperson, panel of judges for the 2016 DS-Open Innovation Hackathon Jury made up seven (7) members, reports ITRealms.

Director-General of the Delta State  Innovation Hub, Chief Chris Uwaje, made this disclosure to ITRealms on Thursday and listed other members of the panel to include Prof. Charles Uwadia (Unilag), Prof. Stella Chiemeke (Uniben), Mohammed Rudman (CEO. IXPN), Mrs. Juliet Ehimuan (Google Country Manager), Mr. Kenneth Nwogbo (Founder/Editor-in-Chief Communications Week) and Mr. Gaul Ihenacho (CEO: Gules Technologies USA).

According to Uwaje, all the Hackathon members of Jury were appointed on merit, based on their distinguished achievements and integrity profile.

"Above all the hackathon jury members are world class personalities in the fields of science, technology, innovation and information technology," he said.

The DG also said DSIHUB is excited to be associated with their professional intervention and services with assurances of adding immense value to the Hackathon Finals on 3rd December 2016, slated for DSIHub at DBS Junction, Okpanam Road, Asaba.

The 3-day, he said, is shoot-at-innovation-code event scheduled for 1-3 December, 2016 in Asaba, capital of Delta State, just as the Executive Governor of the state and special dignitaries at federal and state levels as well as vice chancellors would also be in attendance.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

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300 teams on queue for 3-day DS-Open Innovation Hackathon

ITRealms:

Estimated 300 teams have been confirmed to be on queue for the three-day Delta State Open Innovation Hackathon 2016, according to the chief executive officer, DS-IHUB Asaba Knowledge City, Mr. Chris Uwaje, reports ITRealms.

Uwaje in a press statement made available to ITRealms, said that not less than 300 Teams from all knowledge-walks of life will assemble at the Knowledge City between December 1st and 3^rd, 2016.

He also said that the icing on the hackathon is that it would aim at 48-hour non-stop coding adventure into the world of innovation and creativity.

The three-day exercise, Uwaje said, would give a shoot at the passion of participants especially in the areas of innovation.

“This knowledge Olympiad will chase and set perhaps a new record in accelerated knowledge development – shooting at all aspects of innovation and creativity under the sun in conformity with International standard,” he said.

Uwaje pointed out that the DS-Open Innovation Hackathon is an initiative of Mobile Software Solutions Limited, the winner of Would Summit award for Best Africa Mobile Content 2014 (Lifestyle/Entertainment Category), in partnership with the Delta State Government under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. The platform is an Innovation Development Accelerator for Startups and Entrepreneurs.

“Our mission is to establish responsive knowledge factory at all levels, as the core accelerator for poverty reduction, attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and creation of wealth in Africa.

DS-IHUB Open Innovation Hackathon is a Corporate Technology event in pursuit of hunting technology idea capable of disrupting the Ecosystem and by extension, building new creative mindset through competition to help bridge the innovation gap that exists between the Nigeria Software Developers and the Institutional needs. It will embrace all Domain of Knowledge.

Uwaje further said that expected at the 3-day inclusive event are, but not limited to youths from all the six geo-zones of Nigeria, and West Africa; Venture Capitalists (VCs) Angel Investor, Science & Technology Researchers; Corporate Entrepreneurs; High-End International Technology Innovators; Promoters and Masters of the Trade; Government Policy makers, Software Industry Players and Innovation Ecosystem Interlocutors.

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IBM partners Techplus on agricultural challenges with hackathon

ITRealms:

The International Business Machines (IBM) is partnering Techplus 2016 on agricultural challenges with a three-fold hackathon focusing on Africa’s agricultural sector, reports ITRealms.

Tagged ‘Hack-Pitch-Code’ the event will bring together computer programmers, developers and hackers to deliver technologically driven novel solutions to agricultural challenges in Africa during the conference.

The code festival is targeted at both students and non-students who will be expected to creatively crack a given brief utilizing new technologies that will debut at #TechPlus2016. The solutions are expected to capture challenges of agricultural production, processing, promotion and distribution in Africa. Developers will be hosted at the IBM Innovation Centre in Victoria Island, Lagos, creating a conducive environment for teams to come up with forward-thinking and creative solutions for agricultural production, processing, promotion and distribution.

Talented teams will present their solutions and designs to professional coders and key industry partners who will assess their viability. Winning groups will be awarded a sum of #1million in form of scholarship or funding. Selected finalists will also receive training and mentorship, job opportunities, business and idea structuring and other valuable resources.

The jury is composed of key ICT personnel such as Helen Anatogu, CEO iDEA; Chinenye Mba-Nzoukwu, CEO Infographics; Pelumi Adeniran, CEO HTS; Tobi Oke, Intel; Karthik Noornie, CIO Olam Group and Rodney Williams, Founder LISNR.

The hackathon event will present the African agricultural realities and challenges to participants, assist in team formation, brainstorming, concept design and development, validating and prototyping. The final phase will see development of pitch ideas, presentation and award ceremony. Interested persons and groups can register at www.techplus.com.ng/hackathon.

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