Taylor’s Largest and Most Prestigious Hackathon

Agents of Tech had 140 tertiary students in 30 teams across Malaysia to ideate, invent, and impact with a prototype based on the theme “Reimagine with AI” under the guidance of industry professionals for a prize pool of RM 7, 200 in May.

The three-day signature event challenged the participants with a 48-hour code-marathon to invent technology with the idea they dream up.

Participants checking in

It was sponsored by Talentbank, Cradle (MYStartup), Double Dot, Hivekind, Snappymob and Cyberview; some were present with their leaders and engineers as judges, mentors and guest speakers for workshops.

Liew Soon Hen, Managing Partner at Double Dot said, “It is to bring together a diverse group of people with different skills to push each other forward while overcoming obstacles with time pressure.”

The teams were to work on one among four challenges: Startup Network Analysis and Recommendation System, AI-Enhanced Business Solution, AI For Sustainable Daily Life Enhancement, Fraud Detection and Prevention in Digital Payments.

They were judged based on five criteria: content, technical aspects, pitching, aesthetics and design, and user experience.

Every five-minute pitching was followed up with a three-minute Q&A session with the judges. (Source: @agentsoftech.tlc)

The companies reserved the right to use submissions that drive social and technological change on a monumental scale.

Besides the top three, there were four sets of RM 300 special awards for Best Presenting, Best Innovation, Best Visual, and Best Impression.

From left to right: Team Hackoyaki (First Runner-up), Team Edison (Winner), Team Fast and Curious (Second Runner-up)

Team Edison and Team Hackoyaki were not available for an interview.

Nevertheless, Team Fast and Curious shared that the results were very unexpected; their prototype was an AI physiotherapist.

Lu Yue, their leader, said, “We really worked out of our comfort zone … it was very exciting,very fruitful, very tiring; we stayed up for two nights and it was our first hackathon.”

She thinks that no improvements are needed.

The fees of RM 25 was well spent on her experience including a limited edition T-shirt, three meals, unlimited snacks and a 24-hour working space at the X-Space classrooms - E6.07 to E6.15.

Poon Yan Cheng, President and Organising Chairperson, said, “Yeah, definitely I would say that this event is a success … and was a huge step-up from previous ImagineHacks.”

He observed that a lot of participants are new to programming and do not have any coding abilities yet.

“I believe that they have learned quite a lot; something that they would have probably learned in a month instead.”

The students managed to enhance their programming skills, network with other programmers, connect with tech companies and increase their employability.

Everyone cheered “ImagineHack, It’s a Wrap!”

In one of the closing remarks, Ahmad Kashfi Alwi, Senior Vice President at MYStartup, encouraged the students to keep hacking.

“Someday, nerds will rule the world.”