GDSC - Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila hosted a 2-day hackathon event at ING Hubs Philippines from January 11-12, 2025. The event kicked off at 10:00 AM with an opening remark from Ms. Nhi Nguyen—Developer Community Manager of community programs in the ASEAN region. She appeared on a virtual recorded meeting to boost the participants’ team morale, to inspire, and to encourage collaboration amongst teams. Her talk was followed by Mr. Louis Enriquez—Brand Management Expert at ING Hubs Philippines. He gave an overview of what ING Hubs could provide students who are looking for new possibilities and areas of improvement. He shared his words of wisdom on how to handle and approach challenges that may arise during the hackathon. Lastly, Mr. Neil Reigo—the Lead Software Engineer at Control Flow Labs Inc. welcomed the participants for the event. He equipped the students on how to start the project, how to develop the project, and how a team can effectively pitch their working project.
Once the opening remarks were done, the hosts for the event introduced the mentors available during the duration of the hackathon—with expertise from web development, design and pitching, cloud development, data analytics, and community engagement. Participants are able to inquire to any mentor they would like to connect with and converse on how to create a project. Before announcing the themes for the competition, the organizers held a raffle for 10 students who will win an enamel GDSC- PLM pin. These enamel pins are rare and would only be given away during events by GDSC - PLM. GCash had their booth set up at the event to show support for the participants and had a mini giveaway consisting of any of their merchandise—umbrella, pen, etc. to keep the participants energized.
On the 1st day of the hackathon, the themes were provided—first was the “Digital Tools for Governance and Transparency in the Philippines,” second was the “Bridging the Global Education and Digital Literacy Divide,” and lastly was the “Breaking Financial Barriers to Ensure Equal Access to Education through Financial Literacy.” Each team is allowed to choose 1 theme and are expected to use at least 1 Google product to build their solution. Courtesy of Mr. Neil Reigo, he intensified the competition by adding two (2) special awards which are—”Best Idea for Top #1” and “Best Tech Working App” to teams who were not chosen to be in the top 5, however, has given feasible and satisfying output during the hackathon.
As the 1st day has come to an end, Day 2 was when all teams felt the pressure and excitement in finishing their projects. During the 2nd day of the hackathon, mentors were doing rounds to socialize and converse with each team who needed guidance on how to approach the theme they chose. The teams were focused on finishing their project with little to no sleep as they kept fighting to be included in the Top 5. The teams were expected to submit their projects as early as 11:00 AM to give ample time for the organizers to compile, recheck, and remind other teams who have missing requirements. If there were any missing requirements, it would result in a deduction or penalty for the whole team. The most nerve-wracking moment came—the pitching session has begun. There were 10 available rooms for each group to share as the organizers encouraged them to connect with other participants at the event. The mechanics for pitching were simple—the organizers took inspiration from Science fair events. Each group is encouraged to decorate their space however they would like or aligned with their project. 3 judges from different categories will go room-per-room to evaluate each result and teams are expected to present—the problem, problem statement, target audience, and their solution.
Once the pitching session was done, teams were asked to wait at the main event hall as the judges were still deliberating on which groups were included in the Top 5. Mr. Louis Enriquez gave an insightful talk about the opportunities and ventures of being an intern at ING Hub Philippines. He introduced the programs available at ING Hubs Philippines for students who are seeking internships whether it is locally or internationally. Their international internship would take place in the Netherlands where ING headquarters are located.
The mechanics for the teams in the top 5 were to present their project for 5 minutes—then, the other 5 minutes were for the question and answer portion. The extraordinary teams that were included were—LeanTech created a web application that could fact-check misleading information regarding politics called TamAI. CodeDreamers created an application that helps citizens in Caloocan to locate the nearest hospital or clinic called AlagaApp. Pandas built a learning application that could accommodate either the most common or unlearned dialects in the Philippines called GabAI. Cyberrats designed a website that focused on how citizens can submit reports or complaints directly to the police called DashGov. Lastly, TechBloom built an application that tackles identifying ADHD amongst children called BrightPath.
Ultimately, the judges have decided which teams deserve the 2nd Runner-Up, 1st Runner-Up, and Champion title for the InnOlympics 2025. The crowned Champion was GabAI who won a cash prize of Php 15, 000, Certificate & Bouquet, Gold Medal & 3D-printed trophy, 4 pcs. of the AWS Cloud Practitioner Triple Bundle Package (worth $119.88) courtesy of TutorialsDojo, 4 pcs. of the Google Certified Associate Cloud Engineer Practice Exam (worth of $59.96), and 4 pcs. of Homeroom Dapitan whole day pass (worth Php 2,000). For the 1st Runner-Up AlagaApp who received Php 10,000 cash prize, Certificate & Bouquet, Silver Medal & 3D-printed trophy, 4 pcs. of the AWS Cloud Practitioner Triple Bundle Package (worth of $119.88) courtesy of TutorialsDojo, and 8 pcs. of Homeroom Dapitan 1 hour pass (worth Php 640). The 2nd Runner-Up was TamAI who received Php 5,000 cash prize, Certificate & Bouquet, Bronze Medal & 3D-printed trophy, and 4 pcs. of the Google Certified Associate Cloud Engineer Practice Exam (worth $59.96), and 8 pcs. of Homeroom Dapitan 1 hour pass (worth Php 640).
The teams who won the special awards courtesy of Mr. Neil Reigo were the following—TalaBatas by Yssaprank and Tala by TeamRocket. Each team received cash prize from Mr. Neil Reigo. GDSC - PLM gave away swags for the remaining teams who participated, fought for their spot, and brought their ideas to life.
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