As a part of economic recovery and engagement for post lockdown the Department of Employment and Entrepreneurship (DoEE),Ministry of Labour and Human Resources will be organizing an online hackathon for the individuals having IT skills and knowledge on coding.

The event is organized to provide a platform for IT skilled individuals to showcase their innovative products and ideas that can be bought by interested parties upon usability and standardization of the products.

2. Eligibility:

• Bhutanese nationals within the age group of 18-40
• Not the Winner of Hackathon challenges conducted in the past by MoLHR and Thimphu Techpark Limited
• Not holding business license for the proposed idea.
• Not students currently enrolled in Schools or Universities

3.Thematic Areas

The themes for Startup Bhutan Hackathon Challenge for 2022 will be based on countering the COVID-19 situation cutting across following sectors or areas.

• Construction

One of the hardest hit sector during the pandemic was construction sector and it is still continuing to see challenges post pandemic. In the 21^st century we can clearly observe that industries cannot be developed solely on pickaxe and a hammer and we need digital solutions across the entire construction life cycle.

• Tourism

As we open our boarders for tourism post pandemic, how can we provide better services and enhance tourism services through technology? In order to address this, design products, devices or services that offer tourists a unique and sustainable experience of our cultural heritage and country. You are encouraged to explore topics such as personal recommendations and itineraries, social recognition and social media, virtual travel experiences and support local businesses and communities.

• Health 

How do we address emerging issues in public health care and and bring about a change in these service delivery system (some examples are organizing data processing system, improving rural health care system through simple apps etc). You may also think of problems beyond this examples.

• Education

Technology in education is an inevitable tool in 21^st century and even more so in this uncertain times where the traditional classroom educations have become challenging affecting over education quality and school enrolment. Although few technologies have emerged and our education system have emphasized on using online tools to deliver sessions using smart technologies, challenges still arise in the ease of usability and quality  information delivered online. So, how do you address these issues? You may think of other similar issues that have affected our education system.

4. Rules

• Fresh code only. To ensure a level field for all contestants, all code must be created by the team. But you are permitted to use publicly available or openly licensed APIs, SDKs, frameworks and other software libraries for your project. Any software development tools and/or programming language can be used.
•  Teams must have at least 3 team members, and can go up to a maximum of 5 members.
• Code Review – Winning teams may be subject to a code review at some point following the event or immediately before winning. This is to ensure that all code used is fresh.

5. Judging Criteria 

Judges will give scores out of 5 points per the criteria given below. The maximum score is 25.

• Innovative Ideation

The team should identify the problems/challenges in the economy or society and come up with an innovative solution.

• Demo/prototype

The demo/prototype should be testable, and the group shows the minimum viable product. The hack solution does not have to be perfect or production-ready, but the idea should come to live with their demo.

• Design 

The group should think about the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX).  The well designed for their demo with the graphics, or the human-computer interaction. It is easy to use by users and adds value to their work solving the user problem.

• Lean Business model canvas

Even though it is a hackathon, and the participants have a relatively short time to come up with a solution to a problem, the lean business model canvas is something to raise the level of the final tech ideas. Criteria like feasibility, economic and societal value, and sustainability are therefore also part of the judging form under the term “lean business model”. Is the idea feasible, does it have economic and societal value, and is it sustainable?

• Pitch Clinic 

A good pitch, for example, can get you a new position in a company, letting investors believe in your innovation, and it can convince customers to buy a new product or service. Therefore, the hackers/innovators will also be judged on their pitch. Were they convincing enough, was it short and to the point, and what about their enthusiasm? The pitch can be a maximum of 10 minutes.

6 .Prizes

The winners and runners up in any of the above categories will be provided cash prizes to help them in initial business set-up.

Winners: Nu.200, 000: Up to three winners will be selected based on the criteria on any of the listed theme areas.

Runners Up: Nu.150, 000 : Up to three Runners up will be selected based on the criteria on any of the listed them areas.

The interested individuals may kindly register using the

Registration Link: https://forms.gle/PovQ5CuLyroPCAwS6

For further enquiries you may kindly contact 17677199 or email at dztamang@molhr.gov.bt during office hours.

Note: The deadlines for the program is as follows

1.  8^th May ,2022: Last Date for registration.
2. 27-29^th  May,2022: Prototype showcase-in person
3. 30^th May,2022: Award Day