Queensland Academy celebrates maiden Hackfest contest

Queensland Academy, Lagos, recently held the maiden edition of its Hackfest day aimed at educating students on how to deploy technology to solve problems confronting the economy.

Top professionals and major players in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry attended the programme.

The Supervising Director of Queensland Academy, Mrs. Folakemi Okunoren, commended participants, who are drawn from the bravery of every team and challenged them to bring their creativity to bear.

” The fact that the programme was organised by the students not only does this demonstrate the leadership and critical thinking skills already instilled in the minds of these young ones, but also a show of the core values that the school stands for; respect, responsibility, passion, enthusiasm, adaptability, and team spirit.”

Director of Queensland Academy, Mrs. Folakemi Okunoren, commended the participating schools, including Mater Dei College, Grace Schools, Riverside College, Canterbury Schools and ST & T Schools, for their commitment and challenged them to bring their creativity to bear.

Okunoren said the fact that the programme was organised by students not only demonstrated the leadership and critical thinking skills already instilled in the minds of these young ones, but also a show of the core values that the school stands for.

The teams were presented with problems to work with within a specified timeframe. The programme also featured prototyping and storyboarding.

The visionary, Mr. Jacob Ajala, explained that the programme was designed to give voice to new ideas that leverage technology for social impact,” he said.

The keynote speakers from India, Mr. Viqaruddin Surki of IBM, India, and Prof Sudeshna Chakraborty of Sharda University, respectively, provided the much-required impetus to ignite invaluable insights in the contestants.

For several hours, the teams brainstormed and generated ideas on the problem areas.

After two days of intense brainstorming, the team from Grace Schools emerged overall best and was awarded N100, 000, ST & T Schools was first runner-up and rewarded with N50, 000 while the team from the host school, Queensland Academy, was second runner-up with cash prize of N25, 000.

The keynote speaker and Chief Executive Officer of Simplex Solution Limited, Mr. Femi Adeniyi, expressed satisfaction with the participants, describing them as winners irrespective of the outcome of the event.