The third Cavista Technologies hackathon has produced Team Stark Underflow as the winner, beating 29 other teams, comprising over 100 students that participated in the competition.

Team Stark Underflow clinched the N2 million prize at the competition held at Yaba College of Technology in an event graced by the Minister for Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande.

The theme of this year’s edition was ‘Smart Automation: Enhancing Care through Integrated Systems and participants were given three sub-topics to create solutions to help solve the challenges.

Speaking during the opening ceremony, the Minister for Youth Development, Olawande, said the theme was timely and important because technology continuously improves and affects every aspect of our lives.

He said: “We remain committed to building an ecosystem to support technology through collaboration. In furtherance to this, we will launch a new platform that will enable young people to learn new skills and collaborate with other private organisations because technology is driving almost everything we do.”

Olawande continued: “Automation has indeed become a key driver of services in Nigeria and I urge young people to harness their creativity and innovative prowess with the power of collaboration to make a solid impact. Let the hackathon not just be a competition but a platform for solutions that will shape the future of a smart automation process in Nigeria and beyond.”

In her address, General Manager of Cavista Technologies, Oyebola Morakinyo, charged the participants to push boundaries, take bold steps and not be afraid of making mistakes, as mistakes are part of the innovative process.

This year, participants were drawn from several tertiary institutions in Lagos State, including Lagos State University of Science and Technology (LASUSTECH), Lagos State University (LASU), Yaba College of Technology (YabaTech), and the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

This aligned Cavista Technologies’ vision for this hackathon with Minister Olawande’s mission to have one youth with two skills in the foreseeable future and for them to keep upskilling.

The event’s high point was the announcement of winners, with Team Stark Underflow from LASUSTECH coming tops. The second-place winner was Team Trendsetters, from UNILAG, with prize money of N1 million and Team TechStars, also from UNILAG, was the place winner with prize money of N500, 000.