Introduction

APAN56 will be held from 21st to 25th August 2023 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. To coincide with the conference, it is proposed that a Datathon be organized with the participation of undergraduate students from tertiary education institutes around Sri Lanka

Hacking is an unorthodox way to solve problems. A hackathon is an event that gathers computing experts with different skill sets to “hack” and work collaboratively on a project to develop a solution demonstrating creativity, innovation, skill, practicality, and business value.

The objective of the APAN56 Datathon 2023 is to provide a platform for undergraduate students in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Cyber Security, Data Science, Information Systems, Information and Communication Technology, Software Engineering, etc., to compete against teams on equal grounds pitching their creativity, innovativeness, skills, and teamwork to provide solution based on real-world business data.

Vision:

Promote creativity and innovation – The Datathon provides a platform for students to unleash their creativity by working with real-world data to develop practical and innovative solutions that provide business insights and business value.
Promote Teamwork – The Datathon is an opportunity for students to collaborate and develop their own and on each other’s ideas, a skill much needed for future career development in the computing industry.
Promote a Developer Culture – The Datathon provides a risk-free learning environment where team members support each other and learn from each other, think out-of-the-box, and challenge themselves, finally taking ownership of what they create.

Outcome:

The Datathon aims to provide tertiary education students with the opportunity and exposure to real-world data to encourage them to develop creativity and innovation, work as a team and provide solutions that add value to a real business entity.

Moreover, it provides an opportunity for business entities to share their data with innovative thinkers to develop solutions which would provide them with business value and foresight.

Structure

The event will be co-organized by the University of Colombo School of Computing, the University of Moratuwa, the University of Peradeniya, and the University of Jaffna.

Initiations will be sent to the following Higher Education Institutions to field Teams for APAN56 Datathon 2023:

Tertiary Education Institute	School/Faculty or Department
Asia Pacific Institute of Technology
Informatics Institute of Technology
National School of Business Management
Sabaragamuwa University	Faculty of Computing
Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology
University of Colombo	University of Colombo School of Computing
University of Jaffna	Department of Computer Science
University of Jaffna	Department of Computer Engineering
University of Kelaniya	Dept. Computer Systems Engineering
University of Moratuwa	Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering
University of Moratuwa	IT department
University of Peradeniya	Dept. of Computer Engineering
University of Peradeniya	Dept. of Statistics and Computer Science
University of Ruhuna	Department of Computer Science
University of Sri Jayawardenapura	Faculty of Computing
Uva Wellassa University	Department of Computer Science & Informatics

The datathon will be a 24-hour event where all teams will compete at the same time developing solutions that will be individually judged at the end of the datathon.

Rules and Regulations

The Datathon will be a 24-hour event starting at 12.00 noon on 22nd August 2023 and ending at 12.00 noon on 23rd August 2023.
Teams
- Each team will comprise four members.
- The members shall be from a cohort of 3rd year students and above of the institute.
- Each institute will be allowed to field up to a maximum of four (04) teams.

Students will develop their solutions and submit them to an online portal.
A panel of judges will evaluate each solution based on the following criteria.
- Creativity, Innovativeness & idea representation [30%]
- Usefulness & Practicality [20%]
- Efficiency [10%]
- Business value [20%]
- Completeness [20%]
The decision of the judges shall be final.
Prizes will be awarded as Champs, 1st Runner-up and 2nd Runner-up.
- Champs Rs. 100,000.00
- 1st Runner-up Rs. 60,000.00
- 2nd Runner-up Rs. 40,000.00
Certificate of Participation will be awarded to all participants.

Resources

Teams will be provided with the following resources.

Access to Power
Internet connectivity
Access to High-performance computation
On account to access High-performance computation
Meals and refreshments

Each team will have to bring their own computers and equipment required for the Datathon.

The development platform shall be chosen by the participant teams, subject to the support available on the High-performance computation platform.

Registered teams would be provided with early access to familiarize themselves with the High-performance computation platform, prior to the event.

Problem & Data

Contributory business entities will provide a dataset accompanied by a description of the data and an insight into the business. Participants will have access to several such datasets and descriptions and representatives from the business organization.

Each team will choose a dataset and develop their solution for providing business value, business insight and actionable outputs for the same contributory business entity. The judging panel will also consider the business experts’ opinion regarding the business value, usefulness and practicality, and completeness.

Contact Information

Contact Persons:

Hakim Usoof,
Department of Statistics and Computer Science, University of Peradeniya.
[email protected]

Kasun Karunanayake
University of Colombo School of Computing, University of Colombo.
[email protected]

Sulochana Sooriyaarachchi
Dept. Computer Science and Engineering, University of Moratuwa,
[email protected]

Amirthalingam Ramanan
Dept. of Computer Science, University of Jaffna.
[email protected]

Registration:

GOOGLE FORM LINK HERE (Ended)

Beyond The Finish Line: Datathon

The 56th Meeting of the Asia Pacific Network (APAN56) was held from the 21st to the 25th of August 2023 in Colombo. Coinciding with the APAN56, Coinciding with the APAN56, Datathon 2023, a 24-hour hackathon was organized with the participation of undergraduate students. The objective of Datathon 2023 was to provide a platform for undergraduate students in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Cyber Security, Data Science, Information Systems, Information and Communication Technology, Software Engineering, etc, The Vision of this program is to Promote creativity and innovation, Promote Teamwork and Promote a Developer Culture. The Datathon aimed to foster creativity and innovation in tertiary education students by exposing them to real-world data, while also allowing businesses to share their data with innovative thinkers. The event was organized through the collaboration of several key partners, including Lanka Education and Research Network (LEARN), the host of APAN56, the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, and the IEEE Computer Society Sri Lanka Chapter. The event received sponsorship from Fortitude, Future Labs, CodeGen, and KochaSoft. 29 teams Participated in the event and Dr. Chaminda Ranasinghe, Mr. Pubudu Liyanage, and Mr. Samudra Kanakearachchi participated as judges in this event.

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