After 24 hours of a marathon that is Hackathon, a group of National University of Lesotho (NUL) students; Tankiso Kolobe, Jane Mothobi, Nyakallo Moleko (Computer Systems and Networks Engineering) and Kabelo Ramaboli (Engineering Electronics), all in their fourth year, were in jovial mood last Sunday as they were declared 1st price winners of Vodacom Hackathon competition in their area!
They battled Lesotho’s brightest minds and won!
The program they developed in just 24 hours, which was so brilliant, is going to assist local and international banks to automatically keep track of their customers’ important details such as changes in Passport and ID numbers, and even their locations, without the customers having to personally go to the banks (which is what customers hate doing anyway).
But, let’s put things into perspective. If, on average, you need 4 hours to finish a marathon, you need 24 hours to finish Hackathon, a colossal six times more! If, in a marathon, you need physical stamina, in Hackathon, you need mental stamina.
It is not a surprise then that whereas marathon is for everyone; Hackathon is not!
It is within this context, that the brilliant NUL team, joined Hackathon in which they proved to display a combination of steely determination and uncommon acumen to outsmart the rest in the area of “client re-verification” and “know your customer.”
The great initiative is funded by Vodacom Lesotho Foundation, and this time it was assisted by the involvement of The Entrepreneurs Network (TEN), as well as Wiinc.
About 100 whiz kids from all over Lesotho put Maseru under siege and about 25 of these warriors hailed from the Roma Valley (NUL). Only a few had to emerge victors.
Listen, as the victors relate the story of what happened. It is, you will agree, an amazing story!
“It started in our class,” Moleko revealed. “We normally sit and solve our class-work together.” Little did they know that at some point in time, they would be called to solve a national problem—still together.
“When we heard about Vodacom Hackathon, we decided to join forces once more,” Kolobe added. “We did not know we would win, but we told ourselves that we had to do our best.”
The competition started at noon last Saturday. It ended at noon the following day. “First we were introduced to the three categories,” Mothobi said. “Then we chose one on solving the problem of the banking system. Of course, we were intimidated by the resumes of our competitors in the area, some of whom won in the same competition last year.”
Then the marathon began. “It was tough,” Ramaboli said. “We had to periodically drink water and energy drinks to ensure we didn’t loose energy.” Don’t forget, the time was not only long, they were expected to solve a complex problem in the end.
They had to set up the “know-their-customer” problem for the banks in which they had to find “who the customers were, where they stayed, and what they did.” They had to know that “the banks needed to be able to give to the regulator, information that was accurate and up-to-date as and when requested, in which failure to comply would attract major fines.”
That, basically, was their problem sheet.
Swami Chinmayananda was once quoted as saying, “If I rest, I rust.” During that long hard 24 hours, they knew that if they “rested,” they would “rust.” There was no time for any other thing than to come up with a solution.
Now you know their stamina. But that was just a fraction of what was required. What distinguished the team, was their ability to think through a brilliant solution.
Within the allotted time, the fearsome foursome had programmed a system that would (1) enable banks computer systems to communicate with employers and home affairs computer systems automatically, making updates and verifications (2) trace client’s whereabouts on the basis of their cell-phones and other electronic gadgets and (3) do all these without having to trouble the customer.
At the core of the beauty of their system, was its ability to pinpoint the right information from the employers and home affairs computer databases without interference with or revealing other, albeit irrelevant or even confidential, information which the banks do not need to have.
That is the part that set their system apart from a host of other otherwise equally brilliant systems by the mighty Lesotho whiz kids present.
Think about this. Are you not baffled that in this day and age, we still don’t have well planned streets and street names, even in Maseru?
Take heart, it turns out the sheer sluggishness of the 20th century generation has given way to the agility of the 21st century generation which is using technology to bring innovative solutions the rest of the world with street addresses is not even thinking about.
