Just last week, hackjakarta, the 2nd last stop of the hackglobal series, concluded with resounding success. Held at the Grab Office in South Jakarta, this dynamic 24-hour hackathon united 262 talented developers, all motivated by their collective drive to innovate and create.
Attracting Jakarta’s Brightest Minds
On this exciting day, developers of all levels—from enthusiastic students to seasoned professionals—gathered to tackle Jakarta’s most pressing challenges, transforming bold, novel ideas into impactful solutions.
Tackling Emerging Challenges through Innovation
Aligned with the hackglobal themes of Financial Inclusion, Social Responsibility, and Digital Empowerment, the challenge statements at hackjakarta addressed emerging problems facing the city of Jakarta:
- Financial inclusion: Create a solution that helps to integrate this demographic into the wider economy.
- Social Responsibility: Develop a solution to enhance public safety and community resilience in response to the growing impacts of climate change.
- Digital Empowerment: Develop a creative, scalable solution using Generative AI that improves user experience within the Grab app, drives economic growth, and empowers individuals and businesses within Southeast Asia.
Rising to the challenge, 79 innovative projects were crafted in a short timespan on 24 hours. Guidance from seasoned mentors and judges from our co-host, Grab, and the larger tech community in Jakarta, greatly motivated participants to investigate deeper into their communities’ problems and devise solutions to better their lives.
Celebrating Successes and Breakthroughs
Each team presented unique solutions during the the project presentations, showcasing the participants’ flair for innovation and creativity, potential for significant real-world impact on Jakarta’s pertinent issues.
At the celebratory closing ceremony, achievements were celebrated, and the top three teams from each track received awards for their exceptional efforts. Team Vincent Wisnata, winner of the Social Responsibility track, was also crowned the Grand Winner of hackjakarta, securing their spot at the hackglobal Grand Finals in Singapore this October.
Anan Kasetra, Head of Product Strategy at Grab applauded the participants at hackjakarta for their rigour and novel ideas:
It was incredibly rewarding to witness over 300 talented individuals bring forward fresh and impactful ideas, with some even leveraging #GenAI. I personally can’t wait to see these ideas come to life!
In a brief interview, Team Vincent Wisnata, the Grand Winner of hackjakarta, shared that their inspiration stemmed from a lack of education about natural disasters. This gap motivated them to create an app that uses Augmented Reality to teach children about nature. The team emphasised their focus on innovation, noting that generating novel ideas was their primary goal, which they believe was key to their victory.
On the Digital Empowerment front, Team newbier drew inspiration from Singapore’s Nutri-Grade labels in developing their solution, which integrates nutritional labels and ingredient lists into Grab’s app to enhance user experience. Despite facing significant challenges in time management, communication, and refining their initially “simple” idea, they credited their mentor for providing constant encouragement. Unlike Team Vincent Wisnata, Team newbier prioritised long-term viability and the presentation of their concept, believing that even a minimalistic idea can succeed if it’s well-executed.
See the list of winning projects below:
Financial Inclusion Winner: Team Fortune Avenue’s DiversID uses AI to help Indonesia’s unbanked population, including millions with disabilities, access financial services independently through voice and image recognition technology.
Social Responsibility Winner: Team Vincent Wisnata’s Disaster Strike Augmented Reality uses interactive cards to teach children about social responsibility and natural disasters in a fun and engaging way, making learning easier and more effective while supporting educators and parents.
Digital Empowerment Winner: Team newbier’s GrabFood Nutri-Score (Healthy) provides detailed nutritional information through food labeling, auto-generated nutrition and ingredient lists, and merchant-customized ingredient lists.
From Jakarta to the World
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Grab for being our city partner and co-hosting hackjakarta 2024; your support and partnership were instrumental in making this event a resounding success.
Join the hackglobal Journey!
hackjakarta may be over, but the hackglobal journey continues. With virtual bounties and upcoming hackathons in cities worldwide, there are still plenty of opportunities to earn globes and secure your place in the Grand Finals.
Don’t miss your chance to be part of this global movement for innovation and impact here!
