Facebook ‘Thinks Big’ at RMIT Vietnam

Facebook ‘Thinks Big’ at RMIT Vietnam

Facebook recently held its first ever 24-hour Hackathon in Vietnam at RMIT’s Saigon South campus.

Attracting over 120 developers and marketers from all over Vietnam, the theme of the event was to “Hack”, “Connect” and “Think Big”.

The aim was for the developer community to collaborate, and build new products that leverage Facebook’s ubiquitous social media platform. All products created would remain the property of the creators.

Having pre-qualified by completing technical coding challenges, participants competed across categories including Best Product for Social Good, Most Innovative and Most Wanted, with US$500 in prize money and US$80,000 worth of support at stake.

Kicking off at 10am on the Saturday, 29 teams of no more than five members were scheduled to begin presenting to the judging panel from 4pm the next day. The panel included Facebook engineers who had flown in from around the region, and local industry luminaries Mr Do Huy Dung, Managing Director at Vietnam Investments Group; Ms Le Diep Kieu Trang, Managing Director and VP of Operations at Fossil Vietnam; and Mr Dung Tan Trung, founder of iCare Benefits.

Participants work on their projects at the Facebook Hackathon, RMIT Vietnam 30-31 July. Participants work on their projects at the Facebook Hackathon, RMIT Vietnam 30-31 July.

Organised by the Facebook team and RMIT Vietnam’s Career and Employment Service, the event offered beanbags, blankets and a huge supply of energy drink to the excited competitors, who weren’t expected to get much sleep.

Vo Tan Dat, Careers and Employment Analyst at RMIT Vietnam, was there to compete. Inspired by the success of Pokémon Go, his team built a location-based marketing application that encouraged users to come to pre-arranged locations, solve problems and win prizes. Despite not winning against stiff opposition, Dat was pleased with the event.

“Hackathon was an opportunity for students to meet Facebook, a tech giant, directly, and to talk about and discover job opportunities,” Dat said.

“It’s a place for IT students and staff to demonstrate IT skills, meet other IT professionals and get up-to-date with the latest trends in technology.”

RMIT Vietnam Internship and Employment Manager Melvin Fernando reiterated Dat’s point, referring directly to the Open House event which preceded the weekend’s hackathon event.

“The main reason for doing this is employment,” he said, “and that’s why Facebook approached us.”

“They know the quality of our graduates. Having them work with such a big brand is important, so that’s why we put a lot of effort into this event.”

Story: Jon Aspin

05 September 2016

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