The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) of Malaysia and its agency, Cradle Fund Sdn. Bhd. (Cradle), have announced the list of seven winners for the MYHackathon 2024 Cohort 1 program.
MOSTI said in a statement on Monday that the winners of Cohort 1 will receive conditional grants of up to MYR 250,000 ($58,207) to develop their pilot projects, as well as one-to-one project implementation mentorship for the next 12 months.
All winners will also collaborate closely with respective problem statement owners to refine their solution implementation plans.
In his keynote address, Tuan Chang remarked MYHackathon is not just a platform to test capabilities, but also a strategic arena to discover new talents and generate innovative solutions for challenges faced by the government and related agencies.
“I am very impressed with the quality of the solutions presented by the participants,
“These ideas are not only practical but also innovative, aligning with Malaysia’s commitment to becoming a leading economy in Asia and the MADANI economic vision,” he said.
He also said this is in line with efforts to strengthen talent development and empower the Science, Technology, Innovation and Economy (STIE) ecosystem in the country.
According to him, the MYHackathon 2024 program directly supports the aspiration of Malaysia MADANI, which emphasizes values of renewal and innovation in achieving people-centered development.
“I believe some of these solutions have the potential to be commercialized and expanded on a larger scale in the future,” he added.
Launched on September 23, 2024 under the theme ‘Hackathon Nasional untuk Malaysia MADANI’, the MYHackathon 2024 Cohort 1 highlighted seven problem statements submitted by various ministries and government agencies.
The program successfully attracted over 500 entries from registered groups and companies across Malaysia, including Sabah and Sarawak (East Malaysia).
All participants underwent a two-week boot camp and one-to-one mentoring sessions from world-class mentors before 23 finalists were selected for the ‘Final Demo’ presentation session held on Monday.
“The MYHackathon program provides an opportunity for tech talents in Malaysia to seek solutions to various national challenges through creative and innovative approaches, aligning with the main goal of the program to drive transformation and adapt digitization in Government services in Malaysia,” said Norman Matthieu Vanhaecke, Group Chief Executive Officer of Cradle.
“As the implementing agency for the MYHackathon 2024 program, Cradle believes that initiatives like this can elevate the national innovation development agenda by
strengthening collaboration across Ministries and related agencies within the country’s technology ecosystem, thus enhancing digital infrastructure and governance systems
that prioritize the people,” he added.
Since its launch in 2020, the MYHackathon program, held every two years, has successfully nurtured exceptional new talents among Malaysians and has become a platform to foster cooperation, entrepreneurship, and critical thinking among
participants.
Among the successful solutions developed under this program are the ARTEMIS Robot from A2Tech Sdn Bhd, which develops robotic technology products with artificial intelligence (AI) integration for early reconnaissance activities in search and rescue (SAR) operations, and the anti drone detection system (DDS) from FlyBots Technology, which presents solutions to control drone intrusions intended for
smuggling or unauthorized surveillance in areas with restricted access.
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