Huawei announces winners of 'Women in Tech' competition 

Huawei has awarded the winners of its ICT competition 'Women in Tech' at its Gala Ceremony held at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Dhaka on Tuesday. 

Inspired by the theme "Tech for Her, Tech by Her, Tech with Her", the competition was launched for the first time in Bangladesh last year. 

With UNESCO as the strategic partner, the competition aims to develop local ICT talent and enable knowledge sharing among current female STEM students at universities and those who graduated in the last two years. 

From 750 participants, 18 were selected for the final round. At this stage there were two types of competitions - Individual and Team. Team-based ideas are selected based on how innovative solutions are possible using ICT and their potential for business success. 

Team 'Dhara' was selected as the Champion of the competition. 'Dhaara' worked on how solar energy and other technologies can be used to ensure safe water supply for the households. The first runner-up is 'Terra Bin', whose business idea was how to turn waste into resources using solar composters and other technologies. 'Solnet' is selected as the second runner-up. Their team's idea was how to easily and efficiently build and operate solar plants using cloud technology and apps. 

The champion, 1st and 2nd runner-up received prize money worth Tk 3 lakh, Tk 2 lakh and Tk 1 lakh, respectively. They can use this money to implement their plans.

Additionally, four participants win in the individual level for their excellent performance. The winners are Kaisari Ferdous, student of EEE department of Dhaka University, Mahmuda Nayem, graduate of Islamic University of Technology, Sumaiya Tarique Labiba, design verification engineer of sBIT Limited and Safrina Kabir, student of EEE department of Islamic University of Technology.

The winning teams were selected through a detailed process that included evaluating the rationale of problem statements, innovation in idea, business case, and assignment scores. Individual winners were chosen based on several interviews, exams, and evaluation during the project. 

State Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak, spoke as the Chief Guest, where Yao Wen, Ambassador of China to Bangladesh, Zara Jabeen Mahbub, Member of Parliamentary Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs, and Md Mohiuddin Ahmed, Chairman, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission were the Special Guests. 

Dr. Susan Vize, Head of Office and UNESCO Representative to Bangladesh, Prof. Dr. Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, Vice-Chancellor of IUT and Panjunfeng, President, Huawei South Asia & CEO, Huawei Bangladesh were also present at the event. 

Huawei launched its 'Women In Tech' project in 2020 globally. Besides this competition, Huawei also organizes 'Seeds for the Future' and 'Huawei ICT Competition' to highlight the youth's potential and propel the nation towards a more inclusive and technologically advanced future.