Team Digital Innovation wins Silver Medal Award in IBCOL 2020

For the first time, Bangladesh participated in the International Blockchain Olympiad (IBCOL) 2020, held online from July 3 to July 5. Team Digital Innovation from Dhaka University, won the Silver Medal Award for their project, Decentralized Identity and Aid Distribution: Platform for Rohingya Refugees. The competition brings out blockchain based solutions to tackle real life problems.

The four-member team features Kamrul Hasan, Ridoan Khan Anik, Naushad Hossain and Kamrul Hasan Anik. All of them are currently working as software engineers at LEADS Corporation Limited.

The team participated in the National Blockchain Olympiad in April with over 70 teams, ranked 4th and got nominated to participate in the international olympiad, along with 11 other teams.

Their project addresses the Rohingya refugee crisis. Despite the best efforts from the government and other organisations, few issues still exist in the Rohingya camps regarding information sharing and service delivery.

Team Digital Innovation proposes a Blockchain-based solution, utilising decentralised identities and smart contracts, which can make the existing aid distribution procedure more secure, transparent and efficient. The application is based on two of the Hyperledger open-source projects and provides an architecture for multi-organisation distribution platform. The solution targets to achieve the corresponding SDG and JRP (Joint Response Plan) goals.

"Even though the project was based on the Rohingya refugee case, it can serve many types of emergencies, such as the current pandemic and floods. Nonetheless, we envisioned that our Blockchain application could be used as a nationwide aid distribution platform," shares Kamrul Hasan.

"Blockchain is a new technology that is more secure and transparent. The features Blockchain provides are impressive," expresses Naushad, who studied at the Institute of Information and Technology, Dhaka University. 

"The use of blockchain can solve a lot of existing problems our government is facing at the moment," shares Ridoan Khan Anik, who completed his Bachelor's in Information Technology from Nilai University, Malaysia.  "The government will help us in implementing our project and we are looking forward to getting the assistance."

"Despite being a promising area, Blockchain technology is yet to be discovered in our country," further adds Kamrul Hasan Anik, a recent CSE graduate from BRAC University.

"We wanted to represent our country in an international platform and showcase how both the government and the people came forward in tackling the refugee crisis," shares Kamrul Hasan, CSE graduate from Stamford University. "Many students are interested in these versions of technology and I recommend that they learn these not because of the job market, but because of their passion."

According to team Digital Innovation, Bangladesh needs to create more opportunities for our young generations, so they can adapt and learn these emerging technologies. Team Digital Innovation expects to see more teams representing Bangladesh on an international level in the future.