Friends,

The very first HackFest in Bangladesh was arranged on Friday (18th
January, 2008) at Jahangirnagar University. It was arranged by Ankur
ICT Development Foundation supported by JUOSN (Jahangirnagar
University Open Source Network).

The event was inaugurated by Dr. M. Zahidur Rahman, Head, Dept of CSE,
JU. Jamil Ahmed, National Coordinator of AIDF facilitated the Hacking
Contest and the leading hackers of Ankur Salahuddin and Abu Zaher
assisted him.

Fifteen teams consisting of two students each participated in the main
event of the Hacking Contest. They were given twelve problems, based
on various Open Source Software and were asked to alter the existing
code, compile and install them and to Show to the judges. The
contestants worked on Software written in C, C++, Python, Perl, PHP.
They have shown great enthusiasm and an advance level of expertise
while hacking.

The rest of the CSE Dept. Students who did not get the opportunity to
take part in the Hacking Contest have attended day long Talk/Tutorial
sessions held at Physics Gallery of JU. There were four sessions
respectively on FOSS Philosophy and its Social Impact, Wikipedia, User
2 Hacker and a BoF session for JUOSN members. Almost sixty students
were present in the Talk/Tutorial sessions. These sessions were
conducted by Mahay Alam Khan, Nazmuz Salehin and Belayet Hossain of
Ankur while the BoF session was conducted by Ex. JU student and Lead
Hacker of Ankur Muzahidul Islam Suzan.

The day concluded with prize giving ceremony amongst the Hacking
Contest winners, after the prize distribution Dr. M. Zahidur Rahman,
Head, Dept of CSE, JU said this kind of event will help the students
to achieve expertise beyond their academic syllabus and will help
themselves further in their Career. He expressed his hope that AIDF
will frequently arrange this kind of event. He thanked all volunteer
of JU along with the Ankurians.

Site: www.ankur.org.bd

Best,
-Jamil