UnionBank’s UBPXcellerator launched its first hackathon with the Department of Trade and Industry
Union Bank of the Philippines is known to be one, if not the most innovative and digitally advanced banks in the Philippines. Through its corporate social responsibility arm for tech upskilling, UnionBank once again spearheaded a first-in-industry hackathon event in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) during the launch of UnionBank Innovation Campus (UBIC) in San Pedro, Laguna last September 7 to 9, 2022.
UnionBank’s Chief Human Resource Officer, Michelle E. Rubio opened the Pitchfest and Awarding ceremony with a welcome message, “Hackathons have been our go-to for innovation. For the past six years of our transformation, we have conducted about 50 hackathons. We were doing hackathons in warehouses and in malls. We were traveling from North to South. Doing this in various communities and discovering at the end of the day that creativity and innovation are not just about technology. It’s about people. Ang daming magagaling na Pinoy, mga bata across the country. They have ideas on how to change the world. It will be a waste if we don’t incubate these ideas and make them come to life.”
“This space, the Innovation Campus, is very important to us. We’re not just doing this for the UnionBankers but we’re doing this with a purpose. Our purpose is to “tech up Pilipinas” and to contribute to creating a better society and a better Philippines,” Rubio added.
The hackathon is one of the highlights of the 3-day Innovation Festival at the UBIC. As the pandemic protocols on public gatherings relaxed a bit, UBPXcellerator hosted the hybrid hackathon joined by six (6) teams trying to solve two of the most complex problems of DTI today, the absence of an intragency monitoring system for prohibited and regulated items sold online, and an online business registration. Three teams were assigned to solve each problem within 48 hours by creating programs that aim to improve the current state and elevate the experience for the DTI, attached agencies, and consumers.
Team Codeen (IRIS) landed first place after creating a solution for the Interagency Information System for Monitoring of Prohibited and Regulated Items while Team Blulemons (Project OBRA) was awarded first place for creating a model for the Online Business Registration System.
Cash prizes worth Php50,000, Php30,000, and Php20,000 were awarded to the first, second and third place winners, respectively. First placers also received a bonus cash prize of Php20,000 for integrating one of UnionBank’s Application Programming Interface (API) in their solutions.
Asec. Jean Pacheco of the Department of Trade and Industry also graced the event and delivered a congratulatory message to the teams, “Congratulations to those who really worked hard. We [judges] were discussing about the usefulness and creativity [of the solutions]. Everything that you did, tandaan ninyo, para sa bayan. Marami kaming nakitang ideas that we could do sa DTI. Great job!”
The pandemic resulted in the high dependency of over 73 million online active Filipinos on e-commerce and online shopping. The primary goal of this hackathon is to help solve the problems arising from the growing number of online business and the diverse catalog of products that are out in the market, ultimately protecting the buying public.
Senior Vice President, SME and Micropreneurs Segment Head, SME Marketing Head, and Product Owner of UnionBank GlobalLinker, Jaypee Soliman ended the program with a commitment, “I am impressed. For 48 hours you were able to do this. And impressed that we are able to do a hackathon again. Promise ko kay Asec. Jean, this is going to be a test, a trial if we can do face-to-face hackathons again… We will not let this end today, we will continue. We will put this to life, and we will sponsor this. We will create this together as one.”
Want to know more about the UBPXcellerator Program?
Visit https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/ubpxcellerator!