1 week, 5 days ago
BankTech Hackathon Held by PASHA Bank and UFAZ
On May 31 – June 1, a 48-hour BankTech Hackathon was successfully held through the collaboration of the French-Azerbaijani University (UFAZ) and PASHA Bank. Students from various universities participated in the event, testing their problem-solving skills against real financial challenges in the banking sector. Under the guidance of experts from PASHA Bank and UFAZ, participants worked on innovative solutions and competed for valuable prizes.
A total of 170 teams from different universities applied to take part in the tournament. A six-member selection committee evaluated the applications based on the relevance of the idea, its innovation potential, and feasibility. As a result of this evaluation, 15 teams earned the opportunity to compete in the hackathon.
The first day of the event kicked off with an opening speech by Latifa Nasibova, Acting Executive Director of UFAZ. This was followed by remarks from Vasif Gasimov, Chief Security Officer of PASHA Bank; Rashad Amirjanov, Head of the Digital Engineering Department; and Zaur Baghirov, Head of the Business Innovations Cluster.
After a general overview of the hackathon was presented, consecutive seminars were held on topics such as digital banking and customer experience, data analytics and forecasting, payment solutions and fintech integration. Career insights session was then conducted by recruitment specialists Nisa Taghizade and Hidayat Karimov. This was followed by an intensive three-hour mentorship session featuring 17 mentors from PASHA Bank and 7 from UFAZ.
The second day began with the continuation of the mentorship sessions. Speeches by Martin Godon, Secretary General of UFAZ, and Fidan Huseynova, Head of Talent Acquisition and Recruitment division at PASHA Bank , led into the final project presentations.
Undergraduate students (2nd, 3rd, and 4th year), as well as master’s students, competed in teams of three. Each of the 15 teams had 10 minutes to do their business and technical presentations before an 8-member jury panel, including a Q&A session.
After the calculation of scores, the top three teams were announced and an award ceremony was held. The first place was awarded to PRAXIS, the second place to STAR, and the third place to ZENGEZUR BHOS.
The winning team received a prize card worth 3,000 AZN. The second and third place teams were awarded 2,000 AZN and 1,000 AZN respectively. In addition, top-performing participants were given the opportunity to be selected for PASHA Bank’s “ZirvədəSən” internship program.
