Dialog’s Ideamart Spearheads Expansion of Sri Lanka’s Female Developer Community

 

Ideamart, a platform for developers and content providers presented by Dialog Axiata PLC, Sri Lanka’s premier connectivity provider, has supported the expansion of the country’s female developer community by partnering with the IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) Student Branch Affinity Group of the University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC) as ‘Official Technology Partner’ for Hackaholics 3.0, a female-only hackathon. The programme aims to train and build the skillset of female undergraduates in the tech space, island wide.

Hackaholics 3.0 was rolled out in two phases i.e. a pre-hack, where the main objective was to brief participants on the Hackathon and educate them on the usage of Ideamart APIs, and the Hackathon itself. The event drew the participation of 15 teams where each group was required to create an innovation and sustainable product, enhanced by the use of Ideamart APIs. The top three teams were awarded cash prizes, with team ‘Codettes’ representing UCSC, claiming the winning spot, team ‘Amigos’ representing University of Kelaniya being crowned 1st runners-up and team ‘Ecoist’ also from University of Kelaniya crowned 2nd runners-up.

Commenting, Oshani Weerakoon, President - IEEE WIE Student Branch Affinity Group of UCSC said, "The IEEE WIE Student Branch Affinity Group of UCSC was incepted to improve women's contributions towards electrical and electronic engineering amongst universities, while empowering women from all spheres of society to excel in their respective fields. We are excited to have conducted Hackaholics for the third consecutive year."

Commenting, Viranga Seneviratne, Head - MIFE Business and IOT, IdeaMart said, “Ideamart is proud to partner an initiative that aims to encourage and empower women to excel in the field of tech. The development and contribution of resources towards ensuring the next generation of developers including this segment of the population is crucial to creating a sustainable, digital future for all Sri Lankans”.

Ideamart’s involvement in Hackaholics 3.0 further supplements the platform’s work towards creating a strong female developer community in the country, such as the launch of ‘Ideamart for Women’, a female entrepreneurship programme initiated with the goal of improving the knowledge and skills of women in the industry. Through this, Ideamart conducts empowerment and guidance sessions, technology awareness sessions, mentoring, competitions and 24x7 app development and marketing support, all while creating a platform that supports individuals, businesses, students and other women-related initiatives.

About Dialog Axiata Group

Dialog Axiata Group, a subsidiary of Axiata Group Berhad (Axiata), operates Sri Lanka’s Leading Quad-Play Connectivity Provider. Dialog Axiata PLC, listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange, supplements its market leading position in the Mobile Telecommunications sector with a robust footprint and market presence in Sri Lanka’s Fixed Telecommunications and Digital Television markets through its fully owned subsidiaries Dialog Broadband Networks (Private) Ltd (DBN) and Dialog Television (Private) Ltd., (DTV). Dialog Axiata Group is Sri Lanka's largest Foreign Direct Investor (FDI) with investments totaling USD 2.3 Billion.

The winner of six Global Mobile Awards, Dialog has the distinction of being voted by Sri Lankan Consumers as the Telecom Service Provider of the Year for seven years in succession at the SLIM-Nielsen People's Choice Awards. Dialog was also voted by Sri Lankan consumers as the Internet Service Provider of the Year for six years consecutively, and has topped Sri Lanka’s Corporate Accountability rankings for the past eight years in succession, and is an ISO 9001 certified company. The Company has received numerous local and international awards including the National Quality Award, the Sri Lanka Business Excellence Award and endorses the worldwide Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which aim to build a sustainable future for all by 2030.

Dialog has been at the forefront of innovation in the mobile industry in Sri Lanka since the late 90’s, propelling the nation’s mobile telephony infrastructure to a level of advancement on par with the developed world. The company delivers advanced mobile telephony and high speed mobile broadband services to a subscriber base in excess of 13 Million Sri Lankans, via 2.5G and 3G/3.5G and 4G/4.5G networks.