As they say, modern problems require modern solutions.
With the world slowly becoming aware of the challenges that have been left behind by COVID-19, AIM and ADB have taken it upon themselves to work together to find new ways for us to acclimate to the new normal. Currently, trillions of dollars have been wiped out from the world’s economies as businesses left and right shuttered their doors and millions of people were left unemployed. As a result, the Asian Development Bank has given a total of $26.5 billion to address the needs of developing countries that may not have the infrastructure in place to put into place the recovery efforts needed in the new normal. However, as much as money can help restimulate economies, new and modern solutions are necessary to address this new reality.
In line with ADB and AIM’s goal of helping bring back economic activity to countries heavily hit by the pandemic, they have decided to put a focus on digital possibilities in their third joint hackathon, ADB Digital Against COVID-19 Hackathon, to look into new and revolutionary ways to combat COVID-19 and its effects. This hackathon will focus on life in the post-COVID world, and it aims to kickstart innovative solutions that may aid the shifts and challenges of the new normal. With a cash prize of $10,000 for the pilot testing of chosen solutions, a chance to pitch and connect with Asian Development Bank leaders, and the opportunity to gain ADB support to undergo incubation and access funding sources, there are three possible challenges competitors can join.
The first of which is Nowcasting the Economic Impact of COVID-19, wherein participants are tasked to provide timely measures of economic activity using alternative data sources for governments and businesses to have a more accurate sense of economic performance. Applications for this challenge were closed as of June 26, 2020 (12:00 PM GMT +8).
The second challenge, on the other hand, is the Earth Observation Data Challenge, which tasks competitors to use earth observation (EO) data to do crisis monitoring and provide ways to measure short term changes in economic activity. All solutions are then tasked to provide models and data analytics in a dashboard format and must answer the question of: How can we use earth observation data to monitor the economic activities in select countries in Asia? This challenge is open to applications until July 10, 2020 (12:00 PM GMT +8).
Finally, their third challenge is Digital Technology to Increase Credit Access for MSMEs, which aims to increase credit access of MSMEs through experimentation with alternative credit scoring mechanics that may aid MSMEs to stay alive in this very vulnerable time. Solutions must answer the question of how can MSMEs can safely use Big Data and Machine Learning to model the creditworthiness of entrepreneurs and to find out if alternative credit scoring can improve the access to finance of MSMEs in times of crisis. Applications for this challenge are also open until 10th July 2020 (12:00 PM GMT +8).
To learn more about this event, please go to this link.