Kathmandu Nepal (Saturday, February 2, 2019 )
Spiralogics hosted Spirathon AI Conference on 2nd Feb, Saturday. Spirathon is an annual appathon organized by Spiralogics International. This year’s theme is AI for Impact. Mr. Samir Upadhyay, the CEO of Spiralogics said: “the purpose of this event is to bring together professionals and students under one roof to rediscover the possibilities that AI can create in our day to day lives.” The event included Spirathon Finale with AI Application Demo and Presentation along with keynote speakers and awards distribution. Mahabir Pun was invited as the Chief Guest. A pun is a social entrepreneur and an activist known for his extensive work in applying wireless technologies to develop remote areas of the Himalayas, also known as the Nepal Wireless Networking Project.
At this event, four teams presented their AI themed application in front of the judges and the audience. Judging these teams were Mona Nyachhyon (CEO, Log point), Manish Modi (Managing Director, Khalti) and Santosh Gartaula (Co-founder, BikasUdhyami.com). Each group was scored on different criteria such as completeness, sustainability, presentation, and impact. These teams were selected out of the 25 teams who had submitted their idea during the preliminary round. After the selection, the teams started working on the prototype of their application under the supervision of a mentor assigned by the organizers themselves. Team Night Owls was announced the winner of Spirathon 2019, taking home Rs. 20,000, a trophy as well as gift voucher from Cake Koseli.
Similarly, 1st runner-up and 2nd runner-up took a home cash prize of Rs. 10,000 and Rs. 5000 respectively along with the gift vouchers.
The second half of the event included speakers like Dr. Pramod Parajuli ( AI Consultant), Suraj Regmi ((Data Scientist in The World Bank), Bishesh Khanal (Co-founder of NAAMII) and Saunak Ranjitkar (COO and CTO of Spiralogics Inc.) who presented their case studies and research paper on various topics of AI.
At the end of the conference, a Networking Session was held so participants could interact with the speaker as well as each other. The event attracted around 200 participants including IT students and professionals who wanted to increase their understanding of AI and it’s future potentials.