On March 10, 2023, 35 employees from Confiz Pakistan, USA, and UAE (who were also alumni from prestigious universities across Pakistan) gathered to participate in Confiz’s CodeJam event. The event provided a platform for participants to unleash the nerd in them, showcase their programming skills and develop unique tech ideas to help solve common challenges faced by the masses.
The competition saw the participation of alums from top universities, such as FAST, GIKI, LSE, LUMS, and more. The competition rules required the participants to build functional prototypes and present Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) for their ideas. Then, a panel of esteemed judges evaluated the entries based on the originality, feasibility, and potential impact of the ideas presented.
These judges included industry leaders like Ahsan Saleem, Senior Vice President at Confiz, Hashim Ali, Chief Operating Officer at Confiz, and Dr. Zartash Afzal Uzmi, Partner and Founding Director at Confiz. Their extensive experience and in-depth knowledge made them the perfect choice to evaluate the entries and provide valuable feedback to the participants.
The creative solutions suggested by the participants ranged from food recommendation applications and interview management systems to shuttle service trackers and more. The ideas showcased the participants’ ingenuity and creative prowess, highlighting the breadth of their knowledge and their commitment to innovation.
After a rigorous evaluation process, Team Alpha emerged as the winning team. Their solution centered around implementing an augmented reality-based navigation application designed to help people navigate around large organizations and hospitals. Muhammad Aaraiz, a gold medalist from FAST, Lahore, and a Software Engineer at Confiz, spearheaded the winning team.
Team Alpha’s members included:
- Shamshir Ali, an alumnus of Bahauddin Zakariya University and Principal Software Engineer at Confiz
- Salahuddin Rajput, an alumnus of Punjab University College of Information Technology and Software Engineer at Confiz
- Waleed Babar, an alumnus of the University of Gujrat and Senior Software Engineer at Confiz
- Rehan Sarwar, also an alumnus of the University of Gujrat and a Principal Software Engineer at Confiz
While speaking on their win, Team Alpha’s lead, Muhammad Aaraiz, said, “Our vision was to create an indoor navigation app that could revolutionize how people navigate large institutions like hospitals and malls. With this app, we aimed to eliminate frustration and help people find their way around with ease. Despite our challenges in developing an augmented reality-based solution, our team’s hard work and dedication paid off, and we won the competition! The feeling of excitement and pride was incredible, and I am grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of such a fantastic event.”
The runner-up for the competition was Team Ms, whose idea consisted of helping coworkers correct their posture using Artificial Intelligence.
The winning team and the runner-up were awarded exciting prizes, consisting of cash prizes and gift baskets worth PKR 325,000, including tech gadgets like Sony headphones, JBL Bluetooth speakers, Realme power banks, and more. The prizes were distributed by Dr. Zartash Afzal Uzmi, a prominent member of the board of directors at Confiz, who received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and enjoys the role of Assistant Professor at LUMS University.
Elaborating on the vision behind the event, Aitezaz Sheikh, Vice President of Engineering at Confiz and a part of the organizing committee for CodeJam said, “Our goal with CodeJam was to foster a culture of innovation and teamwork within our company and provide a platform for our employees to showcase their creative and technical skills. We were thrilled to see many passionate individuals across different regions and departments come together and present some truly impressive ideas. It was a great success, and we look forward to organizing more events like this that will help us drive technological advancement and create a sense of community and collaboration within our organization.”
Confiz’s CodeJam 2023 was organized in keeping with the tradition of hosting annual Geekathons before the Covid-19 pandemic. The event aimed to foster a culture of innovation and collaboration among employees from not just tech but also other educational backgrounds. By launching CodeJam this year, the company has revived its activities and reinforced its thought leadership efforts.
