A Garage48 Hackathon is a 48-hour intense weekend marathon, where up to 150 participants gather and pitch about 20 to 30 ideas on stage, with the aim of turning those ideas into viable prototypes and profitable businesses.

Kardan University students participated in the ‘Garage48 Empowering Women Hackathon’ which was organized by a collaboration of the Estonian Development Cooperation Fund and Asara Consulting. This was the first-ever Hackathon by Garage48 to be organized in Kabul. The program involved tens of student teams from several universities in Kabul who aspired to make their business ideas a reality and win a trip to Estonia along with financial support for their startup concept.

On December 8, 2019, the Office of Gender and Alumni Relations, in collaboration with The ASARA and partnership with Garrage48 organized a one-day seminar for students of BBA, Economics, and BCS departments, the main purpose of which was to encourage students’ participation in the Hackathon.

The orientation session discussed:

1. Short description of the Hackathon event
2. A motivational talk, related to entrepreneurship, by international experts from Garage 48
3. New business startup related activities
4. A Q&A session and selection of top participants for the Hackathon

Garage 48 intended to select only a few, most active participants for the Hackathon. However, looking at the enthusiasm and great ideas the students had for doing business differently, they were all selected for participation. Since they all had, fortunately, all 20 of the candidates from Kardan University were selected for the Hackathon event.

Many students participated in the event from different universities. On the first day of the event, 40 ideas were presented in the initial stage. 16 ideas were selected for the next round of competitions.

Participating teams were given the next day and half of the day after, to complete their presentation, website, and demo service.

Students participating from Kardan University proudly succeeded in securing three significant prizes along with financial support and opportunity for technical training by Garage 48/Asara mentors.

Following are Kardan University projects which did well in the competition:

- Best Technical Award, team ‘No Escape’
Received $1500 prize and six months training

- Local Culture Booster Award, team ‘Bridge’
Secured one-year training along with a certificate

- 2nd Runner-Up, team ‘Plastic Pollution’
Won 500$ prize and six months training