Student Amar Muratović wins a special prize at a Innovative Blockchain Hackathon in Prague!

February 20, 2019

Can you imagine going to a foreign country to participate at a competition on something you are really very passionate about, but you do not know anyone there? Also, you should apply as a team - but you do not have one?

What would you do? Similar to a popular song by Clash - would you stay or would you go?

Well, for our Web and Mobile Computing student Amar Muratović it was not even a question. "When I saw on LinkedIn that there is Blockchain Hackathon in Prague I was so happy about it and I wanted to come and compete. Traveling to Prague by a bus was a bit was exhausting. I was also a bit uncomfortable because I never had been to Czech Republic before. Finally, I didn't expect much from the competition, because I was alone and I didn't know who are going to be my teammates."

The competition Innovative Blockchain Hackatontook place on February 15-16. The idea behind this 24-hour competition was to bring together blockchain enthusiasts from different professions with the objective to create blockchain solutions for businesses in the following areas: areas: Finance, Public Services, Mobility & Logistics and Space Technology. As you might expect, the room was full of people, employed professionals with different backgrounds, ready to show what they got.

Amar, the only student there, approached two contestants, Lukas and Tomas; the trio started to work on Blockchain solutions which would help companies like a Škoda to find quicker parts that are not so usual. "We wanted better logistics.", said Amar. "People there were really friendly and everything was great. We had technical support from people which work in IBM. It was my pleasure to work with IBM technology and their IBM Hyperledger Blockchain."

24 hours later and it was showtime: "During the presentation, I did everything that was delegated to me. Everything went well. I didn't expect much because I didn't compete with students. I was competing with professionals working in companies as a junior or senior developers and even people with their own businesses".

The jury obviously thought differently and has recognized Amar's team as winners of special award: "We were awarded by Space Systems Finland with fully sponsored trip to Finland to attend a conference there. Also, the CEO of SSF wants to meet us and he wants to get a presentation from us about what we did and what we are going to did right now after this hackathon. Lukas, Tomas and me are going to continue working together, which is more than we expected and I'm really happy about it. For those who are going to read this I can suggest never to stop dreaming. I went to unknown territory and showed my potential. Everyone can do it. You just need to love something without any compromise, work hard and practice decision making."

And yes, he is right, this just opened doors for him. Amar has received a special invitation from Copernicus Hackathon (Brno, Czech Republic) to compete there too! This is also one of the next stops for Amar's international team. We will keep you posted :)