Mind, skill, and heart are put into one as our BSIT students Jonel Belandrez, Jhon Eric Reyes, and Ryan Amian bagged down the 2nd Place among more than 20 participants in the recently-held “UHAC 4.0” (Unionbank Hackathon) organized by Unionbank exclusively for STI Colleges in Luzon held last December 10-11, 2016 at Unionbank Ortigas with their Digital Banking Project for Farmers.

Their project aims to help solve the existing problems of farmers which are not limited to (a) they have land but no start-up money, (b) they have money but no financial knowledge, and (c) they have a middle man instead of going straight to the market. The project will be a collaboration between the Department of Agriculture and Unionbank to help the farmers earn what they deserve from their hardwork. The process the Digital Banking Project is as follows:

1. The farmers would loan from the Department of Agriculture and the latter will give them raw materials instead of money.
2. The Department of Agriculture will serve as a road to market profit and all harvests will be uploaded via the website.
3. The Department of Agriculture will then deposit the farmers’ profit which will handle all financial transactions.

The UHAC 4.0 is the fourth year of the Unionbank Hackathon program, but this is the very first year that they organized this exclusively for students and for students from STI Colleges. The first three years was held for professionals. The objectives of the event are to scout for best talents for possible employment with Unionbank; to find the most creative and innovative solutions in the digital world; and to promote Unionbank as a fully digitized bank that provides Smart Banking to all of its customers.

According to the students, it’s a wonderful and valuable experience that lead them into using their critical thinking skills towards establishing ideas for innovation. This type of event is one that will really help the youth solve the problems of the society, and that will give us hope that there is a solution to every problem.

We congratulate and thank the students’ coaches, BELP Coordinator Mr. Julius Yves Battung, ICT Coordinator Mr. Jay Rico, and Coach Rachel Diano, and the ICT Dean Ms. Marilyn Afable for their support. Most importantly, we congratulate and thank the students who competed in this event for truly, they are one of our pride.