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The first ever MABHackathon ended over the weekend and the winners took home RM20,000 in cash plus air travel to London. The competition saw participation from 700 initial hackers, vying for the grand prize. However, only 21 teams were selected by the MAS panellists to be part of its Hackathon which was held over the 2 days at the MAS Academy in Kelana Jaya.

The MABHackathon challenge started in November with a series of hacking labs and activities. The challenge started with the Discovery Challenge, followed by The Ideation Lab, Pre-hack and The Hack Day.

The 700 applicants were streamed to just 90 during the Ideation Lab and Pre-Hack rounds. Subsequently they were invited to present their ideas to the panellists before they would be allowed entry to the hackathon. Their presentations were based on 10 solutions that were given by MAS to improve and innovate its travel services. Twenty one teams with the best concepts were then asked to join the hackathon to create their applications.

Malaysia Airlines’ CEO, Peter Bellew was delighted to receive such positive responses from university students, budding entrepreneurs and business partners to be a part of the airline’s digital transformation journey via the MABHackathon.

“We hope that participants benefit from this initiative and continue pursuing their passion for innovation. As this will now be a yearly programme, we want to encourage more local talents to participate. This year’s winner will make history as they will be the first group to win an airline Hackathon in Malaysia.”

“We are optimistic that the MABHackathon will help position the airline to be more creative and innovative, and ultimately, provide our customers with a more superior experience while improving the efficiency of the airline’s overall operations, ” added Peter Bellew.

Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Director of Data Economy, Ir Dr Karl Ng said, “The Malaysia Airlines Hackathon is definitely one with a very clear end goal of improving Malaysia Airlines’ services, and we are excited to see the innovative solutions being implemented. These participants came from all over the nation, they are the people that will take this country to a stage where data analytics and digital economy will form the bedrock of our economy.”

The 3 top winners would also be entitled for a three-month incubation programme in the Malaysia Airlines Innovation Lab and granted with exclusive entry to the National Big App Challenge 4.0, a Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) initiative.

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