BracU team secures 1st runner-up at the national TFGBV hackathon

On February 28, United International University (UIU) held the National Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) Hackathon, a competition designed to solve gender-based violence, a pressing issue in today’s society, through technological innovations. The Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) organised the event, which featured 14 talented teams from different universities. The team representing Brac University’s School of Data and Computational Sciences (SDCS) secured the 1st runner-up position with their project.

Niloy Sarkar (Junior, CSE) and Md Farhan Sadique (Junior, CSE) presented “Nirvhoy”, an AI-powered system designed to enhance reporting, safety, and support systems for gender-based violence victims. Nirvhoy is a reporting tool driven by artificial intelligence that makes General Diaries (GDs) and finds legal violations that apply to the incident description. It also has an intelligent SOS system with audio and video recording. Moreover, to make it accessible to all social classes, phone users will be able to send SMS or use hotline services for emergency responses.

Photo credit: Collected

The platform also focuses on recovery with anonymous peer support and mental wellness tools. Niloy quoted, “Even though technology-facilitated harassment is very common, it remains rarely reported. We wanted to apply our knowledge to solve a real-world issue and demonstrate that technology can also be applied to do social good”.

Farhan expressed, “It was a very rewarding moment for our team as only one team was selected from each university, so representing Brac University and emerging as runners-up among other universities made us very proud”.

Under the guidance of their mentor, Annajiat Alim Rasel (Senior lecturer, CSE), the team believes Nirvhoy will become an effective platform to help individuals combat gender-based violence by collaborating with NGOs and legal experts. They also encouraged young students to view hackathons as more than coding competitions, as opportunities to solve social problems and use technology to make a meaningful impact.