Hacks 2020 hackathons, the final events of the UN Global Compact Ukraine IT training program for residents in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions were successfully held. Ten teams in two age categories made it to the finals of the hackathons: three in the YouthHack (up to 18 years old inclusive) and seven in the AdultHack (19+ years old). A jury of experts from Ukrainian IT companies and digital business areas - Infopulse, DAN.IT, Powercode, BazaIT, the MODUS program on digital transformation of DTEK and others, selected the best projects.
In the AdultHack hackathon, the Best App team's solution for monitoring and collecting data on bird nests on power lines was judged as being the best. DTEK, as a socially responsible business that has been implementing a program for ornithological safety of power grids since 2012, presented a case-challenge on biodiversity conservation.
The winning team developed an IT platform for collecting geological points and photographs with birds' nests on power lines using a Telegram chatbot with further data aggregation in an application for the company, where it will be possible to keep a record of all cases of nesting and already executed calls.
“The team was awarded the win, as they considered this challenge from different angles - both from the business side and from the users of the system, and took into account the environmental component. The guys offered to share the collected data with educational and even scientific institutions, to integrate scientific ornithological monitoring, - said Lev Kuzmin, member of the jury for Hacks 2020, Product Team Lead at MODUS Digital Transformation Program of DTEK. This is not the company’s first hackathon, nor is it mine, but I am pleasantly surprised by the solutions developed. It is easy to only talk about two days of the hackathon itself and forget the several months of study for participants in the IT program. Such programs and their results really inspire us and the talented youth who will drive our IT future”.
“Hackathons have become a key stage of the educational program that the UN Global Compact is implementing in Ukraine throughout 2020. After online training on the platform, hackathons make it possible to really assess the level of training of the participants and their capabilities. The jury's assessment was extremely important, and its members highly appreciated the work of the teams. We are grateful to our partners for their involvement and willingness to support people who want to learn new skills and change their qualifications, both at a young and adult age,” said Tatiana Sakharuk, Executive Director at UN Global Compact Ukraine.
“Since 2013, the distribution system operators included in DTEK Grids have installed 166 platforms in Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kiev, Odessa regions and the city of Kiev. We plan to actively develop the bird protection project in the future, so the idea developed by the hackathon participants is very interesting for us,” said Ivan Gelyukh, CEO of DTEK Grids.
As a result of the hackathons, the participants received incentive prizes, certificates for training and offers to undergo an internship in IT partner companies.
