UniHack 2020 has announced its winners
UniHack 2020 has announced its winners
The second edition of the international hackathon for pupils and students UniHack took place between November 20-22, organized by Liga AC (the students' organization from the Faculty of Automation and Computers) and Banat IT, with the support of the Faculty of Automation and Computers and Politehnica University Timisoara, the event taking place online.
325 students and pupils from around the world, grouped in teams of up to 5 people, created 75 web, mobile, or artificial intelligence applications over the weekend, out of a desire to support the community on matters such as civic involvement or digital education.
In parallel, the participants had the opportunity to participate in over 20 talks and workshops given by experts in the field. Thus, they developed their technical knowledge and learned how to apply it for the benefit of society, but also what steps they must take to turn their idea into a start-up with real impact.
The grand prize, worth 2,000 euros, and the prize for the best project in the Digital Education category, offered by Liga AC, was won by the VisuLearn team from the United States, which developed an interface based on gesture recognition that transforms online courses in a dynamic and more accessible experience for students with disabilities. Users can use the application, compatible with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, to display 3D models, images, or text on student screens.
The special award offered by the French Embassy in Romania and the French Institute in Romania was won by the Timisoara team CitizenTM, with an application that helps citizens to get actively involved in the community, by reporting problems, supporting initiatives requiring financial support, and maintaining contact with the public administration. The team developed both a mobile application for citizens and a web interface for administration.
The best mobile application, awarded by Visma, was SpendWithBrain, an iOS application that allows users to monitor and manage their personal finances and, with the help of graphs and statistics, identify ways to improve their financial situation.
The award for the best web application, offered by Atos, was won by the MapStore project, a web service that provides detailed visual information about a department's stores and products.
Continental Automotive awarded two projects in the category of safe urban mobility, namely NavSafe and SPARKS. NavSafe offers the community an alternative to Google Maps and other navigation applications, proposing routes that take into account the safety of areas along the route, from the perspective of crime rate, and SPARKS detects potential dangers on the road and offers speed reduction recommendations.
In addition, Major League Hacking, a global community of hackathon organizers including UniHack, provided support throughout the event and several prizes for participants.
The event was organized with the support of the French Embassy in Romania, the French Institute in Romania, and the sponsors: Atos, Continental Automotive, Visma, Google, Tazz by eMag, and Here Technologies.
