SoftServe joined the social hackathon aimed at finding innovative solutions

More than 360 participants from all over Ukraine worked to present the ideas of innovative solutions for urgent security needs in Ukraine in general and in specific locations.

Two employees of SoftServe's Kharkiv office, Ivan Osotov, Senior Solutions Architect, and Denys Sych, Senior Frontend Engineer, mentored the teams during the hackathon. And Vyacheslav Laptev, Educational Program Manager, was one of the members of the hackathon jury. In addition, the winning team received gifts from the company. A jury of representatives of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Ukraine, the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, and specialists from leading IT companies selected three winners from among the participants of the three-day hackathon. The winning teams will soon receive financial and mentoring support to implement their innovative ideas in Ukrainian communities.

The first place went to the team "Don't burn", which offered a solution for timely and effective fire extinguishing response. The idea is to create a GIS platform for analysis, monitoring, and rapid response to fires using NASA satellite data and data on fires and potentially dangerous fires, which will be reported by residents of Donetsk and Luhansk regions via Telegram-bot. Second place went to the “Ward” team with a prototype project for a mobile application for recognizing objects and the space around them with the help of audio, with the function of reading and sounding texts and scanning QR-codes. The “Drop table” team took third place and introduced the ULight street lighting management system, which will allow one to control street lighting remotely, monitor streets and report faults, as well as notify community members of unauthorized connections to street lighting networks.

“Hack for Locals is an example of a great win-win initiative, where on the one hand each participant gains experience, new knowledge and contacts, and on the other hand new ideas and solutions are created to strengthen local communities, social and environmental security, digital literacy, etc. - says Vyacheslav Laptev, Educational Program Manager of the Kharkiv office of SoftServe.”

About the project

"Hack for Locals 2.0: Safe Communities" is a hackathon for the development of Ukrainian communities, held under the UN Recovery & Peacebuilding Programme (UN RPP) for the second time, and this year aims to strengthen security in communities through innovative technological solutions. The UN RPP is implemented by four UN agencies: the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations Framework for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (UN Women), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

The program is supported by thirteen international partners: the European Union, the European Investment Bank, the US Embassy in Ukraine, as well as the governments of the United Kingdom, Denmark, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Poland, Switzerland, Sweden, and Japan.