Technovation Girls Uzbekistan, the largest STEM program for girls in the country, in partnership with the online service Yandex Go and the Nukus Youth Technopark, under the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, held a hackathon recently

The task for the teams at the hackathon was to come up with a mobile application on the topic of road safety and accessibility of the urban environment.

Over 50 participants, aged between 14 to 25 years old, were divided into 13 teams and developed projects.

Participants presented their ideas in the format of presentations and interactive prototypes.

Among them were a cane with sensors for the movement of blind people around the city, a marketplace for car parts and a community of drivers, the use of Open Budget by drivers and the khokimiyat to repair road potholes, an application for passengers and minibus drivers in Nukus, a bracelet that tracks the health indicators of truck drivers, a project to install sensors on cars that monitor compliance with traffic rules, and others.

All hackathon participants received certificates, and 8 teams (in the easy and difficult hackathon track) received valuable prizes from the organizers.

“This is our first time hosting a hackathon as part of Technovation Girls, and we are pleased to host the event in Karakalpakstan, an important region for our program. The Nukus Youth Technopark has created excellent conditions for training and implementing the ideas and projects of young people, and we were convinced of this when we saw the activity of the teams and the support of their ideas. At the hackathon we managed to unite both the girls participating in our programs and the boys. It was a great synergy, and we hope to see these teams in the new season of the Technovation Girls program,” said Saida Yusupova, director of the NGO Tech4Impact.

“Safety and accessibility of movement around the city are our priorities. We regularly invest in the development of technologies in our service, and are happy to support guys who are also interested in creating innovative projects. At the hackathon, we shared our international experience and were glad to see the excitement and inspiration in the eyes of the participants,” said Kirill Svintsov, head of Yandex Go in the CIS.

“The Kiymeshek team and I are impressed by our participation in the hackathon organized by Technovation Girls, Tech4Impact and Yandex Go, dedicated to road safety. In every code, every line, we see the opportunity to make the world safer and better - this is our inspiration for creativity and innovation,” says Nazokat Kalnazarova from the Kiymeshek winning team.

“The Tech4Impact and Yandex Go hackathon is the coolest event I attended this year. It was a great mix of atmosphere, people and opportunities to show potential. In the future, I will continue to implement our team’s project, which we created at the hackathon. In addition, I am also interested in projects in the field of civil engineering and construction,” shares Joldybaeva Aisulu from the INTUZA winning team.

Hackathon participants also attended several practical master classes on generating social ideas, using AI (artificial intelligence) to speed up project development, security technologies in the Yandex Go application, and also learned about Technopark projects for the youth of Nukus.