On October 19-20th, two teams of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute took part in two competitions for the first time at the local stage of the International Space hackathon, the Space Apps Challenge, which is being held in different countries with the support of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States. First team competed in Dnipro, the second one - in Kyiv.
‘Space Apps is held annually and gathers thousands of innovators, designers, programmers, analysts and space fans’, said Hanna Saryboha, team supervisor, senior lecturer at the IAT Aviation and Rocket Engineering Department. ‘Hackathon participants solve practical problems of space and environment exploration within 48 hours. They presented their most fantastic ideas, learned to defend their opinions in front of the jury and worked as a team. In 2018, the Space Apps hackathon brought together more than 18,000 participants from 75 countries’, she said.
A team “K.I.S.S.” consist of 2nd grade students Yevhenii Dymarchuk, Olha Astakhova, Ihor Novoselytskiy Serhii Radchenko, Heorhiy Tarash, 1st grade students Viktor Skorniakov, Yuriy Vasylyshyn, Elina Dudka, and 5th grade student Oleksii Melnyk. This team was ahead of 28 regional teams and won the local stage of the NASA Space Apps Challenge, which was held in Oles Honchar Dnipro National University. Their project "Make it simple" was dedicated to improving the on-board system of the aircraft by minimizing the wired communication networks of the aircraft.
Another team of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute “Short circuit”, that consist of Vladyslav Holets (4th grade student, TEF), Denys Vysoven (4th grade student, TEF), Vladyslav Yakymenko (4th grade student, FEL), Mark Sandu (1st grade student IAT), Henrikh Titov (1st grade student IAT), Anton Klymenko (1st grade student IAT), Sofiya Voieikova (1st grade student IAT), Bohdan Pashystyi (1st grade student IAT), Iryna Potapenko (2nd grade student IAT), developed a virtual drone control system on Mars "UAV'S Savior" and won in the "People's choice" category in the local stage of the competition, which was held in the Kyiv National Aviation University.
Most teams fail the hackathon due to the inability to work together, the lack of a leader, the misallocation of resources, and not because of a bad idea. Hackathon is a good chance to feel for a few hours what a real technology business is and to understand for yourself whether you are ready for this, said Hanna Saryboha.
The winning students do not hold back their emotions, ‘What have we got? – two days of teamwork, discussions with representatives of the space sector, mentors and leaders of the innovative industry in Ukraine. A lot of impressions. We tried the food of astronauts and received memorable prizes and awards.’
IAT Director, professor Ivan Korobko said, ‘Our students have shown that it is possible to achieve tangible results in a relatively short period of time by team efforts and with the effective help of mentors, supervisors who guide young people to the star paths”
Specialists and organizers of hackathons indicated that at such events, participants study, look for problems and offer their own way to solve it. They are not afraid of innovative ideas, defend their point of view in front of experts, their vision of ways to solve the pressing problems of our time. The projects are absolutely real, although they require additional research. Teams, which had won on the regional stages will compete for a place in the final of the international stage of the competition in 4-6 weeks. Well, the absolute winners, who will be determined at the beginning of 2020, will receive an invitation to launch a rocket at the US spaceport.