It all started with the initiative of the student council of the Faculty of Electronics FEL Famsly to organize a student competition aimed at improving the landscaping of the university and dedicated to the 125th anniversary of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. The students' idea was supported by the administration of the faculty and the university's Department of Educational Work, and soon, on March 25, the university-wide hackathon "KPI Upgrade Hackathon" was launched. Its main goal was to create innovative solutions and implement projects to improve the KPI campus and its beautification.
The organizers of the hackathon - Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in partnership with the All-Ukrainian Innovation Ecosystem "Sikorsky Challenge Ukraine" and the NGO "Association Noosphere" - determined the composition of the organizing committee and jury, the procedure, requirements for projects, and evaluation criteria. The hackathon was open to KPI students of any course of any form of study. The organizers also formed a team of specialists who provided information and consulting services to the participants during the hackathon. The competition was held in the following categories: "Innovation and Art Design"; "AR/VR" (Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality - i.e., their use to improve comfort, implement educational initiatives, etc.); "HW for Olena Teliha Square" (Hardware, i.e., hardware solutions that will make Polyana a comfortable environment for every KPI student); "Campus Security". The ideas of the projects and technological solutions presented by the participants should provide for their implementation within five months, i.e. before the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the university.
The final of the KPI Upgrade Hackathon took place on April 1 at the Club-13 Innovation Center for Student Youth. It was attended by 11 teams consisting of 46 students. The participants who reached the final represented 16 faculties and educational and research institutes of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute: NN VPI, FBMI, FEL, RTF, IKHF, NN IEE, NN ITS, NN IAT, NN IATE, NN FTI, HTF, FMM, PBF, FEA, NN IPSA, NN MMI.
After the pitches, the jury announced the winners.
In the category "Innovation and Art Design", the 1st place was awarded to the team "Shakalnyi Vantazh" with the project "KPI Wayfinder" - a system of navigation and information signs on the campus of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. The team consists of students of the School of VPI Olga Guseva, Victoria Balamut and Vladyslava Moskivets, as well as Sofia Maslyanchuk and Anna Tymoshenko from the FBMI. In this category, another 1st place went to the ”Illumination” team with the project “Illumination” - Integrated Lighting System for the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute campus. The team consisted of: Angelina Botnar from the Institute of ITS, Mykhailo Podolian, Artem Kirienko and Ilya Zhoglo from FEL, Ali Dosmukhamedov from the Institute of IATE.
The 1st place in the “AR/VR” category went to the “NERV” team with the “KPI NaviSystem” project - a navigation system for the campus and buildings of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute using AR. The team consisted of: Sophia Zaichenko and Andrii Zhydkovskyi from FBMI, Dima Rybachenko from FEL, Olha Tytarenko from the Institute of IATE, and Viktoriia Derkach from FMM. Another 1st place in this category went to the “NaN of your Business” team with the “KPIeye” project - a computer vision-based web application that allows you to get text, visual and audio information about the history and attractions of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute by taking photos. The team consists of Evelina Tomchenko, Andrii Shevtsov, Vladyslav Poplavskyi, Yelyzaveta Razumovska - all students of the Institute of IASA.
The hackathon partners informed about special awards for the teams.
The “Noosphere” Engineering School offered the winning teams " Shakalnyi Vantazh", "NERV" and "NaN of your Business" to unite into one and announced its readiness to help implement a project on navigation around the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute campus. The School of Engineering also volunteered to help the “Illumination” team implement their “Illumination” project of an integrated lighting system for the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute campus. And for another team, the guys from “Valerik”, “Noosphere” is ready to help implement their project KPI-BOT, an innovative platform that will allow for easy development and implementation of robotic solutions on the university campus.
Another partner of the hackathon, “Sikorsky Challenge” Innovation Holding, on behalf of the All-Ukrainian Innovation Ecosystem “Sikorsky Challenge Ukraine”, awarded the “NaN of your Business” team with a certificate (the name of their project is mentioned above). This certificate gave the team the right to participate in a startup school out of competition within the framework of the joint international project of the University of Sheffield (UK) and Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute "Building back better: transforming the post-war ecosystem in Ukraine". The team will receive free professional training at the startup school. In addition, they will be able to undergo incubation, during which they will have support from British entrepreneurs and the opportunity to present their projects to potential investors in Sheffield.