The 6th AT&T Junior Hackathon took place on 28-29 November in Brno, gathering young technological minds from high schools across the Czech Republic to develop innovative ideas to contribute to a better digital future for the whole of society.
The winner of the technological marathon was the Merkury team from the Secondary School of Film, Multimedia, and Computer Technologies in Zlín. During the 24-hour competition, the team developed and programmed an interactive game that introduces players to the basics of cybersecurity, showing the possible risks of working with a computer and how to defend against online attacks. Their project also received the prize for the best idea.
According to Petr Novák, product owner at AT&T GNS Czech Republic: “These students are the future of development companies. They don’t spend hours on computers ‘playing games’, but testing the possibilities of technology, discovering, and inventing. And that’s exactly what the two-day contest is about. The participants, accompanied by their teachers, had access to modern technologies and expert mentors, and it’s amazing to watch what they can do with this in a minimum of time.”
He added that this year’s hackathon focused on solving challenges related to artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and improving life inside buildings. A total of 15 high school teams designed their own prototypes from scratch within 24 hours, with the aim of increasing quality of life for varied groups of people.
AT&T organized the Brno Junior Hackathon in cooperation with the non-profit organization JA Czech. The nationwide high school competition in programming and solving technical problems brought together 67 young IT hopefuls, who competed in groups of up to five people at the Secondary School of Informatics, Post and Finance.
Supervised by expert mentors from AT&T, partner companies, and institutions, the high schoolers spent 24 hours, with minimal rest, developing their projects in an atmosphere full of ideas and energy. They were also given access to many different technologies, devices and programs.
“The competition is one of the more demanding in terms of intensity, but for all participants it is a great experience and investment in the future,” said Martin Smrž, director of the educational organization JA Czech. “Every time we are surprised by the great ideas and specific innovations that young people come up with, there is enormous potential in them. This time, the jury of IT and business professionals awarded four teams. The best students won vouchers to purchase electronics of their choice worth up to CZK 20,000.”
The second place and prize for the best presentation was won by the CloudCrew team from the Orlová Gymnasium and Business Academy. They developed an application for storing receipts, invoices, and information about appliances in one place, in order to save the environment, monitor warranty and service periods, and help extend the life of products.
The BinaryBandits from the Emil Kolben Secondary Industrial School in Rakovník took third place with a project focused on electronic school timetables – affordable displays based on electronic ink, which are placed in classrooms and respond to live changes in teaching schedules.
Finally, the prize for best technical solution went to the Koncentrovaná prestiž team from the Secondary Industrial School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics in Ostrava. Their winning project presented a device detecting the movement of people in indoor spaces, for example in a museum: a visitor to an interactive exhibition uses an application on their phone, which accompanies them through the exhibition.
