On October 26 – 27, 2018, the TUKE, in cooperation with AT&T and other partners, organized, at the University Library, for the first time in the Slovak Republic, a programmers´ marathon – an innovative competition titled V4 Hackathon – for students (and not only for them). The opening of the competition was attended not only by the management of the TUKE headed by the Rector prof. Ing. Stanislav Kmeť, CSc. but also by other important guests: Rastislav Trnka, the president of the Košice self-governing region; Natasha Franceschi, the Deputy of the United States Ambassador in the Slovak Republic; Gabriel Galgoci, General Manager of AT&T in Slovakia and Karol Kniewald, Cisco Systems representative.

Within 24 hours, 21 registered teams, more than 140 enthusiastic participants – not just “coders” – solved interesting projects thematically focused on Internet of Things, health care and quality of life.

It was an exhausting but rich and prolific 24-hour deal of programming and solving of real-life problems, searching for answers to the challenges of modern life. Teams sought solutions based on the use of Internet of Things concepts, solved real-life health, housing, sustainability and smart city issues, while being supported by a group of experienced mentors – IT experts, doctors and managers.

The winners were announced by a panel of experts from academia and industry sector. The winner of the 24-hour marathon was the SpaceCode team; the second place was taken by the Island team, and the third place by CheckUp. Valuable prizes were prepared for the winners: $6,000 for the first place, $3,000 for the second place, and $1,500 for the third place. The three winning teams were also included into the 6-month acceleration programme of the StartUp Centre of the University Science Park TECHNICOM at TUKE, enabling them to transform their project solutions into commercial products. The five most inspiring participants – individuals – have also been given the opportunity to attend prestigious training at the online Nanodegree program at AT&T. More information about V4 Hackathon can be found at http://hackyourfuture.eu.

Contact: doc. Ing. František Jakab, PhD., 0905715816