26.11.2018
- Team Emoji has won this year's Hackathon of Hrvatski Telekom - they have created a solution that enables uninterrupted video communication between hearing impaired persons and people they talk to
- More than 200 participants attended a two-day event called HACK IT DAYZ and enjoyed a rich conference program and innovative solutions of young enthusiasts
Team Emoji - Hackathon winners
The third of HACK IT DAYZ of Hrvatski Telekom ended, which took place on November 24 and 25 in the Algebra LAB, and winners of this year's challenge are known. The main award went to the Emoji team, whose members have come up with an innovative approach to solving how to facilitate life for those with impaired hearing with video communication. The team has devised a special program that translates the sign language into voices that the deaf can see in textual format and thus allows uninterrupted communication between hearing impaired persons and people they talk to. “Communication must be accessible to everyone as a fundamental right, and our solution uses the advantages of technology whose greatest purpose is to make life easier for people,” said Monika Tenšić, who together with Kristijan Gašljević, Ivan Solić and Igor Rinkovac designed and developed this idea. This year's hackathon sought a solution for the future of video communications, and the judges recognized this project as the solution most in line with the set criteria.
The full-day hackathon has brought several innovative solutions for the future of video communications. The hackers worked hard all day and night and with little help and guidelines of mentors from Hrvatski Telekom, Algebra, Zagrebačka banka and others developed their ideas to the solution and successfully presented them to the judges and the public. The first team Emoji was rewarded with HRK 30.000, and will be able to further elaborate their winning idea in DT hub:raum at a two-day workshop in Poland, with top experts. After the workshop, there will also be financial support by hub:raum for the final conversion of the original idea into the final product. The MIOC team took home the second prize, while the third place and award were shared by the teams Gopnik and IVS.
“In Hrvatski Telekom, we consider progressive technology event like this to be ideal, primarily because we have the technological capacity to turn this solution into reality,” said Nataša Rapaić, MB member residential from Hrvatski Telekom who, besides other organizers and partners, does not hide satisfaction with the success of this year's hackathon and the conference.
This year's HACK IT DAYZ was all but usual. It was organized by Hrvatski Telekom, with the support of Deutsche Telekom and its start-up accelerator hub:raum, Otvoreno učilište Algebra, Ericsson Nikola Tesla, Samsung, Tportal.hr and Zagrebačka banka and Mastercard. The project grew into a two-day event that, alongside the traditional 24-hour hacking, was also joined by a conference with more than 200 participants. Numerous experts have talked about the application and future of technology in their areas. The conference was opened by Luka Abrus, CEO of Five, followed by Erik Meijer from DT, Vedran Blagus from the South Central Ventures Fund and prof. Ninoslav Mimica of Vrapče Psychiatric Hospital, who spoke in his lecture of many ways technology can and must raise the quality of human life. The afternoon part of the conference was marked by the multidisciplinary artist OKO, who in an interesting dialogue with Ida Prester, presented to all participants her journey and her view of art, how technology currently affects her work and what she expects from it in the future. The nice OKO delighted attendees with her spontaneity and contributed in her own way to this kind of conference. The conference was concluded with an interesting panel on the future brought by the 5G network, and Nataša Malić from HT, Boris Jukić from Ericsson Nikola Tesla and Leo Mršić from Algebra, each from their own expertise, presented to the audience their visions of this new technological innovation, whose goal is to upgrade the already wide range of mobile network usage.