Students of NU SEDS have won 2,5 million tenge in BILIM Hackathon – 2022
Applications for participation in the competition were submitted by 107 teams from all regions of the country. 72 teams, which included 230 students, made their way to the final.
The prize fund amounted to 3.5 million tenge. In addition to cash prizes, student-winners got the opportunity to find a job in Kazakhstani IT companies such as Daryn online, BTS Education, EDUS, Mail.kz and others. Moreover, some digital solutions have already found their investors.
The guys proposed very interesting digital projects in the field of education. There were 3 nominations in the competition: Best idea (500 thousand tenge), Best solution (1 million tenge) and Best project (1.5 million tenge). By the decision of the jury, the winners were students of Nazarbayev University and Astana IT University in the category Best Project (1.5 million tenge) and another Nazarbayev University team – Best Solution (1 million tenge).
We talked to a member of the SquareX winning team – Miras Zakaryanov, 1st year student, Computer Science.
– Tell us about your project, please. How did the idea come about?
The idea came to us by analyzing foreign methods and solutions for preschool education. We wanted to create an educational play system for kids that did not require intense concentration on the iPad screen. AinaLine creates an interactive gaming experience by placing a mirror over the tablet’s camera and detecting the movement of game elements using reflective artificial intelligence. AinaLine games cover a range of subjects from math to physics and coding. For example, in the AinaLine «guess the word» game, players learn to think quickly and build the right words while learning new words. All AinaLine games promote the development of social-emotional skills such as problem solving, perseverance and creative thinking. Our goal is to solve the problem of pre-school education, make learning fun and exciting for children, especially those who have difficulty with traditional school education and learning.
– What are your impressions of the competition and organization?
The Hackathon was held at the highest level, the organizers and the jury are the leaders of educational companies like Daryn Online, Mail.kz, BTS Education and this shows their competence in the field of EduTech. We are very pleased that the prize receipt was given to us by the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan Askhat Aimagambetov. This greatly motivates students to work hard further, and would like to express gratitude for the accumulated experience and knowledge.
– What are your future plans?
Bring the project to the MVP stage and enter the Kazakhstan market with a working prototype. Get investments on the rounds and develop Ainaline in the CIS.
SquareX team members: Agadil Nurbergen – NU SEDS, Computer Science 1year; Zakaryanov Miras – NU SEDS, Computer Science 1year; Nusupov Miras – AITU, Industrial Automation, 2nd year
We also asked some questions to one of the members of the winning team – Assel Abzalova, student of Computer science department
– Tell us about your project, please. How did the idea come about?
Our project is a mobile application for finding study buddies using artificial intelligence. We came up with this idea after realizing that we spent the entire previous school year online without the opportunity to fully study with our peers and this had a bad effect on our academic performance. When you study alone, you have no motivation and no mentors to guide you in the right direction. Therefore, we have developed a mobile application that helps you create your study meetings both online and offline, as well as search for study buddies.
– What are your impressions of the competition and organization?
Most of all, we liked the help of mentors who approached each team, asked questions and thus pushed us in the right direction. And also, I really liked the atmosphere of the Hackathon – both competitive and friendly. All participants were craving for knowledge. I remember how a schoolboy approached our teammates – former trainees from Yandex – and began to enthusiastically ask how to upgrade their programming skills. It was the cutest moment since the hackathon.
– What are your future plans?
As the saying goes, «more is more». In the future, most likely, we will develop the project, because this idea seems relevant now, during the lifting of quarantine and the transition to offline learning.
The team included Abylai Kairatbek, Meyirlan Suyirkhanov, Dastan Bekmukhanbetov, Assel Abzalova and Nurlan Salavat.
