As part of the "Coding Tomorrow" Project, Youngsters Developed Ideas for Child-Friendly Cities

"BEST4City: Hackathon and Ideathon for Child-Friendly Cities" organized for secondary and high school students within the scope of "Coding Tomorrow", the collaborative project of Vodafone Turkey Foundation and Habitat Association, has come to an end. In the event where 45 students competed, the "Green City" and "Çevre Koruyucuları" teams won the ideathon and hackathon respectively. The winning teams were awarded technology gift cars to help them develop their ideas and projects.

Implemented by Vodafone Turkey Foundation and Habitat Association, the "Coding Tomorrow" project continues to prepare children and youth for the digital future. As part of the project, which reached over 290,000 children all over Turkey, a hackathon and an ideathon were held simultaneously for secondary and high school students. The event was organized online under the name "BEST4City: Hackathon and Ideathon for Child-Friendly Cities" with the participation of a total of 45 students in 10 teams, encouraging students to produce ideas to develop smart and child-friendly cities.

In the ideathon part of the event, the "Green City" team consisting of Rabia Naz Yazıcı and Hüseyin Ayaz Yazcı won first place. "ALZEY" team consisting of Alya Yanık and Zeynep Duru Oğuz won the second, while the "Fırtına Beyinler" team consisting of Ali Mert Emil and Pamir Yalçıntaş won the third place. In the hackathon, the "Çevre Koruyucuları" team consisting of Ceylin Naz Tutğaç and İdil Erdoğan won first place. While the "Yeşili Sevenler" team consisting of Cafer Berat Gülsoy, Enes Yanıkbayır, Esma Nur Pınar, and Taha Kardan won the second place, the "Dalton Kardeşler" team consisting of Metin Çoban, Samed Kuru, Bekir Şahin, and Arda Kadir Bayar won the third place.

Vodafone Turkey Foundation Chair, Hasan Süel, said:

"As Vodafone Turkey Foundation and Habitat Association, we eagerly continue our 'Coding Tomorrow' project, which we launched six years ago to raise generations ready for the digital future. With our 'Coding Tomorrow' project, we want to contribute to raising a generation that produces, not only consumes. Until today, we have given coding training to over 290,000 children in 81 provinces. Besides training, we aim to help our children and youngsters come up with solutions to concrete social problems with hackathons and ideathons. Today, sustainable city life is increasingly gaining importance each day. At the same time, smart city applications are also rapidly becoming widespread. However, these applications should be child-friendly. Thus, we organized an event called 'BEST4City: Hackathon and Ideathon for Child-Friendly Cities', offering secondary and high school students the opportunity to generate ideas for developing smart and child-friendly cities. With the projects they developed, the teams designed safer cities compatible with children's rights. We congratulate all the winning teams and wish them continued success."

Sezai Hazır, the Chair of Habitat Association, stated :

"We continue to work for the 'Coding Tomorrow' project, which we implemented in collaboration with Vodafone Turkey Foundation and touched the lives of thousands of children. The previous years have shown us that learning how to code is as important as literacy. With our project, we will continue developing processes that guide our country's digital transformation, thereby contributing to the prepare our children for the digital world of the future. We aim to raise a generation that does not only consume technology but also produces next-gen technologies. Accordingly, we believe it is important for children to reveal their creativity with hackathons and ideathons we organize. With the 'Best4City: Hackathon and Ideathon for Child-Friendly Cities', we provided children with the opportunity to design cities where they will feel happy, safe, and peaceful. We value the ability of our children, who will live in the smart cities of the future, to develop these designs and projects. Projects that will be implemented by the imagination of children will also shape the cities of the future. We will continue contributing to Turkey's digital transformation and introduce the latest technologies to future generations."

Two-day comprehensive program

"BEST4City: Hackathon and Ideathon for Child-Friendly Cities" offered students training on children's rights, design-oriented thinking, and effective presentation techniques for two days. During this period, the teams developed their projects by participating in training and mentoring sessions. After developing their projects with mentoring sessions, the teams prepared their presentations for the preliminary jury and jury evaluation. During these sessions where hackathon and ideathon processes took place simultaneously, high school students created their projects, while secondary school students developed their ideas.

Creative ideas were recognized

With the children's village project of "Green City” team, the winner of ideathon, children receive information about the experiences of the elderly who live in nursing homes. The project developed by the runner-up "ALZEY" team aims to meet all the basic needs of street children such as nutrition, shelter, health, education, and psychological support. On the other hand, the project of the third-placed team "Fırtına Beyinler" aims to raise the awareness of recycling in children, ensuring the separation, reusing, and recycling of the waste in the environment.

The project of the hackathon winner "Çevre Koruyucuları" team includes solar-powered trash containers placed under the benches to prevent seeds and similar nuts from being thrown on the ground and to protect the environment. The project developed by the runner-up "Green Lovers" team includes a Bluetooth-controlled ship with radar and thermal cameras placed on it that measure water data to display it to the person while swimming in the water, sending a notification when a certain pollution level is exceeded. On the other hand, the project of the third team "Dalton Kardeşler" aims to create a living space which prevents unguided urbanization, offers children a healthier living environment, uses less fossil fuels, and delivers cleaner environment.

Winners were awarded technology gift cards

The winners of "BEST4City: Hackathon and Ideathon for Child-Friendly Cities" were awarded technology gift cards to develop their ideas and projects. Accordingly, the winning teams were awarded technology gift cards worth 15,000 TRY, 10,000 TRY, and 5,000 TRY, respectively.

The project has reached over 290,000 children

Within the "Coding Tomorrow" project, children between 7-14 across Turkey receive theoretical and practical training from volunteer trainers on various subjects, including the introduction to programming, algorithm logic, application development, storytelling, and game development. As part of the "Coding Tomorrow", which has reached over 290,000 children in 81 provinces to date, 14 million TRY of social value was obtained last year, and each investment of 1 TRY for the project yielded a social return of 7,7 TRY. You can also access "Coding Tomorrow” training via the online training platform Yarinikodlayanlar.com , free of charge.