As part of the "Coding Tomorrow" Project, Youngsters Developed Ideas for Smart Cities

"BEST4City: Hackathon and Ideathon for Smart Cities" organized for high school students within the scope of "Coding Tomorrow", the collaborative project of Vodafone Turkey Foundation and Habitat Association, has come to an end. The "Atatürk Robotic" team won first place in the hackathon where a total of 48 youngsters competed. 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 260,000 children across Turkey, a hackathon was organized for high school students. The "BEST4City: Smart Cities Hackathon" event, which was physically held in Istanbul Facebook Station with the participation of 48 students in 14 teams, youngsters developed projects on the Arduino programming platform to make their city smarter and more sustainable.

In the hackathon, the "Atatürk Robotic" team, Enes Demirezen, İslam Tutar, Muhammed Şerif Arpacıoğlu and Deniz Tunç, won the first place. While the "Geleceğin Enerjisi" (The Energy of the Future) team, Poyraz Öztok and Murat Halim Kömürcü, came in second, the "Wabi Sabi" team, Şifagülsüm Koca and Beyzagül Taşkın, took 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 260,000 children in 81 provinces. Besides training, we aim to help our children and youngsters come up with solutions to concrete social problems with our hackathons and idea marathons. Today, sustainable city life is increasingly gaining importance each day. At the same time, smart city applications are also rapidly becoming widespread. With our 'BEST4City: Smart Cities Hackathon', we offered high school students the opportunity to generate ideas for living in a smart city in harmony with nature. We congratulate all the winning teams and wish them continued success."

Sezai Hazır, the Chair of Habitat Association, stated :

"Considering the 'Coding Tomorrow' project we launched 6 years ago, we are proud to see these amazing outcomes. Smart cities are of great importance for the 2030 goals. Technology plays a critical role in our fight against the climate crisis. The projects developed by children in hackathons, which are the concrete results of our training, give us hope. The smart city projects developed by the teams at the 'BEST4City: Smart Cities Hackathon' again show us that children are highly interested in this subject. We will continue to enhance our children's technology skills and highlight the importance of sustainability for a sustainable planet. We will also provide mentoring support to help the projects participating in the event to go live. I wish the top three teams continued success."

Two-day comprehensive program

As part of "BEST4City: Smart Cities Hackathon", students received training on smart cities, 3D design, business canvas, lean canvas, and Arduino programming platform for two days. At the end of the second day, the students completed their jury presentations, while the top 3 teams were selected. As part of the hackathon, students also received mentoring support from volunteer trainers, Habitat Association employees, and Vodafone Turkey Foundation volunteers.

Creative ideas were recognized

The "Atatürk Robotic" team won the hackathon winner with their project where the wastes thrown in the trash are separated into different areas for recycling. In the project, which utilized the vision processing technology, people earn a cryptocurrency called "Garbage Coin" in return for the garbage thrown into the box. The project developed by the runner up team, "Geleceğin Enerjisi" (The Energy of the Future), includes a smart robot that instantly detects the mineral ratio in the soil and selects suitable farming methods. The project of the third team "Wabi Sabi" presents a robot that captures moisture in the air. The solar-powered robot does not require external energy.

Winners were awarded technology gift cards

The winner students of the hackathon were awarded technology gift cards to help them 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 260,000 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 260,000 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. With this project, our goal for the next year is to provide technology training to 92,000 people, including students, teachers, and families. You can also access "Coding Tomorrow” training via the online training platform Yarinikodlayanlar.com , free of charge.