Youngsters Have Brought Artificial Intelligence and Art Together Within the Scope of the "Coding Tomorrow" Project

The "Artificial Intelligence (AI )Hackathon for Art and Idea Marathon" organized within "Coding Tomorrow", a Vodafone Turkey Foundation and Habitat Association joint project, has been completed. While team "Vadidm" won the hackathon for high school students, team "TrailerArt" won the idea marathon for middle school students. The winning teams were awarded technology checks to 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 242,000 children across Turkey, two simultaneous online events were organized for middle and high school students. In the events held under the name"AI Hackathon and Ideas Marathon" and attended by 32 teams, students produced creative ideas and projects that combined AI technologies and art.

At the end of the hackathon organized for high school students, the "Vadidm" team consisting of Arda Uzunoğlu and Alp Deniz Çabuk won first, the "ArtRevolution" team consisting of İrfan Karabacak, Arda Engiz Sak, and Ege Akman won second, and the "İlgitech" team consisting of Defne Özer, Ayşe Çulcu, and Reyyan Anlı won third place. At the end of the idea marathon held for middle school students, the "TrailerArt" team consisting of İlkim Derin Ören and Doruk Varlıorpak took first, the "Algoritim" team, consisting of Kağan Mergen, Burcu Doğaç, and Melek Sude Yakar, took second, and the "Dokukod" team consisting of Ahmet Karagöz, Ayşe Karagöz, and Ali Berat Çoşar took third place.

Mr. Hasan Süel, the Chair of Vodafone Turkey Foundation , stated:

"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 242,000 children in 81 provinces. Besides training, we aim to help our children and youngsters come up with solutions to concrete social problems with our online hackathons and idea marathons. Today, we use AI technologies in almost every sphere of life. Accordingly, the interest in this field is also increasing day by day. These technologies also influence art production with the new perspectives they offer. With the events we held under 'AI Hackathon and Ideas Marathon', we helped our secondary and high school students combine AI technologies and art. We congratulate all the winning teams and wish them continued success."

Mr. Sezai Hazır, the Board Chair of Habitat Association , also stated:

We feel right happy and proud of constantly expanding the scope of our Coding Tomorrow project, which we implemented with the collaboration of the Vodafone Turkey Foundation and touches the lives of thousands of children. We help our children create innovative solutions to contemporary problems with hackathons and idea marathons. We are also introducing phyton-based AI to high school students with the AI training we launched in 2021. We continue to work to raise a generation that is not only the users of today's technologies but also the producers of tomorrow's technologies. We expected our children to produce innovative ideas for art during the 'AI Hackathon and Ideas Marathon' that we organized. We supported our participating students with various training and mentorships during the hackathon and idea marathon. We would like to congratulate all the qualifying teams."

Two-day comprehensive program

After receiving technical information as part of the "AI Hackathon and Ideas Marathon", the students were provided with Design Thinking training to inspire their design and ideas. Besides presenting their creative ideas by benefiting from different perspectives while combining art and AI for two days, the students also received mentorship from AI and master trainers. While 23 of the teams that applied to the events successfully completed their projects, 6 high school and 6 middle school teams passed the preliminary jury evaluation.

Creative ideas were recognized

The Hackathon winner "Vadidm"'s project aimed to produce new artworks in the line of Orhan Veli Kanık by using AI technologies. On the other hand, the project developed by the runner-up "ArtRevolution" team, Artymind, is based on an AI application that scans the contents of the online articles and produces images using the keywords that form the primary theme in these articles with various algorithms. The project of the third team "İlgitech" aims to show inspiring visuals to the artist using GP3-sourced AI software.

On the other hand, the project of the "TrailerArt" team, the winner of the idea marathon, ensures the permanence of the admired works among the artworks from all periods uploaded to the system with the AI technology developed to prevent artworks from being forgotten and destroyed over time. The goal of the project developed by the "Algoritim" team, which took second place, is to help those who cannot play an instrument due to various reasons learn to play an instrument with methods developed thanks to AI. The project of the third team "Dokukod", aimed to understand the emotional state of an individual's facial expressions and generate background music following the current mood with AI.

Winners were awarded technology gift cards

The winner students of the hackathon and idea marathon were awarded technology gift cards to help them develop their ideas and projects. While the winning teams of the idea marathon were awarded technology gift cards worth 10,000 TRY, 6,000 TRY, and 4,000 TRY, respectively, the winning teams of the hackathon were awarded technology gift cards worth 15,000 TRY, 10,000 TRY, and 5,000 TRY, respectively.

The project has reached over 242,000 children

Within the "Coding Tomorrow" project, children between 7-14 across Turkey receive theoretical and practical training by volunteer trainers on various subjects, including the introduction to programming, algorithm logic, application development, storytelling, and game development. Our training helps our children understand programming, work to bring out their creativity, create their imaginary worlds, and produce their games. As part of the "Coding Tomorrow", which has reachedover 242,000 children in 81 provinces to date, 6,6 million TRY of social value was obtained in one year, and each investment of 1 TRY for the project yielded a social return of 4,4 TRY.