The final of Europe’s largest IT competition, DEV Challenge XIX, will be held online and offline in Ukraine and Poland on October 28 and 29, the organizers told Interfax-Ukraine.
The organizers cooperate with the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense. This year, competition tasks from UNICEF, the Ministry of Digital Development, the Ministry of Defense and the Army of Drones will be presented.
“Modern warfare is won by modern technologies, so the effective implementation of the best solutions is a strategically important step for victory. High-quality and creative digital solutions for the Ukrainian army are no less important than traditional methods of warfare,” the press service of the director for digitalization of the DC “Ukroboronprom” quotes Timur Korytny.
The DEV Challenge XIX championship started in early September 2022 and will last for two months. Competitions are held in three stages: qualification, online round, final. The judges of the Championship are top professionals of the international IT community from Europe, the USA and Australia.
Already registered more than 1800 participants. The DEV Challenge takes place online, with the exception of the hybrid final. The final was traditionally held in Kyiv, both offline and online. This year it was decided to hold it simultaneously in two countries, Ukraine and Poland. In particular, they already name one of the offline locations of the DEV Challenge XIX final, the Polish city of Lodz, the Ukrainian city is still being chosen.
According to the organizer of the championship Evgenia Bespalova, every year the competition becomes an increasingly powerful tool for inventing technological solutions for the critical tasks of society.
“DEV Challenge participants receive tasks from our partners. Since 2019, we have been actively cooperating with ministries, involving top IT specialists in solving urgent issues of the state. Thanks to the championship, the country is accelerating digitalization processes in various areas. This year we are working on the development of technologies for recovery Ukraine, assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Bespalova said.
Among the tasks set are solutions for the protection of children and other humanitarian issues. Participants receive real cases of DEV Challenge partners in the commercial sector, as well as non-profit organizations.
Bespalova gave several examples of online round tasks. In the Frontend and UI Design nomination, a task from the Come Back Alive Foundation is presented: participants will develop an interactive map of crimes during the war based on the collected database.
Participants in the Manual QA nomination will test a mobile application for the development of preschoolers – “Numo” from UNICEF.
In order to increase the number of donations for children and hospitals, the Svichado Charitable Foundation needs to update the site, which will be done by participants in the Product Design nomination.
“As for the final, we are actively continuing to collect tasks from our stakeholders – UNICEF, Ukroboronprom, the Army of Drones and the Ministry of Digital Development,” Bespalova said.
DEV Challenge has been taking place in Ukraine since 2012, founded by Ukrainians Igor and Evgeniya Bespalov. For 10 years, 18 Championships have been held, in which more than 22,000 specialists from different countries took part.
The Ukrainian group Kalush Orchestra has reached the final of the Eurovision 2022 International Song Contest in Turin (Italy).
As the correspondent of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reports, on May 10, the first semi-final of the International Eurovision Song Contest 2022 was held in Turin.
17 participants performed in it, of which 10 were chosen who will fight for victory in the final of the competition.
The Ukrainian group Kalush Orchestra with the song Stefania performed at number six.
According to the results of the first semi-final, Ukraine qualified for the final, which will take place on May 14.
As reported, on February 12, the national final of the selection for Eurovision 2022 was held in Kyiv. According to the results of the competition, it was determined that in 2022, performer Alina Pash will represent Ukraine at the international song contest with the song “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors”. Pash received 15 points (8 points from the jury and 7 points from the audience). The second place was taken by the group “Kalush Orchestra” (6 points from the jury and 8 from the audience), the third – the singer Wellboy (7 points from the judges and 6 from the audience). Roxolana, Barleben, Michael Soul, Cloudless and Our Atlantic also fought for the victory in the final.
After a series of conflict situations and scandals around this topic, Pash was disqualified for providing the organizing committee with a fake certificate from the State Border Service. In this regard, it was decided that the Kalush Orchestra would represent Ukraine at the competition.
In 2021, at Eurovision, Ukraine was represented by the electro-folk band Go_A, who took fifth place in the final of the competition.
In 2019, Ukraine did not take part in the competition due to public criticism of the singer Maruv because of her performance in the Russian Federation. The National Public Broadcasting Company and the winner of the 2019 National Selection refused to sign the contract.
Eurovision 2022 is taking place in Turin (Italy). The second semi-final will take place on May 12. The final of the competition will take place on May 14.
Kyiv is ready to host the final of the UEFA Champions League in 2018 at a proper level, a chief representative of Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA) in charge of preparations for the Champions League final, Andriy Myroshnichenko, has said.
“The city is already prepared for this event. Nine points out of ten on a ten-point scale. Kyiv is ready to host such events, which was proved by the holding of Eurovision in 2017, when we calmly held it and got the best marks from the European Broadcasting Union. It determined that it was the first Eurovision in 11 years without significant remarks. I am sure that we will get the same marks from UEFA,” he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.
Myroshnichenko said that for the preparation of the city there was no need to implement large infrastructure projects.
“All projects that are being implemented in the city are not directly related to the Champions League final,” he said.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has invited football fans to Kyiv to visit the UEFA Champions League 2018 final to take place in Kyiv on May 26. A video clip where Klitschko jointly with head coach of the national team of Ukraine and UEFA Champions League final ambassador Andriy Shevchenko took part was posted by Klitschko on his Facebook page. “Friends, Kyiv is preparing for a large sports event that will host for the first time – the UEFA Champions League final. We expect that around 100,000 guests would visit our city,” Klitschko wrote.
He said that a Ukrainian creative team worked on the video clip. Funds from the Kyiv city budget were not spent on making the clip.
