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.
