What Projects Students Developed for University Campus

13:26, February 25, 2022

The results of the Student Solution Hackathon are announced

The Engineering School of Information Technologies, Telecommunications and Control Systems of Ural Federal University held a hackathon of student solutions for the university campus. Fifteen teams developed solutions to problems in the following areas: the metaworld, a chatbot, a mobile application, and a service for analyzing visits to the new campus. Employees of Sinara-Development, the Ural Center for Security Systems, and Engineering School of Information Technologies, Telecommunications and Control Systems acted as experts and problem setters.

The students presented their concept of a metaworld based on augmented reality (AR) technology. The technology should solve the tasks of students and lecturers in terms of navigation, organization of collaborative work, and presentation of reference material. The team demonstrated a prototype of an application that allowed them to see a virtual "blackboard" with a fragment of a lecture in the co-working space using their cell phones.

"The hackathon showed that our students strive to create solutions that aim to improve the quality of life of all participants in educational relations. For example, when working on the meta-universe case, students did not forget about the educational effects, partners, and guests. What is especially gratifying is that many teams came closer not only to understanding the technical aspects of implementation, but were also able to present prototypes," notes Maxim Novikov, Director of the Engineering School of Information Technologies, Telecommunications and Control Systems UrFU School of Bachelor Studies.

In the case with the campus resident mobile app, the hackathon winners proposed three of the most important student services: easy access to schedules, navigation around the new campus (and, for now, the current academic buildings of UrFU), and a service to book rooms (whether for a class, consultation, exam, or joint project work).

"We were surprised that bright and interesting cases were offered by first-year students. The other courses were not far behind either - many solutions were really strong and well-developed. Students' interest in the creation and implementation of advanced information technologies is gratifying. If the guys can bring them to the end, we are ready to implement them in the IT structure of the campus," says Grigory Pollyak, Head of Digital Transformation and Business Development at Sinara-Development.

The next task of the hackathon was to create a system for controlling the movements of visitors at the campus. The team of students chose a way to position people using WiFi-networks. After all, everyone has a smartphone, which is constantly connected to the university network. The demonstration of a complete workable solution eventually put the team in the lead.

The chatbot development case was taken up by two teams - and both were able to demonstrate a workable prototype. The first team's chatbot is able to accept a request, after which it finds the most appropriate answer in its database of responses. The second team focused on implementing relevant services for students, which in many ways overlap with the mobile app for campus residents: convenient and quick access to schedules, as well as navigation that makes it easier to find the right classroom, which is relevant not only for first-year students, but even for many faculty members.

"This was a non-standard hackathon: we did not plan to give students a closed formulation of the problem and precise criteria for its solution. We needed fresh (and brave!) ideas that would make the future campus of UrFU more comfortable, safe, and environmentally friendly. On the whole, this goal was achieved. Separately, we can note the approach of the children to the presentation of solutions: the teams made presentations bright, memorable and emotional", commented Nikolay Domukhovsky, Deputy General Director for Scientific and Technical Work of Ural Center for Security Systems.

According to Domukhovsky, participants will continue working on their projects in the spring semester. Students will refine the prototypes into working solutions that can be used in the UrFU Smart Campus.

The teams' development of solutions does not end with prizes and certificates of appreciation. During the spring semester, students will continue to work on problems at the project workshop. In June, at the project defense, experts will select solutions that will later be implemented on the campus where students will live and study.

The news article was translated by UrFU International Marketing Office
info.international@urfu.ru, +7 (343) 375-45-19