The event took place entirely online on Discord based on the hackathon concept of our partner Studisco. The second day was also livestreamed on Care about IT Finland's YouTube channel. The successful hackathon culminated in a pitch competition and the announcement of the winners.
Welfare technology companies and social and healthcare providers gave six team challenges in the field of welfare technology. Twelve teams were solving these challenges. The teams were a mix of ICT and social and health care students from Tampere Vocational College Tredu and Turku Vocational Institute TAI. During the event the students gained experience of working in a multidisciplinary team, which is necessary in the field of welfare technology.
During the first day of the event, the students grouped up and started the day by coming up with a name for their team. The teams quickly moved to work on the challenges. While doing the background work, they got to know more about welfare technology, and the company or organisation behind the challenge. During the day, their own visions and solutions to the challenges began to take shape.
At the beginning of the second day, the teams had made good progress and started to plan their presentation and practice their two-minute pitch.
Overall, the collaboration between the students during the two days was fantastic. Every challenge was worked on by two teams, so that the organizations who gave the challenges were able to get more than one solution to their own challenge. The biggest task of the day for the students was to fit the pitch into the required two minutes.
During the second day, a livestream was streamed on the Care about IT Finland YouTube channel: Care about IT Hackathon Live 2024 - YouTube. During the livestream there was program including Care about IT, career stories of a health tech entrepreneur and a start-up company, talk show about health and welfare technology and panel discussion about vocational education in Finland and in EU.
The day was made real when students pitched their teams' solutions in the livestream. Each pitch was an achievement and the result of good collaboration. Pitches were judged by a three-person jury on the basis of pre-defined evaluation criteria. The jury consisted of professionals with knowledge about health and welfare tech, pitching and presentation skills.
The second day culminated with the announcement of the winners. Four multidisciplinary teams made it through to the next round and will continue to compete in the Care about IT international hackathon in March 2025.
We had an award event for the winners at the beginning of December. Some speeches, lots of cake and happy people gathered together.
Written by: Jenna Pesola and Minna Ikiviita
Pictures: Minna Ikiviita
