NU students won Samruk Hackathon 2021 competition

2021, March 26| by Zhamilya Kussainova Kussainova

zhamilya.kussainova@old.nu.edu.kz

Nazarbayev University students won the Samruk Hackathon 2021 international competition. Young programmers and software developers competed in designing solutions for Samruk-Kazyna portfolio companies’ IT problems. 

14 teams participated in the hackathon, out of 63 participants, 28 were Nazarbayev University students and 35 – Novosibirsk State University (NSU) students. Teams were challenged to solve seven different business cases for Kazpost, KEGOK, Tau-Ken Samruk, KTZ, and Kazakhtelecom companies.

“The hackathon format proves that “sprint mode” is very effective for solving all kinds of issues, and not just in the IT sphere. Projects executed by young professionals can really solve business cases. Companies should pay attention to the fact that some of the real business needs can be met with the help of the local market. The case studies provided by the companies demonstrated to us that different companies can have similar problems. If we apply this approach by default, we can solve many problems together”, said Dauren Kereybayev, Managing Director for Digitalization and Transformation at Samruk-Kazyna.

Nazarbayev University’s “Kazakh Gambit” team won first place with their real-life shipment tracking web and mobile tech solutions designed for KTZ company. Another NU team – “NaizagAI”  won second place with their face recognition project developed for “Tau-Ken Samruk ” company.

The third place was taken by the KVN team representing NSU. KVN team members presented their Computer Vision technology based on neural networks. 

The hackathon jury, which included representatives of the Samruk Kazyna Fund companies, evaluated projects by the following criteria: architecture, feasibility, presentation of solutions, and the operability of the project.

Nazarbayev University students also won the Best Architecture nomination, whereas NSU “Engineers” won the “Best Presentation” nomination. 

The Samruk-Kazyna Corporate University first introduced their hackathons in 2018, as part of the Digital Summer internship for talented youth.