Yarl Geek Challenge Junior — Season 8
Time appears to fly way too fast because it is as if we started Yarl IT Hub recently with Yarl Geek Challenge season 1, but we are already in season 8 of the hackathon. This year’s hackathon season has begun with YGC Junior which is for school students. Although we could not conduct hands-on sessions for the students this year due to the situation after the Easter Sunday Attacks, we were able to conduct webinars and provide YouTube tutorials to the schools to get some assistance when students work on their ideas.
The students were asked to send their applications under any of these 4 categories: Web application, mobile application, hardware application, and innovative product. The deadline for sending the applications through school was on the 9th of June 2019. We received applications from 75 teams , and the teams competed in their respective zones on June 15th of 2019. Following the evaluations, 30 teams were selected to compete in the two-day hackathon in Jaffna on 29th and 30th of June 2019.
29th of June woke up with extra brightness at Hatch Kalam because of the teams that have turned up there to participate at the hackathon. 30 teams from 12 zones in the North were ready to showcase their end results as well as to compete for the titles. Day 01 was allocated for the teams to seek assistance and guidance from mentors to improve their end results before the final presentation the next day. The latter part of the day was spent on presentation practices for the teams with the selected group of mentors.
30th of June was the D-Day of YGC8 Junior. The presentations began at 8.30 am following the welcome speech. First team to go on stage was a student from Mallavi Central college. He had developed a mobile application that can be used offline by the visually impaired mobile phone users. This app allows them to work and control their mobile phones over their voices.
One of the teams representing Jaffna college went on stage next. They have developed a hardware system that would light up the entire room when an elderly person or a sick person wakes up from their bed to go out in the dark. This system was developed to reduce the hassle caused when trying to turn on switches in the dark.
The third team on stage was also a team from Jaffna College that had developed a mobile application to send SOS notifications with a shake or by choosing what kind of notification to be sent to the user-given emergency contact or police. They claimed that this could be useful for individuals who travel alone, and by people if they get had met with an accident.
A student from Hartley College had developed a mobile application to notify you with the time to eat or drink water or sleep. This app is for individuals who usually lose track of time when occupied with something that they think to be important than their basic needs.
What could be a better way to ask your kids to mop the floor? We had a team from Jaffna College that designed a remote-control device in which you need to fill water and move it around the area that needs to be mopped. The device is fixed with a sponge and a fan that works when the device gets moving. What could be a better way to get things done with kids unless it has something to do with toys?
Another team from Jaffna College began their presentation with a question of how one could shave in dark. SInce that seems almost impossible to shave properly in dark, they have designed a setup in which a razor is attached with a small led bulb that would work with a charger battery. With this device one could shave will out in camping or when there is a powercut.
One of the teams from Jaffna College took the stage again. This time it was a motor attached pulley system to draw water from a well. Although this could be replaced with a motor, they argued that this could be a solution to aged people or the ones who are sick and cannot afford to buy a large motor or does not have a tank to fill water into as that is the usual case with a motor pump.
What do you do when you are lazy to go over to the dustbin? Fill your own desk with the need-to-be-dumped rubbish? Well, we got a team from Vaddu Hindu College with a mobile dustbin. All you need to do is “call” the bin with your mobile, and it would rush towards you to collect the garbage you want to be dumped. They are planning on expanding this idea using GPS system to a larger scale as well.
Another team from Vaddu Hindu College had designed a smart home system that works on solar system. This smart home system is mainly to control from within the house; therefore one could control this through Bluetooth.
There is one out of many things people love despite of age differences: bubbles. While bubbles look good during photoshoots, it is also therapeutic to play around with bubbles on a stressful day. We had a team from Jaffna College that had an innovative product that blow bubbles at a stretch and that could be used in gardens, during a special occasion, or on stage programs.
How could we connect customers with their multiple needs for a special occasion? Team Kanimai has developed a mobile app called Nikazhthi that allows the service providers like beauty parlour, wedding halls, transports to maintain their order by choosing their free time, and customers will be able to find almost all the service providers in one platform and book them when necessary.
One of teams from Vaddu Hindu College has developed a website through which students w in commerce stream could get subject-wise assistance and career guidance. It is a portal to connect with the world and explore the possibilities available.
We had a team from Vavuniya Mathiya Maha Vidyalayam that had designed a web application to centralise data of every citizen in the country to make it easy to access especially in the case of the medical sector.
Next on stage was a team from Hartley College: they have designed a home security system which detects gas leakage, motion detection, CO2 detection and controls electronic products.
In a company where there is an excess use of ribbon, there will be a wastage while cutting it for the needs of the company. “How could one reduce the waste that occurs by either cutting an extra inch from the required length or the pieces that remain after cutting the whole large piece,” asked this young contestant from St. John’s College, Jaffna. His device can cut large number of required pieces with the requested length.
It is quite usual to get confused when you are supposed to decide the career you want to choose after your secondary education. Not all career counselling will be effective and helpful. In that case, Jaffna College boys have come up with a mobile app that provides necessary career guidance based on your subject choice at schools. Furthermore, it connects the job seekers with vacancies.
How often we miss urgent mails because we forget to check our letter boxes? How could we know whether there is any letter waiting for us in that mailbox without opening it? One of the contesting teams had designed a Post-Box indicator. When you have a mail waiting in the letterbox, a bulb fixed out of the box would light up until the letter is taken out. This way you could know when there is a letter and could try not to miss them.
Jaffna Hindu College boys had designed a home emergency security system that would alert the residents when there is a gas leakage or a call for emergency.
One of the teams at YGC8 was from Methodist College, Point Pedro, and the student had created a circuit system that functions on electric energy from Banana Stem. Electric energy that could be extracted from several pieces of a banana stem can be used to light up an LED and she would like to explore the possibilities of expanding this further.
Students from Puliyankulam Hindu College had designed a web platform to connect employers with job seekers. It is a portal to hire employees for almost all kind of required jobs.
AI based CCTV system is a product designed by one of the teams at YGC8 Juniors. This system would take pictures of people detected on the CCTV and send a picture message to the users.
Another team from Vavuniya Mathiya Maha Vidyalayam had designed hostel management system that allows the hostel system to function effectively and provide better services to the residents.
A team from Jaffna Hindu College had designed ball bearing setup along with a gyroscope sensor to reduce the shake that is caused inside an airplane during any turbulence
This YGC8 also had an e-platform on which electronics could be bought.
One-man army from Kokuvil Hindu College had designed a mobile app for private institutions to map their schedules and fix classes. This system is mainly for the management in private educational centers.
Another girl’s team from Vembadi Girls’ High School had designed an easy book reader out of unused plastic at home. This team had used broken plastic toys and plastic water bottle handles to design this product. Basically it was to assist readers to easily hold the book in one hand and read it with ease.
A team from Hartley College had designed a hardware product that can be used to dry tea leaves especially when it is done in smaller scale unlike in tea factories. The machine would heat the container when fresh leaves are put and stop heating them when it is done. Since home based tea makers cannot afford to buy huge machines, they could use this as an alternative.
Another set of Jaffna Hindu College boys had designed a forum through which people could try to find or give answers to technical problems. It is a way of creating an online community that interacts and work together to solve technical issues collaboratively.
Finally there was a team that tried to solve the manual library system by setting up a web application that allows the library system to digitise the list of books they have.
This was the list of teams and their ideas that competed in the grand finale of YGC8. Following a lunch break, it was time to announce the results of the winners of YGC8 Junior. Before getting into the results part, there was a small session about other initiatives of YIT: Aki, Hatch Kalam — Maker Space, and Uki. Following the updates and information about our initiatives, we received feedback from the students, teachers, volunteers and judges. One or two from each category reflected upon YGC8 Juniors and the aspects we could look into while planning on the future seasons of the hackathon.
The students were later appreciated with certificates of merits. Later the event moved to giving the certificates and medals to the zonal winners of YGC8 Juniors.
The following teams won in their respective zones:
Jaffna Zone: Sivastika Sugumar, Kowishika Ilangowan from Vembadi Girls’ High School.
Valikamam: Sivarooban Praveenskan, Perinbanathan Sankavan.
Vadamaracchi:Rameshkumar Kajinthan, Srivalakanthan Sanjayan, Umachandran Jananan
Vavuniya South: Nadarajah Milakshan,
Vavuniya North: Ponnuchchami Visovan, Pushparajah Lakshikan, Thushanthan Krishnakumar
Thunukkai: Balasingam Arjithan
And finally the title winners of each category:
Best Web Application was won by Kokuvil Hindu College for developing Class time manager.
Best Hardware application was won by Hartley college for its Home Automation and security system.
Best Mobile Application was won by a team from Jaffna Hindu College for Order Management system.
Finally the best innovation was won by Jaffna College for its Auto Bubble Car.
Written by Yathursha Ulakentheran
Pictures and Video by Thuvarakan Perinpanayagam
