YH4F winners awarded in ceremony in Brussels

on: 2022-11-18

The awards for the winners from the first edition of the Youth Hacking 4 Freedom competition, Stavros, Miquel, Artur, Ekaterina, Hector, and Mark were handed over in a ceremony in Brussels. We wish them a bright future, with many contributions to software freedom.

One young woman and three young men holding certificates and trophies, standing in front of stairs in a neoclassical building. — Four of the six winners of the first Youth Hacking 4 Freedom competition. From left to right: Ekaterina, Miquel, Hector, Stavros.

After five months of coding and the subsequent evaluation, the last and super exciting part of the competition finally took place at the beginning of October with a two-day trip to Brussels where the winners received the awards!

Watch the video of the two day trip to Brussels where the winners met, explored the city, and received their awards. For subtitles, watch it in our Peertube instance

The award ceremony was held at the lovely setting of the BELvue Museum in Brussels, where the winners went after a city tour. Reinhard Wiesemann, donor of the YH4F, opened the ceremony and shared a few words about his own experience of winning a hacking competition.

A video projection on a wall in front of audience, in a room with high ceiling, tall windows, and an oversized chandelier — Artur presents Aspinwall, which won third place in YH4F competition.

The three winners – the Ultimate Hacker, the Elite Hacker and the Awesome Hacker awards – were given the chance to present their projects. Attendees got a glimpse of Artur’s Aspinwall project and the Smart Table Assistant robot created by Miquel. They watched Sign Track in action, the software coded by Stravos.

“After winning the YH4F, I have received a lot of support from my school, in particular from the Sign Language team, which is especially motivating me to further expand my project”, added Stavros.

Person doing sign language and looking at projected screen — Stavros demonstrating how Sign Track reads sign language in real time. CC BY 4.0 Stavros Piperakis

Next to those three awards the Youth Hacking 4 Freedom awarded three more prizes: the Youngest Hacker Award, the Special Hacker Award and the Ultimate Hacker Girl Award. These three rewards want to focus on the importance of equal opportunities and diversity in the technological field.

Unfortunately, Mark, the winner of the Special Hacker Award from Ukraine, could not travel to Brussels. But to highlight Mark’s work for the Youth Hacking 4 Freedom contest and to give everybody the chance to see his amazing project “Sharik”, it was presented by a member of the jury on his behalf.

The final two special-award-winners, Hector -Youngest Hacker award- and Ekaterina -Ultimate Hacker Girl- presented their projects, LibreHomework and Music Companion respectively. “I had no prior knowledge of coding and started learning after hearing the news about Youth Hacking 4 Freedom and deciding to take part”, explained Ekaterina to the audience.

Congrats to all the participants

We want to congratulate all the Youth Hacking 4 Freedom participants. The quality of all the projects was great and we hope that everyone enjoyed this experience, while further improving their hacking skills. We wish everyone a bright path in the field of Free Software.

Discover the projects

Person giving a presentation, which reads ‘smart table assistant’ — Miquel presenting Smart Table Assistant which won second place in YH4F competition. CC BY 4.0 Stavros Piperakis

Find more about the exciting winning projects, read about the experience of three of the participants and stay tuned for more interviews!

Compete next year!

The new edition of the competition just started! Join until 31 December and share the opportunity with your friends.

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