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Five innovative ideas conceived at the Open Government Data Hackathon have been upgraded and elaborated to ensure transparent and accountable administration and help reduce corruption risks in various sectors of public administration.

On August 29^th 2019, the presentation and exposition of five winning projects selected by the authoritative panel of independent experts of the Open Government Data Hackathon  was hosted by the Public Journalism Club.

Seda Muradyan, President of the Public Journalism Club, summed up the results of the project, highlighting the exceptional transparency and cooperative spirit of the whole initiative.

“We have gained very open and willing cooperation from all structures, which was very important for this initiative to become a success. Through this close collaboration, the teams were able to upgrade and adjust their projects and make them even more useful for the structures and sectors involved in hackathon,” she said.

Five teams – Gradient, Ad infinitum, Fimetech, Agro Tech and The Only one – were announced winners of the hackathon.

The post-competition phase saw the teams navigate through an incubation period, where they worked closely with respective government agencies and mentors to elaborate their ideas and proposed projects.

In her speech, Lynne M. Tracy, the US Ambassador to Armenia, pointed out the significance of such events, as they showcased the possibilities materializing when intelligent, motivated, talented individuals from various walks of life get together to come up with solutions to the ongoing challenges.

“The US Embassy has supported this initiative as we attach importance to possibilities aimed at ensuring more transparent and effective government. We want to sustain Armenia’s efforts in fighting against corruption and establishing transparent government systems. This hackathon is an excellent example of how civil society and government can unite their efforts to ensure more open government and public involvement,” the ambassador added.

Twenty-eight teams participating in the  Open Government Data Hackathon, a round-the-clock competition held on 13-14 April, were -set to develop innovative ideas and solutions aiming to ensure transparent and accountable government and help reduce corruption risks in various sectors of public administration. Aside from its mission to promote anti-corruption projects, the hackathon was a sector-oriented event and encouraged its participants to develop innovative ideas and solutions that would be in line with the commitments undertaken by Armenia within the Open Government Partnership initiative in the areas of water and soil resource management and various social sectors including healthcare.

“The project was launched in April and during those first few days we saw how excited were the young people to work with public sector specialists, how they sought to create products that would be truly useful to the government and professionals of the relevant field. Today we have gathered to sum up the results of that work. I hope this culture will form a pattern, because it means supporting and shaping this agenda together,” said Lilya Afrikyan, Prime Minister’s office Representative, OGP working group secretary.

Vigen Sargsyan, the World Bank Senior Communications External & Corporate Relations Officer, said no development or democracy would ever be possible to achieve on institutional level unless civil society, knowledge and government worked together, acknowledged each others’ needs and reached out for help.

“I hope you applied your knowledge to create ideas that will be put into life to some extent, that they will become applicable somehow and the institutional reform we are talking about will eventually become irreversible. The cooperation with government agencies will lead to generating higher quality products,” he said.

Following the hackathon, the winners were able to receive feedback about their projects from high-profile IBM experts; separate meetings were also held with the participation of the company’s experts and the winning teams.

“Today is a very important day for us because we will try to reap rewards from casting the first seeds back in April. I want to congratulate us all, because we have obtained the expected results from all the highly anticipated projects at the hackathon,” said Naira Arakelyan, Executive Director of Armavir Development Center NGO.

See the description of the winning projects below:    

gradientAM

gradientAM developed a programming prototype that uses machine learning algorithms to detect the discrepancies in targeted land use derived from real figures and the land register data. The project is designed with a focus on the reduction of corruption risks, enhancement of inspection procedures and disclosure of cases of ilegal land use. The team upgraded the created software enabling its users to analyze the amount of water in the basin of the Lake Sevan and estimate the possibilities of its stagnation via satellite images.   

The team took two prizes: $4000 (taxes included) by the Armavir Development Centre and $3500 (taxes included) by the Public Journalism Club.

AD infinitum

AD infinitum worked on software prototype designed for emergency service data processing and receiving useful analytics reports via web formats and different tools. The initial concept of the project was modified in the collaboration with the Health Ministry. It enables ambulance service users to submit an online assessment of the service provided, report corruption or likewise incidents.

The team was awarded an encouragement prize of $2500 (taxes included) within the framework of the hackathon of innovative ideas targeted at reducing corruption risks initiated by the Public Journalism Club.

Agro Tech

Agro Tech created a prototype of an electronic mechanism designed for irrigation system. The project is intended to ensure more effective use of water resources and can prove helpful both to Agriculture Ministry and farmers. The project created by the team will soon be launched and put into practice in one of the regions of Armenia. It enables water users to plan the use of water online or over the phone, fix a queue for water use thus reducing water loss and the risk of uneven distribution of water resources.

The team picked up a prize of $ 4,000 (taxes included) by Armavir Development Center.

The only one

The team built a prototype of an online platform using innovative solutions for administration and provision of services designed to ensure optimization of the existing system of state order issuance and control with the purpose of reduction of corruption risks and more efficient allocation of budgetary means, making it possible to obtain reliable large volumes of data, automated data analysis, creating a flexible online booking and reservation system and thus ensuring a more transparent and advanced healthcare system.

The Only one took a prize of $4000 (taxes included) by Armavir Development Center.

Fimetech

The software designed by Fimetech is aimed at boosting the use of sales receipts, as well as simplifying the procedure of providing individual income statements. The team has developed an artificial intelligence app that allows its users to provide their income statements with no effort.

Fimetech was awarded a prize of $2,500(taxes included) by the Public Journalism Club.

The pitch slots of all participants of the hackathon are available here.

The hackathon was initiated by the Public Journalism Club  NGO jointly with its partners –Armavir Development Center, Innovative Solutions and Technologies Center (ISTC)  and Transparency International Anticorruption Center, with funding from the US Embassy  and the World Bank.