City students win hackathon at International STEAM Festival in Baku

From Monday 4 to Friday 8 December, 2023, The International STEAM Festival was held at the Baku Expo Center in Azerbaijan. It brought together eleven countries, and featured both local participants and 159 participants representing other countries.

One of the highlights of the festival was the hackathon category, where teams competed under the theme of “gamification in education”, within the age bracket of 17-21.

Sevinj Teymurova, is a second year doctoral student in Computer Science, and also Graduate Teaching Assistant, at City University of London. She led the participation of City, University of London students in the hackathon competition which was split between two teams, each consisting of three students and one  mentor.

The teams were mentored by Sevinj and Daniel Sikar a fellow PhD student in Computer Science at City. They were tasked with creating a business idea supported by software and both delivered outstanding results within the tight timeframe of the competition.

Sevinj was able to lead her "Inno8ors" team on to winning first-place at the hackathon, and who were consequently awarded with gold medals and laptops as their rewards.

The event was supported by the Ministry of Science and Education of Azerbaijan, and the award ceremony was attended by Firudin Gurbanov, Deputy Minister of Education and Science, who bestowed the honours upon the winning team, and, and in addition to the host nation, participating countries included Bulgaria, Czech Republic, The Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Sweden, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan.

What is “STEAM”?

While the acronym “STEM” represents the fields of science, technology, engineering and maths. “STEAM” represents STEM plus the arts: including the visual arts, literary arts, and performing arts.

STEAM is designed to integrate STEM subjects with arts subjects into various relevant education disciplines. These programmes and projects encourage students to think of imaginative designs or creative approaches to real-world problems, while building on their mathematics and science base.

Beyond the intense hackathon competition, on the fourth day participants were taken on a City tour of Baku, allowing the teams to immerse themselves in the local culture and landscapes.

Reflecting on her team’s performance and win at the event, Sevinj Teymurova said:

I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved together. This success is a collective triumph, and I extend my sincere thanks to each member for their commitment to reshaping the landscape of education. Securing the first place at the STEAM festival with City had a profound significance for me, especially considering that it is our second year of participation. Last year's second place brought us closer to the top spot, and this year we have achieved hitting the first place. I am more than happy to continue collaborations with City and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Azerbaijan Republic, to enrich the learning experience of students and also promote cultural exchange and shape the future of STEAM and education on a global scale.