Quarterly Editorial: Becoming a DigiEduHack Global Winner 1

With the spring season, DigiEduHack has welcomed the results of the public voting that determined the 2023 Global Winners. And while we have presented their solutions and celebrated their results, we are now shedding light on the people behind IVAN, Adaptatec, Artificial Reality and EdMap.

Keep on reading and learn more about the teams, how they came together, the challenges they faced but also the advice they would like to share with any future participant.

1: Share with us a brief background story about yourselves, your motivation for participating in the hackathon, how you found out about DigiEduHack and the inspiration behind their solution.

• iTeener: We are a group of seventeen-year-old high school students from Italy who think that there's a need for more awareness on sustainability matters amongst Gen Z and for common efforts across the school community. Our solution, IVAN, is meant to facilitate the unification of school efforts in the fight for the eco-sustainability of our planet.
• Guacamole: We are a group of students from different parts of the world who were fortunate enoughto meet in Mexico. We were there as exchange students for one semester. Despitecoming from different backgrounds, we all shared a common goal when we decided toparticipate in this hackathon: to create something for students, by students, that couldimprove student life and challenge some of the boundaries in our current educationsystem.
• Amp Empire: We are three students in our last year of high school, we have always wanted to build a videogame and thought this was a perfect opportunity for that. We were inspired by the idea of introducing virtual reality to education and thought about creating a virtual high school.
• Ed Map: As a team at EdMap, our background blends education and technology expertise. DigiEduHack aligns with our mission to innovate education and create a platform where learners can gain industry experience to enter the job market more easily.

2 - How did you hear about the initiative, what made you want to join?

• iTeener: Our team, iTEENER, has previously won the first prize at the Weave Innovation Camp 2023 in Melpignano and subsequently reached the final eight in the Entrepreneurship Championship of JA Italia, where we performed live at Bocconi University in Milan. It was through JA Italia that we joined DigiEduHack. 
• Guacamole: Some of our group members participated in entrepreneurship courses where one of ourinstructors informed us about the competition and its intriguing nature. They shared thisinformation with the entire team, and collectively, we recognized it as a fantasticopportunity to develop something truly unique. 
• Amp Empire: Our high school's director told us about this fun activity and so we went straight ahead with a lot of enthusiasm.
• Ed Map: We discovered DigiEduHack through social media and industry newsletters. The opportunity to collaborate with like-minded innovators excited us, aligning perfectly with our mission to revolutionize education through technology. This drove our eagerness to participate and contribute our expertise to the hackathon.

3 - How would you present your solution to someone who’s never heard about DigiEduHack?

• iTeener: We have developed a social network capable of addressing all issues associated with the absence of an eco-friendly perspective in schools. Our approach involves incentivizing participation in volunteer activities by issuing participation certificates to all involved students and awarding school credits.
• Guacamole: Adaptatec is an integrative platform designed to identify students who may be experiencing cognitive disorders such as ADHD (Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), and to assist those who are already diagnosed, offering them various tools to enhance their learning and improve their quality of life.
• Amp Empire: We have created a demo video game for a virtual highschool which can be attended by kids from all over world and we aim to mainly help kids with disabilities.
• EdMap: EdMap is a tech industry simulation platform designed for individuals seeking to enhance their career prospects within the IT industry. It offers a unique blend of features that allow users to navigate through various stages of a professional journey, from job searching to mastering interview skills and negotiating job offers and experiencing real tech workspace simulation.
  
  

This is the end of part 1. More to come in part 2. Stay tuned!