Satbayev University summed up the contest results on elaborating the solutions to help people with special needs

ITMLab project, an innovative program aimed at creating the technological solutions for the integration of people with disabilities into society, was completed at Satbayev University. 18 projects were submitted to the competition, which took 30 days of intensive training, including the implementation of ideas into reality on developing and executing the ideas into reality.

The jury was headed by Zahira Begaliyeva, advisor to Minister of RK Labor and social protection of the population, director of “ITeachMe” foundation:

- I am sure that the participants will have a wonderful professional future. For a month, the guys lived the lives of people with disabilities, and I'm glad to see that they have so many ideas and their eyes are burning," the adviser to Minister said in the interview. - We will present the prototypes selected today to Minister of RK Labor and social protection of the population. They will pass all the necessary checks and, if the idea is viable, we will scale the elaboration to the whole of Kazakhstan.

The program was organized by “ITeachMe” foundation with the support of Chevron and Satbayev University. During the day, the teams talked about their developments, from devices that facilitate movement to technologies that provide access to information necessary to increase the mobility of people with special needs. The winners were 7 teams that received grants of 1 million tenge to make an industrial prototype for their idea:

• Shaka - a glove equipped with vibration motors/sensors that allows people with visual impairment to navigate in everyday life
• Fenix Recovery - an exoskeleton and compact loco-motivated simulator for use both in special rehabilitation centers and at home
• Bulan - optimized electronic set-top box for wheelchairs
• RiMs - an e-book based on Braille
• "Jan” - production of tips for white canes with the shortest wear period
• Technossila - bionic prosthetic arm with neural algorithms
• Procrastinators - a real-time translator application from sign language to text and vice versa

The teams are working on prototypes for three months and in early February they are planning to present the finished developments to interested parties and investors.

This is not the first hackathon aimed at developing such projects. Satbayev University offers various ways to support people with special needs: there is Inclusion Center, whose mission is to evolve science and make higher education accessible to all people. Part of the given work has been ITM Lab hackathon, another step towards building the inclusive future.