IT Solutions Prototype Competition “IT START”

On June 27, 2024, the SAIT FIITA Department of VNTU hosted a competition of prototypes of IT solutions “IT START” with the participation of students of all courses of both specialties 124 and 126 of the bachelor's and master's degrees of the department. The Regulations on the competition take into account the recommendations of employers, in particular, what they value most when hiring new employees: experience in teamwork (therefore, individual participation is not provided for in the competition) and practical experience in implementing their tasks at a modern technological level.

This debut competition was attended by 4 teams consisting of 2 to 5 people. Each team came up with an interesting IT solution in different areas: artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, computer games, website creation and computer 3D graphics in the areas of social media information analysis, environmental protection, etc. Also, according to the requirements of the Regulations, students prepared A1 format banners about their solutions, which will later be placed in the gallery of the winners of this competition on the territory of the SAIT department.

The first place was taken by a real working complex of software and hardware of information and measuring systems based on Sigfox IoT technology. The first place was also taken by the subsystem for collecting information from social networks with the demarcation of the boundaries of the water bodies of Khmelnytskyi and Vinnytsia regions, created for the first time in Ukraine, to ensure spatial binding of information from social networks to the coordinates of the objects to which this information relates. The second place was taken by a prototype of a computer game, where 2nd year students completely independently developed scenarios, quests, level and character designs. In the future, the authors plan to improve these prototypes. The solutions that took 1st place were developed within the student scientific circles of the department's teachers. In the future, new teams may appear in the same areas or new participants may join existing teams. All this will give them valuable practical experience and increase the efficiency of course and diploma design.

The chairman of the jury was the head of the SAIT department of VNTU Mokin V.B. - the ideologist of this competition, and the members were the deputy dean of FIITA, a lecturer at the SAIT department Mykhailo Dratovany and a postgraduate student at the SAIT department, a well-known professional-practitioner Konstantin Bondaletov and the Team Leader of the IT enterprise of the Scientific and Technological Enterprise "Common Affairs", PhD Volodymyr Storchak. Other representatives of employers were also invited, but many had a conflict with important meetings.

The full list of all teams, team members, and their coaches is available on the competition website: https://sait.vntu.edu.ua/uk/nauka/konkursy-i-khakatony/kontkurs-prototipiv-it-rishen-it-start/

Prizes have been prepared by sponsors: each member of the winning team will receive a peripheral IT device, and the captains of these teams will also receive power banks. Also, everyone will receive a winner's diploma, which they can upload to their LinkedIn page or other profile. Prizes and diplomas will be awarded in the near future.\nIt is planned to hold competitions from the competition many times during each academic year, if there is a request from IT companies. Only 2 competitions will be regular at the end of the first and second semesters, where students will be able to build and demonstrate solutions based on their qualification and coursework.

Each IT company can order a competition for itself. It is enough to contact the head of the jury (head of the SAIT department) and announce the topic that corresponds to the educational programs of the department, and guarantee an interesting prize fund. Actually, at the end of June, information was already received from the company "INNOVINNPROM" that they are ready to fulfill these conditions: they have come up with a topic and guarantee a prize fund - apparently, the first competition in the next academic year will be a competition on their topic.