The annual Open Data Hackathon and Idea Generator of the Latvian Open Technologies Association (LATA), this year dedicated to the digital wallet, is over and we finally know the winners:

• 🏆The winner of Hackathon – “Application for finding a family doctor” by RTU Engineering High School team “RTU Property 2.0”

• 🏆The winner of Idea generator – “Taročeks” – an application to simplify the process of returning a deposit for beverage packaging (as an cross-border service!) – by RTU Engineering High School team “Iġortusiņš”.

We also greet a few more teams on the podium:

• 🥈“Savičs” team and their idea of “Delta – digital identity wallet” (latv. “Delta – digitālais identitāšu maks”)
• 🥈“Inov8hers” team and “MyWall8”
• 🥈“Pilsētas putni” and their idea to improve the health of Latvian society – “Latvijas sabiedrības veselības uzlabošana”

Both teams received prizes and some funding for implementing their ideas and for all the efforts they put into this, working on them for a month.

We – the mentors – were there to support them and we are really proud of all the finalists and their solutions – it is a great pleasure to contribute to the development of the younger generation by helping to develop their ideas, mindsets and skills at this fairly early stage as these participants are predominantly from 6th to 12th grade, although their ideas tend to be incredibly innovative, as are the skills demonstrated in developing those solutions.

It is my 4th time/year in a row to act as a mentor and each and every time I got surprised with all those ideas our mindsets bring on the table with healthcare, wellbeing, sustainability, ecology and simplification of processes as the main topics covered by participants, which are addressed (at least partly) with open data – this year combining them with the idea of digital wallets – not the easiest task, bust still – challenge completed!

All in all, great event and the outcome for what we are thankful to both organizers – Latvian Open Technologies Association, partners – Latvijas Valsts radio un televīzijas centrs, Vides aizsardzības un reģionālās attīstības ministrija, Valsts izglītības satura centrs, NOBID Consortium, Rīgas Tehniskā universitāte (Riga Technical University), E-KLASE, European Commission and supporters – Omniva, ZZ Dats, Latvijas Banka!