By Azernews

The winning teams of the Smart Karabakh hackathon, held within the TEKNOFEST Azerbaijan Aerospace and Technology Festival, visited Shusha with representatives from AzInTelecom LLC, Azernews reports, citing the Digital Development and Transport Ministry.

As part of the visit, they visited Shusha Fortress, Jidir Duzu (horse race field), Molla Panah Vagif’s Mausoleum, and Yukhary Govhar Agha Mosque.

Some 70 competitors from 30 teams tried to turn their digital knowledge into a real project at the Smart Karabakh Hackathon, which kicked off on May 25. During the 50-hour competition, a number of “smart solutions” were developed to transform the liberated territories of Azerbaijan into a normal region.

The participating teams from Turkey and Azerbaijan developed and presented “smart solutions” in the fields of education, agriculture, transport, household, energy, water consumption, environment, and security for the restoration of Karabakh.

The jury determined the winning teams based on the several key criteria: the relevance of the topic, concept, and plan, as well as the team’s competence, presentation skills, new technologies used, and technical solutions, proposed, as well as the economic efficiency and implementation capacity of the project.

According to the results announced on May 28, first place went to Azerbaijan’s Safe Karabakh team, representing the E-Gov Development Center (a mobile app of the same name), second place went to Turkey’s Sytemator team (SINA drone), and third place went to Turkey’s team A (a sustainable eco-friendly smart city model).

Within four days, from May 26-29, international exhibitions of Turkish and Azerbaijani companies were organized at the festival, as well as various entertainment programs, air shows, and a number of other events.

The Teknofest Aerospace and Technology Festival has been held annually in Turkey since 2018 by the Ministry of Industry and Technology of Turkey, as well as the Turkish Technology Team Foundation (T3 Foundation).

In 2021, Azerbaijan participated in Teknofest for the first time. Products and solutions from 10 startups and a local company were showcased during the festival's exhibition section in Azerbaijan's national pavilion and a local unmanned aerial vehicle, manufactured by the Defense Industry Ministry, was unveiled. This year the festival was held in Azerbaijan for the first time.