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From research to its practical application

Two teams involving students from the Jagiellonian University Institute of Sociology have taken first and second place in the latest edition of programming marathon #hack4good, also known as Hackaton. The project, which took place in Kraków, resulted in designing mobile applications that could be of great help to people with disabilities.

The idea of the undertaking emerged on January 29, 2014, after the screening of a student film Kraków without Barriers, when various recommendations on how to make life in the city easier for the disabled were discussed. Some of these ideas, which involved the use of modern technology, were selected during Hackaton. Students, programmers and disabled persons worked together to create prototypes of the applications.

First place – public transport application

People with visual impairment face many problems related to the use of public transport. The project by the JU team envisaged the use of Estimote beacon sensors which make it possible to send specially programmed information to mobile devices in a certain area. The tests made during 48 hours indicated that the application can be of great help to the visually impaired – inform them about their location, the available trams, and the direction in which they are heading, as well as where to get off the tram and which changes to make during the journey.

The application was designed by a team consisting of: Anna Wróblewska, Agnieszka Król, Jakub Mazur, Iwo Polański, and Maciej Szafraniec.

Second place: application for the 112 number

The deaf and other people with impaired hearing often find it difficult to effectively use the 112 number in emergency situations as it is not always technically possible to communicate with the emergency centre via text messages, and it often happens that messages with errors, which are easy to make in such cases, are not taken seriously by the operators.

The team involving JU students came up with a simple and very useful solution to this problem: an application containing pre-defined messages to be sent to relevant services that use the 112 number. The talks with emergency services in Kraków about the introduction of the application are already going on.

The application was designed by a team consisting of: Edyta Kozub, Karolina Motal, Monika Kozub, Beata Ziarkowska-Kubiak, Wojciech Krawczyk, Piotr Kruszak, Agnieszka Król, Aleksandra Migalska, Monika Jerszyńska, Anna Wróblewska, and Jakub Wiśniewski.

#hack4good is an international series of programming marathons originated by the Geeklist organisation. The #hack4good event aims to bring together programmes, designers and other people to create applications useful for charities and various groups of people in need.

The event's website: hack4good.pl