On August 26th, the first international military drone hackathon started in Kyiv.

Event organizers are Ukraine Startup Fund (USF) along with Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, DK “Ukuroboronprom” When IDI Camp.

Drone Hackathon aims to develop new ideas for drone manufacturing in the military technology industry.

In total, about 300 applications (individual and team participants) were received from design engineers, radio engineers, drone operators, programmers and other professionals from all regions of Ukraine to participate in the hackathon.

Among them, 150 participants will be selected to spend three days offline (August 26-28) working on new technical solutions in the field of military technology to overcome the challenges of war and assist the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

“This hackathon is a unique opportunity to participate in the development of new digital solutions that support our military. Our common task is to bring the development of drone production and technical support to a high level. We can not only buy drones from various companies around the world, but also create them on an industrial scale in our country.It is up to you how you develop new military technology projects in this field.” Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mikhail Fyodorov said in his address to the participants:

“Today we are looking for ideas that make innovation relevant to the military already today, not the future. We will try to implement it on the front as much as possible.This is the first military tech hackathon for the Ukrainian startup fund.There will be more.It is of strategic importance to us.This is a priority that UFS sets itself. is.

On the first day of the drone hackathon, participants presented their initial ideas, assembled their teams, discussed the main challenges of the hackathon with their team mentors, and started working on their projects in teams.

The next two days will include lectures for hackathon participants, discussions with mentors and experts, project teamwork, and pitch preparation.

The hackathon facilitators were Ihor Markevich and Yana Paladiyeva, representatives of the Ukrainian Startup Fund.

The Drone Hackathon ends on Pitch Day. As a result, the jury evaluates projects according to the following criteria:

• Satisfying stakeholder requirements
• Innovative approach to problems
• completeness of the solution
• simplicity and scalability
• Final product presentation

Winners will be awarded financial rewards and gifts from partners.

“In the 21st century, knowledge, intelligence and technology are of great value in warfare, which create effective and efficient anti-war tools and help win wars in the modern world. This is foreign to Ukraine. No, this is our everyday reality: artificial intelligence, control of drones, chatbots for intelligence gathering, special search systems, satellite communications and space technology are the innovative tools Ukraine relies on during the war. Today, these words have become part of our everyday vocabulary.6 months of military operations on Ukrainian territory show how important and decisive such technological weapons are. and greatly strengthened its ground forces, so it’s no surprise that military drone hackathons have generated a lot of interest among innovators. I am pleased that we are working for our joint victory in the battlefield, they are striving to strengthen the defenders on the battlefield, hold their technical side tight, and provide defense and counterattack.” Ukrainian Startup Fund Director Pavlo Kartashov said:

In early July, Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation and funding platform UNITED24 drone army business. Partners in this project are the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the State Special Service for Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine (SSSCIP). This is a comprehensive program that provides drone system procurement, repair and rapid replacement, pilot training, and training for the R&D industry. UAVs have already been contracted for about 948 million UAH. These include 877 drones that strengthen the Ukrainian military. Drone Army’s total funding is approaching 1 billion UAH. Already purchased his UAVs: UkrJet, Skyeton, Fly Eye, WARMATE, SKIF, DJI Matrice RTK 300, DJI Mavic 3, Autel evo 2.

The first UAVs purchased with this funding are already deployed on the front lines.