Late in January, over 200 participants in the STEM field – 100 in each country – participated in a mentored event called the Act in Space Hackathon. This year for the first time in Central Asia, the European Union (EU) through the Connectivity for Central Asia (C4CA) program organized the national editions in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, as a Team Europe Initiative (TEI) on Digital Connectivity in Central Asia, according to the Delegation of the European Union to Uzbekistan.
Digital government agencies and academia in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan also supported the competition: in Kazakhstan, the Aerospace Committee of the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development of Kazakhstan, the Republican Centre for Space Communication and Satbayev University, while from Uzbekistan—the Space Research and Technology Agency under the Ministry of Digital Technologies of Uzbekistan and Tashkent University of Information Technologies named after Muhammad al-Khwarizmi.
For two days participants worked for 24 hours non-stop, forming teams. European Space Agency (ESA) and Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES) supported remotely, proposing challenges to participants. The teams developed a business plan and prototype, with mentoring by experts from national partners as well as through digital access to CNES and ESA experts.
At the end of the 24-hour competition, a jury selected the first-place finalist teams in each country out of three finalists. In Kazakhstan, SUniverse, a team of five, won out of 19 teams, while NazarX, also a five-person team in Uzbekistan won, out of 13 teams competing.
SUniverse’s project focused on developing a machine learning–based classification system for data analysis and decision support to extend a satellite’s lifetime.
NazarX’s project is a modular platform for designing satellites using snap-together components with magnetic connectors. It can be used to build, upgrade, or repair satellites on Earth or in orbit—just like LEGO blocks, making satellite technology affordable and accessible for everyone.
Next, in the grand finale, the winning teams will have the opportunity to present their ideas in Bordeaux, France among other countries’ winning teams.
