The event took place between 25-27 of November 2019 in Bratislava, Slovakia

The event was attended by 35 competing participants who were divided into 8 working teams (made up of 4 – 5 members each), coming both from the ICT and SSH, well mixed in each working group, while they worked on projects and/or products related to inclusiveness in one of the 4 proposed areas: 1. better access to education / online learning for disadvantaged groups; 2. solving daily hurdles faced by the migrants or victims of human trafficking in the hosting country; 3. combatting fake news, hoaxes, ‘deep fake’ and spreading of disinformation; 4. internet, machine learning or artificial intelligence: “How to ensure that humans will have the last say?”.

Every team was couched, and their products/projects evaluated by experts and judges, coming mostly from ICT vs. SSH and/or business sector. The jury members received a preparation kit to be followed before the event took place. There were four winning teams designated by the jury, receiving an opportunity to take part in a traineeship at LOBA, get professional support and consultancy in scope of Tenderio project, Qualification for the HubIT Common Ground Camp, and a special laptop bag made of waste material following the concept “waste-to-best”.

Participants were very active during the 2-days Designathon aiming for development of their inclusive products/projects. Organizing staff prepared a social event for the first evening of the Designathon and icebreaker sessions to make people more comfortable and know each other better for the purposes of smooth teamwork. The participants were provided a quite exhaustive introduction to the project, concept of RRI and also to the methodology of the Designathon, its agenda and task they are expected to fulfil. Additionally, they were also delivered a presentation on successful pitching. Based on all these inputs and the support provided by the organizing team members, the groups worked in a work-supportive, inspirational and relaxed ambient during the whole Designathon.

Finally, participants got feedback on their products/projects from organizing team members and experts, leaving them space to further elaborate on these and keep in touch with their fellows in scope of the team they worked in.

The event was oriented to increase the cooperation between information and communications technology (ICT) and researchers, people from the fields of social sciences and humanities (SSH). And as the special attention of HubIT is to Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) assessment and its six dimensions – Public engagement, Gender equality, Science education/communication, Open access/Open science, Ethics and Social inclusion, Governance, Social justice and Sustainability – the following text will also reflect on these criteria in terms of their incorporation to the Designathon as such and also on the projects and/or product developed during the Designathon during this event, having many of these criteria included by default.

Main outputs created by the participants working in groups at the Designathon:

Simplifying recruitment with Al.

The tool to be developed is an Al-based HR tool to simplify recruitment. Ethical Al approach which provides access to the detailed and non-biased information. The candidate who decides to apply for a job, uploads the video and Al-based analysis create solution for the employer. It presents fast and efficient tool for recruitment which combines social sciences and ICT and it also creates the space for equal opportunities.

E-inclusion: social e-learning approaches.

These are didactic concepts to foster social e-learning for successful learning in case of disadvantaged target groups. This way ICT plays an important role in building social capital and in facilitating learning processes for vulnerable groups.

The future is inclusive for refugees

The tool offered is covering potential intervention areas for better integration of refugees in the area of language literacy (online courses), labour market (training programmes for jobseekers), housing (identification of rental apartments, or financial support), health and psychological support, support with social integration, reception and first steps into foreign country.

Fake news

Fake news understood as a campaign for generation and promotion of manufactured information, which involves a strategy, a budget and an ideology, directed against an individual or a community can be overcame by the support structure of social platforms allowing the capitalization of the rational response. Such solutions the participants came up with during the event too.

The whole workshop was in very good atmosphere with a very high level of organisation. It was considered as a great platform to meet and discuss with experts. Interdisciplinary cooperation between SSH and ICT and the responsibility of ICT has a strong potential and events like this has to be inevitable for future development in this area.

Pedal is a partner in the HubIT project.