Ukrainian team wins NASA Space Apps Challenge 2024

On January 16, the organizers of NASA Space Apps Challenge announced 10 teams of Global Winners, including Ukrainians.  

NASA Space Apps Challenge in Ukraine 

On October 5-6, 2024, the annual international hackathon of the NASA Space Apps Challenge took place. Students, space and technology enthusiasts, developers, engineers, illustrators joined a challenge from NASA for 48 hours. 

This event is already traditional in Ukraine: for the eighth time the local stage in Dnipro was organized by the NGO “Noosphere Association”. In 2024, a record number of participants joined: 247, who joined in 58 teams and created 47 projects. One of them, the Craft Lab team, was honored by the world judges. Participants developed the “Pocket Universe”: a simple “do-it-yourself” hardware solution to study exoplanet detection methods. The project can also be used to demonstrate eclipses or other phenomena in STEM education. This idea placed the team on the list of 40 Global Finalists. 

However, this is not the only Ukrainian team that made it to the list: three in total! Another two, LazyVarenyky and NVS-knot, are NASA Space Apps Challenge representatives from Kyiv. The first team developed a web-based program that reproduces the positions and characteristics of stars based on the locations of various exoplanets. NVS-knot, in their turn, created a program for agricultural needs, which placed them in the top ten Global Winners. There were 157 members registered to participate in the hackathon from the Kyiv location, who united into 33 teams and created 26 projects. 

In total, more than 93,520 space enthusiasts from 163 countries joined the 2024 Space Apps Challenge, submitting 9,996 projects. 

Winners and their projects

Every year the hackathon organizers select 10 teams from the list of finalists according to the nominations: Best Use of Technology, Best Use of Science, Best Use of Data and others. We tell you which projects the National Aeronautics and Space Administration honored in the NASA Space Apps Challenge 2024: 

  • The Best Use of Technology category was won by Team 42 QuakeHeroes from Brazil. Their project aims to accurately detect the onset of seismic events (quakes) on Mars and the Moon using ground velocity data obtained using a deep neural network model. 
  • The Global Connection nomination was awarded to the Canadians. The Asteroid Destroyer team proposed a project to support Habitable Worlds Observatory by mapping exoplanets based on characteristics such as size, temperature, and distance.
  • The Best Mission Concept category was awarded to AsturExplorers from Spain. They created Landsat Connect, a web application designed to provide a fast, easy and intuitive way to track Landsat satellites and access Landsat Surface Reflectance (SR) data, fostering interdisciplinary learning and empowering the community.
  • Participants in the GaamaRamma general location won Best Use of Data with their WaterWise app, which helps farmers map their fields, enter crop and irrigation data, and get personalized 7-day rainfall charts using NASA OpenET open evaporation data.
  • The Most Inspirational category was awarded to the Innovisionaries team from the UAE. They developed Eco-Metropolis, an urban planning game that engages students in learning about sustainability through hands-on play using NASA data.
  • The team from Ukraine, NVS-knot, won the Galactic Impact nomination. The project is to create a program that will allow farmers to research, analyze, and use NASA data to solve water-related problems and improve agricultural practices.
  • Team I.O. from Brazil were the best in the Local Impact category. The team created a website, similar in interface to ChatGPT, through which users can find out real-time information about wildfires. 
  • TerraTales from Egypt were honored in the Best Use of Storytelling category. They developed an interactive game to predict the climate impacts in the event of human action or inaction. 
  • The final Best Use of Science nomination went to WMPGang from Canada. The basis of the project is a web application that identifies near-Earth threats to Earth and highlights satellite risk zones using real-time meteoroid flux and sporadic meteoroid distribution data. 

In addition to Global Winners, the organizers of the hackathon announced the dates of the upcoming Space Apps Challenge at the live broadcast: it will take place on October 4-5, 2025. 

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