The City of Seoul, in collaboration with Korea IBM and the Environmental Foundation, held the Seoul Mayor’s Award ceremony for the “2020 Call for Code Korea Hackathon” on the 2nd at the SeoSoomun 2 City Hall building.
A total of 50 teams and 216 participants took part in the hackathon. Around 70% — 33 teams — presented ideas focused on combating COVID-19, while 17 teams addressed the issue of climate change. This reflects a strong desire to contribute to overcoming the challenges posed by the pandemic both in South Korea and globally.
Participants came from diverse backgrounds, including high school students, university students, office workers, teachers, foreign residents, international students, social activists, and job seekers. All teams developed open-source solutions to participate in the “2020 Call for Code Global Challenge.”
Park Won-soon, Mayor of Seoul, said in his congratulatory speech on the day of the results announcement: “The City of Seoul, together with Korea IBM and the Environmental Foundation, will actively support the commercial implementation of the applications presented. We will seek meaningful changes that citizens can truly feel and work with professional companies to improve the quality of life for our residents.”
The team “COVID Barking Dog,” which received the Mayor’s Award, proposed an application that uses open data on infected individuals’ movement routes to alert users in real time when they approach an infected area, thus supporting preventive measures. The app also automatically donates to local businesses and those in need based on the user’s current location.
The winner, Yang Kyung-min, a researcher at SmartDongSchool, said: “I didn’t expect to win, so I’m very grateful for such a great honor. I want to build on this experience to continue creating applications that help society and carry real social value.”
