«Smart bins» for the city, an inclusive virtual assistant, and a digital assistant for real estate search: three startups emerged as winners of the ITU Hackathon on Smart Cities in Belarus.
On November 26, the International Telecommunication Union Hackathon on Creating Solutions for Smart Cities concluded in Minsk. The hackathon was supported by the Ministry of Communications and Informatization of the Republic of Belarus and the Belarusian State Academy of Communications (BSAC). Eleven teams comprising 43 students from universities in Belarus and Russia presented their ideas, business models, and MVPs, which they had been developing for a month.
The goal of the hackathon was to support student and youth entrepreneurship, generate new ideas and approaches, and develop pilot projects for implementing the smart city concept.
The hackathon was conducted in accordance with Regional Initiative 5 "Development of Smart Cities and Communities" and the ITU's youth strategy for engaging young people in the activities of the International Telecommunication Union.
The hackathon winners were the following startups:
- "Smart Bins" with a system for monitoring fill levels and optimizing waste collection logistics. Team from the Belarusian National Technical University: Rostislav Borsuk, Arthur Dmitriev, Nikita Zhivoglod, Nikita Pavlovsky.
- SafeWay, a navigation application for individuals with autism spectrum disorders. Team from the Belarusian State Pedagogical University: Victoria Bugaychuk, Anna Butyuto, Victoria Pisarchik, Daria Savitskaya, Ekaterina Skadorva.
- SearchHelper, a personal real estate search assistant. Team from the Belarusian National Technical University: Sergey Kupavo, Aleksey Bakhurevich, Alexander Tarasyuk.
The jury included experts from the hackathon's partner organizations: the Ministry of Communications and Informatization of the Republic of Belarus, Belarusian State Academy of Communications (BSAC), Beltelecom, A1, Sviazinvest, beCloud, and EpolSoft. The invited speakers were Denis Savitsky, founder of the Zborka Labs startup laboratory; serial entrepreneur, founder of Aman Online and co-founder of Impro, Aruzhan Mede; product manager at EPAM and B2B startup consultant Alexander Bogush; and Yevgeny Solovyov, head of the Digital Development Department for Healthcare at the Republican Scientific and Practical Center for Medical Technologies, Informatization, Management, and Health Economics, and an ITU expert.
A total of 107 students from six Belarusian universities and one Russian university participated in the hackathon.
These students are from the Belarusian State Academy of Communications, Belarusian National Technical University, Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics, Belarusian State Pedagogical University named after Maxim Tank, Euphrosyne Polotskaya State University of Polotsk, Belarusian State Technological University, and MIREA - Russian Technological University.
Ms. Anna Nikolayevna Ryabova, Deputy Minister of Communications and Informatization of the Republic of Belarus, noted that the number of participants who responded to the hackathon indicates that young people would like to live in smart cities. According to her, one of the most memorable projects was the assistant for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
"In Belarus, there is an initiative—an IT company whose employees are people with ASD, and they are very talented. It is necessary to build relationships with all social groups that emerge in society. It's getting results. The smart assistant project proposed by the female students is a project of a new kind. It is not just a social initiative. I think it could resonate with people with ASD, their parents, and loved ones," says Anna Nikolayevna Ryabova.
Sergey Tonkovich, Deputy General Director of Sviazinvest, a company specializing in the creation and integration of smart city solutions, shared his company's approach with the hackathon participants: the startup idea should build off a problem that the company already has.
“Svyazinvest” chose the ‘Smart Bins’ team as the winner of the special nomination.
"I wasn't so much looking for a technical solution—I was looking at the teams, at the people, at how they can use the business tools they acquired during the hackathon. For example, Customer Development (researching the target audience and potential demand for the product). Even in real business, not everyone uses it. This isn't the participants' last project. There will be more. The ability to correctly use business tools will definitely lead them to success," says Sergey Tonkovich.
According to him, hackathon finalists should continue to develop their startups to gain experience, but do so exclusively with the support of mentors and advisors, such as those found in accelerators. "Many people are willing to share their experience, including specialists from Sviazinvest," concluded Sergey Tonkovich.
The hackathon lasted nearly one and a half months—from October 8 to November 26. The program included online lectures, trainings, and meetups, as well as in-person meetings at the hackathon partners locations: Sviazinvest and the Zborka Labs startup laboratory.
The hackathon's opening took place in a hybrid format, with in-person participation at the Belarusian State Academy of Communications. The first meeting included introductory lectures on how a startup differs from a business or a social project.
Additionally, at this meeting, Yevgeny Solovyov discussed the global agenda for developing smart and sustainable cities and explained why it is important for student startup founders to familiarize themselves with international and governmental documents, development strategies, and programs. This knowledge enables them to create projects that align with global goals and, consequently, become in demand.
After the students learned about the principles of idea generation and types of business models, invited expert Alexander Bogush discussed how to create an MVP—the minimum viable product—using low-code and no-code platforms, as well as how to utilize social media to find future users. Alexander specifically emphasized that for a startup, the key is to develop a feature that addresses the customer's pain point, while design is not the top priority for an MVP.
Then, the invited speaker Aruzhan Mede discussed how to conduct Customer Development: what questions to ask users, when to enter the market, and when to offer the product to the audience for testing. Her experience was very valuable, as she herself has gone through the process of creating a startup and recently closed the first round of investments.
The hackathon's final training session was held at the Zborka Labs startup laboratory—a hub for startup founders in Minsk and an organizer of incubation and acceleration programs. Its founder, Denis Savitsky, summarized information about all stages of developing a startup and placed particular emphasis on how to effectively present it.
After the training sessions, two streams of individual consultations took place. Teams booked time in the calendar, and mentors from ITU allocated time for each team to discuss their specific project exclusively. The first stage of consultations was dedicated to discussing the idea and the business model attached to it. The second stage involved pitch training before the finals: students presented the MVPs they had created and how they conducted research on the potential users of their product. After receiving recommendations for improving their pitches, 11 teams advanced to the final.
The hackathon became the sixth ITU event for students focused on startup creation. In 2023 and 2024, the ITU team conducted trainings at educational institutions in Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, with participation from over 180 individuals.
