UNESCO, in partnership with Microsoft, one of the major partners of UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition, organized a 100% digital hackathon to enable girls to become increasingly involved in the world of artificial intelligence.

Broadening their understanding of the nature of AI and how to adapt to an ever-changing AI landscape is also one of the other goals of this virtual hackathon. Issues of ethical oversight of AI development and use are also addressed in this groundbreaking event.

A theme was also proposed: “AI for the Earth” and all activities were related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in line with the expectations of the United Nations (UN). UNESCO has therefore decided to link these goals to the Global Coalition for Education that it launched in March 2020 and which ensures educational continuity for children.

For 48 hours and within the framework of this hackathon, the participating girls had to solve exercises focused on the use of AI to better understand climate issues and more specifically those of climate change and biodiversity loss.

Among the examples of exercises that could be found in this hackathon, one challenge consisted in presenting as a team to a qualified jury, an artificial intelligence solution that would save an endangered species. Eight teams made it to the finals, and a podium quickly emerged:

• In third place, the OCR team from Croatia came up with a complex solution for saving griffon vultures, which play an important role in promoting a natural cleaning cycle.
• In second place, we find Team Cognition from South Africa. Their AI solution aimed to save wild dogs by providing detailed tracking information based on the animals’ behavioural patterns and environmental changes that inform and improve the response time for their rescue.
• Brilliant ideas that sit alongside the team that won this challenge: Team Clustering from Spain. Their AI idea made it possible to cover the entire Mediterranean Sea and predict the evolution of water temperature according to regions while identifying the most polluted areas.

The objective was certainly to highlight the world of artificial intelligence, but also to allow young girls to discover new areas of application of AI. Joanne Healey, who works for Microsoft and is the main trainer of the hackathon, concludes:

“Girls want to work in technology. The level of talent, passion and commitment they showed was really moving.

Translated from L’édition pour les filles du Hackathon IA virtuel Imagine Cup Junior s’est penchée sur la question de l’IA pour la Terre