President Tsai Ing-wen honored July 27 the five Taiwan winners of the Presidential Hackathon, praising the teams’ efforts in harnessing the power of innovation and open government to tackle social challenges and advance sustainable development.
Through promoting cutting-edge solutions and strengthening collaboration among the academic, public and private sectors, their projects can enhance the efficiency and quality of government services, Tsai said during the award ceremony at the Presidential Office in Taipei City.
The nation is committed to sharing its expertise in social innovation and open government with the rest of the world, Tsai said, adding that the hackathon demonstrates how Taiwan Can Help fast-track global efforts to achieve the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.
Organized by the Executive Yuan under the auspices of the PO, the second edition of the annual competition saw 10 finalists short-listed from more than 100 local entries.
Among the five winners is Rounding Team. The group of palliative care professionals was recognized for designing a smart platform for the Ministry of Health and Welfare that can offer medical and other resources to terminal patients who opt to remain at home.
Equally impressive is Loan Alert. Proposed by a civil servant at the Ministry of Finance and developed with support from the private sector, the team’s project conducts analysis of economic and corporate open data to flag businesses facing possible financial challenges and offers early warnings of credit defaults or other issues.
Angels of the Aged, a collaborative team from the Ministry of the Interior and the MOHW, won for a program using big data from the two agencies to identify at-risk seniors living in isolated locations.
Team Judicial Yuan was honored for devising a system to help citizens better understand legal terms in adjudications, as well as an artificial intelligence solution to assist judges with sentencing for dangerous driving offenses. Government Data Opener was recognized for proposing a new method of processing information requests.
The hackathon also featured an international category, with 23 teams from 13 countries and territories contesting this portion of the event. The two victors, CoST from Honduras and Mentadak from Malaysia, received their awards July 21 from Vice President Chen Chien-jen during a ceremony at the PO.
The former proposed an initiative to enhance environmental evaluation transparency and optimize resource allocation for infrastructure projects, while the latter designed an online procurement system to strengthen clean governance in the public sector. (SFC-E)
Write to Taiwan Today at ttonline@mofa.gov.tw