A team of three students of the University Of Lagos (UNILAG) has emerged the winner of the Hackathon4Justice competition.
The competition was organized by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in collaboration with Facebook and AfricaTeenGeeks.
The three students David Popoola, Eyitayo Ogunbiyi, and Chukwudumebi Onwuli defeated 47 other students from nine institutions selected for the grand finale of the competition at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel in Lagos last weekend.
The competition challenged the competitors to utilize technology to solve problems pertaining to achieving the rule of law in the areas of corruption, integrity, and ethics; crime prevention and criminal justice; organized crime; human trafficking and terrorism and violent extremism after a 29-hour coding marathon.
The UNILAG team on its part developed software dubbed, ‘Let’s Fight Trafficking’ (TFL), to track down and expose traffickers. The software features an e-learning planning platform on human trafficking; a facial recognition system that matches feed from webcams and other images to determine existing case with similar images in the database; a portal for victim’s close friends to file reports about trafficking in their area and a heat map, generated from report data to let users know where trafficking is most prevalent and take preventive measures.
As part of benefits of being winners of the competition, the team earned a ticket to the Global Hackathon for Justice event to hold at the Google Headquarters in Silicon Valley in August, where they will participate as mentors.
Runner up to the winning team was the team of four students from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH). The LAUTECH team developed a mobile application ‘Athena” that enables people to report crime, emergencies and detects the location of users and composes a report. It also helps users learn about their rights and provides anonymity for whistleblowers.
Also, represented in the finals were teams from the Federal University of Technology, (FUTA), Covenant University, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Obafemi Awolowo University, University of Benin, Babcock University, and the Yaba College of Technology.
Speaking on the win, a member of the winning David said, “So many thanks to the organizers, mentors, and sponsors at the Hackathon4Justice for their time, attention and the opportunity to be a part of the event. The hackathon gave us the opportunity to test our skills and learn even more. This is not the end. We will keep the same energy and continue providing solutions to the problems of our world,” he said.
