24 Hours of Innovation, Creativity, and Engineering

Ever wanted a study partner but all your friends were busy? How about a ride to campus or an empty classroom to sit in? Thanks to the projects developed at Afekathon 7, your search may soon be over

Last weekend, the Afeka Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship held Afekathon 7 – a 24-hour entrepreneurship marathon focused on developing solutions to enrich the learning, teaching, and campus experience of Afeka students.

The event featured 32 students in nine teams from Afeka’s various schools, as well as six mentors and five judges. The students worked for 24 hours straight, and presented novel ideas for improving learning and teaching at the college – including online learning systems, a digital platform for content management, information sharing, and feedback, and more.

The teams exhibited high motivation, time management skills, and impressive teamwork. The judges were given professional presentations, and the integration of the projects within the college will doubtless help to improve and advance the learning and teaching experience.

 

The winning projects

First prize went to the S4S team, which developed a “students for students” platform to encourage shared learning through a study partner search and a question and answer database. The project team included software engineering students Noy Zafrir, Adam Uzeri, Daniel Bertshneider, Liran Sorokin, and Netanel Habas, who together won a NIS4,000 prize!

            

Second prize went to the Afeka Go team, for a rideshare app for Afeka students. The project team included Adar Yerushalmi and Shay Odani from computer science, and Einat Netanel and Amit Shlomo from industrial engineering.

   

 

Third prize went to the Effortless Class team, which devised a digital system for locating free classrooms and study spaces in real time, classified by use type. The project team included Shiri Goren and Avner Dolinger from industrial engineering.

 

Additional projects

Or Cohen (electrical & software engineering), Sahar Glimidi, and Amir Peleg (computer science) developed a smart system that uses zoom cameras in class to capture the whiteboard in real time, while removing from the image visual obstacles such as the teacher’s figure, thus providing students with a quality image of the board.

The Order team developed an app that streamlines course registration by collecting students’ course preferences and matching them with course schedules. The system factors in preferences and constraints to create a schedule that works well for everyone.

The ART team (robotics club) developed an assistive system for reducing disruptions outside the classroom. A screen installed outside the classroom door and controlled by the teacher informs noisy students out in the hallway that there’s a class in session.

The GucciGang team developed a question and answer voting system, with an interface that lets the teacher present questions in real time and lets the students vote for the right answer.

The Unicorn team developed a digital system for the controlled creation and sharing of lesson summaries.

The Elevators team tackled the problem of copying from the whiteboard, which becomes difficult when time is short and visibility is obstructed. The team invented a mechanism that, instead of erasing the board, raises it when it fills up, allowing the teacher to continue writing on the bottom of the board.

The judges

• Keren Ben-Haim – Director of Ofek
• Moshe Tshuva – Head of the mechanical engineering school
• Timor Zakai – Dean of students
• Aya Teger – Creative sustainability entrepreneur
• Rotem Mey-Tal – CEO of Asgard systems

 

Afekathon participant Adar Yerushalmi, a computer science student and member of the Afeka Go team:

“Afekathon was an amazing hands-on way to experience, try, and connect with other programs. Among other things, those two days were amazing to me thanks to the competitiveness, the things I learned, and even the fatigue and the food. I met a team of incredible, talented mentors, and of course the competing teams were all champions, and you could see everyone was giving it their all. I’ll definitely be back next year. Thanks for everything!”

 

Yael Danai Menuhin, director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship:

“Innovation and advanced technologies are transforming the world in which we live and study. Knowledge is changing at a rapid pace, and so is the role or academia, as it tackles the new challenges facing all of society.

Afeka College is a leading institution of engineer education, which is why both students and faculty have the option – and responsibility – to improve and update the college’s learning processes. They do so through creative thinking, innovative out-of-the-box pedagogy, and lots of faith in the educational process. Afekathon 7 is a wonderful example of that.”