SMART CITY Challenge: a competition in innovative solutions for a modern city with the support of doMEn

Organized by the Montenegrin Scientific Association STEMatics During the last weekend of April, the finals of the SMART CITY Challenge, a multi-month competition for high school and university students in Montenegro, were held. The competition, sponsored by doMEn, as part of the Spark.me STEAM Adventure, was held at the NEST Coworking space and brought together young people aged 15 to 24 from all parts of Montenegro with the aim of developing innovation culture, technical skills and team spirit through working on solutions for the real challenges of modern cities.

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Photo: doMEn
Photo: doMEn
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

6 lectures, 2 workshops, 2 sets of competitive tasks and a competition

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photo: domain

In the period from November to April young people interested in science, technology, innovation, art and social change, who love challenges and have a team that wants to, through the concept of a "smart city", get to know the fields of electronics, programming, automation, IoT, design and sustainability. That is, through data analysis, model creation and trend detection, they could see how science shapes the future of cities and through datasets, visualization and machine learning helps them to be more efficient, safer and sustainable.

The project took place in three phases: the first two, from November to February, were predominantly educational in nature, which included 6 online lectures, 2 workshops, 2 sets of competitive tasks, assessment and discussion, all accompanied by interesting facts from the fields of electronics, green energy, automation, machine learning and programming, and the final, of a competitive nature, where finalist teams from Nikšić, Podgorica, Rožaje, Danilovgrad, Tivat, Kotor, Ulcinj and Pljevlja worked on the technical implementation and presentation of the idea before an expert jury in the fight for valuable awards and recognition.

What are the biggest problems of the modern city according to the contestants?

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photo: domain

Four-member teams identified a specific problem of the modern city and proposed innovative solutions. The following stood out as the biggest problems of the city: lack of a unified map of city infrastructure and faults, non-existence real-time information about works, noise, air quality or traffic, excessive traffic congestion, lack of parking spaces, improper occupation of parking spaces reserved for disabled people, insufficient reliability of public transport, clouding and pollution of local springs, microbiological contamination, interruptions in water supply, poor communication between citizens and competent services, poor involvement of young people in local processes, an overloaded healthcare system, lack of green areas and recreational spaces, hazardous waste, poorly developed circular economy and poor organization of hot meal distribution to vulnerable citizens.

The top 10 teams presented their ideas for the development of modern cities. Some of them included the development of new technologies for waste management, new traffic automation, energy-efficient systems, as well as improving the level of inclusiveness of the environments we live in. The best of the best were decided by an expert jury consisting of: Biljana Krivokapić, MSc Aleksandar Plamenac and Dr. Ivan Martinović.

This time, the awards and recognition went to the following teams:

  1. NPU (Natalija Marniković, Mina Vujović, Teodora Agramović and Una Perazić).
  2. SENSECITY (Lara Tosic, Andrija Djurovic, Boris Vukic and Janko Zekovic)
  3. HEISENBERG'S (Nikola Skupnjak, Marko Petrović, Uroš Drakul and Petar Jašović)

"The first season of the SMART CITY Challenge has shown that the youth of Montenegro are full of knowledge and willingness to improve the quality of life in our country. We are proud to have helped them at least a little on that path and encouraged them to share their innovative ideas with all of us. The level of skills that the competitors have shown motivates us to continue working and invest additional effort in providing all generations of innovators and researchers with the opportunity to work, socialize and enjoy the charms of science and new technologies," she emphasized. Jasna Zeković in front of the competition organizing team.

Predrag Lešić, CEO of doMEn, emphasized: “We are pleased that the Smart City Challenge brought together young people from different parts of Montenegro and gave them the opportunity to develop ideas for smarter and more sustainable communities through knowledge, creativity and teamwork. The participants showed great potential, innovation and a strong interest in STEAM fields, which is exactly the value we wanted to support.”

The Spark.me STEAM Adventure program will run until April 30, 2026, with a total budget of up to 100.000 euros, while individual support amounts range from 5.000 to 30.000 euros per project.

Spark.me STEAM adventure is part of doMEn's corporate social responsibility program. In 2019, the company also launched a portal www.steamedukacija.me, where more information is available about this and other programs and opportunities for youth.

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