Students to Help Improve Water Resource Monitoring in the North Kazakhstan Region Through Digital Technologies

The university’s International Campus held a hackathon titled “Development of a Geoportal for Monitoring the Physicochemical Parameters of Water Resources in the North Kazakhstan Region.” The event was aimed at preparing young specialists to address the challenges of digital transformation in environmental protection and sustainable water use.

As part of the hackathon, second-year students of the dual-degree program with the University of Arizona, “Information Systems in Management” developed functional geoportals for monitoring water quality using modern web technologies. A total of 20 teams took part in the competition.

Special attention was given to data visualization, working with map layers, API integration, processing user requests, and designing server-side architecture. Upon completion, participants deployed their projects on Vercel and Netlify hosting platforms, ensuring public web access to their solutions.

According to the competition results, the winners were:

1st place —Filipp Stanislav and Abdul Tuyakov,

2nd place —Alan Bekmukhambetov and Mansur Kazhekov,

3rd place — Didar Akhmetzhanov and Argyn Kaisarbekov.

The prize winners were granted a unique opportunity to become involved in research activities within a scientific project implemented at the university under the Program-Targeted Funding (PTF) of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the project focuses on the development and implementation of high-tech solutions for monitoring, purification, and sustainable use of water resources in the North Kazakhstan Region to protect public health. The project is led by PhD Dmitry Berillo.

The event became an important step in building competencies among future IT specialists of the region by combining environmental challenges, advanced digital technologies, and real-world research practices.