USask students take on real-world problems at SaskHack

By Chris Putnam

University of Saskatchewan (USask) undergraduate students pitched creative solutions to challenges facing Saskatchewan at the province’s biggest-ever hackathon.

The Saskatchewan Crown Sector Hackathon (SaskHack), a two-day event held at the University of Regina (U of R) on Jan. 30 and 31, brought together 65 students from the U of R, USask and Saskatchewan Polytechnic along with representatives of Saskatchewan’s major Crown corporations.

A hackathon invites teams of participants to build solutions to problems under a tight time limit. The first-ever SaskHack was co-hosted by the three participating post-secondary institutions in partnership with SaskEnergy, SaskPower, SaskTel and SGI.

“It was an incredible opportunity to watch our students work under pressure and contribute to innovative, creative and life-changing solutions to real-world problems. USask was proud to partner with the University of Regina, Saskatchewan Polytechnic and the Crown corporations on this very successful inaugural event,” said Dr. Jennifer Lang (PhD), vice-dean academic of the College of Arts and Science and USask’s institutional lead on the event.

At the start of the event, SaskHack participants met with executives and senior employees of the Crown corporations to learn about challenges facing the Crown sector. They then had just 18 hours to form teams, choose a problem, develop a practical solution and pitch it to the judges.

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“We were challenged to make our design feasible across all four sectors, which pushed us to think broadly and creatively about how we could develop our technology with a unified approach. After seeing all the other team’s designs, it was empowering to realize that we, as students, can develop solutions that are ready for immediate implementation and make a real difference in Saskatchewan's Crown sector,” said USask electrical engineering student Talia Iwanchysko, whose team won third place at SaskHack.

USask computer science student Krunal Chavda has attended numerous hackathons, but said he has never been to one of this scale.

“To have Crown corporations—some of the biggest employers of the province and sort of the heart of the province—and your post-secondary institutions come together and try to solve the real-life problems that these companies are facing, I think that is something that adds a lot of experience to what you learn in your classroom,” Chavda said.

Chavda and his team of four other USask computer science students chose to focus on modernizing and streamlining the Occupational Health and Safety forms required in various Saskatchewan industries. Working late into the night, they built a system called SafetyFirst that generates risk scores in real time for employees based on their form submissions. Scores above a certain threshold automatically alert a manager, who can intervene and protect the employee.

“We were really, really proud about the product that we built,” said Chavda.

Chavda received the People’s Choice Award for his pitch on behalf of the team.

Overall, USask teams—made up of students from the Edwards School of Business, College of Engineering and College of Arts and Science—took home five of the event’s eight prizes, while a U of R team received the $1,300 top award.

Along with cash prizes, the winning teams were awarded mentorship and career coaching opportunities. Meeting Crown corporation representatives during the event also offered valuable networking and learning opportunities for all participants.

“I’ve attended several hackathons across Canada, and SaskHack truly stood out as one of the most impactful experiences I’ve had,” said Madesh Thevar, a USask computer science student. “What made it special was the level of engagement from Saskatchewan Crown corporations. Having senior leaders, chief officers and directors walk around, provide feedback and actively support teams while we were building was incredibly valuable.”

Thevar’s team—made up of Edwards School of Business and College of Arts and Science students—created an AI-powered voice assistant called SaskVoice designed to reduce strain on Crown corporations and improve customer service. The multilingual assistant earned the team fourth place at the hackathon.

Thevar also won the Institutional MVP award for USask along with an invitation to tour SaskTel’s head office and meet the company’s enterprise AI team.

“Experiences like that helped bridge the gap between academic learning and real-world innovation, and it reinforced my passion for building technology that solves real community challenges,” Thevar said.

Following the success of SaskHack, the organizers hope to bring it back in future years.

“(A hackathon) really shows how well you can work with a team in a time-constrained environment in order to develop a product. And that's the real-life skill that I think matters more than any prize or any accolade,” said Chavda.

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