AlmaU students participated at a forum in Astana

On October 6, 2018 UNICEF Kazakhstan held a discussion forum “Data for Children” in Astana. Before the forum in September this year, there was a competition among Kazakhstan Youth Science Science Challenge. The best projects of the competition were selected to participate in the forum.

Youth Data Science Challenge is a youth competition for using “big data” to improve  lives around the world. During September, participants sent their data analysis and visualization projects to participate in the competition. As a result, the best 6 works were selected for a public presentation at the discussion forum. Among the winners are our students - Aikumis Kali and Alexandra Ten. Girls study Information Systems at AlmaU in the second year. The organizers paid students for flights and accommodation in Astana for the period of the event.

Aikumis and Alexandra demonstrated the direct dependence of children’s disease of pneumonia on sanitary conditions and water quality.

Aikumis Kali, 2nd year, "Information Systems":

We took data from UNICEF on mortality of children under 5 years of age from various diseases. Of all the diseases, we have focused on pneumonia, as this is one of the most common disease among children around the world. We also studied the data on vaccination against pneumonia. But the relationship between vaccination and mortality was not high. Therefore, we studied other factors affecting the disease. During the work, we found data on water quality and sanitary conditions. As a result, the correlation dependence turned out to be high between these two factors: the level of mortality and the quality of water and sanitary conditions. Therefore, we advise to monitor more carefully the quality of water and sanitation in kindergartens and schools.

Alexandra Ten, 2nd year, "Information Systems":

We learned about the competition from teachers. Aikumis and I have participated together in various competitions since the first year of study. Therefore, there were no problems in teamwork. The main difficulty was the lack of public Open Data.

When we learned that we were selected, we even felt scary. Because speaking to a large audience on the forum is not an easy task.

Thanks to this competition, we have gained a lot of experience. During the forum there were foreign speakers, and an interesting panel discussion was held with participation of representatives of business, government and education. We also met other contestants and expanded our social circle.