Children with ADHD, seniors, wheelchair athletes, teachers and people with epilepsy – these were the groups the hackers at the tenth #AimtecHackathon in Pilsen set out to help. The event took place from 20 to 22 March and had the tagline Helping through Code. Eight technology challenges provided by individuals and non-profit organisations awaited its seventy participants. They stayed at the Moving Station cultural centre from early Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. Those who wanted to sleep at night slept; those who didn’t kept on programming. The challenge providers and mentors advised the hackers throughout the event, and a panel oversaw the entire weekend marathon. As at past Hackathons, the general public also had something to look forward to, with presentations and a children’s programme on offer.
The projects of #AimtecHackathon: from bionic prosthetics to smart pillboxes
The challenges awaiting participants were extremely varied. One team worked for example on a game intended to ease teaching of shapes to children with ADHD; another focused on controlling a lower-limb exoskeleton, with a motor and a neural network assisting the user in climbing stairs. Other outputs include a smart app supporting a keto diet, which is an important part of care for people with epilepsy, and a prosthetic hand enhanced with sensors that monitor grip force and temperature.
The winner this year was the team named 94AI, whose “smart-city game” The Doors Are Closing offers a fun take on data about Pilsen public transport. SITMP (the IT company of the City of Pilsen) provided this challenge, as well as data that makes this game truly real-time – it mirrors the movements of real-world trams around the city. “We’re really thrilled! We liked being able to work with cameras and available data, and tried to make it useful, interesting and relevant beyond the game,” said one 94AI member. Besides the grand prize, this team also won the audience award.
Second place at #AimtecHackathon 2026 went to PIKADOR and their Smart Pillbox project.
This challenge came from the provider Petr, whose wife has epilepsy and needs to take medicine regularly and to receive notifications if she forgets to do so. During the Hackathon, the team created both a design and a prototype for a rotating magazine for a weekly batch of pills – inspired by a revolver drum – which works both offline and with a mobile app.
The challenge provider Astrum Mobility is a maker of electric wheelchairs “with motorsports DNA”, controllable with just one finger. These will soon be in use by the handicapped powerchair hockey players in the Pilsen team SK Indians – and that’s the background for the challenge that brought 3rd place to the #AimtecHackathon team named Prestige. Their project showed how easy it is to come up with a new form of fun for wheelchair athletes by letting them play laser tag from their chairs.
Non-profits’ challenges brought in seventy competitors
“We’re delighted at how things turned out in our milestone hackathon edition. A number of solutions created in those forty hours were ready to go straight into production. These projects are often open-sourced, making the results of the hackathon teams’ work available to everyone who needs them. The registration slots for the #AimtecHackathon competition filled up quickly, and for us that’s the best evidence that young people are motivated to work on projects that make a real difference,” notes organiser Petra Šteklová from Aimtec.
#AimtecHackathon comprised three parts. In the HackIT part, where registered programmers completed challenges, several parties contributed besides those above: StropOFFka, which provides education for sight-impaired children, the prosthetics company Otto Bock ČR and the Centrum Na Dvorku physiotherapy centre.
TechTalks and YoungHackers
The TechTalks presentation series for the public was the event’s second part, offering four interesting speakers over Saturday afternoon. Luboš Šmídl from the Department of Cybernetics within the University of West Bohemia’s Faculty of Applied Sciences spoke on Detection of Children’s Cognitive Disorders from Speech, Lukáš Kuhajda from the startup Sampling Human discussed How AI Is Changing the Rules of Biology and Medicine, Filip Kirschner from the software company Applifting presented The Nine Circles of IT Hell and IT architect Zdík Kudrle described Czech Television’s Digital Transformation.
The programme’s “cherry on top” was the Sunday YoungHackers portion following the announcement of HackIT’s results, in which we presented programming to young children. The RADOVÁNEK leisure-time centre guided children through the world of robotics and electronics, while the educational organisation nvias focused on Minecraft, Roblox and artificial intelligence. Two Pilsen technical schools, VOŠ and SPŠE Pilsen, brought in smart toys, whilst the team from Techmania Science Center presented a robo-dog and a code-controlled model car. Campo Arduino brought in the mBot robot, and Logiscool Czech Republic gave children a chance to program robotic bees and mice – and enjoy a few crosswords.
But this year, #AimtecHackathon also helped on a different level. The general public had a chance to contribute to a good cause, because limited-edition merchandise was sold to celebrate the 10th anniversary. The proceeds from its sales will support the St. Lazarus Hospice, which Aimtec has been working with for many years.
About #AimtecHackathon
#AimtecHackathon is organised by Aimtec, a specialist in the automation and optimisation of manufacturing and logistics processes. Through this event, it supports technical education and IT awareness among the general public and, with its Helping through Code concept, shows how programmers can make life easier for people with handicaps. This year marks the Hackathon’s tenth anniversary. For more information on this project, visit www.aimtechackathon.cz/en.
The partners of #AimtecHackathon 2026:
Moving Station, Bageterie Boulevard CZ, BlueStar, St. Lazarus Hospice, INTERSOFT – Automation and Zebra Technologies.
HackIT - programming marathon:
AWS, Astrum Mobility, Axis Communications, Centrum Na Dvorku, COMPUTERtrends, the Czech Association for AI, the University of West Bohemia’s Faculty of Applied Sciences (FAV ZČU), Hannah Czech, Happenee, iNFINITE Production, O2, Prusa Research, RVTech.cz, SITMP (the IT company of the City of Pilsen), StropOFFka, Otto Bock ČR and Warhorse Studios.
TechTalks - public presentations:
Applifting, the University of West Bohemia’s Faculty of Applied Sciences (FAV ZČU) and Sampling Human.
YoungHackers - play-filled afternoon for children:
ABC, Bav se vědou, Campo Arduino, Logiscool Czech Republic, nvias, the RADOVÁNEK leisure-time centre, Techmania Science Center and the technical schools VOŠ and SPŠE Pilsen.
