Physical and mental well-being, nutrition, sports, and mindfulness – these were the main ideas behind the projects developed by the teams at 2026 Make IT Easy! Hackathon organized at Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania. Our SOFTECH | Codespring team gladly sponsored the event, participated in the jury team of the competition and welcomed several students from our mentoring program in the programmers’ teams.
In the era of digitalization, sedentary lifestyle becomes more common and technology advances so rapidly, that the physical and mental well-being of young people is becoming an increasingly hot topic. Not surprisingly, this theme was in focus at the 2026 Make IT Easy! Hackathon hosted by Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania on April 17–18 at Târgu Mureș, attracting a total of 26 IT students competing in 9 teams.
All About Health and Well-being at Make IT Easy! Hackathon
The challenge for the participants of Make IT Easy! Hackathon was to come up with, develop, and present their own project on the given topic to a jury of professionals – and they only had 24 hours to do it all. This intensive – and undoubtedly very demanding – work was monitored and evaluated by experienced professionals and the participants’ teachers, who also shared some important insights with us.
The participating teams focused on different aspects of physical and mental health in their projects.
- Most of them emphasized maintaining physical health and a healthy lifestyle, such as proper nutrition and encouraging physical activity. One team, for example, implemented a virtual pet that users could grow by consuming healthy foods and energize through exercise. This project allows users to combine entertainment with something very useful for themselves.
- Another team shifted the focus toward mental health: they developed a project centered on community gatherings and social events.
- A creative team emphasized the importance of maintaining good posture while sitting at a computer. They developed a project that monitors the user’s posture via a webcam and notifies them about irregularities.
Don’t Put the Steering Wheel in the Copilot’s Hands
One of the organizers, Boróka, a member of the Sapientia EMTE and SOFTECH | Codespring teams, noted that the usage of AI was allowed in the development of the projects. More than half of the teams took advantage of this opportunity. During the scoring, a wide range of criteria were considered: the uniqueness and creativity of the idea, technical quality, design, potential for further development, and the presentation skills were all important factors. Aiming to achieve all of this in small teams in just 24 hours – without proper sleep – is quite a challenge. Nevertheless, the students managed to do their best.
Our colleague István, a member of the jury of Make IT Easy! Hackathon underlined once again that they were looking for originality during the judging process – in the idea, implementation, and presentation alike. He feels that in the era of vibecoding – AI-assisted coding – programming in the future will require a stronger focus on the human side: personal touch, unique ideas, critical review of generated code, and a deeper understanding and oversight of the processes. “Copilot, as its name suggests, is only a secondary driver; the programmer still has to remain the driver. They shouldn’t put all the responsibility on the assistant” – this statement probably sums up the current dilemma that the entire IT industry has to face.
Combining Professionalism, Speed, and Originality
The teams developed their projects under the supervision and guidance of the judges. This way, during the presentations, the jury could focus on the finished product, the presentation style, and the explanation of the idea behind the project.
- Based on the jury’s consensus, the grand prize of Make IT Easy! Hackathon went to a web application called CampusQuest. The idea behind this remarkable application was to maintain a balance in students’ physical and mental well-being by focusing on seven key indicators: sleep, nutrition, hydration, productive learning, socialization, sports, and mental health. In the app, every user can create an avatar that earns points by completing various activities. The app uses AI to evaluate these activities and reward them based on personal satisfaction and performance. It also uses AI to provide personalized recommendations for balancing these seven areas.
- The project that won Softech’s special award is a great example that important changes aren’t always grandiose actions. Sometimes a small but significant step means more than we might think. This project created by first-year students focuses on a problem that affects everyone: paying attention to proper posture while sitting at a computer. The professional jury particularly appreciated that the webcam-based solution did not rely excessively on artificial intelligence. By monitoring various control points on users’ bodies, they developed their own algorithm and mathematical model. Based on the position of these control points and their relative positions to one another, their model is able to identify correct and incorrect posture.
All of these experiences clearly demonstrate that in the age of AI, we must strive not for perfection but for authenticity and humanity. Because that is the one thing no software can take over from us.
Our Students in the Competition
We are particularly proud that participants of the Codespring Mentoring Program were well-represented in both the award-winning and all other teams. The fact that they accepted such an intense professional challenge and performed remarkably shows numerous valuable skills that will undoubtedly serve them well in the future, especially when they enter the job market.
Are you a computer science student in Cluj-Napoca or Târgu Mureș, or you are planning to continue your studies in this field? We are happy to recommend the Codespring Mentoring Program, which welcomes students interested in software development, starting from their first academic year.
And if you’re a software developer looking for a chance to boost your career, you can find our open positions here. Feel free to send us your CV by email to jobs@softech.ro.