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Winners of the 2024 Youth Hacking 4 Freedom Announced

The six winning projects, developed by young people aged between 14 and 18 and presented at the 2024 award ceremony are: a federated social network, an app to help dementia patients, software for finding events and connecting with people in your area, a unique rhythm game, and a WebApp for sharing sheets of music and lyrics.

The winners of 2024 YH4F posing with their awards during the Award Ceremony in Brussels, photo taken by Nico Rikken, @CC-BY

The third edition of the Youth Hacking 4 Freedom (YH4F) competition, organised by the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), has successfully concluded with an inspiring award ceremony weekend in Brussels. Young developers from all over Europe were recognised for their Free Software projects and presented their work to an audience that included their families, jury members, and new-found friends. YH4F is a unique programming contest designed to give Europeans aged 14 to 18 the opportunity to showcase their programming skills and creativity by developing Free Software projects. After six months of intensive programming, the jury selected the top six projects. These winners were invited to Brussels for the award ceremony, where they had the chance to present their projects and participate alongside their peers, jury members and their relatives in a weekend filled with engaging activities.

2024 Youth Hacking 4 Freedom winners

One again this year's competition attracted remarkable entries, each highlighting the technical talent, creativity, and dedication of its young developer. The six winning projects reflect a diversity of innovative ideas that successfully transform into impressive software solutions by the end of the programming phase.

“We are incredibly proud of this year’s winners and their outstanding contributions to Free Software. The diversity among them, whether in age, country of origin, or gender, truly stands out. We're particularly excited to see that not only young men are stepping into the world of programming", said Alexander Sander, FSFE senior policy consultant and YH4F project manager. "Each year, we are increasingly impressed by their passion, creativity, and dedication. These young developers are proving that Free Software empowers them to shape the world they want to live in. It’s inspiring to see their projects tackling real challenges within their communities and beyond."

The six winners were awarded cash prizes ranging from €4,096 to €1,024. Here are the winning projects of the 2024 Youth Hacking 4 Freedom competition:

• Ultimate Hacker Award: Gaspard with ‘Versia’, a federated social network based on the Versia protocol. (€4,096)
• Elite Hacker Award: Sofía with ‘Identity’, an app that helps people in palliative care or suffering from dementia to save their most meaningful memories. (€2,048)
• Awesome Award: ‘Eventfully’, a team project by Konrad, Luis, Benedikt, Dorothea, Leonie and Jona: a software to find and explore events in your area, connect with others, and learn more about culture, technology and other topics from one website.(€1,024)
• Creative Hacker Award: Manuel with ‘YLLM4F (Youth Large Language Models 4 Freedom)’, a platform, that combining three advanced language tools, ensures that chatbots interact in a youth-friendly way. (€1,024)
• Epic Game Award: Corentin, Edmond and Tipragot with ‘Beats into shapes’, a rhythm game where you forge items with the sound of music.(€1,024)
• Community Support Award: Tobias with ‘PraiseLink’, a WebApp for sharing sheets and lyrics of music. It can be used for singing choirs or live performance groups.(€1,024)

Find more about the projects

YH4F winners participating in the workshop that took place during the Awards Ceremony weekend, photo taken by Nico Rikken, @CC-BY

Empowering Europe’s next generation of developers

The Youth Hacking 4 Freedom competition continues to grow, attracting more and more young people who share a passion for programming. They all share the interest in Free Software and the desire to take control of their technology. In an era where digital tools shape every aspect of our lives, it is vital that future generations have the knowledge and ability to create, modify, use, and share software they rely on. By empowering young developers to create and contribute to Free Software, YH4F helps foster a culture of openness, transparency, and software freedom.

This initiative is made possible through the generous financial support of our donor, Reinhard Wiesemann, and the sponsorship of OpenSSF

If you want to join YH4F 2025 edition you can already sign up by registering here. The coding period is from 01.01.2025 to 30.06.2025. Details for the next edition will be shared soon on fsfe.org and yh4f.org.

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