Simon van der Burg, Netherlands‘ Ambassador to Bulgaria awarded the participants in the two-day hackathon “Gamify the Judiciary”, organized by the Bulgarian Institute for Legal Initiatives (BILI) on Sunday.
The competition was the first of its kind and challenged high-school students with the task of creating models of games related to the judicial system.
The creative idea of the Bulgarian Centre for Legal Innovations, which turns a serious conversation into a game, is praised by Ambassador Simon van der Burg.
To arrange a tournament among the participants that highlights their talent, inventiveness, and expanded abilities was such a brilliant concept.
United in teams of 3 or 4 participants, the students used only their laptops, WiFi and creativity to impress the jury, consisting of Associate professor Zachary Tormanov (Dean of the Law Faculty of the University of National and World Economy), Mrs Bilyana Gyaurova-Wegertseder (Director of the BILI Foundation), judge Vladimir Valkov and Mrs Zhenya Lazarova (PhD in Neuroscience).
Ambassador Van der Burg thanked the students. He said, “Your active participation very much inspires me in this hackathon. You deal with very serious issues in a fun and attractive way”.
“I am sure your ideas and concepts will be used further in education and make our societies and democracies more resilient”.
He was quite impressed and thought that gamifying the judiciary was highly appealing. According to him, these competitions will draw students in and pique their curiosity, which will lead to their showing interest and coming up with inventive methods to participate in the court.
He praised the successful cooperation of the Embassy of the Netherlands with BILI. He pointed out that formats like the hackathon are needed contributions to formal or informal civic education.