May 3, 2021 - The Split4Cats team won at the recently held two-day Hack4Split competition, thanks to their application focused on locating and caring for city cats. 

The main protagonists of this story, Nikola Tandara, Dalia Jurišić, and Ante Đonlić, explained to Slobodna Dalmacija exactly what the app is about. Together with Tomislav Mamić and Mahina Hathaway, they developed a way to help deal with the uncontrolled growth of the street cat population in Split. This team at Hack4Split was randomly paired, and, as they say, they got along perfectly.

"Our default topic was neglected animals, and together we decided to focus on cats and try to propose to solve this problem.

We had 24 hours to develop our idea, which we ultimately presented. The main goal was to "sell the idea," which should not have been made to the end, but it was important that it was good and feasible," explains 29-year-old Nikola Tandara, who finished computer science at FESB.

The application is just at the beginning of its development, and the 30-year-old designer Dalia Jurišić, who graduated from the Art Academy in Split, is leading its design. The topic of her dissertation was the neglected cats in Split. 

"The topic of my diploma was neglected Split cats, problems, and opportunities of the City of Split. I dissected and analyzed the overall situation in the city, and as the biggest problem, I would point out their invisibility.

People no longer notice them and do not care, and their number is growing from year to year precisely because they are not castrated. From time to time, a good initiative appears, like the houses behind the HNK. Still, all this is small concerning their number because it all comes down to volunteers and associations that operate, which are few," says Dalia. She also works as an illustrator and creates logos. She points out that by choosing the topic, she wanted to encourage citizens to think and act.

The application is designed to connect donors and citizens with street cat associations.

"For example, you walk along Marmontova and come across a neglected cat. You take a picture of it and put it in the application, which would have some register of cats from associations that career for them. If the system does not recognize the cat as already registered, a list of pictures of all cats opens, and you find the one that suits you.

When you find her, if she’s already in the system, you'll get an “ID” with all her information, like whether she was vaccinated, castrated, or fed. If she is not castrated by some chance, you can invite everyone else to help with donations to make it happen, or if, for example, you feed her, mark in the app that she is fed. In this way, we would gradually get a register of cats for which we would know exactly what condition they are in, and in that way, we would prevent their uncontrolled reproduction," explains the working principle of Ante (28), a third-year computer science student at FESB.

The trio points out that no one knows the exact number of street cats in the Split area.

"We want to castrate and sterilize them all so that there are as few of them as possible every year. It is better that there are fewer of them and that they are well taken care of than that there are thousands of them and that they are neglected," Nikola said, adding that in this way, everyone could help. It is envisioned that the person who acts will get discounts and coupons so everyone would benefit.

Their goal, they note, is to create the first version of the application.

"After that, we plan to publish the application on the Internet in open-source form so that other people can help in its development or gradual upgrade. With the prize we won at Hack4Split, we will do the part we succeed in, but since nothing in life is free, some fundraising will certainly be needed because we are scattered everywhere. It is feasible, and for the application to shine properly, a lot of work is needed, but it is also necessary to rely on the community and donations," Ante points out.

If you want to know more about pets in Croatia, be sure to check Total Croatia's guide HERE.

For more about lifestyle in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page. 

April 21, 2021 - At the two-day Hack4Split competition, the first prize for the best-elaborated solution went to the Split4Cats team, which presented an application for finding and caring for city cats, while the second-best design solution went to the Second Style Around the team, which presented a personal stylist platform. 

Slobodna Dalmacija reports that DonatQR, an app to develop a transparent, reliable, and easy-to-use donation system for those in need, won the award for the most valuable team and teamwork, 

This social hackathon was held on April 17 and 18, organized by the Student Entrepreneurship Incubator, which operates at the Faculty of Economics, University of Split. It was held in the SPINIT incubator in three spaces, respecting epidemiological measures and using the MS Teams platform.

The event was organized by members of the Student Entrepreneurship Incubator, mentors Lana Ugrčić and Jelena Čulić with a team of volunteers that included Ljubica Nazor, Lucija Baranović, Lora Močić, Blanka Kelava, Ivan Marin, Marin Jurić, and Andrej Marić in collaboration with Michael Freer from of Ensoco.

The competition aimed to find and implement socially beneficial solutions for the well-being and progress of the local community using the advantages of modern technology. This year, the emphasis was on solving problems in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

"This year's hybrid Hack4Split gathered 6 teams with 30 competitors of many nationalities who worked in a cheerful and proactive atmosphere on various social issues such as the problem of waste textiles ending up in landfills and encouraging reusing old clothes, to the problem of city cats and their disposal from city streets,  monitoring the quality of the marine environment, disposing of discarded or unused household goods, developing a transparent and reliable donation system, and energy (in) efficiency of urban housing areas," said the organizers, thanking the sponsors for their support, namely 45 Degrees Sailing, Hotel Krilo, Ensoco, Break Time, Jaman Art, Oracle, The Works Coworking, Calypso Snack Bar and Daltonist Bar.

For more about lifestyle in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.