EU Datathon 2022 teams behind the apps: Meet HasPopEU
Matching the right candidates and skills with jobs in EU public procurement
‘The teams behind the apps’ is a series of videos made by the EU Datathon finalists. Get to know this year’s teams and their apps over 12 episodes – two per week – in the run-up to the competition finals. On 20 October 2022, the teams will pitch their apps to the jury, who will select the winners. The audience will also have a chance to support their favourite team in the Public Choice Award vote. Register now to follow the finals online!
HasPopEU leverages open EU public procurement data and machine-learning techniques to enhance job and skill matching. The application has a special focus on young people, migrants and small and medium-sized enterprises. The team behind this app – Ion Marcu, Aiana Melnic, George Turcas and Razvan Ceana – joined us for a short interview, during which we talked about the app, what makes it special and why they decided to participate in the EU Datathon.
How are you doing with the app? What’s the status?
On the technical side, we are focusing on finding optimal solutions for some of the more scientifically complex tasks (e.g. sound machine learning) while continuing app development and feedback-based improvements.
We are also working on expanding the reach of the initial market study with more young people, migrants and companies, while discussing some potential future collaborations with established job platforms. In order to prepare best-practice insights and materials, we are in contact with the Romanian National Open Data Office.
Since this journey has led us to explore the EU job and public procurement markets from a birds-eye view, we are thinking about larger questions and possible answers that could benefit other parties interested in these large and important markets.
Why did you decide to take part in the EU Datathon?
Having had a presence in the EU public procurement market for some years, we are constantly looking for new ideas and challenges. We find the intersection between the public procurement market and youth issues a timely and intricate challenge.
On the ground, in business, we feel that worker shortages in EU Member States are in need of as many solutions as possible. It’s an area where any type of exploration should be welcomed.
Our strong belief is that by being involved in public procurement projects, young people, migrants and small and medium-sized enterprises can participate in developing their country of residence, helping to alleviate multiple socioeconomic problems.
What makes your app special?
Every app and exploration of a new EU-wide intersection (in this case, public procurement and youth issues) seems somehow special. The app is a space where we can gather and feel that we are working above and beyond the usual boundaries. We hope to open relevant avenues for many others.
From a technical angle, we took this opportunity to try aligning concepts (e.g. decision-grade datasets, machine learning, cryptography and privacy) that had been on our minds for a while and intertwine them with the complexities of some EU job and public procurement realities.
In our experience, many apps based on public open datasets are dealing mostly with visualisations, often in a non-commercial way. While visualisations are an important part of a good story, we feel that the public open data cause should also be served by multi-party transactional solutions, with many beneficiaries involved in a business-generating context. That is what we are trying to explore and hopefully advance.
To find out more about HasPopEU, watch this 1-minute video.
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