EU Datathon 2022 teams behind the apps: Meet HasPopEU
_‘The teams behind the apps’ is a series of videos made by the EU
Datathon [https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eudatathon] 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!_
[https://scic.ec.europa.eu/ew/register/dgscic/EU_Datathon_2022/e/lk/g/43770/k/]

 

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
[https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/data.gov.ro__;!!DOxrgLBm!EmZ7kIe5doDlon8GC5mDHjuLXQmvRwcFUdFh-X-9OWCZ7uK7MQ8H6Ynbab0oPCc3f0HNwGXxz5w2vL0YilPhv0e1QPsfkGv9DWs$].

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
[https://youtu.be/5GWmmboZHZI].

Curious to learn more? Discover the teams and the apps on the EU
Datathon website [https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eudatathon], watch their
videos on YouTube
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jokN2NcsxCA&list=PLT5rARDev_rnik8jF6E8k5AjN5zeJmqXG] and
follow their updates on Twitter
[https://twitter.com/EU_opendata], Facebook
[https://www.facebook.com/data.europa.eu] and LinkedIn
[https://www.linkedin.com/company/publications-office-of-the-european-union/] or
via our newsletter [https://data.europa.eu/en/newsletter].

Publication Date/Time
2022-09-29T04:45:00+00:00
Matching the right candidates and skills with jobs in EU public
procurement