Hackathon: Digital State Future Solutions

Luukas Ilves is the CIO of the Government of Estonia. He has been Undersecretary for Digital Transformation of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications of Estonia (Estonian: Majandus- ja Kommunikatsiooniministeerium, MKM) since 2022. Before joining the ministry, Luukas was the Head of Strategy at Guardtime, where he managed cooperation with governments, international organisations, and NGOs. He focused on tackling complex challenges and areas of strategic importance, such as digital sovereignty, cloud deployment, trusted artificial intelligence, and the response to COVID-19. He has chaired the Council of Europe’s expert committee on the human rights and ethical dimensions of Artificial Intelligence and is a member of the advisory councils of Stanford University’s Libraries and the Lisbon Council, a Brussels-based think tank. He is the founder of the Tech Green Pledge, a network of tech companies committed to combating climate change. Luukas has served in various positions for the Government of Estonia and the European Commission, including leading digital policy during Estonia’s 2017 Presidency of the European Union (EU) Council, as a member of staff for European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes and as the Head of International Affairs for Estonian Information System Authority (Estonian: Riigi Infosüsteemi Amet, RIA) - Estonia’s e-government and cybersecurity agency. Luukas is a graduate of Stanford University, a reserve officer, and a member of the Estonian Defence League’s Cyber Defence Unit. He has been awarded by the President of Estonia with the Order of the White Star, one of the youngest recipients in the history of the award.

Rasmus is the project manager at TalTech's Startup Centre and has organized several hackathons and development programs for both students, entrepreneurs, and researchers. In addition to this, he has been very actively involved in student life, gaining valuable experience in project management. During the hackathon, you will also benefit from his training on brainstorming and problem formulation.

Margus Püüa is the Head of the Personalised Learning Path Initiative, managing it´s infrastructure development at the Ministry of Education and Research of Estonia. During his 18-year career in the public sector, he led the development of Estonia's e-Governance for 8 years and served as the Head of Strategy at the IT and Development Centre, Ministry of the Interior (Estonian: Siseministeeriumi infotehnoloogia- ja arenduskeskus, SMIT) for 4 years. As a senior expert at the e-Governance Academy, he has shared Estonia's e-governance experience with several countries. As a member of the board of the Information Technology Foundation for Education (HITSA), he initiated the development of a personalised learning infrastructure in 2018. While working at the end of the last century at the then Eesti Telefon (telecom company), he developed the bank authentication solution and direct debit, which were precursors to today's e-invoicing solution. Since 2001, he has been a contract lecturer at the IT College of Tallinn University of Technology.

Ott Sarv is one of the pioneers in the field of digital transformation, focusing on the development of digital identities and data exchange infrastructure. Since 2008, Ott has been working on several projects and products that have strengthened digital identities and trust frameworks for the country. As an independent expert, Ott collaborates with organizations that aim to move beyond discussions and actually solve problems.

Silvia Lips, Ph.D., is a lecturer in the Department of Software Science at Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), specializing in e-Government Technologies and Services. Silvia has a background in law and holds a master's degree in e-Governance Technologies and Services. Her main research interests are electronic identity (eID), various authentication solutions, and their cross-border applicability. Concurrently, she works as an expert at the Estonian Information System Authority (Estonian: Riigi Infosüsteemi Amet, RIA). Silvia is a member of the European Commission's cooperation network and is involved in the evaluation of electronic identity systems at the European Union (EU) level. Previously, she worked for more than ten years in the field of internal security, with five of those years responsible for overseeing the production and procurement of Estonian ID cards and travel documents at the Police and Border Guard Board. She values professionalism and believes that lifelong learning (LLL) ensures continuous personal development.

Mehis Sihvart, head of the software company Wisercat Estonia, studied information technology at Taltech. He began his career at Uptime as a programmer, later rising to become the head of the country's first IT institution, the Center of Registers and Information Systems (RIK). Nearly 12 years in this role provided him with a unique perspective on the client's role in the IT industry, both in leading his own team and in procuring developments from external sources, and now in a private enterprise.

Kaire is a girl from Audru, Pärnu County, who began her bachelor's studies in Tallinn at the Estonian-American Business Academy in the field of international tourism and then moved on to pursue a master's degree in political science at Tallinn University in 2011. Today, she works in the leadership team of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications as a digital advisor, even though she had zero knowledge of the digital field six years ago. Because the entire digital world is what excites her and has great potential, she has developed herself with the help of highly competent and inspiring colleagues and learned through experience.
However, Kaire still saw the need to further her knowledge at the university. In 2021, she completed her master's studies for the second time, this time at TalTech in the field of informatics and the specialization of "Digital Transformation in Business."
Her strength lies in curiosity, constant experimentation and thinking outside the box to explore new solutions and ideas. Kaire always keeps her eyes open to discover best practices and experiences from different companies, universities, countries, or individuals, and in her work, she puts together the best pieces to create a new whole. A colleague has aptly described her as follows: "She's always thinking outside the box."
Implementing the vision of a "digitally empowered Estonia" is her inner mission, so that in the future, all Estonian citizens will be satisfied and happy when interacting with the state, and we can maximize all the strengths of the digital state for the benefit of the people.

Andrea Giudici has a master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Genoa (Italy) and a PhD in Civil Engineering from TalTech. He is a researcher at the Laboratory of Wave Engineering in the Institute of Cybernetics at TalTech, and an IT consultant in the Medical/GxP field. His main interests are numerical simulations of marine wave fields and the management of processes of data migration and preservation. In the past, he has worked with several startups in Estonia, focusing on product development and software engineering. He has experienced what it feels like to be a hackathon participant himself and what are the next possible steps with the initial idea development.

Veiko Aunapuu has been active in the IT field for 8 years in various roles such as tester, analyst, project manager, team leader, and product owner. He has experience in the startup world, specifically in the role of a product owner as mentioned above. Today, he has started working at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications as a product manager for Kratt cloud services.