David Yenicelik receives NextGen Hero honouring

At the Digital Days of digitalswitzerland, the first NextGen Heroes were honoured with the Digital Economy Award. David Yenicelik, Master's student at the Department of Computer Science, is one of the two prize winners.

David Yenicelik and Chloé Carrière
David Yenicelik and the second prize winner, Chloé Carrière, at the award ceremony.

At the Digital Days, an event by digitalswitzerland, D-INFK Master's student David Yenicelik was honoured with the Digital Economy Award as a NextGen Hero. The prize is awarded to digital talents under 25 who have already made outstanding achievements in the development of a digital product.

David Yenicelik, a 23-year-old student from Zurich, caused quite a stir by co-founding Swissloop, a student organisation which competes in Elon Musk's International Hyperloop Pod Competition and his involvement in Skilllab, an international platform designed to help refugees integrate into the local job market.

The jury justified its decision as follows: "David is very eager to learn, extremely driven at his young age and is active on a variety of fronts. Prior to his current project Skilllab, he was an essential member of Swissloop, which made it into the top 3 at Elon Musk's International Hyperloop Pod Competition twice. With Skilllab he uses deep tech, i.e. artificial intelligence and machine learning, to benefit society. He supports people in strengthening hidden talents so that they can gain a foothold in the job market and the educational system. The jury sees David as a NextGen Hero with high potential".

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