Minister's advisory group on mine action held its meeting
May 5, 2025
Today, 5 May, Kyiv hosted the first-ever AI Labeling Sprint hackathon — a practical stage of the initiative to create a training dataset for detecting explosive ordnance using drones and artificial intelligence.
More than 50 students from technical universities across Ukraine took part in the event. Their task was to label aerial images of territories potentially contaminated with explosive ordnance. The labelled data will be used to train artificial intelligence algorithms to automatically detect explosive objects in images taken by unmanned aerial vehicles.
"Artificial intelligence can become a game-changer in humanitarian demining. But to work effectively, it needs quality training data. Today, Ukrainian students are creating this data, making a direct contribution to saving lives," said Ihor Bezkaravainyi, Deputy Minister of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine.
The hackathon was organised by the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine together with UNDP and partner technology companies. Participants received specialised training in image labelling methods and worked with real aerial data.
"This is not just a hackathon — it is a bridge between the technology sector and humanitarian demining. Young Ukrainian developers are directly involved in creating tools that will help sappers work more efficiently and safely," noted the event organiser.
The results of the hackathon — the labelled dataset — will be used by teams developing artificial intelligence solutions for mine detection. The data will become part of an open dataset that researchers and developers from around the world can use.
The use of drones and artificial intelligence in humanitarian demining is one of the priority areas of Ukraine's innovation strategy. These technologies allow for faster and safer detection of explosive ordnance, reducing risks for sappers and accelerating the clearance process.
Ukraine has already seen successful examples of using AI in demining, including the Palantir project in Kharkiv region, where artificial intelligence helps prioritise territories for clearance.
