Singapore –Imagine a smart bus stop equipped with sensors to detect rain and heat, and activating retractable shelters and cooling systems respectively. How about smart robot cleaners that roam the malls at night, each with a designated cleaning area and deployed only when necessary? These could be possible in the near future!
Annual hackathon Code::XtremeApps:: (CXA) concluded this year with the prize presentation ceremony awarding the best solutions devised to address several real world challenge statements posed. Jay Lim Jiayi, Wang Yaofeng and Oh Yong Liang from Neptune, the winning team from the Open category, walked away with cash prizes worth a total of $9,000, while Hacker Republic and Pro Hackers, the top winning teams for the School and Junior categories respectively, walked away with attractive gadget prizes.
The winning solutions of the top teams include improving overall safety of operations within the port through the use of data, sensors and GPS to provide real-time feedback, allowing for faster response times; an application that allows the monitoring of crowd engagement of ad-hoc events and exhibitions; and a smart bus stop solution that uses sensors to detect weather conditions as well as alert commuters of approaching buses.
Challenge statements this year were contributed by the Cyber Security Agency (CSA) of Singapore, PSA Singapore and Suntec City. The topics include: fleet management, hot-desking smart inventory and asset management, cyber security, crowd engagement ,feedback management Teams were assessed based on a range of criteria including key elements such as how well challenge statements were addressed, the value and impact of the applications to end-users and their technical features.Solutions that are seen to be viable may have potential funding opportunities to develop the ideas further.
This hackathon is a good platform that brings people and companies together to think about practical solutions to existing business problems, and inspire new ways of thinking.” On top of the top three prizes for each category, two special prizes were awarded this year – the Best & Innovative by Design Award awarded by PSA to the team from the Open Category that demonstrates the most innovative design solution in tackling PSA’s challenge statements; and the Security by Design prize awarded by CSA, which will be awarded to the team that best demonstrates their approach and implementation of ‘Security by Design’, or how it has incorporated security considerations upfront in the design of their project.
The longest-running 24-hour hackathon is into its 11th year, and saw 118 teams comprising more than 340 participants – a mix of students, software engineers, business analysts, programmers and more – coming together this year to compete in computer programming, to innovate and solve challenges using Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and standards, and to fuel solutions towards this year’s theme on My Smart City: Connecting Our Senses. Participants were split into three broad categories – Junior, for those aged 12 or up to Primary 6; School, for those in secondary to pre-university; and Open, for enthusiasts of all ages, including students from polytechnics, universities, and working professionals. CXA also continued its strong history of ensuring participating teams were well prepared, with multiple workshops and site visits organised prior to competition day to give participants the basics of not just IoT technologies, but also on standards, data analytics, business intelligence, and the personal data protection act.
Organised by the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA) and IT Standards Committee (ITSC), and supported by CSA, Home-Fix D.I.Y., PSA Singapore and Suntec City, the CXA hackathon aims to raise the awareness of coding, computational thinking and problem solving, and to get more people of all ages interested. The hackathon also aims to encourage the use of standards when deriving solutions.
