I have always found Hackathons exciting and almost everyone who has not seen a hackathon in action are surprised by the result. You get 30 hours to build something useful. Most people who have never participated in a Hackathon think that it is impossible to do until we tell them that Facebook Messenger was build in a hackathon. Here is video from Angel Hack a global phenomena that is taking over every city.
We have organized a hackathon every year with the Startup Iceland event. We have an exciting use case this year from our new Platinum Sponsor Vodafone. Go and register for the Hackathon if you have not already, it is free. Vodafone has developed an API for On-board Diagnostic device that can connect to any vehicles and they are going to release that API during the Hackathon. Vodafone Iceland’s Innovation team has been building this with 8 vehicles if I am not wrong. They are collecting the data in real time and hope to see some interesting hacks during the hackathon. This is very exciting technology and a number of problems can be solved with this data for a number of industries like Vehicle Insurance, Delivery and Taxi service companies, Fuel and Energy related companies etc to name a few.
Here is a small video of what an On-Board Dashboard device can deliver as data. This video is geared towards the diagnostics for your car engine, the Vodafone team is going to come up some specific data that they would like the hack team to use to build during the hackathon.
I am looking forward to what magic can be created in this year’s hackathon. Who knows maybe this will lead to brand new startups, or maybe the team would get hired by some of the big companies that are participating or it would lead to some unique innovation. This is the most exciting part of hackathons, no-one knows how it all is going to turn out. Did I mention that the Winning Team gets a $1000 prize money? and invitation to participate in Startup Iceland Conference and Announcement during the conference? What more do you want? Award, Reward, Recognition and Glory! So what are you waiting for? Join the Vodafone Startup Iceland Hackathon, you don’t need to be an expert programmer to join, designers, business majors or anyone interested in the DIY (Do It Yourself) community can participate.
