A hackathon is a programming competition. The name is a word creation and contains the words “Hack” and “Marathon”. With these two terms it is easy to understand what a hackathon is all about: Over a defined period of time, teams work on a software-based solution for given or more general problems.
Normally this competition takes place in direct collaboration. The teams work out their solutions in personal teamwork in specially prepared rooms, because during the duration of the hackathon the solution is worked on day and night.
This spring it was a little different. Everyone knows the limitations and effects of Corona. This also had an influence on the initiated competitions. In the week before Easter the hackathon “sprint4local” took place as a Corona-Challenge. The motto was “One week for Ingolstadt” and it was about confronting the effects of the corona virus for small and medium-sized companies and helping them to survive the crisis.
The Cloud Item Team faced up to this challenge. Our idea: In order for people and companies to come together in the Corona era, companies must present their products online. This can be difficult. But it can also be very simple. Our developed solution on “helping.bayern” helps companies to get their products online quickly. Our Cloud Item – Team was joined by other developers. In the end we can say: Our team was great! The developed prototypes were very well liked by the jury and all people interested in the competition. So it is not surprising that we are very proud that our initiative won a main prize of 20.000 €.
A Europe-wide hackathon took place at the end of April under the leadership of the European Commission and the European Innovation Council and in cooperation with the EU Member States. The name of the event is “EUvsVirus”. As the name suggests, the focus was on Europe-wide solutions to counteract the effects of the virus.
Over 20,900 people from all over the EU and beyond took part. 2,150 solutions were submitted in the areas of “health and life”, “business continuity”, “remote working and education”, “social and political cohesion”, “digital finance” and “other challenges”.
Our team presented the idea of IOOT (Internet of Offline Things) in conjunction with the “European Digitalization Foundation” as part of the competition. The idea behind it: We digitize all objects and products. Each item is given a unique identifier and a digital twin, which bundles all relevant information on one website. Just like a wiki. Then you can find all data immediately instead of having to search for it with great effort. But so far there is no technology and no standard. We have presented the solution to this problem as a concept.
We reached the final selection of over 2.000 submissions (!) at the EUvsVirus Hackathon. Unfortunately it was not quite enough for a prize. But we got great feedback and many exciting ideas for further work on the topic.
How do these competitions fit into the daily business of the cloud item?
Here the circle is complete. Our philosophy is to develop digitization tools that enable companies to make all products, assets and other items part of the digital cycle. The Cloud Item portfolio meets this goal, as well as the portal solution at “helping.bayern” and the establishment of the “European Digitalization Foundation” as a committee for standardizing the digitization of things and objects.