Transport innovation awarded at Smart Cities Hackathon

Energy management company Schneider Electric hosted its first ever hackathon in Sydney last week, as part of its annual Innovation Summit.

Based on the theme of Smart Cities, the hackathon brought together industry experts, local businesses, academics and the wider community in 12 teams to develop tangible solutions that addressed three real-world challenges arising from increased urbanisation: Live (boosting patient satisfaction), Work (employee engagement) and Move (creating an integrated transport system). Teams were asked to pitch their ideas to the judging panel for a chance to be rewarded with a cash prize of $3000, a place in BlueChilli’s CityConnect bootcamp accelerator program and the opportunity to secure a $100,000 investment.

Team MySpot took away the winning prize on the day with a solution that harnesses artificial intelligence to help rail users identify carriage occupancy in real time and improve the travel experience. By encouraging a more even distribution of passengers across the train, load and unload times are reduced, helping in the efficient running of the network.

“We are absolutely thrilled to win Schneider Electric and BlueChilli’s Smart Cities Hackathon,” said MySpot team leader Darren Fraser. “Inspired by the challenges we face in our everyday life, the team knew there was an opportunity to harness the power of technology to make a real difference. Once the initial excitement has worn off, we look forward to exploring how we can take our vision and turn it into reality.”

Winners of each subcategory were awarded a $2000 prize. Teams included:

• Live: Team Mem: An app to facilitate communication on medical information between a patient and their personal support network.
• Work: Team Breaking Good: A system giving real-time feedback through an everyday habit at work through an interactive feedback platform.
• Move: Team Pulse: Use of facial recognition software to capture data on pedestrian movements during the ‘last mile’ of travel into the city to improve transport planning.

Jacinta Hargan, director Future Transport at Transport for NSW and partner of the Smart Cities Hackathon, said: “We’re extremely passionate about technology and innovation, which is why it is great to be involved in events like the Schneider Electric Hackathon and work with event co-hosts BlueChilli.

“For us, it’s exciting to see like-minded innovators come together to showcase their amazing work. Technology offers limitless possibilities for improving and personalising the public transport experience and we’re proud to support launchpads for innovators.”

For more information, visit http://apcpacific.com/hackathon/.