CEEHACKS Hackathon coming in April

The Czech Republic's largest hackathon, CEEHACKS Smart Mobility Hackathon Prague 2018, will take place on the weekend of April 6-8, 2018, at the Škoda Auto DigiLab in Prague's Holešovice District. This year, international teams of programmers and innovators will focus on improving mobility.

There are already registered participants from around the globe including the Czech Republic, Britain, Mexico, Israel, Pakistan, Sweden, China, Estonia, India and Germany. Registration is open until March 15, 2018.

For three entire days, they will try to find solutions on the themes of car sharing, autonomous vehicles, improving air quality in cities and similar topics. For the first time, the hackathon will also have teams of small children.

The three-day event will include 20 three-member teams that will each have a visionary, designer and programmer. Visionaries introduce an idea, the designer ensures that the public likes the solution and the programmer will ensure a functional prototype of a new product or service, for example, a mobile app.

Everyone is provided assistance by experienced mentors. This year, these mentors, among others, will include economist and politician Tomáš Prouza, Czech Technical University in Prague (ČVUT) cybernetics professor Michal Šebek as well as Andre Wehner, a digitalization specialist at Škoda Auto.

“Hackathon participants come from various environments and countries, making it hard for them to meet otherwise. Because of this, some truly innovative ideas can occur in a much shorter time. What would usually take months to solve takes our teams only a handful of days to complete,” said Tomáš Studeník, the organizer of Prague's hackathon and the founder of CEE Hacks.

This year, teams will propose innovations in 12 categories concerning mobility. Some of the topics include mobility, car sharing, bike sharing as well as navigation solutions for pedestrians. Other topics include vehicle sensors, smart parking, emission-free mobility, lowering transport pollution, eco drive, improvements in the field of autonomous transport as well as safety.

For the first time this year, the event also includes teams of children from the Czech Republic. They will be responsible, among other things, for solutions that would help them enjoy their travels more.

At the end of the event, a professional jury along with Prague Mayor Adriana Krnáčová (ANO) will present the winners with dozens of prizes including the main prize in the value of 5,000 euros. Some participants can also be chosen to cooperate with some of the largest organizations as well being able to carry out their idea in practice, not just in Prague.

Last year, the event involved 173 people from 13 countries, accompanied by 50 mentors. For example, one of the innovations included a solution by ČVUT students in Prague to speed up the boarding times into the metro.

With the help of this innovation, cities could save millions. A team of programmers from Germany, Britain, and Poland surprised many with a solution for charging electric vehicles from one vehicle to another without the need of charging stations.

Another successful solution was the retrofitting public lights with sound sensors capable of detecting children playing and capable of slowing down the surrounding traffic as a result.

What is a hackathon?

A hackathon is usually an event spanning several days within which programmers and innovators work on solving a given task. The term is derived from the words hack and marathon.

CEEHACKS Smart Mobility Hackathon Prague 2018 is the Czech Republic's largest hackathon in terms of visitors as well as the financial amounts given out as prizes for the competitors. The event provides sufficient amounts of food and drinks, a medical staff member, a relaxation zone including massages and dozens of mentors — skilled professionals who help the teams put together solutions applicable in real-life situations.

They work with real data acquired for Prague from various transport systems, satellites, taxi services, timetables as well as many sound and pollution sensors found around the capital city.

After 48 hours of intense work without sleep, the teams will present their solutions before a professional jury as well as an audience. The best ideas and solutions will be awarded dozens of prizes as well as a possible offer to commercialize and implement their ideas around the world.

Event partners for 2018 are Škoda Auto, DigiLab, ČEZ Esco, Eurowag, EY, Czech Railways (České dráhy), BASF, Here Technologies, České Radiokomunikace, Liftago, Rekola, Operátor ICT, IBM, Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (Technologická agentura ČR)

For more information visit www.ceehacks.com