31 July 2015 - Participants as young as 5, developed more than 300 prototypes and applications in their quest to help solve Smart Nation challenges at Hackathon@SG and the co-located MIT Hacking Medicine@SG (HackMed) which was held in Singapore for the first time.
Singapore, 31 July 2015 | For Immediate Release
Participants as young as 5, developed more than 300 prototypes and applications in their quest to help solve Smart Nation challenges at Hackathon@SG and the co-located MIT Hacking Medicine@SG (HackMed) which was held in Singapore for the first time. The event saw a massive turnout of over 1,100 from all walks of life such as healthcare professionals, entrepreneurs, programmers, designers and students, making it possibly the largest hackathon held in Singapore to date.
Some examples of solutions included ingestible robots to improve health, a GPS-based pricing system to regulate commercial drone activities and even a smart living solution that focuses on entertainment and remotely controls devices at home.
Organised by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore and IT Standards Committee, and supported by the Ministry of Finance and SPRING Singapore, Hackathon@SG offered a plethora of technology for participants to develop their applications with. These included more than 11,000 datasets and APIs via data.gov.sg; Internet of Things technologies, virtual reality technologies and cloud technologies.
The hackathon also saw the largest gathering of ministries and agencies working hand-in-hand, with 18 in total contributing to both Hackathon@SG and HackMed. Held in Singapore for the first time, the prestigious HackMed hackathon attracted healthcare professionals-including trained doctors to tackle healthcare challenges such as helping citizens to age-in-place.
Also held from July 11th-12th was a satellite hackathon in San Francisco’s Silicon Valley. Focused on the same Smart Nation challenges, it drew about 50 talented programmers based there, 28 of whom were talented Singaporeans eager to contribute their solutions.
“The overwhelming response to Hackathon@SG has shown that there is no shortage of passionate working adults, students and kids in Singapore who are able to create applications to benefit society and build our Smart Nation. Using IoT and open data, we have seen an increasingly higher quality of solutions every year to tackle issues such as ageing and transport. We hope to build a vibrant community that includes developers, businesses and venture capitalists who can work together to bring these innovative apps to the next level and build the next big thing for Singapore technology" said Ms Jacqueline Poh, Managing Director of IDA.
Goji, the team behind the winning data visualisation tool from the Open category walked away with a cash prize of $9,000 while Team Exerllence who developed a programme accelerometer that helps track exercise sets received $3,000 per team member for the Student category.
The winning team from Balestier Hill primary School received Dot & Dash Wonder Packs and Sphero 2.0 for their Scratch story dubbed “Plasmatic Force” in the Junior category (for pupils under 12 years old). Team Caregiver and Complain King received the top prize of $9,000 at Hackmed and US$3,000 at the satellite Hackathon@SG in San Francisco respectively.
“The Hackathon@SG is a good platform for students and working professionals to gain more awareness on the significance of standards in supporting a Smart Nation and in our everyday lives. Participants will glean greater insights on how standards propel innovations; making their smart solutions scalable with features which allows seamless connectivity across multiple systems and devices. This knowledge is crucial in the modern workplace,” said Ms Choy Sauw Kook, SPRING’s Assistant Chief Executive (Quality & Excellence).
Several teams including Team Minions, Hacker Hunters and BFM Digital, received special recognition awards for the best use of open data, security configuration, User Experience Design and business plan among others.
Launched in April 2015 by Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Communications and Information, Hackathon@SG ensured teams were well prepared, with 15 pre-hackathon workshops to help them better understand the challenge statements, get familiar with government data, use software and hardware tools and apply standards in IoT technologies. They were also taught the basics of not just technologies, but also data use, UX design and ideation, in order to prepare for the mega 24-hour hackathon that took place across 25 – 26 July.
Teams from the various categories were assessed based on a range of criteria including how well challenge statements were addressed, user experience design, innovative and creative use of government data and the overall value and impact to end-users. Solutions that are seen to be viable, may have potential funding opportunities to develop the ideas further.
For more details on Hackathon@SG2015, please visit: https://ideas.ecitizen.gov.sg/a/pages/hackathon-at-sg-2015
ISSUED BY THE INFOCOMM DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF SINGAPORE (IDA)
Related Resources
- Annex A: Hackathan@SG Factsheet (292.06KB)
- Annex B: Hackathon Winners (322.78KB)
- Annex C: Challenge Statements (417.06KB)
- Annex D: Judging Criteria (166.43KB)
- Annex E: Data.gov Factsheet (177.74KB)
- Annex F: Code Xtreme Factsheet (122.68KB)
- Annex G: SPRING Factsheet (146.45KB)
About Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
The mission of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) is to develop information technology and telecommunications within Singapore with a view to serve citizens of all ages and companies of all sizes. IDA does this by actively supporting the growth of innovative technology companies and start-ups in Singapore, working with leading global IT companies as well as developing excellent information technology and telecommunications infrastructure, policies and capabilities for Singapore. For more news and information, visit www.ida.gov.sg. Follow IDA on Facebook and Twitter.
About data.gov.sg
Data.gov.sg is the first stop portal to accessing more than 11,000 publicly-available datasets from 70 public agencies, tap into selected datasets to create applications or conduct research, and look for interesting applications developed using government data.
About SPRING Singapore
SPRING Singapore is an agency under the Ministry of Trade and Industry responsible for helping Singapore enterprises grow and building trust in Singapore products and services. As the national standards and accreditation body, SPRING develops and promotes an internationally-recognised standards and quality assurance infrastructure. SPRING also oversees the safety of general consumer goods in Singapore. As the enterprise development agency, SPRING works with partners to help enterprises in financing, capability and management development, technology and innovation, and access to markets. Please visit www.spring.gov.sg for more information.
About Information Technology Standards Committee
The Information Technology Standards Committee (ITSC) was formed in 1990, under the purview of the Singapore Standards Council appointed by SPRING Singapore. It is an industry-led effort comprising volunteer members from the industry, supported by IDA Singapore and SPRING. It is a neutral platform for interested stakeholders from the industry, academia and the government to get together and look into the local needs for IT standards and establish local standards, promote the awareness and adoption of IT standards, and represent Singapore in international standards platforms. More information can be obtained from http://www.itsc.org.sg.
About MIT Hacking Medicine (HackMed)
The mission of MIT Hacking Medicine (MIT HackMed) is to energize the health ecosystem to solve some of healthcare’s biggest challenges by connecting the best and most diverse minds. Since holding the first ever health hackathon in 2010, the MIT student group has organized 40 health hackathons with more than 30 national and international organizations. More than 10 healthcare start-ups have emerged from MIT HackMed’s healthcare hackathons. The MIT Hacking Medicine@SG 2015 event is organised by MIT Hacking Medicine, Hacking Medicine Institute and SMART; and is an initiative of Smart Nation Singapore and IDA, supported by A*STAR, Design Singapore Council, Health Promotion Board and Ministry of Health and. More details can be found at http://hackingmedicine.mit.edu/upcoming-events/mit-hacking-medicinesg-2015/
About Ministry of Finance
The Ministry of Finance aims to advance the well-being and development of Singapore through Finance. The Ministry strives to achieve a balanced budget through prudent fiscal policy, foster a regulatory environment conducive to business and enterprise, ensure prudent investment of the Government's reserves and other public funds, and sets policies for government procurement, e-government, customs regulation, accounting standards and business regulation.
We achieve this together with our departments (Accountant-General’s Department, Centre for Public Project Management, Singapore Customs and Vital – Centre for Shared Services), and statutory boards (Accounting & Corporate Regulatory Authority, Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore and Tote Board).
For more information, please visit www.mof.gov.sg, or look us up on Facebook and Twitter.
For media clarifications, please contact:
Malini Nathan (Ms)
Corporate and Marketing Communication
Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
DID: (65) 6211 0660
Email: malini_nathan@imda.gov.sg
Eugene Neubronner (Mr)
Corporate and Marketing Communication
Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
DID: (65) 6211 1182
Email: eugene_neubronner@imda.gov.sg
Mei Jun Lin (Ms)
Corporate and Marketing Communication
Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
DID: (65) 6211 3817
Email: lin_mei_jun@imda.gov.sg
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