If, on 30 and 31.10.2021, software geniuses and people with a spirit of enterprise from all over Germany come together in the centre of the Osthessen region to develop and at the same time implement an idea, this will be due to the HACKATHON FULDA. After the corona situation meant that last year's Hackathon could only be held in virtual form, organisers, participants and the jury are now looking forward to an on-campus event at the University of Fulda. EDAG, the world's largest independent engineering service provider, will again be supporting the Hackathon 2021 as both an organiser and a sponsor. The company regards the competition as the perfect platform for putting the qualities required of future software development specialists to the test.
In the last two years, the HACKATHON FULDA has attracted creative thinkers from all over Germany. Under the motto "smart city – smart country – smart you", the focus this year is on intelligently networked city life. The teams, who have a choice of three challenges relating to this theme, are given 25 hours in which they are required to solve them and then present their results to the jury, the audience and the press within three minutes.
In many cities, there is no central digital point of contact for inhabitants and tourists. The city and the numerous services offered by the region are still not interconnected, even though the technology is available. In the first challenge, the teams are required to connect the city's services in a smart city app and make it possible for them to be used intuitively.
The second challenge involves searching for a concrete solution for the smart city with the help of the LoRaWAN applications. LoRaWAN stands for "Long Range Wide Area Network" and describes an international, open radio standard, by means of which small data packages can be transmitted across long distances by battery operated sensors.
Enabling culture and events to be experienced in virtual form is the task set by the third and final challenge. In cooperation with the smart city Eichenzell, ideas and concepts for an application to enable the online participation in events are to be developed. This could involve attending church, a museum or a reading – cultural contents should in the future be accessible to everyone live, on-demand, intuitively and without barriers.
Software development expertise, UX/UI know-how or management qualities: when it comes to creating an all-round concept, every team member plays a decisive role if, at the end of a challenging hackathon, the team is to be awarded first place by the jury.
Heiko Herchet, Senior Sales Manager at EDAG and co-organiser, explains what makes the HACKATHON FULDA so special: "Every year, we are impressed by what the participants achieve in just 25 hours. We are very eager to see what smart city-related ideas will be realised this year. One special highlight this year: Eichenzell, our "smart city" town, will be closely examining the ideas to see how suitable they are for implementation. This makes the work twice as worthwhile: in addition to the prize money, every idea has the chance of being put to direct use."
The Hackathon 2021 is being organised by the EDAG Group, Region Fulda GmbH, the district of Fulda, the SMART CITY Eichenzell, the University of Fulda, Engineering-High-Tech-Cluster Fulda e.V. and RhönEnergie Fulda. The EDAG Group is working with OSTHESSEN|NEWS as the exclusive media partner for the HACKATHON FULDA.