Mission
Bees are on the decline. We rely on them to pollinate our plants and for the survival of the human race. Cisco is always working on ways to solve world problems, and one of them includes "Saving The Bees" which is the theme of Cisco Live US 2016. To stick with the theme, our hackers developed ideas around how they can develop technology that will help with this global issue.
Prizes
The prizes include $5,000 for the grand prize, $2,500 for second prize, and $500 for the third prize winner. Teams get together at a hackathon, sometimes meeting each other for the first time, and pitching ideas to come alive. Sometimes these hackathon teams continue with their ideas and turn into successful startup companies! It's also a great way to network and meet new people and have fun at the same time.
Technologies
Hackers had the option to work with a lot of awesome Cisco technologies/API's, including CiscoZeus, Meraki, Tropo, Shipped, Spark, Data61, CSIRO, and Relayr.
The Pitch
The hackathon's excitement began when the teams finally formed and gave everyone 1 minute pitches to discuss the product they are going to build, and then the fun continued from there. A lot of developers and evangelists from these products stayed at the hackathon, including me, to help hackers with the API's to get them up and running. It was a huge success, as there were 13 teams who ended up showcasing demo's at the end of the hackathon with such amazing creations!
In the picture below, you can see a few teams working hard hacking away to create their vision into a reality! I was quite impressed with how hard everyone worked and did not give up!
The Winners
The grand prize winner was the team "Plan Bee". It is an application using IoT and analytics to help farmers and researches from both a local and global community to manage bee health and crop pollination. They used Tropo, Zeus, Shipped, Spark, Data61, and Relayr to create this. They ended up winning $5,000 and a round trip to Australia to meet the Australian government and a non-profit organization that works with bee data. The team will work with them on this amazing initiative.
The second place winner was team "BeeTRI". They created a solution to link scientists and hobbyists and provide shared and centralized data gathering, analysis, monitoring, alerting, and focused collaboration. They used Tropo, Zeus, Spark, and Data61 for their technologies.
And finally, the third place winner was team "Bee Keeper". They created a beehive security monitoring and alert system to prevent theft and disturbances using IoT device with sensors to detect disturbances and irregularities of the beehive. They used Tropo and Relayr.
So Much Amaze
The entire venue is decorated with a bee and beehive theme. I've never seen such perfection when it came to events. It is well put together. I guess I am talking in present tense, since it's only day 1 of the official conference! The hackathon was over the weekend prior to the main Cisco Live event.
Will I see you at a future hackathon? Whether you are a novice coder, or an advanced coder, a designer, or a visionary, you'd be surprised on how much help you can be to help make things happen!
