By Angela Marshall – December 10, 2015
A limited time frame and budget doesn’t always limit possibilities. The University of Rhode Island hosted it’s first Hackathon event November 13 through 15. Over the course of the three day event, four teams of students were tasked with coming up with solutions to real-world problems and develop prototypes to present for judging.
Teams were expected to develop device solutions that fit under the Internet of Things (IoT) umbrella: electronic devices embedded with chips and sensors to allow for the collection and transmission of data. As per Hackathon rules, these teams had a limited time frame and a limited budget to come up with and develop their ideas. Starting at 5 PM on the Friday and ending at 6 PM on Sunday, the student teams had 48 hours to work in the labs in Kelly Hall. They had access to a “shop” that provided some components at cost. All four teams developed prototypes for less than $150; with at least one team coming in under $50.
Prototypes were judged both in a “Shark Tank” style and by the audience; both event winning and audience favorite teams received smart watches as their prize.
Hackathon coordinator, Kunal Mankodiya, PhD, from URI’s Biomedical Engineering faculty noted that teams weren’t given problems to solve. They encouraged teams to think outside the box– and their engineering specialty – in developing their project. “We encourage them to find out a bigger problem,” Mankodiya said. “It’s a learning process.” A process that included “domain specific education.”
Event winners Darby Hoss of Purdue University, Anthony Bisculo of North Eastern University and Amanda Figueroa of the University of Puerto Rico developed a prototype for a wearable device they called Alert: clothing designed to detect radiation, explosives and other dangerous materials. When fully realized, these sensitive threads could be worn by explosive experts, astronauts, nuclear engineers and others to determine proximity and levels of dangerous materials.
URI Engineering students Anton Carol, Matt Constant and Toye Onikoyi created the audience’s favorite device: a scalable smart parking solution. The so-called SmartLOT would place ultrasonic sensors through out a parking lot, linked and relayed through to the cloud in such a way that parking managers and customers could determine which spots are open before driving in. Potentially, this system could reduce carbon emissions and gas expenditures among people searching for spots. Other projects developed included microchips to assist sports training and an augmented reality game for business team-building. Approximately 50 people attended with 14 judges from both URI faculty and local industry.
Mankodiya hoped that this event and future URI Hackathons will help students learn to think creatively about problem-solving and gain experience in networking and teamwork. “They were not given problems. We gave them ideas.” Plans are being developed for future hackathons, supported by URI faculty but run by students. “We have designed a path now, we want students to walk this path… and faculty like me and others who were involved will help those students. They will organize it. They will get credit. They will get networking experience with the local community, the investor community and industry on this.”
What’s a HackaThon?
Creative development HackaThons are on the rise in the technological community. Focused through the lens of a limited time frame, generally three days, and a small budget, participants are asked to solve realworld problems through device or software development, from idea development and prototype design to demonstration and “investor pitch.” At the end of the event, participants should have some model, prototype or code that they could then take to investors or further refine for distribution on their own time. These events look to make a positive impact on whatever industry or personal gap they are intended to fill.
More on the Internet of Things (IOT)
Infographic: The Internet of Things (IOT)
