Cisco Dubai successfully hosts IoT World Forum Hackathon

In first place SmartX team with the judges. (Images via
BeMyApp)

Right on the heels of the Internet of Things
World Forum (IoTWF) in Dubai, Cisco DevNet hosted the first
ever IoTWF Hackathon in
Dubai.

Lasting two days, the Hackathon brought 90
participants from all over the world to compete for a total prize
pool of $8,000.

The Hackathon began on Friday December 4 with an
introduction to Cisco’s IoT technologies
that attendees then had to incorporate in their final
product.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is, essentially, a
new paradigm for extending the Internet to
“things”, explained
Mike Maas, technical evangelist at Cisco. The
“things” are all the
currently disconnected devices.

“IoT represents a shift in that not
only can humans engage in dialogue, but things can
too,” Maas said.
“We now have a global infrastructure of
connected networks. The goal is to get to, what we call, dark
assets and light them up, make them available and
visible.”

While the IoT World Forum is a way for industry
leaders to learn of new IoT solutions and exchange ideas, the
hackathon is a platform to engage the local development community
says Akhilesh Sah, marketing manager IoT at Cisco.

“The hackathon helps us create
awareness of the technology, enable developers to come up with
innovative ideas and then develop solutions around
it,” Sah said.
“The idea is to help [the developers] think of
the bigger picture and what they can achieve in the long run with
their final product.”

The DevNet Hackathon featured five Cisco IoT
solutions, including Data in Motion (DMo) and Cisco Mobility
eXperience APIs (CMX).

To ease the challenge of understanding and using
the technology, Cisco deployed mentors like Maas who worked
directly with the coders and programmers. The hackathon screening
process had attendees present their idea in one minute, and on one
slide.  

Individual contributions combined to produce
gr8 team work. #devnethackathon
#teamselfie
pic.twitter.com/831Y1p6cz4

— Masood Sofi (@SoSufi) December 4,
2015

Working towards innovation

Dubai student Madhur Tipnis was among the few
students of Manipal University selected to participate in the
Hackathon.

He came with a friend, but like most others,
formed his team on the first day. At the end of the designated 25.5
hours of coding, Tipnis and his team built and presented a
prototype of DART – digital access response technology. DART works
as a shock sensor to aid the elderly during emergency health
situations.

“I loved the
hackathon,” Tipnis said.
“I found myself in a place where I learned a lot
from the people around me. It was great seeing a lot of people [in
Dubai] working towards innovation.”

The judges panel saw 18 product demos on the
final day, ranging from solutions in retail to parking to
healthcare. The key guidance Maas offered all teams was to “not
stray away from [their] own domain too
much.”

Four software developers from Emirates Airlines immediately took
to that advice and built SmartX, an app to enhance the airport
experience for transit passengers worldwide using Cisco’s CMX and
Instant Connect IoT technology. The team won the grand prize of
$4,000.

Coders at the hackathon. (Image via BeMyApp)

“We are going to split the money,
of course,” said Masood Sofi of
SmartX. “IoT is the way forward. We
thought of the idea here and developed the product to take it to
the future.”

“You need to have the domain
knowledge,” added team member Avishek
Chakraborty. “You need to be clear on
what you’re doing, need to be clear on
the APIs i.e. how they can be used, how to make [the solution] more
innovative, how it can be economically viable and have a value
proposition.”

The second prize of $2,500 was awarded to team
Saedni for its healthcare IoT solution. Third prize went to
Shelfmetric, an app that measures market shelf details, with
$1,500. Both teams were from Dubai.

For most coders, developers and industry
professionals, a hackathon is a platform to network and learn from
each other according the Alexandre Sutra, Innovation project
manager for BeMyApp, the hackathon organizer.

“Here there was a strong energy to
learn and all of them were very fascinated by IoT
technology,” Sutra said.
“The Hackathon is a perfect way to build a
prototype, do fast coding, come up with a service and explore your
limits.”