Conclusion of the Mobility Hackathon 2018 - Full speed ahead for the mobility of the future

Hackathon participants showed eos.uptrade & HOCHBAHN what public transport might look like

During the last four weeks, the 60 participants of this year’s mobility hackathon only had one goal: to digitalise mobility! Following the kick-off of the hackathon on 29 and 30 September 2018, the developers, designers, technicians and other creative minds presented their results during the Pitch Day on 27 October 2018.

“The term ‘Hackathon’ is a combination of ‘Hack’ and ‘Marathon’. It is a platform where participants can come up with an implement their smartest and most innovative ideas within a pre-determined period of time. And most of all it’s fun!” said Tom Friedel, hackathon moderator and Scrum Master at eos.uptrade. He added: “With four weeks between kick-off and pitch, our hackathon is quite an ambitious one.”

So many choices! The teams only had five minutes to convince the jury on pitch day. And the winner is the team “Move Hamburg” that won both the first prize and the audience award. Their idea - avoiding empty bike sharing stations through an automated distribution of bikes - provides great added value and might also be used for car sharing. The second prize was awarded to team “Guide Me” that developed a guide especially for blind and visually impaired people. Thanks to their “Guide Me” app, it becomes easier for blind and visually impaired people as well as for other individuals in need of support to use public transport and get into contact with other travellers. The team “Schadensmelder” came in third at this year’s hackathon. As its name (which translates to ‘damage report’) indicates, their project is about reporting damage to public transport infrastructure. Their goal was to create an easy digital way for travellers to report damages without registering first. Users can report any damage by scanning a QR code and recording the damage.

The presentations were evaluated by a distinguished jury comprised of Henrik Falk (CEO, HOCHBAHN), Michael Gross (Managing Director, eos.uptrade), Miriam Kröger (Managing Partner, Next Logistics Accelerator) and Theo Weirich (Managing Director, wilhelm.tel). There was also an audience award where the audience voted by applause to choose a winner.

“Once again we saw how public transport users can use their everyday experience to come up with fantastic ideas for better and easier mobility solutions,” said Managing Director Michael Gross. He added: “This year’s concept to provide four weeks between kick-off and presentation of results to further develop the presented ideas was very successful. By doing so, the quality of the presented ideas and solutions has significantly improved and the results became more tangible.”

For more information and photos of the Mobility Hackathon 2018, go to www.mobility-hackathon.de.