Barco recently concluded it’s first-ever Hackathon – Barco Geekathon 1.0 on 10th March, as it continues to strengthen its focus on software development in India. The contest designed to inspire India’s developer community and technology enthusiasts is a step towards attracting talent to join the new wave of growth and digital transformation at Barco.
The event hosted 130 professionals from all over India at its Noida office. The professionals were given two days to solve real challenges under the theme of smart cities across Governance, Safety & Security, Public Health and Transportation. The two-day event attracted a large group of developers and enthusiasts from corporations and colleges across different cities of India like Mumbai, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Jaipur etc.
Teams worked using technologies, platforms and languages like Machine learning, Data Analytics, Blockchain, Computer vision, IoT, C++, Node.js, Android apps, iOS apps and Python aiming at supporting India’s Smart city mission and providing solutions like road safety, newer trends in the traffic system, environment management, water management, helping people without vision, waste management, managing natural calamities or epidemics, smart governance through citizen’s feedback and remote physiotherapy.
Commenting on the event, Rajiv Bhalla, Managing Director, Barco India said, “The event comes at a time when innovation and agility have become an intrinsic part of Barco’s organisational culture. At Barco, innovation has been the lifeblood for over 85 years. Over the last few years, the focus has shifted from being a hardware company to being a company with a focus on hardware, software and services together. This hackathon, or Barco Geekathon 1.0 as we named it, was a great opportunity for us to not only brand ourselves as one of the top Technology product companies but also to meet and attract some of the best talents in India for our Software Labs as we build real-life applications that will help us solve challenges as a result of increasing urbanisation.”
Adding further, Jayati Roy, HR Director, Barco India said, “Barco India remains the heart of most of its businesses which provides an opportunity to learn and explore new avenues and build a cohesive culture for innovation and nurturing talent as it strengthens focus on its software and services. We are aggressively working towards strengthening our software presence globally particularly in India and we are confident that with this hackathon we will able to make headway into building a culture that will inspire innovation and provide a robust platform to collaborate with aspiring talent to build a smarter India and smarter world.”
A total of 41 teams participated, with 10 teams making it to the finals. The teams were awarded points based on Idea (Impact and ingenuity), Design document and final demo (user experience, scalability, market fit. The event also hosted external judges like Daniel P Nath, partner – inFeedo and K Y Iyer, SVP & Head of Technology, Times Network. The winners (team TAZITURN) won a cash prize of INR 1 lakh and the runners up (team SHARP) won a cash prize of INR 50,000.
Barco’s Geekathon gave teams of developers and enthusiasts from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to create breakthrough ideas and solutions that will support India’s smart city mission. These geeks also enjoyed networking with each other and Barco mentors as they worked on the problems together for 2 days at a stretch. Through the night the teams survived on music, indoor games such as table tennis, carom along with a cafeteria stocked with noodles and beverages and of course thousands of lines of codes.
“As we bid these teams adieu we could still feel the environment charged with their energy, agility and creativity, encouraging us to take our products to the next level”, added Jayati.
