If you’ve a knack in coding, go ga-ga over circuit boards and chips, love UI/UX and generally, just love building things, then a hackathon’s certainly down your alley. Hackathons have brought great minds and builders together all around the world—creating revolutionary ideas and birthing many tech startups. While some hackathons are mere educational sessions or focused on community building aka ‘being social,’ some actually do focus on making commercially-viable products.
Let’s build
Well, if you’re a maker then you’ll be chuffed to know that there’s an upcoming hackathon. If you’re in the scene, you’ve likely heard of JomHack Malaysia, an initiative by Pixaworks Creative Sdn Bhd. The creative agency based in Kuala Lumpur has organized several startup programs in the last four years, namely OpenCoffeeClubKL, a monthly networking event for startups; and StartupHouse @ Cyberjaya (2015)—a three-month accelerator program where five startups live together to build their MVPs.
This time around, JomHack Malaysia is bringing “Smart Cites with LoRa,” a 24-hour hackathon based in Cyberjaya, a collaboration with MDEC (Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation), Cyberview and The Things Network from Amsterdam.
The hackathon will require participants to build solutions based on LoRa and Arduino hardware technologies.
LoRa for the win
The Things Network recently crowdsourced a complete city-wide IoT (Internet of Things) data network with the people of Amsterdam. The project only took 6 weeks using a new technology called LoraWAN. They’re now on a mission to bring this to every city in the world.
LoRa is a revolutionary technology which allows devices to talk to the internet without 3G or Wi-Fi. Forget Wi-Fi codes and telco subscriptions. Because you’ll never need them. LoRa features low battery usage, long range and low bandwidth, perfect for IoT.
The objective of the hackathon is to develop usable IoT solutions that can be adopted in the real world, subsequently implemented by Cyberjaya and other smart cities nationwide. MDEC is currently working with various partners to roll out LoRa technology across the country.
Solutions can be built on either web or mobile platforms. JomHack partners and sponsors may provide opportunities to further develop participants’ solutions and implement them on a bigger scale.
There will be amazing cash and prizes to be won at the hackathon.
The event is limited to only 30 3-member teams, and at last count all places have already been filled. Entry fee is only MYR50 per person, and only MYR25 for students.
JomHack: Smart Cities with LoRa will run from 5-7 August 2016 in Cyberjaya.
For more information about JomHack Malaysia and the hackathon, visit:
- jomhack.com
- facebook.com/jomhackmy
- jomhack.peatix.com
