HP Hackathon

The event brought together a variety of programmers and developers to see if they could generate new solutions to old problems in a short period of time.

The Bangalore event saw more than 200 HP employees participate. Interest in the event was huge – all eligible spots were snapped up just 10 minutes after registration started.

The objective: develop new apps that provide creative solutions to social issues in the areas of healthcare and education. The meeting kicked-off with leading speakers who discussed global issues faced by both developed and developing countries, including Ramji Raghavan, Founder and Chairman of Agastya International Foundation; Dr. Narendra, a plastic surgeon from St. John’s Medical College Hospital, and Suhas Gopinath, CEO , Globals Inc.

Nineteen groups were formed for the event, working on either education or healthcare apps. The hackathon process works this way: Each group identifies a specific problem it wants to address and then must come up with a solution by 1:00 pm the following day. An HP jury reviews the submissions and determines the six finalists, who go on to present their solutions before the chief guest, jury and audience during the closing ceremony. Winning submissions are based on three criteria: social potential; feasibility and innovation.

After the presentations, the groups got to work – coding throughout the night to make sure they would make it into the final the next day.

The top prize went to the ITAD team for healthcare. Team members included Govindarao Gudivada, Naresh Kumar, Nishitha Mohandas Narakath, Rameshbabu Srinivasan, Surojit Saha and Darshan, VR.

Second prize was presented to a team working on education issues -- the Smart Learning team devised an innovative way to provide accessible, quality education to children in disadvantaged communities by utilizing TV “set-top” boxes. The number of homes in India with these boxes is increasing rapidly – TVs can even be found in slum areas.

Every aspect of the event was organized by HP volunteers – a great collaborative effort. Get creative minds in the same room at the same time and innovative sparks and solutions fly!