Hackagong announces winners for 2014

What a truly awesome weekend at Hackagong. We awarded over $100,000 worth of prizes and giveaways at last weekend’s Hackagong held 29-30 November 2014 at the University of Wollongong uniCentre. This years event attracted over 150 ticket sales, 135 competitors, across 45 teams and competing for 11 different prize categories from best Internet of Things hack to most creative 3D printed object. We had team members from the surrounding areas of Wollongong, Sydney, Melbourne and even some remote team members overseas!

After 30 hours of design, code, game, build & launch all competitors produced truly spectacular prototypes and a group of awesome judges decided on the category winners including Top 10 teams and the overall winning team.

THE HACKAGONG 2014 OVERALL WINNING TEAM IS…. INFOBAHN!

Infobahn (Caleb Avery, Richard Kennard, Michael Burton, Brooke Burton) is an internet connected chicken hatchery, demonstrating the value of “Internet-of-Things” in agriculture. The team programmed a microcontroller to demonstrate how an IoT enabled device could control the whole incubation period from heating the eggs to the correct temperature to rocking the eggs back and forth. It can all be controlled via your web browser on your desktop or on your mobile phone.

The Infobahn team have won an amazing prize package worth over $42,000 to help turn this amazing prototype into a business startup. The team received $5,000 (from WiseTech Global), $24,000 worth of web hosting (from Rackspace), $4000 worth of coworking desks (from Corner Table), $2000 of coding courses (from CoderFactory), $2500 worth of accounting services (from Spoon Creative Agency), $2000 of online legal services (from LawPath) and $2000 of business advice plus mentoring (from Hillross).

Category Prize participants also win big

In no particular order, here are the winners of each of the prize competition categories. More details about teams and their submissions can be seen at our Hackagongers.com website.

People’s Choice Award

Winners: RentLeft

What: The team behind rent left started out as potential roommates trying to find a new home. RentLeft automates the hassle of renting applications.

Prize: $2000 cash, thanks to ScriptRock and Braintree

 

Most Innovative 3D Print

Winners: Infobahn

What: An internet connected chicken hatchery, demonstrating the value of IoT in agriculture.

Prize: Me2 3D printer + Filament Pack, Thanks to Me3D and Mat Mat 3D Printing

 

Most Creative 3D Print

Winners: Mecha Chapter

What: Mecha Chapter is a wargame entirely developed using 3d printers from models created by a 3d artist team.

Prize: Me2 3D printer + Filament Pack, Thanks to Me3D and Mat Mat 3D Printing

 

Best Data Visualisation

Winners: Scannner

What: Big retailers, like Woolworths, Rebel Sport, and Kmart have the advantage of scale when implementing data analytics and retail metrics. However the small owner-operator retail store don’t have the time, dedicated analytics staff, or the resources to leverage this data.

Prize: $1000 cash, Thanks to ScriptRock

 

Best Braintree/PayPal Integration

Winners: Monash

What: Blink was conceived at Hackagong ’14 by a group of plucky young student from Monash with a dream of revolutionising e-commerce. Start selling something in just 60 seconds.

Prize: Internet of Things HackPack and Nokia Smartphones, Thanks to Braintree and Microsoft

 

Best Use Of Scala/Play/Akka

Winners: Wtbh.ru

What: Cross platform location sharing for both mobile platforms and web.

Prize: $2000 cash, Thanks to Typesafe

 

Best Indie Game

Winners: CropSwapper

What: A tile-swapping medieval farming puzzler

Prize: 12 Month Unity Pro Licences, Thanks to Unity

 

Pioneering the Future with Meta

Winners: MetaChat

What: An innovation in communication, 3D video chat.

Prize: Meta 1 Developer Kit, Thanks to Meta

 

Best IoT Device Hack

Winners: Qlock

What: Trying to rid the world of keys! Qlock allows you to replace all of your pad locks and combination locks with a Qlock and your iPhone.

Prize: Nokia smartphones and Spark Maker Kits, Thanks to Microsoft and Spark.IO

Most Awesome Photo

Winners: Meta Physics

What: An example of Augmented Reality and their project, Meta Physics.

Prize: Parrot AR Drone 2.0

A huge thanks to all our competitors, supporters and sponsors for making Hackagong 2014 happen! It couldn't have been done without your awesome support. Thank you!

Pictures and more information can be found on our website:

http://hackagong.com/blog/hackagong-2014-overall-winner-announced/

http://hackagong.com/blog/hackagong-2014-category-prize-winners-announced/