The Federal Ministry of Traffic and Digital Infrastructure [Bundesministerium für Verkehr und digitale Infrastruktur (BMVI)] has arranged the BMVI Data Run Hackathon for the third time. Teams from all over Germany gathered in Berlin on 2nd and 3rd March. The aim of the competition: developing intelligent solutions for low-emission mobility. All within 24 hours, assisted by Open Data.
The MDM participated for the third time providing open data for the teams as well as a jury member: Timo Hoffmann from the Federal Highway Research Institute [Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen (BASt).
The Winning Teams
The three winning teams were ‘OmnibusPRIME’ (economy category), ‘Team Stream’ (creativity category) and ‘FahrradWetter’ ‘CyclingWeather’ (community prize). ‘OmnibusPRIME’ and ‘Team Stream’ relied on MDM’s open data for their solutions.
Team ‘OmnibusPRIME‘ was comprised of Berlin Transport Company [Berliner Verkehrsgesellschaft (BVG)] and Microsoft employees. Their app is based on a bonus scheme to create incentives for public transport use. Pollution is also taken into account: During high volume traffic periods, the app offers the user a discount on public transport tickets, for instance, while drawing on MDM data for road traffic situations.
‘Team Stream’ developed a Chat Bot to support decisions on mobility. The Chat Bot supports the user with a mix of natural text and background data (current position, timetable data, traffic information, etc.). It is the first step to embed a mobility app in voice-controlled services, like Alexa or Siri. Current information on the traffic situation is obtained from the MDM.
A Powerful Event with Raving Success
The jury member Timo Hoffmann is impressed: “A powerful event with-lo and behold- 17 highly committed teams! Some of them worked through the night.” The hackathon was also a great success for the MDM. “Many teams showed that MDM data can be connected effortlessly with various data sources to create useful applications.“
Hoffmann considers hackathons like the BMVI Data Run a great opportunity for harnessing community creativity to generate innovate ideas. The third BMVI Data Run illustrated the significant potential of data for sustainable mobility improvements.
Picture credits: nd3000/stock.adobe.com
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