THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: When the floods ravaged the state, the relief and rescue operations faced various problems, including in communication and there were instances of relief not reaching the right place at the right time.
Sensing the predicament, many startups have come up with various technologies to support the rescue operations and relief work. But, even these efforts were marred by the lack of proper guidance and information about natural disaster relief.Taking this situation into consideration, Government of Kerala, Kerala Startup Mission and NASSCOM are teaming with IBM to conduct a two-day hackathon to help developers, engineers, designers to work on projects around natural disaster preparedness and relief.
“The government is looking for solutions on faster construction technologies and weather-resistant models. Through this initiative, we intend to bring startups, academic and enterprise developers together to solve one of the most pressing societal issues of our time: preventing, response and recovering from natural disasters,” said Saji Gopinath, CEO of Kerala Start-up Mission.
The #CallforCodeKerala provides a unique opportunity for developers to make a difference by developing an app or solution to help better manage and mitigate losses during natural disasters such as floods or landslides. This hackathon is a satellite event for the global Call for Code Challenge uniting developers to solve pressing social issues and this is why this year’s topic is natural disaster preparedness and relief. This will give a platform to more than 150 experts in this field.
This multi-year global initiative is a rallying cry to developers to use their skills and mastery of the latest technologies, and to create new ones, to drive positive and long-lasting change across the world with their code. The hackathon will be held on Friday and Saturday and will focus on solving problems during disasters from the ground level. All the challenges will be based on flood-relief. The hackathon will be a chance to find out how one can apply technology to better prepare for as well as reduce losses that result from such large-scale natural disasters and what solutions can be built to help aid the relief and rescue.
The govt, Kerala Startup Mission and NASSCOM are teaming with IBM to conduct a two-day hackathon to work on projects around natural disaster preparedness and relief