THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The country’s first ever road safety hackathon came to an end on Sunday at Technopark. The event saw the coming together pf young techies to develop software/hardware solutions to mitigate road accidents in the state. The event was organised by Kerala road safety authority in association with state transport department, World Bank Group and AXA insurance.
Over two hundred youngsters participated in the 36 hour non-stop coding event that showcased a bunch of ideas and products for bringing down the accidents in the state.
The two-day hackathon focused on four critical areas of road safety - engineering, enforcement, education and emergency care management or post crash management.
A total of 42 teams participated in the event and eight teams were shortlisted for software and hardware categories respectively. Besides, thirteen teams took part in the category of the most innovative solutions.
Speaking to ‘Express’, Transport Commissioner R Sreelekha said that the two day event was a great success and eventful in identifying unique talents and their innovations. “The road safety authority and transport department will evaluate the ideas and products developed by the teams in the event within 90 days. As we have entered into an agreement with the team members, we will purchase the products from the team and will seek assistance from them for further developments and upgradations. After that, the products be it mobile app or a hardware, will be given to the public free of cost for real time implementation”, she said.
The winners were selected by a special jury, which consisted of specialists and experts in their fields concerned. One of the jury member and senior ICT specilaist of World Bank, Raman V Krishnan, said the event was a great success and it would be replicated in the other cities in the country and world as well.
Winners’ List and their Contributions
In the software category, the award was given to the team consisting of two techies, Jikku Jose and B S Rakesh, for the ideation and development of a solution called ‘Third Eye’. They developed the back end of a GPS-like system associated with the police control room so that any person with a mobile phone can alert the nearby police through sending an SMS in a specific format.
The winner in the hardware category was awarded to an engineering graduate , Nithin Murali, for developing ‘Smart Helmet’. The product is a helmet embedded with a radio device that paired with the motorcycle so that the bike would ignite only when the person wears the helmet. Nithin hails from Malappuram. The winners of the ‘most innovative solution’ are three final year students of FISAT college at Angamaly. They are Krishna Venu, Albert Jose and V S Ajayson. They developed an idea named ‘Bon Voyage’, a mobile application that would give credit points for the drivers who are ‘good samaritans’ and has a helping mentality.