TomTom Spurs ‘Smart Cities’ Ideas Through India Hackathon

TomTom, an independent location technology specialist, concluded its four-month India Hackathon aimed at fostering ideas on smart – city, mobility and homes using TomTom Maps APIs. Total prizes worth INR 4 lakh were awarded during the hackathon.

Conducted in partnership with Techgig, a leading online tech community, the event opened on 6 Aug with a series of webinars and MCQs (multiple choice questions) followed by the hackathon screening.

Hackathon participants were presented with six problem statements: On demand Garbage collection, Area City Guide, Smart Commuter Travel, Smart Traffic Police Application, Smart Tour Guide. To address the problem contestants had to build a feature rich application using TomTom Maps APIs (Application Programming Interface) and defend their case with a supporting business model.

In all the event received 14000 developer registrations. For the qualifier round there were 2800 entries and five teams which made which made it to the grand finale were assigned mentors from TomTom to provide guidance.

The finalists presented their idea and demonstrated their app to the final jury consisting of TomTom’s senior global leaders on 1 Dec at the TomTom Pune office. Team ‘CS_Sizzlers’ which included Ramkumar R.N, Suresh A.S, and Venkatesh Mallu won the grand finale with their viable app on smart commuting. The first runners up Pragya Shukla and Akshit Pradhan called Team ‘Apps’ created a smart home & area guide application. The augmented reality travelogue built by members of team ‘DroidBots’ Sabarinath.S, Shivom Thakkar and Saif Lakhani won the second runners up position.

“Along with enabling smart cities with the latest traffic and navigation information, TomTom also empowers developers with Maps APIs,” said Barbara Belpaire, General Manager, India, TomTom. “The hackathon stems from a combination of the two and establishes us as a leading location technology company with the technical community in India. More importantly, collaborating with students and senior technologists sparks innovative solutions for apparent societal challenges.”