Smart City IoT Hackathon - Connect your City!

100 participants.

48 hours.

Develop prototypes of connected hardware leveraging LPWAN  (low power wide area network) connectivity for civic impact. 

Sign up for a full weekend of hacking, tinkering, product development and design through teamwork and for civic innovation!

Whether you already are a star of the Internet of Things with a connected hardware startup already on track, or are simply a curious hobbyist eager to hone your skills -- You are invited!

Get your hands on the latest TI devkit (launchpad + boosterpack), IoT sensors, free subscriptions to the new SIGFOX IoT network (public LPWAN)  and plenty of food and support. Over the weekend, you will be able to hack fun, cool and innovative projects to connect your city.

We’ll be giving away more than $200k+ worth of prizes.

Why attend:

• First of all, it's FUN! You will be able to create and work on your own project, and we’ll provide the help and guidance you need to be operational by the end of the event.

• Interface with the top companies developing technologies for the Internet of Things, and receive access to the latest devkits and platforms. With the help of our teams, you will be able to quickly bring different solutions together.

• Meet and learn from savvy mentors and influencers, from Product Designers to Technologists to Civic Leaders, who will offer guidance and input along the development of your prototype.

• Be a smarter citizen by contributing ideas for smarter cities with cleaner air, less congested transportation, or safer neighborhoods.

• Claim one of several prizes such as equipment, devkits, cloud services, and network access. Have a chance to collect thousands of dollars worth of technology to fully realize your project even after the event ends. Moreover, receive personalized support and a chance for funding.

• Learn valuable skills to develop products that will shape tomorrow's technological landscape.

• Find a team, a job, or your next great hire or business partner. The possibilities are endless!

Who will be there

Organizers

SIGFOX, City of San Francisco, Texas Instruments, accenture, Microsoft, Plasma

Mentors - Ask, and they shall help

We are recruiting a dozen mentors to support you during all phases of developing their prototypes.

Sigfox and TI will have staff on site to help you master their devices, and shower the most promising teams with prizes and devices.

We are also recruiting more mentors to help you get things done. If you are looking for specific talent, we can reach out to get them there, so drop us a note. 

Partner Organizations

They are also helping us putting the event together, check them out!

City Innovate Foundation - Civic innovation lab

Lemnos Labs - Hardware incubator in SF

iHangar - The Venue, innovative museum and work space

IoT Inc. - IoT meetup located in the silicon valley

More to be announced...

Winning Categories + Prizes

$200,000+ in devkits, service and gift cards 

Each team keeps their Texas Instruments Launchpad + Boosterpack devkits used during prototyping and each participant will win a gift card of the amount of the CC2650STK (SensorTag) - $29   

The best is that all the winning projects will have a chance to pitch concept and product to San Francisco City Leadership!

Best start up project - most promising project to start a successful business modernizing cities

• SIGFOX:
• 1,500 free subscription for 1 year on the SIGFOX network ($10,500 value)
• dedicated support (worth $4,000)
• TI:
• $1,000 gift card to redeem on TI’s store
• dedicated support (worth $4000) 
• Microsoft:
• Up to $10,000/month of FREE MIcrosoft Azure services for a year ($120,000 total)
• Free access to ~1,000 Microsoft software and tools for 3 years (Microsoft Visual Studio, Office...)
• To be elligible the winning project must be structured as a company (and not a physical person) and should have not already benefit from the BizSpark +Plus program

Best civic innovation project - highest impact project that improves citizens' lives

• SIGFOX:

• 750 free subscription for 1 year on the SIGFOX network ($5,000 value)
• dedicated support (worth $4,000)
• TI:
• $500 gift card to redeem on TI’s store
• dedicated support (worth $4000)

Best technical project - most technically advanced and ambitious project

• SIGFOX:
• 750 free subscription for 1 year on the SIGFOX network ($5,000 value)
• dedicated support (worth $4,000)
• TI:
• $500 gift card to redeem on TI’s store
• dedicated support (worth $4000)
• Plasma/C2M:
  
• $500.00
• Up to $2,000.00/month FREE Connect2.me access – C2M’s cloud service for a year ($24,000 value)** Restrictions apply.
• To be eligible to win, the project must use C2M platform and must be structured as a company (not as an individual)
•  **Up to 400 devices, 2Gb storage/mo, 2 users, 400K API calls/mo. Additional restrictions apply. Please contact Plasma Computing for more information.

Best Smart City project built using Plasma/Connect2.me platform

• Plasma/C2M:
• $1,000.00
• Up to $5,000.00/month FREE Connect2.me access – C2M’s cloud service for a year ($60,000 value)* Restrictions apply.
• To be eligible to win, the project must use C2M platform and must be structured as a company (not as an individual)
• *Up to 1,000 devices, 5 users, 5Gb storage/mo, 1million API calls/mo. Additional restrictions apply. Please contact Plasma Computing for more information.

More to be announced!

 

Schedule

• Friday 20th November 2015 - Doors open at 5:30pm

  • 6pm - Welcome! A few talks
  • 7:30pm - Team formation & Dinner
  • 9pm: Teams are formed, refine project scope and architecture plan
  • 10pm: Devkit distribution

• Saturday 21st November 2015 – breakfast at 8 to 9am

  • 9am: Technical workshops on the technologies offered during the hackathon
  • 12pm Lunch
  • Work on projects
  • 7:30pm: Dinner
  • Work, hack, test, design, build!

• Sunday 22nd November 2015 – breakfast at 8 to 9am

  • 9am: Work, hustle, fix, patch, refine, align, polish!
  • 12pm: Lunch
  • 1pm: Last stretch!
  • 3pm – Beginning of the project presentations
  • 5pm – Awards and cocktail

Prototypes Ideas for a smarter City

Post your ideas here

Smart city is about connecting objects that have never been connected before to create value, better serve the citizens and optimize operations. The SIGFOX network is unleashing the potential of smart city by offering a cellular-grade, low power, low cost public network. 

This disruptive technology allows devices to work for 15+ years with a standard battery and makes them so cheap that they can be distributed everywhere in the city. Here are several examples of applications that might tickle your fancy for this hackathon. Feel free to suggest more and think outside the box!

Air, Water quality, Noise control, Energy efficiency

Setting up ubiquitous sensors will help refine our understanding of where pollution happens, and where to focus efforts to limit its effects for healthier living. Is air quality better in neighborhoods with different transportation mixes? How does the weather affect energy consumption in businesses? Can the City cut its utility bills by smarter use of sensors?

Inventory/Fleet management/Sensors on City equipment

How can your City operate efficiently, and stream information from all parts of town in real-time to react faster? Monitoring fire hydrants with smart meters will help fix leaks faster, while saving time on overall maintenance. Geotagging equipment will help distributing equipment across government agencies and counties, and streamline operations. What else can you think of?

Traffic, transportation, parking, potholes

Bad traffic can impede both city-wide business and quality of life of its citizens. How can the City fluidify circulation, regulate parking and optimize the increasingly mixed means of transportations to most efficiently enable everyone to be on their way? 

Security

Cities strive to keep their streets safe. Would panic buttons city-wide be feasible? How can having ubiquitous sensors reduce crime? 

Kids, pets

Never lose them again! GPS trackers can now be integrated in ever-smaller form-factors, longer battery life and very low costs. 

Seniors, autonomy

Can connected sensors help seniors live more autonomous lifestyles? How can the population least engaged on the Internet remain connected through connected "Things"?

Art, street art, performance, interactive performance

The streets belong to everyone. Let your inspiration flow freely.  

Fire detection, Earthquake, flood warning systems, Disaster relief

San Francisco has a history with earthquakes and fires. How can these risks be mitigated with the right network of sensors? Can they be used as backup for basic services if the main infrastruture is knocked out of service?

Wild animal tracking

Raccoons, sometimes even coyotes can make their way into the city. Outfitting some with sensors can help us react better and promote safety.

Parks, urban farms, beekeeping

You can have a green thumb even in the city. How can connected sensors improve the food we produce, the health of our parks, and balance the fragile ecosystems around our streets?

 

FAQs

What should I bring to the event? What will be provided?

IMPORTANT: The TI launchpad programming requires a windows or linux environment. More details will be sent soon.

We expect you to bring your laptop, charger, and any existing project if you want to refine an already started prototype. We will send you ahead of time useful software to pre-install so you arrive ready.

We will provide test devices and boards, devkits, and all necessary equipment and documentation. We will also keep you well fed, caffeinated and inspired. 

If you plan on spending the entire time at the venue, bring a sleeping bag and warm clothing for night-time hacking. 

Where can I contact the organizer with any questions?

Please contact us using the Eventbrite button on this page.

Is my registration/ticket transferrable?

Yes, please notify us ahead of time about the change!