W e all hate hackers, don’t we? They pose a constant threat to some of our most important personal and financial information. But what if these hackers did it for social good? SPI Cinemas last month conducted a 36-hour hackathon, where it invited teams to hack for social good. Based on the United Nations’ Global Goals that intend to explore the synergy between technology and social good, the hackathon saw quite a few participants come forth with great ideas and technology to create a tangible impact.
Here we speak with three teams that came forth with the most promising and innovative ideas at the Hackathon — The Protagonists who won in the best idea and best team categories; 2.0 that had the best user interface; and the Cryptonians, highly rated by the jury.
The Protagonists
The focus today is on improving our green reserves. The green revolution is a huge part of our lives today, given the rise in environmental consciousness. This is exactly what The Protagonists were gunning for when they developed their idea for the hackathon. Their idea involves planting a seed within a game and having it replicated in the real world. Says Makesh Gopalakrishnan, founder of the startup Crayon and team member of The Protagonists, “I like building technology for social change and the theme set by SPI Cinemas struck a chord. I felt this was the right medium to bring about change. It was our attempt to see if we could make people a part of the green revolution.”
The idea was to bring the focus on growing our own food. “But not everyone can do so. The idea then was to create hyper local gardens, where people can either grow plants themselves or get someone else to do it for them. Incidentally, Varadah struck the city shortly before the hackathon, and planting trees and replenishing our green cover became the need of the hour. That influenced our idea and we took it to the next level — track where trees had fallen and try and map the areas that needed immediate attention,” he says.
He goes on to add, “We proposed building an app that offers virtual simulation, where one can buy a sapling, plant a seed and care for it virtually. This is, in turn, will get replicated in the real world, because they are funding it through their game actions. The app will also provide tips on caring for different types of plants, in case the user would like to be a part of translating his/her virtual actions into reality.”
2.0
For Bragadeesh Jegannathan, his idea had been long due and the hackathon was a way to turn that idea into reality. His team came up with the idea to build an app to bring transparency and accountability in state infrastructure, with an emphasis on road conditions. According to Bragadeesh, the app will let users feed information on the conditions of roads in their parts of town. “It will be a crowd-sourced platform on civic conditions. So everything from the conditions of the roads, encroachments, lighting and potholes will get recorded and then mapped into the system. This data will be accessible to users,” he says, adding, “While working on this project, I realised that many people don’t even know who their councillor is and that they can vote for one. This app will create awareness and accountability.”
When Bragadeesh and his team mate Anthony Raj presented their initial idea to the SPI jury, they received feedback which they then incorporated into their final presentation. “The USP of our app will be the fact that people will be able to log complaints about civic conditions with a tap of the smartphone screen. Currently, complaints are logged onto a government website, which is convoluted. The app will iron that out.”
Cryptonians
It was the online announcement of the hackathon that drew Akhil Obilisetty’s attention. The final-year engineering student and four others decided to come up with a feasible solution to bridge the gap between those who have food and those who don’t. Says Akhil, “We see so much food being wasted around us — at offices, restaurants and parties. iFeed is an app that can help change that. It connects those with surplus food to those who need it. For instance, if you have surplus food you can log onto the app and post the same with details on how much is available. This will be sent to NGOs closest to you and they can get in touch with you to take the food for the charities they support.”
While the app is relevant across the country, they plan to first start off with Chennai city. “We’ve started work on the app with guidance from the SPI team. We’re currently working on the security aspect,” says Akhil.
