MPA announces winners of first-ever Smart Port Hackathon
MPA announces winners of first-ever Smart Port Hackathon
120 participants produce 25 prototypes in 48 hours to enhance
productivity, efficiency and sustainability in the Port of Singapore.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) today announced the winners for its first maritime-themed hackathon, the Smart Port Hackathon 2014, which saw a total of 120 participants from 25 teams, producing 25 original maritime-related prototypes in 48 hours.
Jointly organised with the Urban Prototypying (UP) Singapore community, held over a three day period from 18 to 20 July, the event aims to bring together maritime professionals, data scientists, developers, designers and passionate citizens with diverse skills, to develop innovative solutions to enhance productivity, efficiency and sustainability in the Port of Singapore.
The hackathon saw a total of 20 different datasets with 32 million data points from MPA and its supporting partners such as PSA Corporation Limited, Jurong Port, YCH Group, DHI, Orbcomm and the National Environment Agency. These include datasets covering vessel movement and position data, ship registries, cargo information, berthing schedules, container trucking data, bunkering transactions, hydrographic maps, air quality, tidal and weather information. MPA has for the first time, unlocked never been released data representing different sectors of the maritime industry.
Hackathon participants delved into and examined three main sets of challenges faced by the maritime industry today: productivity, efficiency and sustainability. Participants made used of these datasets to make sense of the port activities and to create innovative technology-enabled, data-driven solutions.
The top winner walked away with $5,000 cash prize money and a Galaxy Tab 3 (7.0) for each team member. Two runner-up prizes worth $3000 and $2000 were also given out. This Hackathon also saw a total of six prizes being given out for 'Honourable Mention', 'People's Choice', 'Best use of Data' and 'Best Technology'. Refer to Annex A for details of the winners and their winning prototypes.
Mr Andrew Tan, Chief Executive, MPA said, "As we develop our Next Generation Port in Tuas, we hope to leverage on data analytics and mobile solutions as a way to improve productivity and efficiency. Through such hackathons, we hope to encourage greater collaboration and data sharing between our port operators, logistics players and industry solution providers to develop innovative ideas and co-solutions that can benefit the maritime sector. It is also a good platform to brainstorm new ways of doing things. We hope that future hackathons can also include data from the land and aviation sectors to enhance interconnectivity."
Mr Derrick Chiang, CEO of Padang & Co said, "We had over 200 people attend the two pre-hackathon workshops. Not surprisingly, the huge interest in this Smart Port Hackathon is driven by the unlocking of big, granular datasets by MPA and the private-sector partners. We know that access to data to reinvent processes or create new services is always a big draw for the civic innovation and data communities."
Smart Port Hackathon has brought on industry partners such as the Singapore Shipping Association (SSA), PSA Corporation Limited (PSA), Jurong Port (JP), YCH Group, and supporting partners such as Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), National Environment Agency (NEA), SAP, DHI, M1, Sense InfoSys, ORBCOMM, and Fredrik Marine IT Services.
Mr Patrick Phoon, President of SSA said, "The SSA is pleased to partner MPA and UP Singapore in this refreshingly new concept of public outreach that will provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse of Singapore's bustling shipping industry. We are excited to see a wide range of people working alongside with the industry to develop a slew of ideas and proposals that will spur Maritime Singapore to be future ready as international competition intensifies."
Mr Tay Ee Learn, Vice President of Global Operations, YCH Group said, "As a home-grown supply chain company partnering both world-class MNCs and aspiring growth companies across the Asia Pacific region, YCH is delighted to collaborate in this national project to encourage best-in-class innovation for the maritime and logistics sector. By contributing our industry insight and regional experiences, we hope to value-add to Singapore's innovation and productivity capabilities as it transforms to be the supply chain hub of Asia."
Mr Tan Puay Hin, Regional CEO Southeast Asia, PSA International said, "PSA has always collaborated with our customers, industry associations, government agencies and maritime partners to support our collective and sustained drive for innovation. Through this event, we look forward to tapping on new insights, innovative concepts and ideas to improve our processes and IT applications for the industry, so as to achieve higher productivity and efficiency; and continue to anchor Singapore's competitive position as a global transhipment hub and international maritime centre."
Mr Saw Kok Wei, Chief Financial Officer, Jurong Port said, "Singapore was originally founded as a Port and the Port sector continues to be a crucial element of Singapore's economy. The Smart Port Hackathon 2014 is a very important initiative to ensure the future of this important part of the Nation."
More details on the Smart Port Hackathon programme can be found in Annex B.
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