GovHack 2016

Hackathons are a hotbed of creativity, innovation and passion. They attract people whom are keen to use their skills and knowledge for solving all types of problems or improving the way we all do life. GovHack is the largest Australian data hackathon and I had the privilege of seeing it up close.

Govhack Victoria this year was held in various places across the state including Geelong, Ballarat and Melbourne. The Melbourne sites were at the software company Thoughtworks, and Telstra’s Gurrowa lab which I was fortunate enough to be a part of. Teams made use of datasets from the likes of VicRoads, Public Transport Victoria, Bureau of Meteorology, IPAustralia and the ATO to create their projects. These included apps, data visualisations, prototype gadgets, electronics and stories!

The variety of projects shocked me as I had never previously understood the landscape of a hackathon and that it does not necessarily have to involve coding or app development. It was all about using available data to tell a story using methods only limited by your imagination. 

Wandering around Gurrowa, I was fascinated as I watched the progression of conceptual ideas into products by the end of the 48 hour hack. It was an amazing opportunity to get to know the groups and understand what topics or problems they were passionate about and therefore centred their projects around. These ranged from 3D-Printing a contour map demonstrating the health of the Great Barrier Reef, to using datasets to find causal factors of family violence within Victoria.   

After a full weekend of hacking, the Sunday evening was a celebration of what had been achieved and a gave everyone a chance to kick back with a beer (or two)! There was plenty of laughs, photos, mingling and a sense of relief knowing that there would a full night of sleep that night.

A Couple Of The Entries

Team: Petrified data.

Produced a 3D-printed tactile map of Melbourne CBD so visually impaired people can orient themselves to tram stops etc.

More Information

Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE7K3DDwYOQ                                 Evidence Repository URL: Petrified Data - project source

Team: Level One

futureNow is a web application that predicts the volume of people using different modes of transport for specific locations (i.e: train stations). Predictions on train patronage and traffic volume are based on weather indicators and time variables (day of the week, month etc.)

More Information

Demo/Homepage URL: Homepage                                                                               Video URL: https://youtu.be/OUSPHrd7pk0

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Visit the following sites for a full picture of each day of the Hack! 

Day 1: https://storify.com/katykat/highlights-from-govhack-victoria-29-july-2016
Day 2: https://storify.com/katykat/highlights-from-govhack-victoria-30-july-2016
Day 3: https://storify.com/katykat/highlights-from-govhack-victoria-31-july-2016

State finals to be held in September, where the winners will be announced. 

Highlights of the day