2nd PCH / DCU Hardware Hackathon is up and running

Words by @SimonCocking images by Aaron Faulkner & Aubrey Ramirez

Back for another Hardware Hackathon hosted by PCH International and DCU Innovation Academy.

Why so soon?

Well it turned out the Web Summit were planning to have a Hackathon anyway, so it made sense to grab the opportunity. This one has some differences to the last one too. There is more of an emphasis on the importance of design. It was there in the last one, but this time with NCAD on board, it is even more important for the teams to consider it. In a world where the ability to create prototypes gets easier and easier, the importance of design increases. Designpartners  were also prominently there too, to help teams develop optimal designs. The final creations will be developed tomorrow and there offerings will be eagerly awaited.

 

 

PCH Hardware Hackathon coming this weekend, November 1st at DCU

By @SimonCocking more at.

The Dublin last event was a big success. The organisers were also keen to keep improving on the experience based upon feedback from the first event in San Francisco, and the following one in Dublin back in September. At the September event a number of teams came up with interesting potential business ideas. This new event is linked to the Web Summit, and could produce an interesting synergy between both events.

To find out more information and to book a place see here

Here are the press release details

GLOBAL TECH AND DESIGN LEADERS JOIN HARDWARE EVENT THIS WEEKEND

Design and Hardware Hackathon to include panel discussion with contributions from TechShop, Airbnb, Kano, Paul Cocksedge Studio and PCH

1-3 November: DCU Innovation Campus

Sponsors |Airbnb |Allied Irish Bank | Design Partners | Each&Other | Intel |Nordic Semiconductor

Dublin, 28^th November 2014 – PCH, the company that designs custom manufacturing solutions for startups and Fortune 500 companies has confirmed that experts from some of the world’s leading companies will join Ireland’s first Design and Hardware Hackathon, which it is co-hosting with DCU on November 1-3 at the DCU Innovation Campus in Glasnevin.

The event is being run in partnership with the National College of Art and Design and Web Summit. It aims to encourage collaboration among industrial designers and the next generation of connected device and ‘internet of things’ innovators. Over 36 hours, it will bring together designers, makers, connected hardware enthusiasts and innovators to pitch their hardware ideas, and then form teams to conceive, design and make prototypes of the next generation of connected devices, supported throughout by cutting-edge design expertise and with access to some of the best hardware equipment available globally.

Open public tech workshops take place from 1:30pm on Saturday 1^st November and will feature a screening of Maker: The Movie.

Mark Hatch, CEO and Co-founder at TechShop, will introduce the final pitching sessions where participating teams will present their completed prototypes to a panel of judges including representatives from DCU, PCH and NCAD.  TechShop is a membership-based, do-it-yourself (DIY) workshop and fabrication studio providing access to a vibrant community of creative people and more than $1 million worth of high quality machines, tools and software.

Winners will be announced following the panel discussion. The team which designs and prototypes the winning device will receive a €1,500 prize from PCH to further develop their product, consulting from Each&Other to perfect their design and tickets to the Web Summit. The runners-up will receive €1,500 and the third placed team will receive €500.

Tickets for the event cost €40. It is a non-profit event with ticket costs going directly towards support for the weekend activities for the participants. Tickets can be purchased on the event website and by clicking here.

Hardware Hackathon success, pitching power vital

Selling the idea at the Hardware Hackathon was as important as building it

Sunday evening saw the conclusion of the 48 hour Hardware Hackathon event hosted by DCU Innovation Campus and PCH International.

Ten teams pitched on Sunday evening. This was really interesting to watch. It turned out that those teams that were the most successful were those that understood how they pitched their product was as important as the actual physical thing they had spent the last two days designing and building.

Free kits given to all participants

At times this did make it feel a bit like being a member of the audience for Dragon’s Den, especially with the probing questions that came from the judges sitting in the front row. However this grilling by pitching and q & a actually made complete sense. In the interlude while the judges made their decision, there was a brief panel discussion took place including Liam Casey, Ben Harris, Will Prendergast and Philip Moynagh. Liam (PCH founder) and Will Prendergast (Irish VC funder), both emphasised selling the product was important as building it.

@Tracy_Keogh nailing the winning pitch on behalf of her team

As we watched the pitches it was clear that some teams really nailed this, while others didn’t. The best pitches made it really clear what the problem was, how they had fixed it, and what the potential market was for it. Pharmalytics were deserved winners of the overall award for several reasons. Firstly they identified a problem – if the fridge in a pharmacy breaks thousands of euros of products have to be thrown away. Two a solution. If we can notify the right people, this problem can be dealt with in time, saving lots of money, for a small amount of money. Three, and this was in many ways the most impressive part, they validated this business opportunity. Not by putting up projections of potential revenue to be made, which always seems a bit hypothetical. Instead, over the weekend, they tracked down the head of Boots, presented their concept to him. He was quickly convinced and wanted to discuss when and how he could buy their product!

Many of the other projects developed were interesting and had great potential, but Pharmalytics had deservedly won the day. Overall Liam Casey seemed pretty happy with how many interesting potential products had emerged, and it seems likely several have a great chance of making it to market. This was the first Hardware Hackathon in Ireland. It had sold out long before the weekend, and several people had flown in from other countries to be there. It seems like a safe bet to predict it won’t be the last one.

Here is a summary of all ten projects, (though they may still continue to adapt and evolve).

1. Safety helmet with integrated sensors to alert cyclists when vehicles too close and also with lights on the side to indicate turn left/right when tilting head.
2. Pharmacy fridge sensors to monitor temperature in the fridge and sends alerts to pharmacies. This saves them from checking them manually.
3. Motorbike helmets with  motorised visor connected to their gloves to open them.
4. Smart water tap – sensor to monitor water qualities and the particles in a cheap way, storing information in the cloud and data will be sold to organisations.
5. Product added to vending machines to accept contactless payments ie bitcoins and utilises loyalty point system.
6. A “smart clutch” for people (women initially) with Alzheimer’s and dementia, which then evolved into a tracking system for important things.
7. Wearable device for farm animals to monitor stock, to reduce losses and to improve quality of life of farmers.
8. Secure communications smoke alarms. Aggregates data on buildings through sensors. Improves fire services control. Reduces fire casualty. Saves lives and property.
9. Device for bicycle handlebars. Connected to your smartphone and gives you signals when to turn left or right  to get you to your destination.
10. Temper tap – office climate temperature opimisation based on voting system of staff. Suitable for high density office environments ie call centres.

This Friday, PCH Hardware Hackathon, DCU Innovation Campus, Layerlabz 3D printing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GqqFkAnOls

This weekend, September 12 -14th, Ireland continues to build it’s reputation as an innovative tech hub in Europe.

Taking place will be the first hardware hackathon in Ireland, at DCU’s new Innovation Campus.

The event is sponsored by PCH, http://www.pchintl.com/the massively successful company started by Cork native Liam Casey, recently profiled in Wired UK magazine http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2014/06/features/liam-casey

The event is reasonably priced, at 40 euros,  great value as it covers your food for the weekend too. There is also an impressive range of people contributing their expertise to the event as speakers, mentors and judges. All potentially invaluable in terms of networking and advice opportunities.

The event website http://hwhackathon.com/will give you a good idea of what will be taking place and hopefully inspire you to come along.

See this video for an explanation of what PCH does, helping companies to scale up ideas for rapid mass production.

http://www.pchintl.com/newsroom/video.aspx

Also provided at the event will be the ability to create 3D mock ups of the prototypes devised. This service is delivered by the growing young Irish company LayerLabz http://www.layerlabz.com/ . These guys are really positive and enthusiastic about the event and their ability to supply a game changing product to the Irish market. Their two founders Alan Donnelly and Rob McGrath will be on hand to help hackathon participants with their latest 3D printer.

See tweet below for the size of it!

It looks like a great event, with time and resources put into the planning of it, to ensure that it goes well. All creating the right atmosphere to encourage exciting innovation, and ideally successful yet not completely predictable consequences.  Something else to look forward to in September as well as the schools going back!

http://www.joe.ie/start-ups/calling-all-tech-entrepreneurs-pch-dcu-to-host-irelands-first-hardware-hackathon-weekend/

PCH Hardware Hackathon coming to DCU Dublin, Irish company Layerlabz supplying 3D printing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GqqFkAnOls

In a few weeks time Ireland will continue to build on it’s reputation as an innovative tech hub in Europe.

Taking place will be the first hardware hackathon in Ireland, at DCU’s new Innovation Campus.

The event will be sponsored by PCH, http://www.pchintl.com/the massively successful company started by Cork native Liam Casey, recently profiled in Wired UK magazine http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2014/06/features/liam-casey

The event is reasonably priced, with an early bird price of €25 until August 20th. Even better value if you consider that also covers your food for the weekend too. There is also an impressive range of people contributing their expertise to the event as speakers, mentors and judges. All potentially invaluable in terms of networking and advice opportunities.

The event website http://hwhackathon.com/will give you a good idea of what will be taking place and hopefully inspire you to come along.

See this video for an explanation of what PCH do, helping other companies to scale up ideas for rapid mass production.

http://www.pchintl.com/newsroom/video.aspx

Also provided at the event will be the ability to create 3D mock ups of the prototypes devised. This service will be delivered by the rapidly growing young Irish company LayerLabz http://www.layerlabz.com/ . These guys are on the up and up, and are really positive and enthusiastic about the event and their ability to supply a game changing product to the Irish market. Their two founders Alan Donnelly and Rob McGrath will be on hand to help hackathon participants and also recently received delivery of the latest top of the range version of their 3D printer.

See tweet below!

It looks like a great event, with time and resources put into the planning of it, to ensure that it goes well. All creating the right atmosphere to encourage exciting innovation, and ideally successful yet not completely predictable consequences.  Something else to look forward to in September as well as the schools going back!

http://www.joe.ie/start-ups/calling-all-tech-entrepreneurs-pch-dcu-to-host-irelands-first-hardware-hackathon-weekend/