Hackathon teams waded into some tricky problems over the long weekend as Sydney’s inaugural Fishackathon kicked off last Friday and celebrated Earth Day by shining a light on issues facing the world’s marine resources.
As participants arrived and met each other they were briefed on the weekend, viewed a welcome video from US Senator John Kerry and then were set loose on the nine problem statements all Fishackathon events around the globe would tackle.
Teams formed as participants mingled and took the opportunity to pick the brains of mentors and judges; including staff from the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA).
It was a long wet weekend, but after 40 or so hours of extreme whiteboard use, collaborating, technical and creative thinking, teams presented their ideas to a panel of industry, technology and innovation experts.
2016 Sydney Fishackathon winners Fillet Finder
Fillet Finder’s five person team of Angus Yuen, Benjamin Mo, Edwin Li, Emma Young and Mendel Liang took out first prize for developing an app that provided consumers with handy information to identify fish fillets when shopping.
The app uses a searchable database that provides seafood lovers with key identifying information including; images, size, texture and shape information, as well as seasonal information and recommendations based on the sustainability rating of the species.
Fillet Finder received a local prize of $2 000 sponsored by the AFMA and will go in the running for a worldwide grand prize that includes a $10 000 cash prize (sponsored by Virgin) and an Application Development Grant to help develop their idea. The winner will be announced on June 8, 2016 World Oceans Day.
All of the cutting edge solutions developed over the weekend focused on simplifying data for scientific, industry or consumer purposes; including team Carpe Miem that developed an app to help field scientists map and predict high risk areas for invasive species like carp.
Fishackathon was a fantastic weekend with participants, mentors and judges volunteering their time to help protect our fisheries and marine resources and showed that any fin is possible when clever minds work together.