John Lunn, Senior Global Director, Developer Network, PayPal & Braintree

Over the past weekend, we hosted our first BattleHack in Warsaw, Poland and after 24 hours of stiff competition, 22 teams presented their hacks to our esteemed panel of judges. The hack took place at Nowy Fort, an ancient fort in the old district of Warsaw and was filled with BattleHack 2013 alums back for another round.

Fueled by authentic polish dumplings, fresh fruit ice lollies and locally crafted beers, the competitors transformed their ideas into functioning mobile and desktop apps in the hopes of impressing the judges.

In the end BattleHack 2013 alumni, Alejandro Vidal and Gustavo Giudici, took home first place and coveted Battle Axe trophy.  Alejandro (from Barcelona) and Vidal (from Austin), met in Poland and created a platform for sharing electrical devices. Team Katena’s project includes the usage of hardware – based upon a Raspberry Pi – and an Android application that allows you to create multiple user profiles and administration of the user’s devices. Using PayPal and Braintree, a device can be requested via secured communication and loaned to another user for a predefined amount of time.

Second place winners, Team Meds Genie, created an app that allows remote medication distribution to those in need. Powered by a Spark Core Arduino compatible board, the app features calendar reminders and the ability to purchase additional medication to help ensure loved ones receive accurate and timely medication doses. Team Phoenix took third place, the BattleHack Berlin Alumni, created a brand new app to help with event planning in Warsaw.

In November, Team Katena will compete for the $100,000 grand prize against the other worldwide teams at PayPal Headquarters in Silicon Valley at the BattleHack World Finals.

To find out more about BattleHack visit: https://2014.battlehack.org/