John Lunn, Senior Global Director, Developer Network, PayPal & Braintree
This past weekend, we kicked off BattleHack 2015 in Melbourne, only two short months after we completed the 2014 World Finals. We knew Australia wouldn’t disappoint based on our experience last year in Sydney, but we weren’t expecting the number of hardware hacks along with mobile and web apps. With more than 20 teams, the competition was fierce, but team NIGHTRIDER conquered BattleHack Melbourne with a wearable hack for cyclists.
John Lyons, Andrej Griniuk, Tom Frauenfelder and Christopher Michaelides from team NIGHTRIDER will go on to represent Australia in the BattleHack World Finals in Silicon Valley this November, where they will compete against the teams from around the world for the grand prize of $100,000 USD. This is the second time Andrej, Christopher and Tom have impressed us as their hack GearBox won BattleHack Sydney in 2014.
Held at the spectacular Plaza Ballroom situated in the heart of the CBD, developers dined on award-winning cuisine including pulled pork tacos, smokey chorizo paella, braised beef brisket sliders and Zonuts by famed Australian patissier, Adriano Zumbo. And to continue the BattleHack tradition, hackers were also treated with massages during the course of the 24-hour hackathon.
Glenn Smith, Director, StartupAUS; Jason Cartwright, Founder, TechAU; and Caroline Shawyer, Director, The PR Group, joined me at the judges table and we all agreed team NIGHTRIDER deserved to win with their wearable hack that increases cyclist safety. Through connectivity, the jacket enables cyclists to display breaking lights automatically in the back of the jacket when decelerating occurs, with indicator lights appearing on the sleeves when the wearer lifts an arm. The base model jacket could be purchased via PayPal on the mobile app, which includes additional functionality such as the ability to unlock directions with an add-on purchase.
The team also included a built-in navigation system so that a destination could be set and the jacket would flash a light on the wearer’s left or right wrist to signify the need to turn left or right during the journey.
Going into BattleHack Melbourne, Christopher and the team thought that it was going to be a tough hack to crack. “We faced tough competition as the quality of the hacks were really high. But we thought we stood a good chance as we had a great idea.”
As a cyclist, Team NIGHTRIDER’s presentation left me thinking – I need one of these. The technologies used, the team’s presentation and the idea of making cyclists worldwide safer, made Team NIGHTRIDER’s hack an obvious winner. I can’t wait to see how this hack will compare as we travel the globe this year in search for the ‘Ultimate Hacker for Good.’
Now that we’ve conquered the up and coming hacker city of Melbourne, we’re onto Los Angeles at the end of this month. To learn more about BattleHack, or register for an upcoming city, visit 2015.battlehack.org.