Top 10 Hackathon ideas 2018

As the curtains rise up on 2019, it’s time to look back at the amazing innovations that came out last year. We conducted over 400 hackathons with enterprises, universities, nonprofits, and governments in various fields, ranging from shaping the future of music to creating Fintech solutions.

The hackathon ideas of 2018 were judged based on the following 5 parameters:

• Creativity – Bringing the “wow” factor to solve a problem
• Usability – Usefulness of the product to solve a problem
• Technicality – The technology used to create the solution
• Scalability – Potential for future upgrades to improve upon the solution
• Business value – Solving a problem while aligning to the business goals

Without further ado, here are the best hacks of 2018 in no particular order.

Category – Versatility

Hackathon – NITI Aayog Pune Smart City Hackathon

Geography – India

Theme – Public Health

Team name –  Anashwar Tech

What is the hack? – Water disinfection container cover plate

What did we love about it? – This hack solves a real-world problem – access to safe drinking water. We loved how this simple hack makes use of a cover plate, purifying water in the container that it covers and also cleans itself at the same time! This fully working prototype uses digital purification from UV-C light to purify both the water and the container at the click of a button.

Category – Beginner Hack

Hackathon – Talent Hackathon – Centro Fox

Geography – Mexico

Team name –  hectorjafeth_1be2

What is the hack? – BENTOXX – A nanocomposite to build a sustainable industrial process

What did we love about it? – A service aimed at sectors such as the paper industry, textile industry, and farming, BENTOXX implements a nanocomposite that removes and collects contaminating particles with Arduino-based electronics and microcontrollers. We really liked how the system can be used to monitor pH, turbidity, and temperature of water to build sustainable industrial processes.

Category – Consumer ease

Hackathon – World Music Hackathon

Geography – North America, Europe, Asia

Team name –  kailasmoon_7258

What is the hack? – Untethered

What did we love about it? – Everyone wants to express themselves through music, but it takes years of practice  to master an instrument. The goal is to make it possible for anyone to create music — and Untethered does exactly that. It’s AI interprets users’ gestures and enables them to intuitively control an instrument of their choice. The only requirements: a webcam and passion for music.

Category – Scalability

Hackathon – Blue Planet hackathon

Geography – Global

Team name – The Fraternity

What is the hack? – Efficient vertical axis water turbine

Theme – Pollution control

What did we love about it? – This new age water turbine hack helps generate electricity without the conventional dam model. The flexible design can be used for both small and large scale energy production by trapping energy from the surface of the water, irrespective of the flow of the water stream.

Category – Consumer ease

Hackathon – P&G Click Predict Innovate

Geography – India

Team name –  Mellowain

What is the hack? – Mellowain: Queue problem in retail store

What did we love about it? – Remember the long checkout queues after you shop? What if there was no checkout anymore? What if you could just pick the items from the aisle, drop them into your cart and leave? Using motion capture and data augmentation, Mellowain detects the item, validates, and bills via the connected payment method.

Category – Security

Hackathon – Unisys Hackathon

Geography – India

Team name –  Hypersign

 What is the hack? – Hypersign – A cryptographic single sign-on solution

 What did we love about it? – Hypersign is cryptography based SingleSignOn Solution that enables users to securely access applications without providing their access credentials. What caught our attention is this hacks ability to bring together cryptographic algorithms and equations in a mobile application thus totally eliminating the need for usernames and passwords. The Application further enables a user to securely sign transactions in decentralized environments; the Hyprsign SDK allows easy authentication to the Blockchain.

Category – Social Good

Hackathon – DeltaHacks IV

Geography – Canada

Team name –  Aloud

What is the hack? – Aloud — granting seamless verbal narration of physical text materials.

What did we love about it? – 90% of the visually impaired have a partial visual impairment. Depending on the severity and cause, this leaves a wide range of ways to read, rather than Braille or waiting for the release of the audiobook. Aloud is a voice recognition tool that uses Amazon Alexa and StdLib to let users translate physical text material by taking a picture of the text.

Category –Women Empowerment

Hackathon – International Women’s hackathon – 2018

Geography – Global

Team name – Raikes Girls

What is the hack? – Rosie: Undermining Language Detector

Theme – Economic Freedom

What did we love about it? – This hack is a Chrome extension that detects undermining language and suggests more confident phrasing to help people represent themselves as the professionals they are. Named after Rosie the Riveter, an American symbol for female empowerment in the workplace, this is a great tool which can help women write confidently and have great business conversations. Check out their website here.

Category- Change Maker

Hackathon – Lumohacks 2018 – Canada’s Ultimate Health Hackathon

Geography – Canada

Team name – Compii

What is the hack? – Compassionate Intelligence

Theme – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)/ Operational Stress Injury (OSI)

Technology used – AI, IoT, and Audibles

What did we love about it? -This hack tackles a major concern seen among military veterans and first responders – Operational Stress and Injury (OSI). Compii mobilizes the positive effects of social support. The social support intervenes at critical moments and empowers both individuals and their circle of trust to know when and how to act in times of emotional distress.

Category – Consumer ease

Hackathon – Cal Hacks 5.0

Geography – USA

Team name –  JASK

What is the hack? – NavAR

What did we love about it? – While there are numerous navigation apps available for consumers, none of them work reliably and accurately indoors. The objective was to create an app that would highlight a path in the real world on your phone screen. This technology can be of great use to everyday citizens because it allows one to accurately navigate to a specific location in a building they have never been to before, such as a classroom in a campus. It is also useful in retail stores where the app can integrate with inventory databases to show customers the items they would want to purchase.

Want your ideas to turn into reality?
Check out the ongoing hackathons and find the one that suits you best.

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Mukund Joshi Author 3 Blogs