Press Centre
The NOGOL team wins the T-Mobile hackathon with an original game
- Winners from the Ústí region received CZK 50,000
- Ten teams presented ten great ideas
- A total of 52 participants entered the T-Mobile hackathon, of whom four were women
- The average age of the participants was 31
On the second Advent weekend, the T-Mobile hackathon, an event focused on development of applications based on the open Moijo platform, was held at Prague’s Impact Hub in partnership with Microsoft. A total of 52 participants entered the event, forming ten teams. The first three winners received financial awards totalling CZK 100,000. Alex Studnička and Jakub Čížek from the Ústí region, who competed as the NOGOL team, won the grand prize for an original game that they developed. During the final presentations, they displayed their game via Skype directly from a car while on the road, thus also winning over their colleagues and receiving the participants’ prize – a crate of beer. Second place went to the DCX group, which connected a solution with a smart wristband, and third place was taken by CIS, who developed a solution for connecting driving behaviour with the possibility of receiving a loan. No detailed information about the applications can be provided due to its competition-sensitive nature.
“Most of the ideas originally dealt with topics focusing on data analysis, user behaviour, security and various driving tips. We were thrilled about the work of the participants and will continue to watch their development,” says Otakar Mráz, Category & Product Manager at T-Mobile.
“We were very pleased with the high quality and tremendous professionalism of the Czech developers. We have already organised a number of hackathons in North America, though we have found here utterly original ideas that hadn’t yet crossed our minds,” says Narayan Sainaney, CTO of the Canadian company Moj.io.
The 52 registered participants included four women. The average age of the participants was 31, the oldest being 53 and the youngest 18 years old. The majority of the developers were from the Central Bohemia region, particularly from Prague. The participants’ home towns also included Brno, Plzeň, Jablonec nad Nisou, Ústí na Labem, Benátky nad Jizerou, Lovosice and Mladá Boleslav, as well as Smižany and Bratislava in Slovakia and Hannover, Germany.
T-Mobile provided financial awards for the teams: 1st place – CZK 50,000, 2nd place – CZK 30,000, 3rd place – CZK 20,000. The grand-prize winner received financial support for the development of their application. As the technology partner, Microsoft donated USD 100 vouchers for Microsoft Azure licences for all participants in the event. The winners also have an opportunity to participate in the BizSpark+ fast-track programme, which offers free developer tools and credit for Azure; this prize worth up to USD 120,000 will be available for two years.
Most of the other teams plan to continue their work even after the T-Mobile hackathon ends. As support for their projects, they will have an opportunity to take part in the BizSpark programme, where they will be provided with developer software, credit for Azure and technical and marketing support from Microsoft for three years.
Throughout the course of the working part of the event, mentors and consultants from T-Mobile, HUB:RAUM of Poland, the Canadian company Moj.io, Deutsche Telekom, eParkomat and Microsoft’s Czech branch were ready to provide advice to the developers. During the non-working part, the developers could take advantage of, for example, in-office massages and HTC Vive virtual reality.
More information can be found at www.t-mobilehackathon.cz.
T-Mobile Czech Republic, a member of the international telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom, has almost 6.2 million customers, the number-one operator in the Czech market. T-Mobile is an integrated operator: in addition to telecommunications services, it offers comprehensive ICT solutions not only for companies, but also for other organizations and individuals. It provides outstanding services in the high-speed network, which was proved repeatedly by benchmark testing performed by umlaut (former P3) with Best-in-Test seal.
T-Mobile Czech Republic places emphasis on taking a responsible approach to the environment and society. It adheres to fair business practices, helps beneficial applications and services to see the light of day, supports non-profit organizations, small businesses and individuals, and lends a helping hand whenever crisis situations arise. The company’s employees serve as volunteers in many places across the entire Czech Republic.
More information about the company is available at www.t-mobile.cz, www.t-press.cz (the portal for journalists) and www.t-mobile.cz/pomahame (information on the company’s CSR activities).
Contact details of the press unit: press@t-press.cz.