The CDRC, along with Shop Direct, Sea Level Research, the Local Data Company (LDC) and Red Ninja Studios successfully hosted a hackathon in Liverpool on Saturday 4 June.
The hackathon theme was ‘Why monitor footfall’, with the LDC making available footfall test data for Market Harborough via the CDRC’s datastore. This data was obtained using 12 footfall sensors situated in the town centre.
With approximately 40 hackers in attendance, the day kicked off with breakfast and a networking session. This was followed by introductions from Simon Holgate, CEO and founder of Sea Level Research, Alex Singleton, Deputy Director of CDRC and Matthew Doubleday, Head of Data Science at Shop Direct.
The day was facilitated by Nadina Osmani and Adam Kenyani of Red Ninja, who allocated the hackathon teams with representatives from local universities, Shop Direct, Sea Level Research, Red Ninja and local ML AI enthusiasts. The hackathon kicked off in full swing, with a brief break for pizzas, before the hackers continued.
Winners were announced in the final session, judged by Lee Omar, CEO of Red Ninja. The winning team (pictured below, with Alex) were selected on their ability to provide unique insight to the footfall data by linking in with other available datasets. Their team work skills’ were also highly appreciated.
The winning team were presented with individual trophies from Red Ninja along with Shop Direct vouchers; runners up received amazon vouchers courtesy of Sea Level Research. As special prizes the CDRC provided a hardback copy of their Deputy Director James Cheshire’s co-authored book, ‘The Information Capital’, as well as Chris Brunsdon & Alex Singleton’s popular book ‘Geocomputation’. Each attendee also received an “honorary ninja” badge from Red Ninja as well as a copy of MOPEKS by Bob Cory.
