The fourth annual Lincoln Hack took place on the weekend of 16-17 November 2019, held for the first time at the new Mosaic Digital Hub in the heart of the city.
Lincoln Hack is a 24-hour coding and technology competition in which teams of up to four people work together to create something - be it a digital product or a physical one - and present it to win prizes awarded by the sponsors of the event.
The Mosaic Digital Hub was a fitting venue for an event which brings together the digital community of Lincoln. It was a great success and a big thanks must go to everyone who made it possible.
Catering was provided by Brown’s Pie Shop, who kept hackers happy with “the best food of any hackathon ever”, according to one attendee.
Organiser Rob Willie said: “Lincoln Hack is not some boring networking event where you swap business cards with people that you'll never see again. LincolnHack aims to facilitate the building of relationships - lots of interconnected relationships.
“You can visit Lincoln Hack not knowing anyone, join a team, and by the end of the weekend leave as friends. We encourage people to stay in touch, for this is how opportunities are created.
“From all these relationships a community has been born. We don't think of Lincoln Hack as a one off occasion - we see it as a ‘members club’ with an annual meetup. A club for anyone who is interested.”
23 teams entered the competition - the largest number since the event began - and there were seven challenges for them to take part in. Here is the full list of sponsors and their chosen winners:
Epix Media
Winner: Advice Bot - Training an Artificial Intelligence to give support and advice.
A hotline that someone could call for support when they are feeling suicidal, lonely or in pain. The team took advice from Lincolnshire Lives First responders on the type of questions the bot should ask, and the type of advice that would normally be given. The judges praised the real-life applications of this technology and the research that went into it.
ScholarPack
Winner 1: CurvaTech - Home education logger linked to the curriculum
Anne Marie developed a home education activity logged linked to the curriculum. This impressed the judges, who said that it could be sold tomorrow.
Winner 2: Mini Cheddars - Test marking image processor
An image processor which reads handwritten maths problems and automatically determines whether the answer is correct or incorrect. The accuracy and potential applications of this project impressed the judges.
Wealth Kernel
Winner: ScaleFactory - Visualisation of Lincoln level crossing data
A team made up of Devops engineers, who never design visualisations in their day jobs, took on the challenge by building a visualisation of the data provided. The judges were impressed that they had stepped outside their skillset.
Rebel
Winner: Element Softworks - Carbon emissions calculator
Element Softworks developed a carbon emissions calculator to calculate how much carbon is used during transportation (eg, holiday flights, freight etc). Judges praised it as it had a very real and practical application.
Khaos Control
Winner: Cowboy Beep Boop - Country music generator
This team designed a country music song generator which created the lyrics to a country song based on stock phrases and words, and set them to music. The judges found it very funny and praised the visual aspect as well.
Streets Heaver
Winner 1: SickAdvisor - Illness tracker
An app where people can log their sickness (through an interface not dissimilar to tripadvisor). Incidents of sickness are then displayed on a map so you know where your risk of infection is highest, and which parts of the country to avoid.
Winner 2: Roebuck - Home fitness test (https://github.com/roebuk/step-test)
A cardiovascular fitness test that used the web Bluetooth API to read the user’s heart rate as they complete a series of activities. Judges were impressed with the technology and the demonstration, as the hacker strapped on a heart rate monitor to prove that it worked.
Women in Tech
Winner: Slightly Liquid Crew - Hack the Planet card game
Hack The Planet is a multiplayer semi-cooperative card game in which you take on the role of a megacorp trying to maximise profits whilst saving the planet from cyber warfare doom, or else those profits are meaningless and everyone loses. This stood out as the only non-digital hack of the event, and its emphasis on diversity was praised.
Bonus Prize: Natalie
This prize was awarded to a female/non-binary hack newbie. Natalie is an A-Level computing student who loves Python, hacking Raspberry Pi projects with her dad, space and Lego. Her enthusiasm epitomised what is great about Lincoln Hack.
There was also a prize which is given every year to someone who has never hacked before, but showed significant interest, a desire to learn, and did lots of things that they had not done before. This year’s prize of a FrontendMasters subscription went to Luke McCarthy.
Every member of every team also received a prize for competing in the Hack. Thank you to everyone who came along, either to hack or just to support. We hope to see you again next year!
Visit the Lincoln Hack 2019 website