First Ever Global Hackathon in Montréal Reveals Bright Future for Sector

The winners from a series of hackathons held in 22 cities around the world met for a final two-day hack which concluded on the eve of the UITP Global Public Transport Summit (May 15-17, 2017) in Montréal. The ‘hackathon,’ a new initiative from the UITP (International Association of Public Transport) Foundation Youth For Public Transport (Y4PT), brought together computer programmers, designers, developers and more to collaborate on innovative and sustainable solutions to transport problems. Winners from each local hackathon then met for the inaugural Y4PT Global Transport Hackathon at the UITP Summit. Overall winners were announced at the Opening Ceremony of the UITP Summit and will have chance to meet with operators, authorities, and potential investors over the next three days.

The lack of transport education, especially targeted towards young children, motivated Hackathon winners Team Ditch to develop an app to encourage the use of sustainable transport. The app shows different modes of transport for a selected route, offering various points and rewards depending on the chosen mode of transport.

“Kids are the future of commuting,” said team member Maria Kaimaki. “So why is most transport education focused on cars? Our app uses gamification to motivate kids and their parents to ditch cars and use sustainable transport.”

Targeting the confusion that people often face when using unknown metro systems, joint winners Team upWay developed a navigation app that includes 3D modelling and augmented reality technology. The app also includes a feature that allows users to discover surrounding restaurants and services, adding to upWay’s goal of unlocking cities to visitors.

“Our app uses augmented reality which lets people actually see where metro stops are located through their phone’s camera. This helps users overcome language barriers and gets them to use public transport in a new city,” said Jonathan Adiaheno.

Second place was awarded to Team Air4, who created a mobile measuring station for air pollution, and an app that uses data from the device to calculate travel routes with the lowest pollution rate. The device and app provide an affordable solution to combating air pollution, a critical issue that claims millions of lives each year.

In collaboration with Supporting organisations Local hosts Team uDeliver took home bronze, with their innovative delivery service app. With the aim of reducing the number of delivery vehicles on the road, uDeliver developed a solution that allows users to make deliveries on behalf of companies. The app connects users to deliveries based on their existing commutes, resulting in a more sustainable and efficient delivery system. F