Sponsor Prizes

Our featured sponsors are upping the stakes. Integrate these APIs for a chance at bonus prizes!

 

 

 

BYTON

What can AI do for you while on the move?

What will people want to do in a car that has a 49” screen and drives autonomously? How can we create an enjoyable time with a vehicle that’s able to communicate with other vehicles on the road or smart city infrastructure? We challenge you to think creatively and develop unique solutions to give people their “time to be” while on the move. Smart agendas, recommendations, and digital assistants are only some of the ways we’re thinking about doing artificial intelligence during the age of autonomy.

At BYTON we define ourselves by giving customers their "time to be" while in our cars through a unique user experience, interior design, and autonomous driving. The BYTON Concept is designed to make technology benefit life, providing enjoyable time for people on the move. BYTON Life is the core of that experience. It is an open digital cloud platform that connects applications, data and smart devices. When integrated with innovative human-vehicle interaction, it takes the intelligent experience with the vehicle to a whole new level.

Workshop: Friday, July 20th 2-3pm PST, join our #byton Slack room to ask Evan your questions.

Sponsor Prizes: $5,000 and an invitation to a BYTON Co-creation Event to meet the creators of BYTON Life will be awarded to the top team that utilizes existing technology and APIs of their choice to develop a unique and creative solution. Awards for 2nd prize will be $2,000 and 3rd prize will be $1,000. Contact: evan.stalter@byton.com

 

TomTom 

TomTom created the easy-to-use navigation device, one of the most influential inventions of all time. Since then, our software and navigation technologies have been powering hundreds of millions of applications globally. From industry-leading location-based products, mapmaking technologies, innovative apps and connected car services. We continue to shape the future, leading the way with autonomous driving, smart mobility and smarter cities.

Location Based AR app on GitHub - Build an Augmented Reality (AR) application which demonstrates how the TomTom Maps APIs can be combined with AR technology to generate custom 3D worlds, enable location annotations or incorporate traffic-enabled directions and travel times in applications. The TomTom Maps APIs are already enabling developers to create location aware applications that can display maps and traffic information, search for locations and points of interest and calculate traffic aware routes and travel times. With this challenge, we want developers to enhance their solutions by combining TomTom location technology with AR technology in a mobile or web application. Creativity and innovation will be highly valued and rewarded!

Signup: Go to https://www.tomtommaps.com/tomtom-hackathon/ and fill in the form to sign up (in addition to signing up in DEVPOST)

Workshop: Join Gregory De Jans, TOMTOM's Head of Development, Wednesday, June 27th at 1pm ET for a workshop!  During this workshop, TomTom will elaborate on our TechCrunch Challenge: Location Based AR app on GitHub, showcase how developers can access location-aware APIs and SDKs, and provide various demonstrations to highlight the features of this technology.  Click here to register now.

Sponsor Prize: $7,500 + Innovator Passes to Disrupt SF (passes for up to 5 team members). APIs: https://developer.tomtom.com/tomtom-maps-apis-developers Contact: gregory.dejans@tomtom.com

 

Visa

The Visa Developer Platform empowers developers to transform great ideas into new digital commerce experiences using Visa’s proprietary APIs. Over the last several years, Visa has fundamentally evolved both its platforms and how it works with partners and clients, to encourage a broadening of the commerce ecosystem. From geo-location to real-time alerts and tokenization, the Visa Developer Platform offers direct access to a growing number of APIs, tools, and support materials so developers can start building easier, faster, and more secure ways to power digital commerce.

Your Challenge:

Help Visa reshape commerce and accelerate digital payment acceptance. Build an app that enhances the customer journey and helps provide seamless, secure payment experiences. Consider Visa’s unique payment network data to drive your innovation.  

In this digital age, consumers expect seamless experiences personalized to their needs. Point of sale is no longer a destination—it's wherever and whenever the customer wants it.

Think about one of the use cases below or create your own to build a solution:

  • Replace cash with Visa digital solutions to create a more secure way to pay
  • Leverage data to create value for our businesses, consumers and stakeholders
  • Build tools to help Small Businesses better manage finances
  • Create solutions to enable business-to-business payments using virtual accounts

We encourage exploring integrations of Visa APIs with other solutions and capabilities.

Hackathon Resources: Get access to more resources from the Visa team and details on the challenge here: https://vi.sa/2tDqJYW

Workshop: Join the Visa Developer team on July 12th @ 10am PST. Details and registration here.

Office Hours: Join the #visa channel on Slack to stay up-to-date on special office hours to get one-on-one with the Visa team

Visa Prize: 

  • 1st Place: $8K pre-paid card & Innovator Pass to Disrupt SF 2018 for each team member
  • 2nd Place: $5K pre-paid card & Innovator Pass to Disrupt SF 2018 for each team member
  • 3rd Place: Oculus Rift (one per team member)

 

United Airlines

United Airlines is not only one of the world’s largest airlines that generates revenue of more than $42 billion and employs approximately 85,000 employees, we also have a Digital organization that supports many of our digital assets (United.com, MobileWeb, Mobile App, Kiosk).  United.com is one of the largest e-Commerce sites by sales volume of over $15 billion and daily visitors of over 1 million.

United’s NDC (New Distribution Capability) APIs enable clients to shop for and purchase travel on United. Clients can shop for flights meeting their criteria (trip origin-destination, dates, cabin, etc.), shop for United ancillaries like Economy Plus extra legroom seating and United ancillary bundles, and submit payment to create bookings for their travel. United’s NDC 17.2 APIs are industry-standard SOAP XML APIs similar to those used by other prominent carriers around the world.

Your Challenge:

Create an app that helps provide customers with a unique experience with United Flight and ancillary offers, to book and pay for reservations and to view reservations.  

Please keep in mind the use cases below when creating your application.

  • What unique experience can you provide when a customer is shopping for a Fare + an ancillary offer – We are looking for out of the box concepts?
  • What new ancillary offer that we don't have today that can provide value to the customer and United Airlines?
  • What can be created to provide the customer with a richer experience in viewing their reservation?

Hackathon Resources: Request special access to the APIs HERE. The United team will provision requests within 3 business days.

Workshop: Q&A on Slack - Date/Time TBD

United Prize: Best Use of United APIs: Round trip ticket voucher, eligible for anywhere United flies, for all members of the winning Hackathon team. (Up to $2,400 per person)

 

 

Viond

Viond allows creatives, agencies and businesses to create interactive 360° / VR experiences with drag-and-drop capabilities without the need for VR programming skills. Viond significantly reduces the effort and cost of creating 360° /VR Experiences providing creatives with the tool and platform to explore this new medium.

Viond provides an authoring tool to create interactive 360° experiences. The authoring tool can be downloaded on the Viond Hackathon site and is available for Mac and PC. Experiences can then be published via the Viond Cloud to the Viond player available for iOS, Android and Oculus.

Workshop: Join Arthur Bax, Viond’s 360° Content Producer, Tuesday, July 17th at 1pm ET (*Date changed*) for a short and powerful webinar on how to create a winning and interactive 360° experience using Viond.  Click here to register now.

Sponsor Prize: First place: $1,000 US + 12 month Viond Enterprise license + the chance to win the TechCrunch hackathon. Second Place: $500 US + 12 month Viond Professional license. Third Place: $250 US + 12 month Viond Professional license. APIs: https://lp.viond.io/viond-techcrunch-hackathon Contact: hackathon@viond.io, @RolfIllenberger

Signup

Go to https://lp.viond.io/viond-techcrunch-hackathon and fill the form to sign up and download the Viond Builder tool (additionally to signing up in Devpost)

Create an interactive 360 experience

  • Use the Viond Builder and your 360° content
  • The theme is: Never been there, never done that - #VRBucketList
  • Be sure to hold the rights to your submitted content
  • Add as much interactivity as possible to increase your winning chances

Upload and submit

Once your experience is ready, follow these instructions to upload your experience once it is ready

  • Create an account in https://portal.viond.io
  • Log in and get the TC Hackathon license
  • Open “Publishing and Managing” in Builder and upload your experience
  • Include #VRBucketList in the experience description
  • Click on “Publish Request” and confirm to let us know you uploaded an experience
  • Don’t wait until the last minute. You can try the process early on, and update before the final deadline

Important: don’t forget to submit inside of Devpost as stated in the hackathon rules (4C).

Extra Info

We will provide a link to all the submitted experiences. Anyone from Tech Crunch who wants to evaluate them just needs to install the Viond App (iOS, Android, Gear VR, Oculus Go, Daydream) and open the links. We recommend using the VR devices (Gear VR, Oculus Go and Daydream), as the experiences are best enjoyed there.

 

HERE Mobility

The HERE Mobility SDK provides direct access to the Mobility Marketplace so you can build integrated transportation experiences into your application. With this connection, you’ll be able to create door-to-door mobility solutions for your users within your app to increase user engagement, customer loyalty, and daily active users.

Develop within your platform of choice with our SDK’s for iOS and Android or execute calls to the Mobility Marketplace through our web app API. Offer your users advanced mobility services such as ride-hailing, booking, and ETA tracking, and map and location services covering everything from 2D/3D rendering to forward and reverse geocoding. Request access to the SDK by registering here.

Workshop: Join Adi Rome, Head of the Mobility SDK, and Roman Baron, Senior Architect, Commando, on Tuesday the 10th of July at 1 pm EDT for a tutorial session. During the session, we’ll walk you through the Mobility SDK, Mobility Demand API, and Map & Location package, including sample use cases, workflows, and demos. Register here.

Sponsor Prize: Best Use of the HERE Mobility SDK: $6,000 API: https://mobility.here.com/here-mobility-techcrunch-hackathon Contact: Mobility_developers@here.com

 

Searching from Sony Pictures

Searching from Sony Pictures is a hyper-modern thriller told via the technology devices we use every day. Director, Aneesh Chaganty, formerly of Google, uses webcams, iPhone front cams, and computer screen capture to immerse the audience in the storyline. 

In Searching, tech is both at the heart of the problem and also the tool used to reunite father and daughter. Some of the world’s most exciting technological advances have had unintended consequences on vulnerable minors. 

Cyber safety is now a legitimate concern of the modern parent. How can this movie engage and challenge tech professionals to think of new, innovative ways to safeguard minors online?

The goal of our participation in the hackathon is to actively seek Chrome Extensions that will help parents and children be more mindful of their digital lives.

Sponsor Prize: Sony Pictures - First Place: $9,000

 

 

 

Amazon Alexa

Alexa, Amazon’s cloud-based voice service available on tens of millions of devices from Amazon and third-party device manufacturers. With Alexa, you can build natural voice experiences that offer customers a more intuitive way to interact with the technology they use every day. Our collection of tools, APIs, reference solutions, and documentation make it easy for anyone to build with Alexa. 

The Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) is a collection of self-service APIs, tools, documentation, and code samples that makes it fast and easy for you to add skills to Alexa. ASK enables designers, developers, and brands to build engaging skills and reach customers through tens of millions of Alexa-enabled devices. With ASK, you can leverage Amazon’s knowledge and pioneering work in the field of voice design.

Workshops: Head over to the Alexa Twitch channel to learn how to build engaging skills. We hold office hours every Tuesday at 1:00PM - 2:00PM PDT, get answers to any technical questions, discuss your skill use case, and learn voice design best practices.

Sponsor Prizes: 

  • 1st Prize: $5000 + 10 Echo Spot Devices
  • 2nd Prize: $2000 + 10 Echo Spot Devices
  • 3rd Prize: $1000 + 10 Echo Spot Devices

 

Novartis

The Challenge – Help us Empower Heart Failure Patients and save lives!

Heart failure is a chronic debilitating and potentially life-threatening disease affecting 26 million people worldwide. It is one of the most difficult and chronic heart diseases to manage and the biggest cause of hospital admissions in adults aged over 65 in the Western world (Source: Heart Failure). As a result, treatment costs, including hospitalizations, are estimated at $108 billion a year worldwide. About 25% of patients die within a year of diagnosis and 50% within five years (Source: CDC and WHO).

What we’re looking for is a digital solution to help better monitor, manage and even predict worsening symptoms of heart failure. After a patient is diagnosed with heart failure, there are very few resources available to easily and unobtrusively monitor their heart health over time. Adherence to therapy and lack of health interventions are major reasons why patients’ health often deteriorates rapidly after a diagnosis. This solution should therefore drastically reduce the number of hospital readmissions and deaths following an initial diagnosis.


Our Challenge to You

Help us reimagine medicine by using your creativity and tech skills to develop a tool that easily captures important cardiovascular vitals and monitors symptom progression, empowering patients to detect potential problems earlier and seek treatment sooner. We’re looking for accessible, affordable, and easy to use technologies that can seamlessly integrate into the life of a patient who has recently been diagnosed with heart failure. Use of personal digital devices (smart phones, smart watches, etc.), telemedicine, and innovative patient engagement are encouraged.

What we are not looking for is a diagnostic device that (a) is not a standard consumer device (e.g. a non-commercial wearable) and (b) increases the burden and involvement of a patient in monitoring their disease.


What to Submit?

  • An Elevator Pitch (50 words or less)*
  • An Awesome Pitch Deck (Max 10 Slides)*. Consider including the following:
    • Vision and Value Proposition
    • Problem Being Solved
    • Description of Solution
    • The Product (Description of the Technology)
    • Business Model
    • Traction to Date and Roadmap to Scale
    • The Team
    • How Will Winning the Novartis TechCrunch Hackathon Help You?
  • Link to your Website (optional)
  • Additional information (optional)
    • Logo and other marketing materials

Things to Think About:

  •         Passive data collection
  •         Ease of use; noninvasive
  •         Software/tool that integrates with diffusive devices
  •         Measuring health status and change-over-time, specifically health deterioration
  •         Capturing shortness of breath (dyspnea) and respiratory rate
  •         Capturing body fluid retention (edema)
  •         Capturing physical activity, changes in energy and fatigue
  •         Capturing heart vitals (bpm, arrhythmia, EKG)
  •         Affordable for the general population
  •         Not a diagnostic tool

UPDATE: Have you been working on something truly innovative, but started before the hackathon began? We still want to see what you've been cooking up. Submit your project to Devpost regardless of when you started working on it. We'll be awarding up to $30,000 in prizes, including TWO first prizes – one for the hackathon challenge and another for our “Extended Innovation Challenge” (for teams that have worked on their solution before the hackathon started on June 5, 2018). Three more prizes will be awarded to the runner-up teams. 

The top five teams will be invited to a pitch competition, live at the Novartis booth during TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2018. They will be judged by a panel of esteemed healthcare industry veterans and there will be a single Grand Prize (detailed below) awarded to the overall best team, which will be announced and awarded on the main TechCrunch stage.

Prizes:

First Prize – Novartis Hackathon Challenge: $12,000

First Prize – Novartis Extended Innovation Challenge: $12,000

Second Prize: $3,000

Third Prize: $2,000

Fourth Prize: $1,000

Grand Prize:

A validation study (where appropriate), dedicated Novartis mentors, access to Novartis data lakes, free space and use of fabrication equipment, frequent encounters with industry leaders and investors through events, office hours, and networking opportunities.

  • All finalists will receive a pass to TechCrunch and up to $500 of travel reimbursement.

To contact our challenge administrators at HITLAB send an email to: challengeadmin@hitlab.org

 

Looking for more APIs? Check out our additional sponsors!