Four prize winning teams emerged from the HackVT hackathon this past Saturday, from 32 teams and over 110 individual participants. The 24-hour event collected teams of data enthusiasts in one place, and put them to work inventing a “killer app” for the state, with source data from dozens of public datasets.
Winning team Data Metamorphosis constructed an app which visualized historic business data that is designed to better inform entrepreneurs who are launching start-ups. The app can specify a type of business, like a restaurant, and map current and past restaurants in a locale like Burlington, eventually showing over the past 50 years where restaurants have failed or thrived, among other variables.
Dirty Data won second place and a prize of $3,000 for Perspective Builder, which provides a snapshot of comparative school performance across the state.
The event’s aim is to eventually produce a web application that will be useful to Vermont state government and the public, explained event organizer Rebecca Roose, a senior marketing manager with MyWebGrocer.com.
Not all of the apps made during the event are available online now, since participants had to scrape together a working model in only 24 hours, said Roose. “Our goal here afterwards is to connect these guys with the state, and hopefully because all this stuff is built on open source data, we’ll be able to have them continue working on it,” she said.
The five member judge panel looked at user-friendliness, the presentation of a clear Vermont theme, and the ambition of submitted apps, among other factors. Judge Cairn Cross from FreshTracks Capital said winners shared the ability to use information in a unique way.
“It’s really being able to see something that others didn’t, within the data, and then teasing that out, in a way that was striking and unique: that was the difference,” Cross said. He said the winning application could be used by social scientists or students studying consumer behavior because the tool visualizes patterns over time for several industries.
There were also apps locating breweries, local food ingredients, and the nearest farmer’s market.
“My bet is that a handful of teams will push ahead and complete what they were writing, and get it more functional,” Cross said. “I’d certainly encourage state folks to sit down with some of these teams.”
Check out the event website.
Read Fox 44’s coverage.
Winning teams are below:
Student prize – $2,000
Team Collateral Damage
3rd prize – $2,000
Team Bean
Find where you want to live in VT
2nd prize – $3,000
Team Dirty Data
App For VT perspective builder
1st prize – $4,000
Data Metamorphosis
Patrick Berkeley, Katie McCurdy, Adam Bouchard, Alan Peabody, Peter Brown
VT Business landscape
