First multidisciplinary design and hardware hackathon at DCU

A three-day design and hardware hackathon will kick off in DCU this weekend. The aim is to encourage collaboration among industrial designers and Internet of Things (IoT) innovators.

PCH and Dublin City University are teaming up with the National College of Art & Design and the Web Summit to host the event, which aims is to bring the hardware together to get users’ “hands dirty and come up with cool ideas”.

The weekend event will begin this Saturday with a number of workshops open to the public for IoT/hardware equipment, including Intel’s Galileo development board.

Participants will have access to developer kits, Raspberry Pi’s, 3D Printers, CNC machines, soldering irons and other tools to develop their product. There will be cash prizes worth €3,000 for continuing development of the winning products, as well as tickets to the Web Summit.

Participants will be invited to pitch ideas to the crowd and attract attendees to form design and production teams. After the best ideas are voted on, participants will work together in teams, with Radionics hosting a pop-up electronics shop to support the prototyping activity. Airbnb will provide hackers with the comforts of home for the 36-hour hackathon.

“Embedding a design-led process brings the opportunity to develop concepts that are not only high-tech but that also deliver an accessible and meaningful user experience,” said Sam Russell, head of industrial design at NCAD.

PCH founder and chief executive Liam Casey said the participation of the National College of Art and Design in the event only emphasises the importance of industrial design as a fundamental ingredient in product innovation.

Pharmalytics won a similar hackathon at DCU in September. It developed and prototyped a connected pharmacy fridge with sensors to monitor temperature of medicines in the fridge.

The second prize went to Homebox, which created a delivery box that allows companies to securely delivery a package when nobody is at home.