Monday 15 November 2021

Return to the Ocean Hackathon event

From November 5th to 7th, the OPT-NC was a partner of the OCEAN HACKATHON (OH6) event which was organized for the very first time in New Caledonia. Let's have a look at this productive and innovative weekend.

First Participation and First City to Start..

On November 5th, New Caledonian OH6 teams took place in the OoTech workspace to start a 48-hour non-stop digital marathon, with the aim of developing a project related to the marine domain using data made available.

The participation of the OPT-NC in such an event as a partner reinforces its image as a major player in the digital sector in the territory and abroad.

Noumea was the first city to start! In the following hours, Cape Town (South Africa), Split (Croatia), Cadiz (Spain), Boulogne-sur-Mer, Brest, Champs-sur-Marne, La Rochelle, Sète, Toulon (France), Fort-de-France (Martinique), Mexico City (Mexico), San Francisco (USA) and Santiago (Chile) did the same. The whole event was broadcasted in real time.

48 hours non-stop to find a digital solution!

The 8 New Caledonian teams composed of project leaders, thematic experts, sea users and developers, competed on 8 different challenges:

Development of an Algorithm for Detecting Ship Grounding Trajectories,
Waves, a Secure Coastal Maritime Application for All,
Land and-Sea Continuum: Exploring the Link Between Reef Health and Land-Based Pressures,
Monitoring of Individuals on Underwater Video,
Shark Risk Assessment and Awareness,
Anticipate the Decrease in Food Production due to the El Niño Phenomenon via a Predictive Model,
Application to Know the Frequentation of the Tourist Sites,
A Digital Platform for Marine Sustainability.

To enable the teams to find viable solutions, numerous data were made available by several organizations such as marine institutions, The IFREMER, Shon, the IRD, but also locally by the Government of New Caledonia, the City of Noumea and the OPT-NC...

Thus, the OPT-NC teams contributed to OH6 by making available data on mobile coverage and more particularly on geolocated traffic. These data were essential for the team of the challenge n°7 which knew how to value and exploit the data to propose an innovative solution.

Presentation of the Projects and Award Ceremony

After more than 40 hours of work, the teams presented their work to the members of the jury. The stakes are high: the winning team will represent New Caledonia in the international final on December 15, 2021 in Brest..

Rewarded Challenges :

1st: Anticipating Decreases in Food Production due to the el Niño Phenomenon via a Predictive Model, an international team led by Régis Bador with Marc Bourotte (all present in Noumea), Justin Kuto (Minneapolis) and Antonio Alvarez (Ecuador).

2nd: Waves, a Secure Coastal Maritime Application for All, a mobile application project resolutely aimed at the general public.

3rd : Application to Know the Frequentation of Tourist Sites, a mobile application around mobile geolocation data for site managers.

Special Jury Prize: Land-Sea Continuum: Exploring the Link Between Reef Health and Terrestrial Pressures, awarded to Sandrine Job's team who has been working voluntarily on this theme for many years.