NCSV on a roll as they triumph through more Hackathons
Hey everyone! We are back for more exciting hacking stories to share!
Building upon previous hackathons’ success, the NOC Community continues to work their magic in more hackathons. Changi Airport Group made a visit to Silicon Valley and host their hackathon, right in the heart of the Bay Area. Titled Airport of the Future, the hackathon challenged teams to provide Changi Airport solutions to solve three big problems: Seamless Journey, Retail Therapy and Connected Community. everal NOC teams took up the challenge and emerged victorious!
First up, the runner-up … Chango!
A team of 3 NUS students, Jeremy from NCSV30, Linh from NCSV30 and Wei Kuan (NUS Alumni) came together and work brilliantly as a team. The team worked together whilst in Singapore and unexpectedly ended up in Silicon Valley together. They met, reconnected and decided to join a hackathon to work together once more. The goal? To work on something new and learn together.
They built an interactive chatbot called Chango. Hosted on Facebook, the chatbot is a technology the team wanted to spend time learning about. Chango Is the team’s suggestion to Changi to take on all 3 themes presented to them. It is an innovation on how Changi provided customer service.
Chango was designed to provide customers with these 3 major features:
- Allow passengers to check flight details
- Allow passengers to board online
- A Changi Airport food and stalls directory
The team initially designed Chango to only have 3 features. However, the Changi Hackathon was designed with an open concept where every team knows what the other teams are doing. After a quick browse of the competition, the Chango team realised they had to differentiate to stand out. They decided to add in 2 features that prove to be key differentiators:
- A security feedback system
- Linkedin for Changi
Jeremy commented:”Most chatbot teams have similar features which allows passenger to check flight details and Changi Airport directory. What makes our NUS team stand out among the rest was the interesting idea of Linkedin for Changi. Chango acts as a connecting medium that brings passengers together. Matching by their areas of interests and time each passenger has, Chango helps to bridge passengers from around the world.”
It was a worthy addition indeed. This social feature won them a grand prize of $1000 and 2 round-trip tickets to Singapore!
“Have fun, don’t take it too seriously, it is a learning experience. There is a better way to earn money than going for a hackathon” ~ Jeremy
And finally… Our champion team, ChangiX!
In our last article about API World hackathon, we asked our winners “What were their future plans?” One of the winners, Kyle commented: “We intend to keep winning the hackathons as they come! No point stopping now!”
Keeping true to his words, Kyle and his team comprising of NOC students Andre, Idawati, Juho and Kyle himself, clinched the top prize in the Changi Airport hackathon! Now that’s a feat that is truly inspiring!
Their app, ChangiX is a platform that enhances the transit experience in Changi. It first learns about the passenger’s preference and recommend itinerary as well as products for them. From directory to guide passengers to the stores in itinerary list to purchasing of the products, ChangiX provides them with a seamless Changi experience.
Kyle’s team cleverly tap on the existing iChangi app and links their app to it to allow passengers to participate Changi’s lucky draw campaign. This helps them to get on the favourable side of the judges and ultimately allowed them to win it all — $3000 with 2 round-trip tickets to Singapore!
“The greatest thing about being in the winning team has to exactly be that: the team. They didn’t just pull their weight — they multiplied our collective value.” ~ Kyle
We are grateful to the winning teams for sharing their experiences and look forward to more hackathon wins from the NOC Community!
For more information about Changi Airport Hackathon: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/airport-of-the-future-hackathon-tickets-27172253943#
Find out more about NOC and the Silicon Valley program: http://enterprise.nus.edu.sg/educate/nus-overseas-colleges
NOC Page: https://www.facebook.com/NUSOverseasColleges/
NUSEA Page: https://www.facebook.com/NUSEntrepreneursAssociation/
Till the next post!
