Looking for innovation through a hackathon
Do you have an idea that will improve or change agriculture practices?
Then maybe you should participate in this weekend’s Emerging Agriculture event put on by the University of Saskatchewan Junior Chamber of Commerce.
The event is a three-day hackathon — a collaborative event with the goal of expanding software and hardware development in the agriculture sector. It brings together a diverse group of people (students, farmers, developers, programmers, producers, business professionals, engineers and agrologists) who will collaborate to develop technology-based solutions for proposed problems or challenges.
“We want to get a conversation going and get people thinking about the agricultural industry in relation to innovation,” says Emmanuel Ojukwu, one of the organizers of the event and chair of the board for the U of S Junior Chamber of Commerce.
The event begins Friday evening with people pitching their ideas. People interested in a certain idea will join that team and spend the weekend working on a solution.
Sunday afternoon the groups get back together and present their work.
There are a number of ideas that have already been posted on the event’s website and include: ■ Technological smart protective wear for livestock that could provide daily analytics of the animal such as its temperature and heart rate to better monitor the livestock in the winter time. ■ Managing grain bins via a smart phone app. ■ Creating community greenhouse garden on top of condos that could be operated year round and sell produce for revenue. ■ Using drones to monitor livestock.
Ojukwu, a fourth-year economics major, said they are expecting 20 ideas or challenges, though not all of the ideas will be worked on.
“They could be used to motivate people or spark inspiration for a different idea or just to get the conversation going,” he said.
They are expecting about 120 people to take part and you don’t have to be a programmer or have intimate knowledge of agriculture.
“We encourage as many students to come as possible,” Ojukwu said, adding students can participate for free.
“And anyone that attends on the Friday evening is welcome to pitch an idea.”
This is the second hackathon the junior chamber has helped put on.
In September they co-hosted a hacking health event and a couple of ideas from it are still being worked on, he said.
Ojukwu said the main motivation for this type of event is to bring people from different disciplines together.
Every skill set that would be needed to start a company will be part of the event.
He said they have found that once people leave university they tend to only work with people in their areas of expertise.
“But if innovation is going to occur you need people with different skill sets.”
The event takes place at Innovation Place and goes from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. For more information go to emergingagriculture.com or uofsjcc.com.