Kalmar, part of Cargotec, organised its first hackathon CargoHack on 8-10 April 2016 at its Technology and Competence Centre in Tampere, Finland. The event brought together about 100 participants from all around the world, including 57 hackers that formed 16 teams to solve the challenges that the terminals are facing today.
“CargoHack was a great success in many aspects. We received more than 100 applications and had to widen the event scope already at an early stage. We selected 16 teams to join in and gave them challenges covering areas like visualisation of terminal operations, use of mobile technologies, safety, and improving efficiency of the wider value chain around cargo handling,” says Tommi Pettersson, Vice President, Automation at Kalmar.
The participants had access to the latest technology and equipment in the port industry, including world’s largest automation test field with unmanned machines and drones, Kalmar’s Virtual Lab, Application Program Interfaces (APIs), sensors and big data from terminal environment. In addition, experts from Kalmar and Tieto Corporation served as mentors for the teams during the entire event.
“Improving performance by utilising technology that is already available and safety turned out to be the most common themes in the final pitches. Many proposals looked for new ways to use drones, sensors, robots, smart glasses or other innovative tools and devices in improving terminal efficiency and safety or in creating new intelligent services for terminal operators. Some of the teams came up with new conceptual thinking to improve sharing of data and knowledge among the entire value chain of terminal operations. We even heard ideas on how to intelligently combine manual and automated operations,” Tommi continues.
Customer value and business model were key criteria in choosing the winner of CargoHack. The winning concept was presented by the team Pointscene. Their unique idea of using visualisation in a terminal environment can be implemented in multiple ways.
“Overall, the hackathon proved to be a great tool and method for bringing out and demonstrating new ideas and out-of-the-box thinking. We will move forward with some of the ideas and integrate them into our product and technology roadmaps,” Tommi concludes.
Further information for the press:
Tommi Pettersson, Vice President, Automation, Kalmar +358
Maija Eklöf, Vice President, Marketing and Communications, Kalmar, tel. +358 20 777 4096, [email protected]
Kalmar offers the widest range of cargo handling solutions and services to ports, terminals, distribution centres and to heavy industry. Kalmar is the industry forerunner in terminal automation and in energy efficient container handling, with one in four container movements around the globe being handled by a Kalmar solution. Through its extensive product portfolio, global service network and ability to enable a seamless integration of different terminal processes, Kalmar improves the efficiency of every move. www.kalmarglobal.com
Kalmar is part of Cargotec. Cargotec’s sales totalled EUR 4.2 billion in 2014 and it employs approximately 11,000 people. Cargotec’s class B shares are quoted on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki under symbol CGCBV. www.cargotec.com
