Bluetape team named PCH Hackathon winners

Life

Pictured (l-r): Jonny Cosgrove, Brian Henry, Alex Beregszaszi, Leon Harvey, Gianfranco Palumbo and Killian Dolan (front)

25 May 2015

The team behind BlueTape, a Bluetooth-connected tape measure, was announced winner of the third PCH Hardware Hackathon at DCU yesterday.

The product, one of 11 developed over a 54-hour period – aims to reduce clothing returns for online retailers by helping customers find the right fit first time.

The PCH Hackathon was held in partnership with Irish Design 2015 (ID2015) and sponsored by Intel, is the third PCH Hackathon to take place at the DCU Innovation Campus. The event brought together over 100 makers, collaborators, designers, engineers and entrepreneurs who had access to prototyping equipment and mentoring from industry representatives.

The BlueTape team was awarded a €3,000 cash prize, a service design workshop with Each&Other as well as a free starter office for four months at the DCU Innovation Campus. In second place was Zero, which created a smart tri-shoe, designed to reduce the time for shoe changes during triathlons. Third place was awarded to AutoAngel, which developed a ‘plug and play’ car emergency call system.

Among the other prototypes devised and created at the PCH Hardware Hackathon were a smart fish lure which adjusts depth based on water temperature; a wearable health monitor; a smart oil management gauge; a health monitoring ‘checkup’ chair; and a person-to-person community advertising platform.

Katherine Hague, VP community engagement & Hackathons at PCH, said: “We are very excited to have hosted our third Hackathon in Dublin and to see such creativity and passion for product innovation here. We want to thank all participants for coming out over the weekend, not only the incredible hackathon teams, but also our partners DCU and ID2015, our sponsor Intel, technology providers and industry-leading panelists who supported. We love hosting Hardware Hackathons because we see design, ingenuity, creativity and technology come together very quickly with astonishing results.”

The PCH Hackathon included a start-up pitch showcase on the Friday night, where two non-Hackathon participants presented to the audience. The companies: Wind Urchin, which is setting out to be the ‘Apple of Wind Measurement’ and Signatur, a way for bitcoin investors to store the digital currency for long periods of time, showcased as sample pitches to inspire the hackathon attendees and kick-off the weekend. Both companies were awarded €500 for their participation.

PCH’s Katherine Hague is interviewed below in this week’s TechRadio.