During june 16, 17 and 18, ITAM was the culminating venue for the Hackathon’s second edition, which consisted in five competitions that took place in Campeche, Ensenada, Guadalajara, Monterrey and this last one in Mexico City.

Keren Ramírez, community growth LATAM at Gear Foundation (the event organizer), defined the Hackathon as “a competition where teams formed by students from different degrees and universities, graduates and self thought participate with the end of making a project that solves a current and daily issue, using a specific technology”. In this occasion, the teams had to incorporate blockchain in their proposals.

In the event, the winning teams of past competitions participated, as well as, students from ITAM, UNAM, UAM, CETIS, ITESM Mexico City campus, among others. The competitions was divided in two categories: Mega Hackathon track and Mega Hackathon. For the latter, $9,500.00 dollars were awarded in prizes. The participants had a total of 24 hours to complete their projects. Once the time ran out, each of the team had to pitch their idea. From the pitch, the best ten teams where chosen to present their projects. Finally, to give continuity to the winning projects, the Gear Foundation will support the teams with marketing, coding and contacting them with possible investors, among other things.

Winners

The ITAM’s team, formed by Ana Sofía Ríos, Danya Carolina, Diego Jimenez, Francisco Cordero and Gerardo Godefrey —member winner of the Hackathon’s first edition— participated and got the first place in the Mega Hackathon track category with their Fan Line project. Their proposal consisted of creating tickets for massive events using NFTs, and with the characteristics of blockchain, warrant the safety of the transactions. In order to prevent tickets reselling, the app would link itself to Spotify to access the artist’s most active listeners and provide them with priority to the virtual queue. The second and third place where awarded, respectively, to the teams IOT Production and Insomnio.

However, the first place in the Mega Hackaton category and winner of $4,000.00 USD was Varaverse, an independent team formed by UNAM graduates. Their idea consisted in creating a decentralized metaverse. The second place, winner of the $2,000.00 USD prize, was Pawsitive Vibes; meanwhile, the third place, winner of the $1,000.00 USD prize, went to Rutzo. Also, the event awarded honorary mentions to five teams: Donouns, Open Market, Greenscape, CryptoMx and Water Support.

Hackathon’s artistic side

More than being an event to promote team work and the development of computing habilities to apply them in innovating solutions to contemporary problems, the Hackathon had the presence of urban artists from the criptonautica, collective. focused on crypto art. These artists are part of a community of hackers, traders and coders. They had the creative freedom to make their designs in different parts of ITAM.

ANUNCIO